Who cares about Otiluke, Mordenkainen, Rary and whatever geezer names they trot out.

[Stormonu]

The name of wizards being attached to spells did at least two things for me; one, it made me want to find out more about them and two, it inspired me to think about some of the famous mages of my own campaign world.

M'jal, Telsar, Stormonu, Kirk, Emerald, Sarve, Black Marentail and others.

At times I wish D&D had fighting styles from the beginning as it would have inspired me to name great fighters as well - perhaps named miracles (such as Sustarre's Chariot) and even rogue stunts to inspire other famous NPCs. I did come up with some, but only much later and only when I realized I hadn't fleshed them out like I had the wizards. It's something I still sometimes struggle with - I can name my campaign wizard history with ease, but not the names of the famous Sun Tsu's, Miyamoto Musashi, D'Artagen, Robin Hoods or Archbishop Turpin of my world.

That said however, I am fine with or without the names on spells. With the names, they inspire a sort of shared history and make you think about the famous individuals or rockstars of your own campaign world. Without it, you are freer to create your own pantheons of ancient heroes.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I agree that the names add a lot to the game, and I think they should add more -

Melf's Magic Missile
Elminster's Etherealness
Gygax's Geas
Khelben's Chain Lightning
Hermione's Baleful Polymorph
Gandalf's Globe of Invulnerability

and so on & so forth.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Another way to play the names, at least in a world where mages have any kind of social interaction on a regular basis with other mages, is to make it all a bunch of academic pretension. That is, all the mages know that there is no "Tenser", never was a "Tenser," and that the floating disk spell was made by some little balding sorcerer named William of Hobton, a couple of hundred years ago out of sheer laziness. But "Bill's Floating Disk" is no way to market or create an image of power.

So amongst themselves, they casually call it "floating disk," but in their writings and interaction with others, they always use the full name. Any non-wizard with sufficient arcane knowledge would know this as well, and probably roll his eyes every time the wizard starts up again.