Would this break a fantasy setting for you?

[Barastrondo]

The big hazard, I'd find, is that modern names will have connotations to the players that you may not know about. Even if there isn't a "Joel" in your gaming group, to one of the players "Joel" may mean "that guy with the irritating laugh at work who nearly got fired for harassing the temp." So when you introduce Sheriff Joel, that one player may suddenly smirk -- and that's the all-important first impression. I actually work with a bunch of Icelanders, and that means I have to be extra-careful about naming any sons of the frozen north things like "Reynir," "Hilmar" or "Hrafnkell" because those names conjure up specific faces. (Other co-workers not from Iceland: Sergey, Nikolai, Bergur, Ashutosh, Natasha, Theron...)

Yeah, these names will be memorable, but memorable is only half the battle. You want names that will connote the characters you're seeding. Fighting the evil warlord Donald Trump is very effective if he's basically just the real-world Donald Trump parodied up, but if he's got a different personality and appearance, the name will overshadow everything else.

So I'd say both approaches have their advantages and perils. I tend to prefer made-up names, and stress the descriptions and mannerisms of the characters so that even if it takes a little more time to learn the names, the players will associate them with the in-game characters first and foremost. I'm actually blessed in that one of my games uses Gormenghast-style naming conventions: so if a character has a strange name like "Hackfat", the players' boggling over it will actually help them remember.

 

[adwyn]

A few years ago I played in a campaign where the DM used modern names mixed with describers, like Bob the Red or Felix the Fat and it worked well. It was a good combination of memorable familiarity with a fantasy twist.

That is until he started using Dave as shorthand for the evil guys. Dave the Render, Dave the Bald, Dave the Nasty, that sort of thing. A new player, known to a couple of existing players only by his SCA name joined the group and was flabbergasted when his "my real name is Dave" was met with a chorus of "I kill his character!"

 

[The Human Target]

Not at all.

In my advancing age I'm starting to loathe an overuse of gobbledygook fantasy names.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

As most 'modern' names aren't, no, it wouldn't bother me much. But after meeting the 2,987th John Smith...

 

[Mallus]

In my advancing age I'm starting to loathe an overuse of gobbledygook fantasy names.

I'm in the same (lexical) boat. My enjoyment, or even tolerance, of 3rd-rate Tolkien-esque, Howard-esque, and especial Moorcock-esque names is a thing of the past.

In our last D&D homebrew, we got a lot of mileage out of real real names (including antiquated and word names).

Tom Hollow, Billy Twist, Lord Thomas Winterborn, Stefan Petard, Henry Scatter, Lord-Doctor Choke, The Lord Moribund, Balthazar Lux, Lord Myles Lively and Lady Lively, Lord Dandy and his daughters: Dahlia, Iris, Violet, Lily, Primrose, Hyacinth, and Larkspur (city Magistrates)

The Crimson Orb (a Beholder pirate)
The Deacon of Crook Street (a crime lord)
Onomatopoeia (an assassin made of sounds)
Honorata "Ingénue" Santos (an aviatrix)
Vellum Bellicose (a marksman-librarian)
Gladmarrow (a monster in a top hat)

You can do a lot with resorting to syllable-slaw.

 

[Dice4Hire]

If I thought this were a problem, I would go into birth records for medieval England and pillage names from there. They should be odd enough to seem realistic, but familiar enough to be easy to remember. Same goes for French and German names. I think those are most familiar to most people.

But using strictly modern names would not sit too well with me. Especially ones that are more casual, like nicknames.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Try a phonebook from a major city, especially one from a country whose culture (past or present) somewhat resembles that of a PC you're naming and I guarantee you'll find a good 'un.

And check this out:
NAMES:Amazon:Books

 

[The Human Target]

I'm in the same (lexical) boat. My enjoyment, or even tolerance, of 3rd-rate Tolkien-esque, Howard-esque, and especial Moorcock-esque names is a thing of the past.

In our last D&D homebrew, we got a lot of mileage out of real real names (including antiquated and word names).

Tom Hollow, Billy Twist, Lord Thomas Winterborn, Stefan Petard, Henry Scatter, Lord-Doctor Choke, The Lord Moribund, Balthazar Lux, Lord Myles Lively and Lady Lively, Lord Dandy and his daughters: Dahlia, Iris, Violet, Lily, Primrose, Hyacinth, and Larkspur (city Magistrates)

The Crimson Orb (a Beholder pirate)
The Deacon of Crook Street (a crime lord)
Onomatopoeia (an assassin made of sounds)
Honorata "Ingénue" Santos (an aviatrix)
Vellum Bellicose (a marksman-librarian)
Gladmarrow (a monster in a top hat)

You can do a lot with resorting to syllable-slaw.

See thats what I like. A guy doesn't have to be called Steve Johnson, but he doesn't have to be Dril'zed-arg Torculsenmorden either.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

In a not all that long ago 3e game the paladin's name was Daryk Storm Rider.

His warhorse was Storm Daryk Ridden.... At least there was symmetry....

I tend toward variants of names - Edard Thalman, as an example.

The Auld Grump

 

[RainOfSteel]

A long while ago there was either a blog or forum post that players cannot remember the details of the adventure or the campaign. Names, where they're going, who they're fighting. Either during, or years later when recounting the stories.

At least anecdotally, I can so confirm this.

I ran my most extensively developed milieu where the players couldn't remember most of the names and places, even though they had a bound hand-out with all of it. Believe me, it was quite a deflation for my ego.

Years after that, I ran in an invented milieu, and despite there being a complete hand-out listing all of the places, I found I just couldn't remember it all. Between my own multiple invented milieus, plus published settings, plus the hundreds of SF&F novels I have read, the few months I ran in it for a few hours once each week (with some skip weeks) was just too little exposure to make a permanent impression. After this, I was much more sympathetic to the players who had played in my campaign earlier.

Published settings that the players have dug into on their own provide common ground where everyone knows the basic names and places.

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All modern names would be fine with me for standard fantasy play as long as it wasn't blatant. No, "Moon Unit One," "Kal'el," or "Jack the Samurai," thanks.

Using celebrity names, or worse, actual celebrity personalities, would not be okay with me unless it were a very short-term, one or two sessions, campaign. I could not put up with it for longer.