I'd like to write my own campaign the story is coming along great but I can't think of a single unique name for my NPC characters. How do you come up with names for your characters?
When I am stuck for a name I will get lazy and go to the Google map site, zoom into somewhere with a culture that approximates what I am looking for, and find an obscure place-name. I might edit it a bit here or there, or even just pull it complete and use it that way. It can get the juices flowing at least...
There are some decent name generators on the web.
For example, there's -->this one, which has good fantasy names.
I have found several sources for names. They are: Gygax's Extraordinary Book of names; Seventh Sanctum; Dire Press , and google The Ebon Book of Names. There was a book published by Judges Guild, The Treasury of Archaic Names, if you can find that one it has several thousand names.
Just my 2 cp.
My wife uses baby naming books and phone books for her Sims games, the same can be applied here as well.
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I'd like to write my own campaign the story is coming along great but I can't think of a single unique name for my NPC characters. How do you come up with names for your characters?When I am stuck for a name I will get lazy and go to the Google map site, zoom into somewhere with a culture that approximates what I am looking for, and find an obscure place-name. I might edit it a bit here or there, or even just pull it complete and use it that way. It can get the juices flowing at least...
I really like this idea and I feel silly for not coming up with it on my own. This is how I name my locations, I will typically come up with a generic description in German and then alter the word or phrase to make it sound more unique. For example a city located in the northernmost section of my map I would say something like, "nördlichste Stadt" then shorten it to Noradt. All my cities are named in this way. It never occurred to me to name my NPCs using the same technique.
Look around the room and pick an object. Their name is that backwards. Elbat, Azzip, Wed Niatuom, Soteehc, Ecid, Licnep.
Otherwise there's tons of programs out there for randomly generated names and they can be entertaining.
Llod Puwolb!!!
Elfir Tluassa!!!
Maps!!!
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
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Look around the room and pick an object. Their name is that backwards. Elbat, Azzip, Wed Niatuom, Soteehc, Ecid, Licnep.
Otherwise there's tons of programs out there for randomly generated names and they can be entertaining.
That's how we ended up with someone playing Bokree ("backwards" for Reebok--don't ask) the dwarf.
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In a game called "In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas", set in current world,
as a DM I was letting my Players flip through phone directory (Paper) to search for names. After 3 or 4 picks, take whatever.
It was also due to the fact that in this game you were reincarnated into a human (but still a demon or angel).
By the way this game ROCKS SOLID and is great fun.
"In nomine/ Magna veritas" !
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the latest way for me to come up with names for my characters is to name them either famous historical figues in real life, such as Napolean Bone-Apart (one of my latest necromancer BBEGs for a module i ran), or to name my characters after natural occurances or disasters, such as Tsu Nami, Huh Ricayne, Torn Adoh and such.
makes the GM and the rest of the party look at me in disbelief when i pull out the human Varisian Aristocrat/Bard named Jel O'Reslin. XD
Peebo :D
While reading novels, I have been known to write down all the names in the book, as I come across them. Do this with a few books and suddenly you have a large list of names.
I have them in an electronic document, to make it easier to keep track of.
As well, you can add a little something to a name, to make it distinctive from the others with the same name. In one campaign, I kept coming up with Keldar as the name for NPCs, so there was Keldar the tall, Keldar of Cormyr, Keldar raven eye, etc..
I usually pick something that is thematically close to the culture of the race. If my dwarves are rogatyrs similar to the heroes of russian / ukrainian myths, than it's all Jegors, Ivans, ... If my hobgoblin horde is like german tribe assaulting the elven high roman-like culture, then I have Haralds and Alarichs fighting Venatiuses, Tituses, ... History books are good for plots as well IMO ;)
I use Behind the Name a lot, both for NPCs and for PCs. What I like about that site is that you can drill down on different cultures, and also that you usually get the meaning of the name.
http://www.just-think-it.com/sbn/mediev-m.htm
http://www.hyw.com/books/history/Legitima.htm
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/medievalnames.htm
Not necessarily the best sites, just a handful of links that I saved one day that have worked fine for me.
- Some fantasy books have "dramatis personae" lists. They are very handy.
- I also use foreign maps, but mostly for place names.
- Mythology books are nice for names (e.g. the Edda, of an encyclopaedia of mythology)
- I make lists. When I come across a name, I copy it in the list, so that I have names when I need them.
- Sometimes I make anagrams. I once named an NPC wizard who dabbled in things he should leave alone "Kasmiticon", which is an anagram of "Miscatonic" (Miscatonic University).
- Sometimes I use names from TV shows or movies and just translate them literally into another language.
- Sometimes I just pick foreign names. In one country in my campaign world, people have German names. In another they have Spanish names, etc.
I'm guilty of modifying (or stealing outright) the names of various Noldor children from The Silmarillion.
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I use the Onamastikon for names that are meant to sound Egyptian, Persian, Slavic, Roman, etc, etc.
Many fantasy countries are riffs on real world cultures, so the appropriate names 'feel' right, and I play a lot of GURPS, Trinity, Vampire, etc. where I end up needing a name for a dude from Taiwan or a girl from Brazil, so it works nicely for me.
I do cherry-pick the names that 'sound cool' to my English-speaking ear, 'though. :)
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- Sometimes I make anagrams. I once named an NPC wizard who dabbled in things he should leave alone "Kasmiticon", which is an anagram of "Miscatonic" (Miscatonic University).
Always be sure to say names you made this way out loud before bringing them out in public!
Few things are as embarassing as reading the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadeth and thinking 'Celephais sounds like an elf-y name, I'll just switch the L and PH around to mix it up!' and then finding out at the table that your Elf is named Syphilis...
A while back ago, I used a handout for an awards ceremony. Random last names, sometimes with a small tweak, make good "exotic" names. I need to check out some of the name generators listed in this thread. Copying and pasting into Excel would be much less work.
Mine your spam folder.... it's a veritable NPC name generator.
Mine your spam folder.... it's a veritable NPC name generator.
hehehe
I'm a fan of George R. R. Martin's system of basically altering "common names," with the end result of Alyn for Allen, Eddard for Edward, etc.
I'm also taking a class on Old English right now, which is great for developing names for anything resembling the Norse or Germanic.
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I use names of chess grandmasters. There's tons of pro chessplayers and there's a huge variety of non-American and even non-Western sounding names.
The best part is that I easily remember the names of the NPCs names (cuz I know who they're named after) and "who's who from what/where" months later even when I had to come up with them on the spot. In a recent campaign the NPC clerics of Pelor were named after GMs from Israel. The 3 NPC druids had names from Indian GMs. The various NPC wizards (with 1 exception) had names of Armenian GMs. When I suddenly needed an NPC from Pelor's Temple I just added another Israeli GM or IM.
And how many DMs do you know can remember all those NPC names and relationships on the spot? Without DM notes!
-W. E. Ray
MonteCook.com: Where do all these people come from?
Other suggestions:
Baby name books
"Names from the Bible" books (stop by your Christian bookstore, they're sure to have one)
Create a standard letter substitution for names in your world, then use real-world names you've done the substitution on.
For example, you could say, "take a real-world name, but replace S with V and TH with N."
Then Jessica becomes Jevvica, Leslie becomes Levlie (or Levali), etc.
Spell names backwards, say them out loud, and make a less awkward-sounding name out of what you just said.
reynolds = sdlonyer = Lonyar
schneider = redienchs = Rydenks
constantine = enitnatsnoc = Enith Atsoc
moore = eroom = Aroum
And so on.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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And why the fictional wizard responsible for the WG6 "Castle Greyhawk" compound was Akitrom the Merely Concerned.
I am reminded, though, of the extensive tables in the original Traveller RPG, which allowed people to roll dice and come up with reasonable sounding names in Aslan, K'kree, Vargr, etc.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Yes, I did. When I read fantasy novels or RPG adventures, I make a habit out of spelling all unusual names backwards.
I recall an old "Beowulf" comic from, I think, the mid-'70's, where the wizard, Shaper, tried to cast a spell at Grendel, the verbal component of which was "SIHT POTNANOC EESSTEL!" Ah, yes. (That was the "Beowulf meets Dracula" issue, by the way.)
--+--+--
I've been going over my old player character names, and it would appear that my major strategy is to either (a) pick honest-to-goodness Medieval names, trying to find something evocative of the PCs personality at 1st Level, or (b) mix-and-match name parts. One of my current PCs was named "Thaddeus" in development, and ended up "Thediar".