I'm wondering what kind of process people go through to name their characters. Do you just use a generator until you get something you like? Raid baby name sites? Is it backstory motivated? I'm interested in knowing!
Personally, I do first names first. For my half-elf, I researched elven names but gave her a human last name since her elven father abandoned her with her human mother. I felt she wouldn't want or have any attachment to his family name.
For my tiefling (still yet to be played, waiting for the right time) she named herself after her time as a child slave where she was nameless.
I use a few web sites that list names and their meanings and I find a name that I like that matches the character in some way. Personality, my goal of their adventuring style, etc.. It lets me use real names and have fun with them.
Naming characters usually comes pretty easy to me. I'll have a general idea of the character's personality first, and choose race and class based on that, and once I've designed the basics I generally know the kind of sound I want the name to have. I'll just randomly throw out names until I find something that sticks.
Like the name I use for my account, Synieth. Originally that was a character I made in the early 00s. I was reading Chamber of Secrets at the time and wanted something that sounded like parseltongue because she was going to be an evil necromancer type character and I wanted something she could say creepily. I was playing around with emo-gothicy words like Dark and Shadow and stuff, and one of the words I was toying with was Sin. So I eventually landed on turning Sin into Syn and then adding an "E=Eth" sound at the end so it sounded like parseltongue.
My usual ritual is to open notepad on my computer and just start typing while I think of it. It usually ends up looking something like this:
Dark shadow grim night nite hope blood bone sin Sin sinn syn Synith synth syneeth syneath synithe synite synieth Synieth
Every time I get to something I like I start a new line and play with it until I get to something I like, new line, play with it, sometimes it leads nowhere and I start over.
Depends on if have a solid concept thought out, or making creature on whim. If thought out ahead of time, then they usually have name already. If on whim then just sort of go with theme.
I take a look at the names suggested for race, sometimes use a generator. Sometimes I use real names, not caring if it fits the race because people name children after all sorts (I mean even in real life people are named after cars, places, concepts, objects, businesses and even directions and even people with entirely made up words as their legal name) so I see no reason why characters in D&D cannot do this.
Sometimes I make up words to use the name depending on if I like it and it feels relevant to the character (s and sh sounds for Yuan-Ti for example).
Depends. I seem to have a natural feel for phonology, so I usually just read or listen to a bunch of words in the native language (or closest Earth analog) and throw something out that "sounds right". That was fun when we were playing Mage: the Ascension and needed true names for Khemetan, Gaelic, and Latin magi. I'm sure native speaks would cringe, but I get it close enough for game atmosphere.
If I'm in a hurry, feeling lazy, or just dealing with a horde of NPCs, I'll use a generator. Right now, the best I've found is here: http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ and we used it for the pseudo-Japanese names in the current campaign because I can't quite get the hang of Eastern linguistics.
I really enjoy going into the etymological background of names, and base the name off of that. I also like to look into what cultural background the character will have, tie it into a real world culture, whether current or historical, and go from there. For example, I've got a warrior whose name is Corradhrix (core-odd-ricks). He's a spear-wielder, from a tribe based a little off of the ancient Gauls and Celts. Corradh is Irish gaelic for spear, and I added the -rix to give him the name Spear-king and to tie phonetically to the well-known Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix.
I tend to use Wikipedia and Wiktionary for the basic background research. I'm not writing any dissertations, I'm just looking for stuff to inspire me. I'll usually have one or two things to start with, and then it's just following links and side articles until something jumps out at me. This helps me settle on what cultural background I'll be basing my characters off of.
I use Behind the Name's random name generator from there. I've tried a lot of other generators, there are so many out there, but they all end up falling flat for me. They so rarely feel like natural names, they give off a forced vibe. And they at times are a little too random, they don't come across as grounded. You've got an old German burg, but your parents named you Roralei?
Behind the Name's been spot on for me though. I'll select the culture's, modify the results based off of the character's gender and maximize how many hits I'll get, and start rolling until something hits. What I especially like is that the results all lead to a page that further discusses that name, its meaning and variants. For my previous example, I had eventually stumbled across Corraidhin, which means "little spear" as the -in suffix is used as a diminutive (like how Ryan means "little king"). With my character being a spear user, I really liked it but wanted to add some Gaulish to the mix.
The more background it gives is one of the reasons why I prefer it, and because it's pool of names tends to go deeper than other generators. The Fantasy Name Generator linked above, for example, has a wider list of cultures, both historical and current, that you could randomize a names from. However, its fantastical names are a bit much for me, and their pool of names can be rather shallow. Doesn't take too many rolls before you're seeing the same names again. It's certainly adequate and I wouldn't begrudge anyone its use, so please forgive me for calling it out as an example.
I named one after a lesser known brand of Scotch - Kilkerran.
Another after a singer for a band I like, which fit because my Dwarf is basically "Icelandic" - Jónsi
My Tiefling hates fire, since that's what caused the death of her mother and brother, and since she suffers from self-loathing, shortened her name from Ashkara'a to just Ash. I expect that if she ever truly trusts someone, she will ask them to call her Kara'a, which is what her mom called her.
I pick an existing culture that fits the theme of the character, go to Behind the Name, and search for something that strikes my fancy. I also like making allusions to mythology and fiction with my character names.
Morrigan Devlin, my necromancer, is named after The Morrigan of Irish mythology, who foretold the deaths of warriors, and who often took the form of a crow (which is my character's familiar). Her last name, Devlin, is derived from the Gaelic word for "unlucky" - which I thought fitting, considering her family is rumored to be cursed. :)
Edwyn Maxwell Lawrence Deforest Sacheverell, my fighter, I put much less thought into - I basically wanted a name that oozed "pompous English nobility", so I looked for several fancy-pants names to string together. He often goes by Eddie, though, which I thought fit his rather carefree attitude.
Gwydion fab Don, my druid, is named after a prominent magician/hero/trickster figure in Welsh mythology.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Many characters are named after the deeds they accomplished in their backstory, or names that describe their personality. For example, Magnus Blodtorstig means Magnus the Bloodthirsty in Norweigan.
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I'm wondering what kind of process people go through to name their characters. Do you just use a generator until you get something you like? Raid baby name sites? Is it backstory motivated? I'm interested in knowing!
Personally, I do first names first. For my half-elf, I researched elven names but gave her a human last name since her elven father abandoned her with her human mother. I felt she wouldn't want or have any attachment to his family name.
For my tiefling (still yet to be played, waiting for the right time) she named herself after her time as a child slave where she was nameless.
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I use a few web sites that list names and their meanings and I find a name that I like that matches the character in some way. Personality, my goal of their adventuring style, etc.. It lets me use real names and have fun with them.
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Naming characters usually comes pretty easy to me. I'll have a general idea of the character's personality first, and choose race and class based on that, and once I've designed the basics I generally know the kind of sound I want the name to have. I'll just randomly throw out names until I find something that sticks.
Like the name I use for my account, Synieth. Originally that was a character I made in the early 00s. I was reading Chamber of Secrets at the time and wanted something that sounded like parseltongue because she was going to be an evil necromancer type character and I wanted something she could say creepily. I was playing around with emo-gothicy words like Dark and Shadow and stuff, and one of the words I was toying with was Sin. So I eventually landed on turning Sin into Syn and then adding an "E=Eth" sound at the end so it sounded like parseltongue.
My usual ritual is to open notepad on my computer and just start typing while I think of it. It usually ends up looking something like this:
Every time I get to something I like I start a new line and play with it until I get to something I like, new line, play with it, sometimes it leads nowhere and I start over.
Depends on if have a solid concept thought out, or making creature on whim. If thought out ahead of time, then they usually have name already. If on whim then just sort of go with theme.
I take a look at the names suggested for race, sometimes use a generator. Sometimes I use real names, not caring if it fits the race because people name children after all sorts (I mean even in real life people are named after cars, places, concepts, objects, businesses and even directions and even people with entirely made up words as their legal name) so I see no reason why characters in D&D cannot do this.
Sometimes I make up words to use the name depending on if I like it and it feels relevant to the character (s and sh sounds for Yuan-Ti for example).
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Depends. I seem to have a natural feel for phonology, so I usually just read or listen to a bunch of words in the native language (or closest Earth analog) and throw something out that "sounds right". That was fun when we were playing Mage: the Ascension and needed true names for Khemetan, Gaelic, and Latin magi. I'm sure native speaks would cringe, but I get it close enough for game atmosphere.
If I'm in a hurry, feeling lazy, or just dealing with a horde of NPCs, I'll use a generator. Right now, the best I've found is here: http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ and we used it for the pseudo-Japanese names in the current campaign because I can't quite get the hang of Eastern linguistics.
I really enjoy going into the etymological background of names, and base the name off of that. I also like to look into what cultural background the character will have, tie it into a real world culture, whether current or historical, and go from there. For example, I've got a warrior whose name is Corradhrix (core-odd-ricks). He's a spear-wielder, from a tribe based a little off of the ancient Gauls and Celts. Corradh is Irish gaelic for spear, and I added the -rix to give him the name Spear-king and to tie phonetically to the well-known Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix.
I tend to use Wikipedia and Wiktionary for the basic background research. I'm not writing any dissertations, I'm just looking for stuff to inspire me. I'll usually have one or two things to start with, and then it's just following links and side articles until something jumps out at me. This helps me settle on what cultural background I'll be basing my characters off of.
I use Behind the Name's random name generator from there. I've tried a lot of other generators, there are so many out there, but they all end up falling flat for me. They so rarely feel like natural names, they give off a forced vibe. And they at times are a little too random, they don't come across as grounded. You've got an old German burg, but your parents named you Roralei?
Behind the Name's been spot on for me though. I'll select the culture's, modify the results based off of the character's gender and maximize how many hits I'll get, and start rolling until something hits. What I especially like is that the results all lead to a page that further discusses that name, its meaning and variants. For my previous example, I had eventually stumbled across Corraidhin, which means "little spear" as the -in suffix is used as a diminutive (like how Ryan means "little king"). With my character being a spear user, I really liked it but wanted to add some Gaulish to the mix.
The more background it gives is one of the reasons why I prefer it, and because it's pool of names tends to go deeper than other generators. The Fantasy Name Generator linked above, for example, has a wider list of cultures, both historical and current, that you could randomize a names from. However, its fantastical names are a bit much for me, and their pool of names can be rather shallow. Doesn't take too many rolls before you're seeing the same names again. It's certainly adequate and I wouldn't begrudge anyone its use, so please forgive me for calling it out as an example.
The tl;dr is:
Honestly, i just make stuff up, ask my friends what they think and change it to how i like it
Sometimes I close my eyes and tap a few keys on the keyboard then make it into a name.
mcksu - Miksu
nchjdud - Neechie the Dude
ljvurn - Lyernne
psjdyc - Psidicee
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I pilfer names from every source I can find, fiction, literature, name generators, suggested names. You name it.
I named one after a lesser known brand of Scotch - Kilkerran.
Another after a singer for a band I like, which fit because my Dwarf is basically "Icelandic" - Jónsi
My Tiefling hates fire, since that's what caused the death of her mother and brother, and since she suffers from self-loathing, shortened her name from Ashkara'a to just Ash. I expect that if she ever truly trusts someone, she will ask them to call her Kara'a, which is what her mom called her.
I pick an existing culture that fits the theme of the character, go to Behind the Name, and search for something that strikes my fancy. I also like making allusions to mythology and fiction with my character names.
Morrigan Devlin, my necromancer, is named after The Morrigan of Irish mythology, who foretold the deaths of warriors, and who often took the form of a crow (which is my character's familiar). Her last name, Devlin, is derived from the Gaelic word for "unlucky" - which I thought fitting, considering her family is rumored to be cursed. :)
Edwyn Maxwell Lawrence Deforest Sacheverell, my fighter, I put much less thought into - I basically wanted a name that oozed "pompous English nobility", so I looked for several fancy-pants names to string together. He often goes by Eddie, though, which I thought fit his rather carefree attitude.
Gwydion fab Don, my druid, is named after a prominent magician/hero/trickster figure in Welsh mythology.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I named my Githyanki warrior Ma'arwola'ith - which is a slight tweak from the Welsh word for "death" - marwolaeth.
Many characters are named after the deeds they accomplished in their backstory, or names that describe their personality. For example, Magnus Blodtorstig means Magnus the Bloodthirsty in Norweigan.