Names Names and more Names

[InfoStorm]

Slowly working on building a new campaign and one slightly annoying think I am always needing in names for all my NPC's the players will ecounter, from minor shop owners to city leaders and so forth.

Does anyone where any good links to places with lots of names available to use for slapping on NPC's?

[Carbon D. Metric]

A few links...

A random name generator based off the US Census

Another one that lets you define what nationality that the name comes from.

One last one that has fields for some fantasy names.

[Immortalis]

Try these you might find one you like.

random names.

another.

and another.

yet another.

[The Admiral Jose Monkamuck]

Just make sure to think carefully about the name before you use it. I made the mistake of naming my character Dillan Holstein without thinking it through. That didn't work well...

[Karameikos]

Because this one takes a few second to click through, you may only want to use the WoTC name generator for that special NPC:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20010208b

[VikingIrishman]

behindthename.com and its sister site behindthesurname.com

I use them always.

[TritonOne]

Names for NPCs should probably be chosen/created based on the location of the adventure on Golarion and the NPC's ethnicity or family origin. The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting is probably a good place to start get a handle on an NPC's ethnicity.

The Nordic Names Wiki will probably be of assistance for creating Ulfen and Dwarf names:

For example, the names listed for the ethnic Ulfens from their native language Skald are mostly names derived from Old Norse. The fictional Skald language, and its runic alphabet, is said to come from the dwarves. Therefore, I give dwarves and ethnic Ulfens names from Old Norse and later Scandinavian languages.

The Nordic Names Wiki will probably be of assistance for creating Ulfen and Dwarf names:
Nordic Names Wiki

Names from within the Chelaxian Empire or the ethnic Chelish seem to be derived from Latin. James Jacobs has also said that the Chelaxian Empire was based on ancient Italy. Personally, I think it resembles more of Italy during the Renaissance with the Italian city states. Therefore, I give citizens of Sargava who are descendants of the Chelish colonists Latin and Italian names or names derived from Romance languages. I've also thrown in some Portuguese names too.

To make the names look different, you can also combine Latin prefixes with Greek suffixes. For example, the Varisian character name Valeros is a mixture of Latin and Greek.

[CrazyTrain]

I'd just crack open any Roman or Greek history book and look at the index. You'll get tons of ideas even if you don't use one verbatim.

[Dragnfly]

I follow this approach for all my games:

If the setting is very serious: Custom-make each name and consider the character deeply when I do.

If the setting is generally serious: Use a name generator and scrutinize for general people, and focus on giving special, researched names to really important people.

If the setting is fairly light: Important people get names from a name generator. Less important people get the Maoyu treatment. i.e. the weapon store owner's name is actually Weapon Store Owner. The crazy old lady's name is Crazy Old Lady, etc.

If the setting is a goofy one-shot: break out the references and joke names.

I feel that, on one hand, names add a lot to the world and a personal touch to NPCs. On the other hand, it's important to balance if the players will even remember them.

It's also fun sometimes to borrow official NPCs you may have encountered in other Pathfinder adventures. This works especially well if they happened to fit the general mould you're gunning for anyway. Near Sandpoint and need a surly, self-important goon NPC? Look no farther than the local junk heap etc etc.

[TritonOne]

CrazyTrain wrote:

I'd just crack open any Roman or Greek history book and look at the index. You'll get tons of ideas even if you don't use one verbatim.

That would probably work out OK for NPCs in the Chelaxian Empire and her former colonies and holdings (vassal states) such as Sargava, Andoran, Isger, Galt, and Lastwall who have a population of ethnic Chelish. But I believe that the names would be out of place in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings or the Minkai Empire, for example.

[master_marshmallow]

okay!!! Check this OUT!!!

Roll 2d8 to determine how many letters.

Roll % to determine whether or not your name starts with a vowel or consonant.

Roll d20
1-b
2-c
3-d
4-f
5-g
6-h
7-j
8-k
9-l
10-m
11-n
12-p
13-q
14-r
15-s
16-t
17-v
18-w
19-x
20-z

Roll d6
1-a
2-e
3-i
4-o
5-u
6-y

After each vowel, roll to see if the syllable ends in a terminal consonant, or if the next syllable just starts on its own. To do this, after each vowel roll, roll another % just like at the beginning to determine if there is another vowel before the next syllable starts.

Eventually I will make this name generator with much more depth and linguistic versatility.

[TritonOne]

I probably would give ethnic Kellish names from the Persian language:

Original Persian Names
Persian Names

[Thymus Vulgaris]

On the topic of characters from Minkai, I'd like to share this.
It's not possible to get random names from it, but you can always just enter some random letter that you want the name to start with, and for the meaning of the name you can click the kanji and from their individual meanings try to piece something together that makes sense.

VikingIrishman wrote:

behindthename.com and its sister site behindthesurname.com

I use them always.

I believe you meant to say surnames.behindthename.com :)

[Aaron Kaptrowski]

The Inner Sea - World Guide has a list of names for different races.