When you realize that there's people out there giving their children names like "L-a" (pronounced "ledasha"), "L4sha" ("Leforsha") and "Shithead" ("Sheh-thee-ed"), you realize that you can't really mess up fantasy names any more than people already mess up RL names.
For my part, I use the Everchanging Book of Names program, and try to stay within certain cultures for various regions. I also go with names that sound similar - for example, dwarves in my world have a heavy Norse theme going with names, so I go for things that sound like they'd be from the region, even if I don't specifically find an exact one.
I also like visiting Babynames.com and looking up names that match meanings I'm looking for. That can be fun, too.
I'm also fond of the Everchanging Book of Names for NPCs because it's an easy way to keep cultures distinct. As for my PCs though....they tend to get "stuck" with names in my head. My two favorites are my human cleric named Misery Mulligan (the explanation for her name was that her prostitute mother said she named her child after the only thing she'd ever brought her) and my elf druid named Dallasaverenel Moonrain, who hated his full name and took pains to introduce himself as Dallas. Really, the latter was only because somewhere along the line I couldn't seem to stop thinking of him as Dallas, but thought it didn't sound "elven" enough.
Though I also think that the favorite PC name I've ever seen is the halfing ranger who traveled with Misery named Subotai Wenlyfforlyffed. (Apparently, it's inspired by Welsh.) In the first session, the DM had an NPC reading off our names, and read Subotai's last name as "Sorry, I don't speak halfing."
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When you realize that there's people out there giving their children names like "L-a" (pronounced "ledasha"), "L4sha" ("Leforsha") and "S+#&head" ("Sheh-thee-ed"), you realize that you can't really mess up fantasy names any more than people already mess up RL names.
I've studied baby names for a while, so I've heard these before. There is no truth to these stories. They're just bad jokes.
I do know of one family in China who tried to name their son "@" (pronounced "ai-to", which is a homophone for "love him"), but it was not allowed. Many nations have laws about names, there's a tradition of naming a child based on the day of the week in Nigeria, Venezuela will use names like "Superman", and there was one child custody case in New Zealand when someone named his daughter "Talulah Does The Hula From Hawaii." So, yes, there are lots of crazy names here and elsewhere. But not the ones above.
When you realize that there's people out there giving their children names like "L-a" (pronounced "ledasha"), "L4sha" ("Leforsha") and "S+#&head" ("Sheh-thee-ed"), you realize that you can't really mess up fantasy names any more than people already mess up RL names.
I've studied baby names for a while, so I've heard these before. There is no truth to these stories. They're just bad jokes.
I do know of one family in China who tried to name their son "@" (pronounced "ai-to", which is a homophone for "love him"), but it was not allowed. Many nations have laws about names, there's a tradition of naming a child based on the day of the week in Nigeria, Venezuela will use names like "Superman", and there was one child custody case in New Zealand when someone named his daughter "Talulah Does The Hula From Hawaii." So, yes, there are lots of crazy names here and elsewhere. But not the ones above.
I'll admit it's all hearsay, but an employee of mine who also worked partime as a nurse swears she helped a woman deliver a baby who was then named "L-a." My wife's coworker used to manage a bookstore and claims to have had an applicant named She-thee-ed as it is less appropriately spelled. So I'm not convinced that they're just bad jokes.
Back in the day I would use all manners of complicated names, but these days I roll with culture-appropriate ones with only slight variations to avoid a mundane feel. So right now we're playing in Katapesh, so I open up Wikipedia, type in "List of Arab/Egyptian/Other Middle-Estern Culture", save up a bunch of names and then distort them just a little bit so that they are easy to relate to and at the same time sound different (some names are rightdown exotic by their own nature, so those I don't change).
Works like a charm. And really helps players come up with their own names too (which, as everyone knows, is the hardest part of making a character).
I can simply never bring myself to name my characters gibberish (and no, "it's elven!" isn't an excuse, since elven isn't a real language with a real vocabulary - you're just throwing meaningless random syllables around). Even if my characters names aren't traditional names per se, they are still relevant to the character.
For example, the character that I'm currently running in a Star Wars D20 game is a slicer (specializing in viruses) named Brev Tappan. His first name is a fragment of "brevity," which refers to the character's terseness, and his surname is a reference to Robert Tappan Morris.
I've thought about this, too. For me, it was the Forgotten Realms that were my last straw. Some of the place names are just too much.
I try to shy away from names that sound too "European", because I think that angle is a bit overused. I work really hard on coming up with names that are both unusual and memorable for my players, and I think I've succeeded for the most part.
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One of my favorite character concepts on my to-play list is a vivisectionist from Ustalav who walks about completely unarmed, only carrying his... um... "surgical implements"... on his person (a bone saw [sawtooth sabre], reflex hammer [light mace], and scalpel [dagger]). His name is Laslo Brzycieszęski. To quote him: "I know is difficult name. Tell you vhat, you just call me Doctor Brzycieszęski."
The name is made up, but conforms to Polish phonology as far as I can tell. As such, it also has a well-defined pronunciation.
I can simply never bring myself to name my characters gibberish (and no, "it's elven!" isn't an excuse, since elven isn't a real language with a real vocabulary - you're just throwing meaningless random syllables around).
Speak for yourself. I named my current elven wizard Iaurinn o-Lossaeglir, which is Sindarin for "Ancient-Soul of the Snowy Mountains". Sindarin being as close to a real language with a real vocabulary as you can get in terms of elves. My fellow players don't seem to have an issue with the pronunciation either (['jawrin olos'sajglir] in IPA, "yow-rin oh loss-EYE-gleer").
Iaurinn's horse is called Aes-i-Nôr (meat that runs). He had a mule before that, which was Aes-i-Bada (meat that walks).
Names are a bit of a pet peeve of mine, since I create languages for a hobby every now and then.
Some of my previous characters:
Coram Machira (male human sorcerer from the Flanaess, thus it had to sound somewhat Welshish)
Wulfram Bront (male human fighter/cleric)
Suhandi (short for Suhallah 'ndi Qûl-na-Qâr, female wild-elf shapeshift druid)
Taero (female human monk)
Torven Beckett (male human fighter)
Nadīr ibn Hamd ibn Sadr `Abd ash-Sharanriyyah (male human paladin of Sarenrae; guess which campaign that was... ;)
Iaurinn o-Lossaeglir (male elven wizard)
Sulepsi Ptolemai Qufarah (male halfling summoner from Osirion) and his eidolon "Ribbons"
Sidheall Ó Bheannan (pronounced "sheel oh vennan", female human archer)
Oh, BTW, whoever said Ceibhfhionn was a Welsh name: I doubt that, it looks Gaelic instead.
My comment is really about the use of awkward names as just a general rule.
I'm not sure I understand your concern at all. :p
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One of my favorite character concepts on my to-play list is a vivisectionist from Ustalav who walks about completely unarmed, only carrying his... um... "surgical implements"... on his person (a bone saw [sawtooth sabre], reflex hammer [light mace], and scalpel [dagger]). His name is Laslo Brzycieszęski. To quote him: "I know is difficult name. Tell you vhat, you just call me Doctor Brzycieszęski."
The name is made up, but conforms to Polish phonology as far as I can tell. As such, it also has a well-defined pronunciation.
I can simply never bring myself to name my characters gibberish (and no, "it's elven!" isn't an excuse, since elven isn't a real language with a real vocabulary - you're just throwing meaningless random syllables around).Speak for yourself. I named my current elven wizard Iaurinn o-Lossaeglir, which is Sindarin for "Ancient-Soul of the Snowy Mountains". Sindarin being as close to a real language with a real vocabulary as you can get in terms of elves. My fellow players don't seem to have an issue with the pronunciation either (['jawrin olos'sajglir] in IPA, "yow-rin oh loss-EYE-gleer").
Iaurinn's horse is called Aes-i-Nôr (meat that runs). He had a mule before that, which was Aes-i-Bada (meat that walks).
Names are a bit of a pet peeve of mine, since I create languages for a hobby every now and then.
Some of my previous characters:
Coram Machira (male human sorcerer from the Flanaess, thus it had to sound somewhat Welshish)
Wulfram Bront (male human fighter/cleric)
Suhandi (short for Suhallah 'ndi Qûl-na-Qâr, female wild-elf shapeshift druid)
Taero (female human monk)
Torven Beckett (male human fighter)
Nadīr ibn Hamd ibn Sadr `Abd ash-Sharanriyyah (male human paladin of Sarenrae; guess which campaign that was... ;)
Iaurinn o-Lossaeglir (male elven wizard)
Sulepsi Ptolemai Qufarah (male halfling summoner from Osirion) and his eidolon "Ribbons"
Sidheall Ó Bheannan (pronounced "sheel oh vennan", female human archer)Oh,...
I bet that everyone made nicknames for your characters or forgot their names very promptly...I as a GM hate it when somebody comes up with an unpronounceable name.
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I bet that everyone made nicknames for your characters or forgot their names very promptly...
They didn't. Then again, I play with grown-ups. Also, my tables are typically internationally diverse, so nobody is likely to go "OMG its not teh English Im gonna call her Susy!" at something like Suhandi.
Seriously, all of the names I listed are perfectly pronounceable, especially their first names, which is the only thing anyone ever needed to memorize. Only Sidheall is has a difficult spelling (albeit a sensible one, according to the design philosophy behind Gaelic orthography...), but anyone with an Int high enough to play D&D can memorize the sound. It's "shield" without the d.
I as a GM hate it when somebody comes up with an unpronounceable name.
As a player, I hate it when someone comes up with a stupid name. That can include unpronounceable names, or names with absurd spellings, but it also includes the entire Bob, Phil, Fred etc family.
As a player, I hate it when someone comes up with a stupid name. That can include unpronounceable names, or names with absurd spellings, but it also includes the entire Bob, Phil, Fred etc family.
I once DMed a guy at a Gamecon whose character was called "Hrdk". Funny thing is, I actually know a real person called Mikhail Hrdk (a hugely rotund bearded man who I contact when I need my jetski fixed), which is why I presented no complaints about the name, since I already knew how to pronounced -sounds like "Har-dick-a", but swallowing the vowels-. The rest of the table thought the guy had just rolled his face on the keyboard.
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I hate, what I deem to call, 'fantasy naming conventions'.
Deem, deem deeeeeem!
..son of Mr Gordan and Mrs Wendy Bucket.
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''Oh there he is goes, our strapping first born! Barry! Coooeee! Barry!''
''..!!!Muuum!!! !!!Daaaaad!!! Pleeaaaaaase, I'm adventuring!!!''
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Yes yes, I know, context and setting but, damnit, if I have to hate something I wish it to be something as minor as 'fantasy naming conventions'.
Oh, and dragon riders. GAH!
:)
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.....I hate, what I deem to call, 'fantasy naming conventions'.
Deem, deem deeeeeem!
..son of Mr Gordan and Mrs Wendy Bucket.
::
''Oh there he is goes, our strapping first born! Barry! Coooeee! Barry!''
''..!!!Muuum!!! !!!Daaaaad!!! Pleeaaaaaase, I'm adventuring!!!''
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Yes yes, I know, context and setting but, damnit, if I have to hate something I wish it to be something as minor as 'fantasy naming conventions'.
Oh, and dragon riders. GAH!
:)
You really haven't suffered from fantasy naming conventions until you see them translated to Castillian.
Half the characters end up sounding like strippers.
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You would have my sympathy if your suffering did not bring me so much joy!
HAR!
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o-o wut?
I have had my share of names but most of the time they end up being easy to remember and memorable for other people. Here is one tale about one char i made.
About half a year ago i joined a group for some homebrew roleplaying. The gm used the rogue traders system, i know it is a d10 which i have tried out before. Anyway before the session he and i had a talk about what kind of char i would like to play. Given the time and thought i wanted a bandit/scoundrel type of person, using light armor and his agility to protect himself, while swinging his big one-blade greataxe while using his hand crossbow with poisoned bolts (Thank you R.A Salvatore for that). Anyway i start up in the game with only one memory, nothing more. This chars memory was that someone had wrote something down on his back. On with the game, myself and others who were intrucede to this world, i had no idea about name for my char. The other player took the name Jack (Come on, that name always works, no matter what) so i was stucked with finding another name. Now i come from Denmark, so i started to think about using some english words as a name, you know like Grunt (ME2), Savage...and then it came, Bully. I translatede the name so it became Bølle(I don't know how many of you are from Denmark, so please forgive me). The gm was stunned and then start laughing, that he had to take a short break because of that name. But the gm liked that name and the other players also came to like it, it made him memorable.
Bølle is dead now, after a heroic sacrifice but that is a tale for another time.
I try to go for first names that are uncommon yet short - almost always two syllables, now that I think of it. I usually go to BehindTheName.com when I need to come up with something, whether there's a letter I want it to start with or I want a certain meaning.
Think about it: how many of your characters--just for a moment--almost got named to rhyme with Aidan?
Not a godsbedamned one, because I loathe that name and I'm not faux-Irish.
:D
That being said, there's been a slew of names I've gone over for characters, most of which follow a slight bias towards my favorite letters of the alphabet, K and Z.
One character, in a homebrew campaign, was a half-drow bard(in our game elven traits could be split, and while he wasn't a slave's son, he was the result of a surface raid) who had a name that, in elven, was translated to 'black poisonous flower', so when he started adventuring and people couldn't pronounce it, he got translation help and his performing name in turn became Jet Nightshade in Common. He'd been given a name in the drow language, but refused to answer to it. It worked out so that translation and naming convention became a theme.
While I normally don't play dwarves, I tend to keep 'em as much Germanic as Scottish, which is why I went through a series of short-lived cursed fighter types all surnamed as Blueteeth, due to a curse on the family (and not a predilection towards blueberry pie, honest).
Not all names end up racially based; some characters had pseudonyms they answered to, or a preferred nom d'guerre, to keep with a background of blatant avoidance of accrued reputation. One FantasyCraft game featured an androgynous martial artist known as 'Dancer of the Red Lines' due to being a lizardfolk with sharpened raptor claws. One pech assassin answered to 'The Most Esteemed Performer of Life-Ending Experiences Who Also Happens to Be Cuter than the Buttons on a Doll for an Elven Princess', better known as Mr. Buttons.
I know I'm a bit odd, though, on more than merely naming conventions.
Also, I hate 'nizzames' with the sort of fury that could only come of being part of an ethnic group that is endeavoring unironically to race to the societal bottom without realizing how horrible it makes them look, and getting scorned and derided for ever pointing it out.
I have to admit that excessively extravagant names do get on my nerves at times - but we're all different so I tend to tolerate it.
I personally prefer simple, straight-forward names. If I want to change a normal name, I'll change one letter (Tobias = Tovias, or like G. R. R. Martin does, Edward = Eddard) rather than like this.
Here's the list of all my Pathfinder characters:
Nieve Lovesworn
Rhys Florian
Tiomir
Tovias Tirier
Greyson Hreim
Teagan Muspelheim
Rygal Archer
Thom O'Brian
Arthur "Art" Halfstone
I can usually find or invent names... but whenever I make the invented ones longer, I fear I'm accidentally ripping off some published fantasy author. So, I've yet to invent a name longer than two syllables.
Let me get this straight: Because you fear copying known names, you stay away from longer names and instead go with Gulag, Frodo, Pippin, Gandalf, Elrond, Gimli, Eddard, Joffrey, Drogo, Harry, Tavi, Esme, Gytha, Margrat and so on?
Good plan! :P
What I'm saying is that the less syllables you use, the more likely it is to accidentally copy some existing name.
While I was vastly prefer players in my homebrews to create names that at least sound similar to the "flavor" of the setting, I don't enforce it. We sometimes get some silly names, but we're in it for fun, so I just let it slide.
Most fantasy authors keep names simple for a mutlitude of reasons. I keep character names to 1 or 2 syllables. An easy method for this is to take two common names and combine them.
For example:
Matt and Kevin becomes Maven.
Alice and Fran becomes Alran
Carla and Brandon becomes Cardon
Josepth and Mike becomes Joke...uhm...ok, maybe not that one. :0
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Testament is worth it for the names alone. My evil counterpart (Shadrach) took his name from there (and the OT of course).
I've also stolen Talyn more than once, and my sorceress/comic book Expy is named Helena.
I did name a Warforged Shaper 'Welker' once. No one got the reference. (Hint, when he manifested an Astral Construct, it seemed to leap fully formed from his chest, and he spoke in a deep monotone)
I have an old Mystara suplement with regonal naming advice. I love it. I have pulled it out a couple times to try to come up with names. It uses historical names from regions with similar ones to what they were mimicing for most of them, and it explans how surnames are used in different regions.
My favorite name I've pulled out of there is Morphail. Little did I know that the character would succeed at nothing in his 2 year carreer, and was thus aptly named.
What we joke most about is fantasy names with apostrophes (') in them. One of my players once used the name "Ko'ud-hè", which looks very esoteric, but is actually a misspelling of the Dutch "Koud, hè?" (which means "Cold, isn't it?"). I promptly invented a father for him, who was called "N'at-hè" ("Nat, hè?" or "Wet, isn't it?"). The fun was also that these characters were both desert tribesmen.
Names are wonderful in RPGs. Especially the draconic naming tradition, where various cool syllables are mashed together to form something that should never have been, but can then be shortened to an eminently pronouncable form. How about Karasendrieth, a.k.a. Kara, or Thauglorimorgorus, a.k.a. Thauglor, from the Forgotten Realms setting?
Things get even better when you realize that some authors of fantasy novels are truly, stunningly, awe-inspiringly inept at making up names for their characters. From the FR setting, again, I am looking at things like Ray-guy, and my personal favourite bonkers character name: Nephft Scoontiphvt (yes, I might have gotten that one wrong, pardon me if so).
Another, related, problem is when you have a character name that turns out a little too late to be unusable. How about Analdic the mighty crusader?
Yeah... I really enjoy fantasy names.
What we joke most about is fantasy names with apostrophes (') in them. One of my players once used the name "Ko'ud-hè", which looks very esoteric, but is actually a misspelling of the Dutch "Koud, hè?" (which means "Cold, isn't it?"). I promptly invented a father for him, who was called "N'at-hè" ("Nat, hè?" or "Wet, isn't it?"). The fun was also that these characters were both desert tribesmen.
Yes, but ' has a pronuciation, just like !, when used in spelling foreign names. Many African tribal languages use them.
What we joke most about is fantasy names with apostrophes (') in them. One of my players once used the name "Ko'ud-hè", which looks very esoteric, but is actually a misspelling of the Dutch "Koud, hè?" (which means "Cold, isn't it?"). I promptly invented a father for him, who was called "N'at-hè" ("Nat, hè?" or "Wet, isn't it?"). The fun was also that these characters were both desert tribesmen.
How Ko'ud-hè?
By the way, the correct form of my nick is "Kae'Yoss".
Apostrophes are way cool.
Yes, but ' has a pronuciation, just like !, when used in spelling foreign names. Many African tribal languages use them.
Well, the name was actually pronounced with an '. So only when you read it, you could see what it originally said. Fun was, one of the other players kept stumbling over the pronunciation of the name again and again. Luckily for her (and unluckily for my husband, who played this character) the character did not live long. He was killed by a brown bear. We are playing another campaign now, but this group is still wary whenever they meet a bear.
Names are wonderful in RPGs. Especially the draconic naming tradition, where various cool syllables are mashed together to form something that should never have been, but can then be shortened to an eminently pronouncable form. How about Karasendrieth, a.k.a. Kara, or Thauglorimorgorus, a.k.a. Thauglor, from the Forgotten Realms setting?
Things get even better when you realize that some authors of fantasy novels are truly, stunningly, awe-inspiringly inept at making up names for their characters. From the FR setting, again, I am looking at things like Ray-guy, and my personal favourite bonkers character name: Nephft Scoontiphvt (yes, I might have gotten that one wrong, pardon me if so).
Another, related, problem is when you have a character name that turns out a little too late to be unusable. How about Analdic the mighty crusader?
Yeah... I really enjoy fantasy names.
All in the pronunciation - I saw the spelling, snickered, and thought, 'Of COURSE someone would have issue with 'uh-NAHL-deek'...but only because I'm something of a polyglot with a linguistics fixation. Exploiting tricks of language and phonetics allows one to get away with all manners of names...though unfortunately the counterpoint is that it also allows the aforementioned 'nizzames' because of unwitting utilization of said traits - from the nearly Snopes-ubiquitous 'Lemonjello and Oranjello' to the also previously invoked 'Shi-THEED' pronunciation.
Just because one insists that it's pronounced 'Tro-PAY' doesn't make it so, but it's still something that helps with some names.