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Glen Cook apparantly took this tack when naming characters and cities in The Black Company. At least for the original trilogy. All the members of the company had nicknames ("Raven", "Croaker", "Goblin", "Silent") and the bad guys had titles ("Soulcatcher", "Shifter", "The Hanged Man"). Even the cities were named after gems ("Beryl", "Jasper", etc). He really kept the exotic names to a minimum.
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I'll go through and list my characters, I try to use easy to remember names
Rogar Stonehand - Dwarven Stonelord Paladin of Torag
Aten Sadiki - Qadiran Aasimar Life Oracle
Vorel Mas - Tiefling Eldritch Knight
Hans Burger - Grotesquely fat human male Thassilonian Necromancer Wizard
Lord Dunc of Duncington of Gorum - Kellid Male human Barbarian/Warpriest/Skald
[b]Harmonious - Male Aasimar Bard/Swashbuckler
Kuuma Crush/Kira Crush - Tien Tiefling Spiritualist
Beauregard - Male Human Brawler
Utari Trapbreaker - Male Wayang Alchemist
Huckleberry Buck - Varisian Male human gunslinger
We were using the ancient strategy of referring to people by class, until we somehow got two rangers. Then there was much confusion.
They kept calling me the barbarian even after I multi classed though. Even after I multi classed 5 times. Into 5 classes.
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Everyone always remembers the pets names: Conan the velociraptor. Nugget the ankylosaurus.
Grr, a foxform fighter, is usually pretty easy to remember.
Fabrizio *whoosh of hair* a vain idiot sorcerer lead byhis familiar is an obvious enough reference
Usually the names easy to remember if you get the pun or reference.
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Wei Ji Tengu slayer/cleric(Irori), a playing around of vowels for a nickname from an online gaming group 'Wage(y)'.
Agraic Shieldarm Half-elf unchained barbarian, spiritual descendant of my second AD&D 1st edition half-elf fighter.
Zykon Gibbs Tengu bolt ace Inspired by a particular weathered investigator for a criminal investigative service.
Brigid 'Half-Human' Thundertone Half-Orc skald raised by dwarves because 'Torag said so'. Called 'Half-Human' for political reasons.
Karasuma Tazou Tengu unchained rogue, derived from Japanese.
Andrietta Ebonfeather Tengu paladin, follower of Grandmother Crow (Andoletta)
Etune Snowfoot Halfling sorceror (White Draconic bloodline), not sure where I got Etune from.
M. (Modesta) Reynard AKA Ragathiel's Hand Kitsune vigilante (from playtest)
Karasuma Gennei My tengu goblin credit glob, following the 'crow' tradition.
Rae Alain Paight Taldan Bard, initials are a cute acronym.
Juan Nifor Dark Tapestry Oracle, name inspired by a different numerical character in a special.
Reijingu Feza Tengu barbarian, literally 'Raging Feather'
Wazziri Two-Fang Tengu unchained rogue, two-weapon style (wakizashi)
In addition, I have a Suli that I need to come up with a better name for than 'Sully' who is very much the corporate buzz-word motivational speaker life oracle.
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My philosophy has always been that character names should contain as many puns as possible.
That was kind of the vibe I had going when I made this guy. I'll go down some fo my roster for funsies.
Xallis the Chelaxian Summoner - a name I've defaulted to for general wizardly characters in RPGs. I dunno, it sounds magical to me. Also easy to say and remember. This character uses it as a nickname, as he sees power in True Names and likes to keep his a secret.
V'Sarki and Estrek the arachnid Demon Eidolon and his Halfling Summoner - the names are anagrams of Vriska Serket, a character from one of my favorite comics: Homestuck. She has a strong spider motif, and it was my 8th character slot, so I wanted to have fun with that.
Charles Barkleaf the Geokineticist. He dunks on people.
I agree with a few of the other posters who mentioned that names of NPCs are remembered when the NPCs themselves are memorable. I can't tell you who the NPCs were in my last game, but I could tell you about the memorable ones I've met.
Ms. Feathers. Tog and Hats. Vorka. Squeally Nord. Sheilia Heidmarch (Oh this will be easy), and Torch.
So it's not that it's fantasy names are hard to remember, it's that characters are hard to remember if they aren't really worth remembering.
Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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We were using the ancient strategy of referring to people by class, until we somehow got two rangers. Then there was much confusion.
They kept calling me the barbarian even after I multi classed though. Even after I multi classed 5 times. Into 5 classes.
That's the problem with Barbarians, I find. As soon as you take one level, you default to being the Barbarian. Don't know why, as it doesn't happen to any other class, but the Rage feature is so prominent that it's the only thing they'll remember about you. Sort of like the MacGregor the bridge-builder joke.
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Nosig has a point that easy to pronounce names are easier to remember.
That's why even most of my "fantasy" names tend to be short and easily pronounceable, like Qassir, Corin, Varg, Dundar, Molos, etc. Or they have an easy nickname, like Gorjo (short for Nagagorjo, which is actually from the nagaji name list in a book) and Az (short for Azkadellia).
I also have some normal, English names like Isabella and Catherine Brightsword (they're sisters).
I have two Tien characters with "authentic" names: Boon, which is Chinese Tien, and Misaki, which is Japanese Minkaian.
My gnomes intentionally go for long and convoluted names, just because they're gnomes. Wizzlefarb isn't that bad, but nobody can ever pronounce Yzarctihstab, even when it's written in front of them. I have fun playing that one up in character. "Why do humans have so much trouble with my name?" They usually just end up calling him "Baron", since he's an official Baron of Taldor these days.
But my most memorable names are pure nicknames: Mash the barbarian and Green Beard the Pirate (because what else would you call a half-orc pirate?).
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I'm horrible with names and rarely remember them while in-character because I'm usually more focused on the scenario. I usually try to call people by their actual names or just say "hey, you." Point is, names need to be distinct and easy to remember for me to know your name. I think it was in To Judge a Soul 1 where you meet a handful of NPCs with unfamiliar names that all sound alike to me. Multiple syllables with unfamiliar names made me forget who was who and lose interest in the story because I simply couldn't follow it. I appreciate Pathfinder trying to be exotic and non-standard, but I actually need names like Bill, Steve, and Ted to remember who is who. More importantly, names need to be distinct from each other. Every author knows (or should know) that you don't write two characters that start with the same letter. To me, Haraka Kasashige and Ishigo Shiori were indistinguishable because of all the sibilant letters.
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I agree with a few of the other posters who mentioned that names of NPCs are remembered when the NPCs themselves are memorable. I can't tell you who the NPCs were in my last game, but I could tell you about the memorable ones I've met.
Ms. Feathers. Tog and Hats. Vorka. Squeally Nord. Sheilia Heidmarch (Oh this will be easy), and Torch.
So it's not that it's fantasy names are hard to remember, it's that characters are hard to remember if they aren't really worth remembering.
I have actually noticed that almost all the names you mention are easy to say (for English speakers), and often have English words as part of the name. ("Feathers", "Torch", "Squeally").
Now, if the NPC names were more like "King Geon’ai, Sir Lua’an-Eradin, or Lady Alaain Mera-Dovrel" these are more likely to become "The King Dude", "Sir Lue Andrin" and "That Lady in the first part of the scenario with the green dress"...
And I think that this is part of why the Paracountess gets' called by her title more than by her last name... or first name even (which is easy to say - though I have heard her called "Zelda" more than once, and "Countess Zorta" once...)...
They are remembered for being memorable, though I admit the examples weren't really fantasyish.
Better examples are the NPCs from the AP I'm currently in. Conchobar, Sandara, Rattsberger, Maheem, Shivkah and Aretta are just as easy for me to remember as Plugg, Scourge, and Rosie, even though they have more fantasy-like names. Because the GM plays them as people, so we remember them as people instead of just random NPC names. Even the ones that we killed two books ago! On the other hand, water sorceress with a map tattoo that we fought once and killed I know had a name, but I can't be bothered to remember it.
The problem with PFS is a lot of the time the NPCs just aren't really people your characters can get to know, they're just one and done NPCs. Practically disposable. So it's only the few the reoccur or the really really memorable ones that get remembered.
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LOL Took me a second to realize what you were talking about. Nobody ever notices that unless I point it out. But it's a perfect name for a chaotic neutral gnome.
I've seen you mention that name quite a lot on the boards, and I got the joke right away. But I'm still left wondering how the heck you pronounce it! ;)
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I've seen you mention that name quite a lot on the boards, and I got the joke right away. But I'm still left wondering how the heck you pronounce it! ;)LOL Took me a second to realize what you were talking about. Nobody ever notices that unless I point it out. But it's a perfect name for a chaotic neutral gnome.
Very carefully.
Just take it one syllable at a time:
Is ark tih stab
