I'm curious how other GMs (or the GM of other players) feel about reinforcing naming conventions with PCs.
After running games in my homebrew world for about a year, I've come to a place I like with it's culture and geography. This includes NPC names
-Humans are the relatively young Romanesque empire, and have Greek or Latinesque names.
-Elves (that don't live in the human cities) live in nomadic tribes and have Gaelic-sounding names.
-The dwarf nation is underground in the north, and they Nordic-sounding first names, with last names given depending on their deeds
-Goblinoids (the main "evil race") come from the far far north and have Slavic-sounding names
-All the animal races comes from an Oriental country across the sea and have Chinese, Japanese, or Korean sounding names.
(Orcs are extinct and half-orcs are exotic, they don't have their own culture)
When I ran a one-shot last semester one of my friends played a Kistune summoner and called his eidolon Melvin. Since it was just a light-hearted one-shot, I didn't pay much attention to it, but when the one-shot became an ongoing campaign this semester, I told him he had to use another name for him in-character, because Melvin doesn't fit his characters backstory or languages, let alone the world at large.
Do other people care about this sort of thing?
I don't, but I think it's admirable you do. Being strict/consistent with such things is much more likely to maintain immersion and believability, I think.
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For me GMing is a springboard for my illustration and writing concepts, so I value consistency.
Create a box, let some people loose in it, and write down the good stuff that happens.
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I don't think names are very important. It's always possible for a character's parents to make up their own unique name or for a character to make up his own name later in life because he didn't like his given name.
In my games, we rarely actually use the character names. We usually just refer to everyone by the player name because nobody can remember the character names or a player can't pronounce a character name.
I think ultimately a character's name is only important to the player of that character because it helps the player define who the character is.
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I don't think names are very important. It's always possible for a character's parents to make up their own unique name or for a character to make up his own name later in life because he didn't like his given name.
In my games, we rarely actually use the character names. We usually just refer to everyone by the player name because nobody can remember the character names or a player can't pronounce a character name.
I think ultimately a character's name is only important to the player of that character because it helps the player define who the character is.
I'm not sure why but that makes me kind of sad.
I (and my group) have always striven to use character names as much as possible. I firmly believe it adds to the immersion and tone of the game.
I also prefer that characters have a name that at least somewhat fits into the world/setting.
Just my 2 cents...
As a GM, I have the rule that player names are disallowed at the table, and enforce it (although less strictly in some games). In my experience it help keep the character perspective in the game.
Regarding names I've never set clear rules. Personally though, I favor names that are A) somewhat realistic medival names (thus not too fantasy-themed) and B) are easily pronuncable (I've seen too many characters whose names are forgotten because they are long and bothersome).
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We have more of a challenge with spelling than pronunciation t my table, so it's only ever a problem for me.
for instance one player is very into the Gaellic names for elves (always plays a half elf, elf, or a race that can be believably adopted by elves, such as an elf aasimar) and they are all spelled very outlandishly by english standards, but don't sound very far from their Americanized version (such as Sullivan).
They're by no means restricted by me to actual, historical names from these languages, but they need to sound right.
@DrDrew and Zenlike, at tables where it's more about the game and less about the roleplaying, sounds like it would be fine. Most of the people at my table are the opposite, though, including myself.
I've tried and I've tried for decades now to enforce a "cultural" feel to naming PC's. But one of my guys has always insisted on Roman type names and the other after comic book and BBC SciFi/Horror movie writers. I finally just gave up.
I don't enforce naming conventions, so long as the name is unique and interesting.
And that includes an off-the-wall character named "Pending Patent" who put his name down as "Pending" while he was trying to think of a name and never got around to changing it.
He gets some weird reactions when he introduces himself.
As long as they aren't joke names (unless it's a comedic campaign, or the character is a jester) I'm fine with whatever my players come up with. However, if the name is ripe for a joke unintentionally, I'll usually give the player a heads-up before we start so they have an opportunity to change it before the endless ribbing starts.
My first campaign I ever ran the monk named his character "Melvin the Unfraggable" so your thread name caught my attention. He was not a demon, though =p. I didn't stop him and it worked out fine.
If it was now, and a player made an... unusual name, I would ask him why his character is named that. I wouldn't prohibit it or even discourage it, simply ask the player to think about how the character got his/her name. Maybe there's a good story behind it. Maybe they came from a long line of Melvins. Maybe Melvin is a translation error or nickname derived from some word in Abyssal.
Honestly I think unusual names are a great tool to use to prod your players to developing their character backgrounds. Let them name their characters as they like!
I've run comedic games and they're fun, but trying to do serious roleplaying for a character with a fourth-wall-breaking joke name would get tiresome for me when I'm trying to make a serious, believable world.
There are plenty of ways to name a character for humor that would be less tiresome than something like Blasto McThunderhead. For instance, the cleric named "Colm Cille, Son of Colm Cille" and introduced himself as such to everyone he met.
It sounds somewhat paradoxical but humor can be taken seriously and not taken seriously, I think.
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My current fighter is called Temp O'Rary. He was my third character for this campaign after a few brutal sessions in which I lost my witch and then a barbarian.
Both of those had proper names, but like Rynjin above, this guys name was a place holder at first, now its stuck. He has an Irish accent to go with the surname.
Cheers
I put good names very high on the agenda in the games I run. As other posters have pointed out, out-of-place names tear me rather roughly from the moment when roleplaying. Whilst recruiting for a recent play-by-post I started I went as far as to specify what I was looking for in names and recommended changing a few.
I speak only from my own perspective, which I'm well aware is rather obsessive on this point. For me, names have to be in keeping with game world. I use the suggested names in campaign books for Golarion and the Realms as starting points, chopping and changing syllables to create new monikers in keeping with the style.
I try and avoid using names from the real world, even if they're relatively obscure. Although I pilfer from other languages to get a certain sound to a name, I usually alter it a little rather than using straight translations.
As an Englishman, I often wonder if certain names come across with a more exotic ring to our American friends. I remember a Sir Roger in one of the Dragonlance novels. I think in England we often consider Roger a rather pompous, humourous name suited to a foolish character, I just couldn't picture 'Sir Roger' as a courageous knight.
Of course, it all depends a lot upon the kind of game you run. In throwaway dungeon excursions I doesn't matter so much (though it'd still annoy me), but if you're looking for an epic campaign with a strong narrative, Rary McFartypants is probably going to leave something smelling iffy.
My group rolls with whatever works. Most of the time it's bad jokes or puns, other really obvious references to what the character does. I have an inquisitor named Baine, we dubbed a legless wizard we came across "Shtumpy", and there's a support NPC cleric that we call Jeeves just to name a few. I'm happy when the PCs remember the name of the character.
Hell, I forgot NPC's names half the time and I'm the DM!
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The people I play with always try to use character name while talking in character, but we don't really have any rules about what you can or can't be named. Most people tend to avoid obvious joke or pun names.
Anyway... fantasy cultural naming conventions. I can't help but feel that some the awfully specific names people have kinda limits their life choices. I mean your parents named you "X the Skullsplitter" what else were you going to be when you grew up?
i had a fetchling bard named
"Countess" Umbriere Nera Nox Astrum Lunas Moonwhisper Aniri and yes, she expected everyone to call her "Your Excellency" "Mistress" or "Ojou-Sama" depending on background.
her Alias was "The Monochrome Puppeteer" and even her Twin sister was expected to call her by her 3 such methods of address. "Big Sis" wasn't good enough for Umbri.
the twin sister was the Angelkin Melee Oracle, Lumiere Argence Solaras Dawnbringer Aniri the "Thunderstorm Dervish" Umbri's "Knight of Zero" out of a group of 12 knights.
i had a fetchling bard named
"Countess" Umbriere Nera Nox Astrum Lunas Moonwhisper Aniri and yes, she expected everyone to call her "Your Excellency" "Mistress" or "Ojou-Sama" depending on background.
her Alias was "The Monochrome Puppeteer" and even her Twin sister was expected to call her by her 3 such methods of address. "Big Sis" wasn't good enough for Umbri.
the twin sister was the Angelkin Melee Oracle, Lumiere Argence Solaras Dawnbringer Aniri the "Thunderstorm Dervish" Umbri's "Knight of Zero" out of a group of 12 knights.
This is the kind name that your average PC would forget before you even got to "Aniri".
I consider myself to have failed on some level if I don't come up with a good and distinct name for my characters that still fit the flavor.
I still remember my first character who was 'Sam, just Sam' the somewhat worrying psion who was a walking mortar in a friend's diselpunk campaign.
Then there was Maak, the half-elf rogue/assassin who was completely devoid of morals but trying to vicariously learn them from his adventuring companions.
Current crowd favorite is Old Man Bespoke, the tough as nails, sixty-year-old, falcata swinging, full plate wearing, father of at least four very... unique children, and a modestly successful tailor to boot.
Come to think of it, single word names seem to work really well, extra points for single syllable ones.
I have a pet cat named Melvin. The Summoner's Eidolon is a pet, so if the Summoner wants to call their pet Melvin, I think it is fine. Just be glad, the pet isn't named "Fluffy Muffin" or something like that.
Now NPCs may roll their eyes when they hear the pet's name, or tease the owner, but that is up to you. Having an odd name may have consequences, for example, a boy named Sue.
This is my powerful magic sword "Irving."
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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SOmetimes a name can have a second level of humor.
My half orc lore warden is Enuck. When he drinks a potion of enlarge person he shouts 'Enuck Chug!' If I get him to living monolith, I'll declare he grows when he calls 'Chuk'. (Yes it's obscure, but I couldn't resist.)
Mostly I try to keep names pronouncable, but obscure. Sometimes, they get nicknames of their own though.
The first character I ever created (my first character was one that a player left to the DM when he stopped playing) was an anti-Paladin named Schwartz. This was before the movie "Spaceballs" and what they meant by "schwartz". I named him that because it meant "black" in German. The name definitely did not fit the decidely Egyptian-themed homebrew of my DM, but this was the 80s, man. Crazy times.
SOmetimes a name can have a second level of humor.
My half orc lore warden is Enuck. When he drinks a potion of enlarge person he shouts 'Enuck Chug!' If I get him to living monolith, I'll declare he grows when he calls 'Chuk'. (Yes it's obscure, but I couldn't resist.)
Mostly I try to keep names pronouncable, but obscure. Sometimes, they get nicknames of their own though.
Apache Chief, "Eh-neeek-chock!"
What, no Schmooples the girlish Tarrasque Bard? Makes me want to cry lol. Not really, but I think it comes down to player choice, in my opinion. GM's build the world, not the characters. And yes, I am a GM, so I can safely say that system tends to work. Not in, say, Ravenloft, but in Pathfinder I believe that it does.
My brother played for several years a flamboyantly gay dwarf assassin named "Pebbles". Just remembered that one.
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I don't enforce naming conventions, but if one player in a more or less 'serious' campaign insists to call his dwarven fighter 'Stumpy the Frown', it might be a sign that his and mine (and probably my groups if he ist the only one) expectations in the game might be a tad too far apart - so I would talk to him about those expectations.
If he agrees on the general tone of the game and still, for whatever reasons still takes that name, he will live with the in game consequences - there have been ridiculous names throughout history (and I mean ridiculous for the prevailing naming convention), and not everyone is corteous enough to ignore a parents dimwit moment.
This is the kind name that your average PC would forget before you even got to "Aniri".i had a fetchling bard named
"Countess" Umbriere Nera Nox Astrum Lunas Moonwhisper Aniri and yes, she expected everyone to call her "Your Excellency" "Mistress" or "Ojou-Sama" depending on background.
her Alias was "The Monochrome Puppeteer" and even her Twin sister was expected to call her by her 3 such methods of address. "Big Sis" wasn't good enough for Umbri.
the twin sister was the Angelkin Melee Oracle, Lumiere Argence Solaras Dawnbringer Aniri the "Thunderstorm Dervish" Umbri's "Knight of Zero" out of a group of 12 knights.
that is why, for people who forgot her name, she was willing to accept "Your Excellency" and "Mistress" or if you have a far eastern background, "Ojou-Sama."
you weren't allowed to insult her illness or to badmouth her crazy uncle. her uncle's name was a lot easier to remember "Uncle Max", which he expected everyone to call him.
her uncle was a count with a chain of adventurer superstops, that sold everything from magic items an adventurer would need, to food and lodgings.
Inn/Magic Shop/Smithy/Whatever and adventurer may need.
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The people I play with always try to use character name while talking in character, but we don't really have any rules about what you can or can't be named. Most people tend to avoid obvious joke or pun names.
Anyway... fantasy cultural naming conventions. I can't help but feel that some the awfully specific names people have kinda limits their life choices. I mean your parents named you "X the Skullsplitter" what else were you going to be when you grew up?
Most fantasy names are built around the old naming conventions, where a person's name was just something about them. If John Fletcher gave up making bows and arrows and decided to make barrels for a living, he'd change his name to John Cooper. If John Underhill moved to the seaside village and brough his hammer and anvil with him, the folks in his new village would just call him John Smith. Folks back then would have found our current ideas about names to be hilariously picayune and priggish.
Given your example, I doubt anyone called him "the Skullsplitter" before he split his first skull.
So, in our games, it's varied, and mostly I've rolled with it, but, one character aside, it's never really been a problem.
That one character? Cheezecake the Venerable, a human sorcerer who was, you guessed it, venerable age category. Yes, this was the player's joke that he was trying to Cheese the system (and a somewhat gender-reversed attempt at implicating that he was "sexy"). Yes, I rolled with it.
(Soon, he was just called "Cheese" by everyone.)
Here's the weird thing, though: he was completely nuts. Like, entirely. And that's how the world accepted his name: "Oh, hey, there's a crazy guy, driven mad by his magic, and named himself something stupid, but go along with it, because he's prone to throwing fireballs... on accident... if he gets mad."
While the player thought he was playing a joke character (and he was) in a serious campaign, it just turned into a human sorcerer who was literally insane, and the PCs kept him around, just so they could point the crazy guy in the direction they wanted. He was into dairy. He turned his Yak familiar into a human woman (with cow horns). He did this stuff that he thought was hilarious.
The entire rest of the world treated him as if he was dangerously insane, and respected the other PCs for generally channeling that insanity and ridiculous power into a useful purpose that benefited the world instead of saw it burn.
And, within a surprisingly short time span, you saw him begin... to take his character seriously. He still did the insane things. But he played them up, no longer just for the player yuks (though he enjoyed those, too), but because he defined Cheese as nuts himself and was playing true to character.
In-canon canon***, after the story, he basically became an epic maddened near-mindless chaos-beast infested with the spell-plague and forced into Shar's service.
Outside of the "spell-plague infested" part, that's more or less what happened in our non-canon canon***, too.
Anyway, the point of all of this, is that, while I generally respect people's choices, the world tends to react to them as it will. "Melvin" will get comments like, "that's no name for a demon" and generally be considered an imbecilic demon (though this in no way gives them an advantage, just a social problem). By the same token, I generally encourage in-character behavior from people, which includes semi-sensible names for the origin of the character.
** I stand by the explanation I used at the time that it was "magic".
I do try to encourage the players to choose names that would make sense in character.
*** It was Forgotten Realms. As a direct result of that game, there are now three canon Forgotten Realms that we have (think Chrono Trigger/Cross style time-travel shenanigans): the spell-plague was mostly averted (affecting mostly gnomes and illusionists), the spell-plague happened in full force as in-canon (and is currently being rectified by Mystra as per canon), and an offshoot of the spellplague one in which Shar (sort of kind of) annihilated a ton of divine areas and deities and reduced herself as a result.
All this caused no small amount of chaos in Arvandor, The Demonweb Pits, the Gates of the Moon, the Green Fields, and the Shadow Plane. She was effectively punted down to 1st level as a result, though while still retaining her divinity.
Anyway, this is super-off topic, but it left an FR with a reduced Arvendor/the Gates of the Moon/Demonweb Pits/Green Fields/Shadow Plane (complete with Primordials and giant-gods shoved out of Toril, the Feywild, and Elemental Chaos and into those realms, which started bleeding in with each other a bit), and with Celestia, Deep Wilds, Dismal Caverns, Dwarfhome (which may fuse with Celestia), Fugue Plane, House of Knowledge, Nishrek (which may soon invade Warrior's Rest), and Warriors Rest.
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What's in a name...? Case in point:
"By the time I called out 'Look out...' What's your name?"
"Romanadvoratrelundar"
"By the time I called that out, you could be dead. I'll call you Romana."
"I don't like Romana"
"It's either Romana, or Fred!"
"All right, call me Fred."
"Good. C'mon Romana."
Yeah, characters in my groups usually have reasonable names more or less fitting for the culture, but they usually pick up nicknames that are easier and quicker for everyone to say. Usually it is a shorter version of their name, and sometimes it's descriptive, like the knight in shining armor everyone just called "Shiny".
Sometimes really jarring names do work well in world though. In a campaign where all the PCs were harvested from other planes by a powerful lich, I am playing "Mongo Vandergriffon the IV", a highly educated half orc alchemist who doesn't really fit in around these parts.
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I prefer my players to name their characters according to the naming conventions I set down by the cultures I've created. We mainly play in Golarion so this isn't a problem because the campaign setting does a great job of laying down some guidelines. I do have one player though who pushes pretty hard. He's fairly annoying and I doubt he'll last in the group. That is if I don't kick him out first. He wanted to name his first character "Enzyme Benzoate". I vetoed it immediately. Ugh.
I don't think names are very important. It's always possible for a character's parents to make up their own unique name or for a character to make up his own name later in life because he didn't like his given name.
In my games, we rarely actually use the character names. We usually just refer to everyone by the player name because nobody can remember the character names or a player can't pronounce a character name.
I think ultimately a character's name is only important to the player of that character because it helps the player define who the character is.
I'm not sure why but that makes me kind of sad.
I (and my group) have always striven to use character names as much as possible. I firmly believe it adds to the immersion and tone of the game.
I also prefer that characters have a name that at least somewhat fits into the world/setting.
Just my 2 cents...
I understand why you would say this. But it would make things very difficult for some of us.
I personally am not enough of a lingusitics type person to recognize what would make a (for example) gaelic sounding name. And when someone does make up their name that they think fits and sounds kool, I probably can't pronounce it and will probably never remember it.
I am just about finished running a short series of 'oriental' modules. It probably does lose something, but I couldn't figure out how to consistently pronounce a single fake 'japanese' name as written. I think it would have lost more if I stopped everytime to make the effort, got it different than last time, and the players can't figure out who I'm talking about since they can't recognize my butchering of the fake name.
the PCs started Calling Umbriere "Mistress" because they hated calling her by her full name. in fact, "Mistress" was said in a mocking tone and some people would tease her with "your majesty" "your excellency" "Ojou-Sama" or "Princess" because her title was "Countess" and she was a little spoiled and manipulative, even with her illness.
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I don't think names are very important. It's always possible for a character's parents to make up their own unique name or for a character to make up his own name later in life because he didn't like his given name.
In my games, we rarely actually use the character names. We usually just refer to everyone by the player name because nobody can remember the character names or a player can't pronounce a character name.
I think ultimately a character's name is only important to the player of that character because it helps the player define who the character is.
I'm not sure why but that makes me kind of sad.
I (and my group) have always striven to use character names as much as possible. I firmly believe it adds to the immersion and tone of the game.
I also prefer that characters have a name that at least somewhat fits into the world/setting.
Just my 2 cents...
I understand why you would say this. But it would make things very difficult for some of us.
I personally am not enough of a lingusitics type person to recognize what would make a (for example) gaelic sounding name. And when someone does make up their name that they think fits and sounds kool, I probably can't pronounce it and will probably never remember it.
I am just about finished running a short series of 'oriental' modules. It probably does lose something, but I couldn't figure out how to consistently pronounce a single fake 'japanese' name as written. I think it would have lost more if I stopped everytime to make the effort, got it different than last time, and the players can't figure out who I'm talking about since they can't recognize my butchering of the fake name.
To elaborate, I'm just just telling my players "Your name needs to sounds like it's from X culture, good luck doing research".
My player says he's thinking of playing a male elf "something". I let him know the key details of elves in my setting; what they look like, how an elf of a certain class might be, and that their names are Gaelic-like, some examples of which being Breanan (Brenden), Cedric, etc., and I'll direct them to an online source to help them choose or come up with a name that fits.
There more of a dialogue then me (or most other GMs that feel this way, I'd wager) between just saying "Names should be like X" or "No that doesn't fit, try again".
why can't an elf from another region of the continent have a French or even Italian name? there should be more than just Gaelic Elves.
why can't an elf from another region of the continent have a French or even Italian name? there should be more than just Gaelic Elves.
I don't see a necessity for that, but, to explain more in detail for the setting:
The continent is Eora, elves are only found in one part of it, called Aethan. Elves and halflings are the historic natives of Aethan (the Gaels), with humans crossing over in the ancient history (Romans) and establishing their own foothold there (how dwarves come in is another story).
Most elves still live in their various clans that live off the land and hold their own territory (and have slight racial variations), although one in particular adapted to human society and city life (the elves as presented in Core). One of the city elves may have a more diverse name given a more "melting-pot" upbringing, but Elvish is the same language for all of them, so Elvish names would still sound Elvish (in this case, proto-gaelic).
Basically I don't have an equal distribution of races over every country/landmass in the setting because that's just how I see it working.
why can't an elf from another region of the continent have a French or even Italian name? there should be more than just Gaelic Elves.I don't see a necessity for that, but, to explain more in detail for the setting:
The continent is Eora, elves are only found in one part of it, called Aethan. Elves and halflings are the historic natives of Aethan (the Gaels), with humans crossing over in the ancient history (Romans) and establishing their own foothold there (how dwarves come in is another story).
Most elves still live in their various clans that live off the land and hold their own territory (and have slight racial variations), although one in particular adapted to human society and city life (the elves as presented in Core). One of the city elves may have a more diverse name given a more "melting-pot" upbringing, but Elvish is the same language for all of them, so Elvish names would still sound Elvish (in this case, proto-gaelic).
Basically I don't have an equal distribution of races over every country/landmass in the setting because that's just how I see it working.
even if it isn't an equal distribution, there could be elven exiles who produce elven offspring in human settlements and those elves would have a chance of having human names because they don't wish to anger the elven clan they were exiled from.
it just doesn't make sense that every elf in the world has a name from the exact same language. especially when some rare elves could have grown up in primarily human settlements for example.
it wouldn't be all elves that have human names, just those few that primarily grew up in a human city.
or what if the elf were a foster child to a human?
why can't an elf from another region of the continent have a French or even Italian name? there should be more than just Gaelic Elves.I don't see a necessity for that, but, to explain more in detail for the setting:
The continent is Eora, elves are only found in one part of it, called Aethan. Elves and halflings are the historic natives of Aethan (the Gaels), with humans crossing over in the ancient history (Romans) and establishing their own foothold there (how dwarves come in is another story).
Most elves still live in their various clans that live off the land and hold their own territory (and have slight racial variations), although one in particular adapted to human society and city life (the elves as presented in Core). One of the city elves may have a more diverse name given a more "melting-pot" upbringing, but Elvish is the same language for all of them, so Elvish names would still sound Elvish (in this case, proto-gaelic).
Basically I don't have an equal distribution of races over every country/landmass in the setting because that's just how I see it working.
even if it isn't an equal distribution, there could be elven exiles who produce elven offspring in human settlements and those elves would have a chance of having human names because they don't wish to anger the elven clan they were exiled from.
it just doesn't make sense that every elf in the world has a name from the exact same language. especially when some rare elves could have grown up in primarily human settlements for example.
it wouldn't be all elves that have human names, just those few that primarily grew up in a human city.
or what if the elf were a foster child to a human?
I think I sort of touched on that when I mentioned he elves that live cities.
Its the same story for half elves. If they were raised by humans, or X race as a part of their backstory, they would use the naming conventions of the parents. Its cut-and-dry. I'm not sure what you're different point you might be trying to make. Right now the only elves in the world live in this area, where my games have been set, with the only other continent being an Eastern type of setting with humans and the animal races exclusively (players may have character that travelled from that area, but that has no bearing on elves).
why can't an elf from another region of the continent have a French or even Italian name? there should be more than just Gaelic Elves.I don't see a necessity for that, but, to explain more in detail for the setting:
The continent is Eora, elves are only found in one part of it, called Aethan. Elves and halflings are the historic natives of Aethan (the Gaels), with humans crossing over in the ancient history (Romans) and establishing their own foothold there (how dwarves come in is another story).
Most elves still live in their various clans that live off the land and hold their own territory (and have slight racial variations), although one in particular adapted to human society and city life (the elves as presented in Core). One of the city elves may have a more diverse name given a more "melting-pot" upbringing, but Elvish is the same language for all of them, so Elvish names would still sound Elvish (in this case, proto-gaelic).
Basically I don't have an equal distribution of races over every country/landmass in the setting because that's just how I see it working.
even if it isn't an equal distribution, there could be elven exiles who produce elven offspring in human settlements and those elves would have a chance of having human names because they don't wish to anger the elven clan they were exiled from.
it just doesn't make sense that every elf in the world has a name from the exact same language. especially when some rare elves could have grown up in primarily human settlements for example.
it wouldn't be all elves that have human names, just those few that primarily grew up in a human city.
or what if the elf were a foster child to a human?
I think I sort of touched on that when I mentioned he elves that live cities.
Its the same story for half elves. If they were raised by humans, or X race as a part of their backstory, they would use the naming conventions of the parents. Its cut-and-dry. I'm not sure what you're different point you might be trying to make. Right now the only elves in the world live in this area, where my games have been set, with the only other continent being an Eastern type of setting with humans and the animal races exclusively (players may have character that travelled from that area, but that has no bearing on elves)
sorry for unintentional debating, but at least we can see a little closer.
i still don't understand the need to clump up all the members of a given race to one specific region.
such methods of interaction as the silk road and other worldwide trading routes allow for the blending and growth of many cultures. if these elves are all stuck in one country? who do they trade with?
trading would change one's culture a lot over time.
the Gaelic elves using the Italian nymphs as middlemen to trade with the Japanese cat-people across the Persian Ifriti silk road would lead to a lot of changes among the cultures of the Elves, the Nymphs, the Ifriti and the Cat-People. traditions would blend, first as curiosities, then as seperate communities. for example. some would start adopting the use of names and mannerisms from the communities they trade with out of respect.
the Marco Polo scenario.
so because of the trade you could have over the course of decades or even centuries
Gaelic Traditionalist Elves that stay in elf land
Italian Elves that travel with the nymphs as trade assistants
Persian Elves that settled in Ifriti Desert Land
Japanese Elves that live with the cat-people as immigrants
i was just making the setting feel more organic.
the fact that all the elves are restricted to elf land makes the setting feel more conformist and less organic.
Lumiere: that's... only in your opinion. If the culture is isolationist enough, it really won't change much, at all. It also depends heavily on the cultures mores, values, and their emphasis on such (as well as the general tendency to diversify).
Elves, not being human, may do things substantially more slowly in many ways.
In any event, people didn't just spontaneously immigrate - otherwise we'd have had a heavy population of far-East Asian peoples in Britain... which didn't happen in the real world at all (or even in the "Middle East") because there was no reason for it to happen... at least until relatively modern times.
What is "organic" to you is "unrealistic" to others (and vice versa), and may heavily depend on time periods.
I'm not calling your vision for the setting "wrong" (for you), but it's not Big Lemon's, and thus is not necessarily "more organic" for his world and the people within it.
It would be akin to me, coming up with a species, say, that's tied to a particular plant for some reason that can only grow in one part of the world, and someone else going, "Well why don't all the high-level wizards just make more and let them migrate?"
The answer to both your point and whoever critiques my non-existent race is, "There are too many answers for that question, but in short, it's because they haven't yet."
Think of it this way: Parents of Chinese descent continue to give their children Chinese first names (and, of course, continue to have Chinese surnames) despite having trade and constant communication with English speaking countries for hundreds of years.
Elves, in this setting, have been doing even less. Aside from the one group that decided to embrace the growing human society, the elves largely keep to themselves, trading with small human villages and towns that live near their land. On the whole they have no desire to cross the ocean or icy mountains to reach other nations (though rare individuals may decide to, but they still would have been born and raised in Aethan).
Getting back to the subject of the thread, though: Even if, hypothetically, there were a group of elves leaving in the Eastern empire and decided to name their child by the customs of that country rather than their own heritage... that would still be following the naming conventions of the setting. It would be very odd, but there's a way to work odd things into the setting.
My problem is when a player wants to have a certain name that doesn't match their backstory or any culture/language of the world in any way. Wanting to be a Bear Clan elf with the name Ricardo would just not be accepted.
(From context, I assume you meant to have a 'not' in that first sentence.)
... To elaborate, I'm not just just telling my players "Your name needs to sounds like it's from X culture, good luck doing research".
...
There more of a dialogue then me (or most other GMs that feel this way, I'd wager) between just saying "Names should be like X" or "No that doesn't fit, try again".
Actually, from the few times I've had a GM that is a real stickler on the names, I have not gotten any help. I would expect that you would want to do your own research (if you don't already know) as part of the joy of learning about the time period so you can immerse yourself in the experience. That is not quite a quote because it has been too long since I had the conversation, but it is close.
We would also never have been able to select something as simple and pronounceable as Breanen or Cedric (your 2 examples). Every time it has been several names, each of several syllables, usually with lots of consonants in a row which are difficult for an English speaker to pronounce. Then the GM’s would always get upset when we use only the first syllable of the name because we could neither remember nor pronounce the name they finally approved.
If you are doing it as your examples suggested. I would have little problem with it. That's just not what I have usually seen.
(From context, I assume you meant to have a 'not' in that first sentence.)
... To elaborate, I'm not just just telling my players "Your name needs to sounds like it's from X culture, good luck doing research".
...
There more of a dialogue then me (or most other GMs that feel this way, I'd wager) between just saying "Names should be like X" or "No that doesn't fit, try again".Actually, from the few times I've had a GM that is a real stickler on the names, I have not gotten any help. I would expect that you would want to do your own research (if you don't already know) as part of the joy of learning about the time period so you can immerse yourself in the experience. That is not quite a quote because it has been too long since I had the conversation, but it is close.
We would also never have been able to select something as simple and pronounceable as Breanen or Cedric (your 2 examples). Every time it has been several names, each of several syllables, usually with lots of consonants in a row which are difficult for an English speaker to pronounce. Then the GM’s would always get upset when we use only the first syllable of the name because we could neither remember nor pronounce the name they finally approved.
If you are doing it as your examples suggested. I would have little problem with it. That's just not what I have usually seen.
That situation would be problematic. It isn't fair for the GM to place that sort of requirement on a player without offering any help or direction. Now, I have some players who DO enjoy researching and coming up with their own names, but not everyone gets as excited about it or creative with it.
And I have nothing against in-character nicknames, like calling Sullibhan just "Sully", etc. That's something people would do in and out of character.
i create all sorts of names my DM cannot remember. pulled from useless bits of a variety of languages. but they are usually a giveaway to some key aspect of my PC's personality, talents, or species.
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As a DM I don't feel I should have any say in what another player names his character. The fact that some people think they have the right to tell someone they can't name their character what they want seems a little arrogant to me.
Y'know, sometimes people just make up names for their children they think are pretty and/or interesting sounding. Then you also have people named after friends, loved ones, or simply in honor of deeds (if X member of Y race did a great boon for Z member of B race then you might end up with a member of B race named after X member).
Naming conventions evolve. Many names that were traditionally male or female blend or swap positions in frequency (the name Ashley or Ashleigh is actually a traditional male name but is found on females more frequently this days) and adopt names from religious figures or other cultures because of their beauty. The name "Liana" for example is Hebrew (IIRC it means "god has answered") and is found on non-Jewish people from time to time.
Then there are those who are impressed upon by a media form that resonated with them. Unless a race only has characters of its own kind in stories or poetry (an idea that seems bizarre in a world with even half the number of races in the core rulebook) then you'd likely have blending of naming conventions.
And then with the blending of naming conventions comes the hybridization of names entirely or translations of names. What may have been Johnathan in human might be Jonahthane which could have literally no meaning in either language but have roots with both.
And then let's not forget that you always have people who just make stuff up. I mean really. It happens all the time. Somebody hits adulthood and decides he or she doesn't like his or her name? Some people will change it. Some elf decides he doesn't like the name Jarlath (a gaelic name) and decides that from this point on he shall be named Sam then he'll do so unless there's some bizarre reason why he cannot. It's doubtful adventurers would give two flips anyway.