So, I'm trying out dm'ing for the first time, and I've got most of the stuff I need ready. However, I've always really struggled with naming things, and I'm getting stuck on it for my campaign prep. How do you figure out your names for things, people, places, landmarks, etc? A general random thought that sounds good at the time? Online resources? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
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There's quite a bit on there huh. I think I can definitely make use of that, both for names straight from that or even just a baseline to tweak more to my liking. Thanks :)
Find an online source for first names and surnames. Copy and paste a large list of first names for different races and a large list of surnames for different races. When I need to make up an NPC name i just look at my list and cross off the names as I use them. I have blank NPC info sheets that help me keep track of the NPC;'s I use and make up a little info for a background and some traits for them.
A somewhat simplistic way of naming things is: Pick a color and a defining feature of the terrain. Like The Silver Hills, Black Forest, etc etc. It doesn't work for everything, but I've found that in running my first campaign naming gets easier with practice, and compiling a list of really cool names for things you want to be important (NPC's, Cities, etc) is helpful.
Gary Gygax wrote an awesome book with names and such. Unfortunaty I have it packed away and can't recall it's name. It's an older book and is probably out of print though.
Besides that, just Google names in different langauges. One of my D&D characters I used the letters of an actual name to alter them into something unique.
I like to name things based on characters and monsters from video games that nobody has heard of. It is pretty quick but it is weird when someone has played the game.
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Nobody the cleric RIP, lasted 2 sessions
Akmenos the warlock RIP, killed by tidal wave
Adrian the bard, cleaning the sewers for the water cult
So, I'm trying out dm'ing for the first time, and I've got most of the stuff I need ready. However, I've always really struggled with naming things, and I'm getting stuck on it for my campaign prep. How do you figure out your names for things, people, places, landmarks, etc? A general random thought that sounds good at the time? Online resources? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
If they're not random people, whom I just use random names for, then I try to create names that match what the person is about.
Dwarves in my setting often have names related to rocks and metals. Torrace Ironbeard, Lady Redrock, Grimshaw Stoneback Elves have names that describes weather, seasons, and nature. Winter Farshot, Humans have everyday names, like Eric, Steve, Gregory, Tim, etc. Gnomes have exceptionally long-names that describe a bit of their story. Like Gimbo the Light Drunk Basher of Hightop Hil. Halflings have short verb/noun names with colour-item names; Trick Blueboot, Limb Greenbottle, Sky Redmorning. Orcs have Grrr and Orrr, and aggressive names; Grim, Grack, Hurff, Brock Dragonborn... don't got anything yet on them. Tieflings have names suggesting what their goals are, and are often one-word names. Seeker, Starlight, Mishmash, Saviour.
As for places, I try to think of names for the history of a place. A lot of real-world names come from what people called or expected the place to become. New York, for example, is named after the city of York in England. The northern town of Temiskaming, Ontario comes from the Algonquin Tribe's word Timiskaming, which means "deep open waters". That town is located by a lot of lakes. In my setting, much of the same is done. There's the city of The Iron Hills, populated by the Dwarves, founded by King Ironbeard. There's the town of Fairweather, who are located to the south of the Barrier Mountains, which divides the sunny south from the cold hostile north.
As for small business and whatnot, I'm not as great at those, but again, the history of the place often helps.
Fantasy Name Generator (http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/) - choose a category, then keep hitting refresh until you see a name or combination of names you like.
Google Translate - I like to include diverse areas throughout the world and Google Translate is a nice way to make all of the areas in a certain part of the world sound like they belong together. It's also a fun way to hide hidden meaning and messages in your character and city names. :) Typically I'll start with an English word - like fortress, for example - then start selecting languages from the drop down on the right until I find a word that looks pronounceable and sounds like it fits what I'm looking for. More and more this is becoming my go to for selecting names for everything.
"Yes-anding" the players - sometimes people throw out something as a joke and I just run with it. A few sessions ago the players met a Solar whom I described as looking androgynous. Someone said "Is it David Bowie?" Everyone laughed. I decided it's name would be Bowie from that point forward. There's also a chain of bars called "Your Mother's Place" that happened because of a dumb joke a player made while the party was walking to find a bar in a city they had never been to before and stopped to ask a local where a good place to get a drink was. For random NPCs and one off shops, I'm of the mind that they don't all need to have serious names. It adds a little levity to the game during intense dramatic moments and it helps the players see the impact they are having on the world and feel invested in it. I also enjoy puns and word play, so that's always a good time to work that in there.
Think about the culture of the place you're naming, as people have pointed out, this can be a great source of inspiration for names and helps make places feel more authentic.
More primitive cultures will tend to name places after their most distinctive feature: Bigtree, Longriver, Whitecliff etc
More nature focused cultures (Elves usually) will do the same but be a bit more poetic about it: Silverwoods, Windrock
Conquering cultures will probably name places after people. Think about all the places named after Alex the Great like Alexandria.
Places can commemorate historic events like battles: Charles' Ruin, Broken Blade Valley etc
Places can be named after gods like Athens is.
Just have a bit of a think about the places history and culture and I'm sure a name will start to form.
@BraydenDrake, mashing words together makes for some of the best fantasy names (like Mirkwood). You can look up fantasy-sounding synonyms for common words like "woods," "lake," or "mountains" to get some variety. Try something like Howlfirth, Moonholt, Silverweald, or Chillbrake.
So, I'm trying out dm'ing for the first time, and I've got most of the stuff I need ready. However, I've always really struggled with naming things, and I'm getting stuck on it for my campaign prep. How do you figure out your names for things, people, places, landmarks, etc? A general random thought that sounds good at the time? Online resources? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
One thing I like to do is to pick a foreign language and a theme. Then mispronounce the words. Makes for names that you can tell come from the same culture.
Example, Spanish, weather related words, used to name Ogres:
Hot = Caliente = Calint
Cold = Frio = Freyo
Warm = Calido = Calid
Storm = Tormenta = Tormen
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So, I'm trying out dm'ing for the first time, and I've got most of the stuff I need ready. However, I've always really struggled with naming things, and I'm getting stuck on it for my campaign prep. How do you figure out your names for things, people, places, landmarks, etc? A general random thought that sounds good at the time? Online resources? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
Check this site out; You can randomly generate just about everything you'd want to - from NPCs & backgrounds, to full kingdoms with cities:
https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/
Lemme know if that suits the bill for you. ; )
There's quite a bit on there huh. I think I can definitely make use of that, both for names straight from that or even just a baseline to tweak more to my liking. Thanks :)
Find an online source for first names and surnames. Copy and paste a large list of first names for different races and a large list of surnames for different races. When I need to make up an NPC name i just look at my list and cross off the names as I use them. I have blank NPC info sheets that help me keep track of the NPC;'s I use and make up a little info for a background and some traits for them.
A somewhat simplistic way of naming things is: Pick a color and a defining feature of the terrain. Like The Silver Hills, Black Forest, etc etc. It doesn't work for everything, but I've found that in running my first campaign naming gets easier with practice, and compiling a list of really cool names for things you want to be important (NPC's, Cities, etc) is helpful.
Gary Gygax wrote an awesome book with names and such. Unfortunaty I have it packed away and can't recall it's name. It's an older book and is probably out of print though.
Besides that, just Google names in different langauges. One of my D&D characters I used the letters of an actual name to alter them into something unique.
I like to name things based on characters and monsters from video games that nobody has heard of. It is pretty quick but it is weird when someone has played the game.
Nobody the cleric RIP, lasted 2 sessions
Akmenos the warlock RIP, killed by tidal wave
Adrian the bard, cleaning the sewers for the water cult
vivizyx the warlock/rogue serving the fire cult
scarelion shadowsbane the paladin, not dead yet
Bit late to the party, but I have a handful of techniques for different racial location names:
Human - Direction Word + Geographic Term (with abbreviations if necessary), e.g.:
Elf - Random Word - Start/End Letters, e.g.:
Dwarf - Names of Land and Elements - Random Letters, e.g.:
And you can create other human ones by combining them with the Elven and Dwarven ones - e.g. Gronbridge, Soksea, Onderhill.
Elves have names that describes weather, seasons, and nature. Winter Farshot,
Humans have everyday names, like Eric, Steve, Gregory, Tim, etc.
Gnomes have exceptionally long-names that describe a bit of their story. Like Gimbo the Light Drunk Basher of Hightop Hil.
Halflings have short verb/noun names with colour-item names; Trick Blueboot, Limb Greenbottle, Sky Redmorning.
Orcs have Grrr and Orrr, and aggressive names; Grim, Grack, Hurff, Brock
Dragonborn... don't got anything yet on them.
Tieflings have names suggesting what their goals are, and are often one-word names. Seeker, Starlight, Mishmash, Saviour.
A couple of things I use:
Think about the culture of the place you're naming, as people have pointed out, this can be a great source of inspiration for names and helps make places feel more authentic.
More primitive cultures will tend to name places after their most distinctive feature: Bigtree, Longriver, Whitecliff etc
More nature focused cultures (Elves usually) will do the same but be a bit more poetic about it: Silverwoods, Windrock
Conquering cultures will probably name places after people. Think about all the places named after Alex the Great like Alexandria.
Places can commemorate historic events like battles: Charles' Ruin, Broken Blade Valley etc
Places can be named after gods like Athens is.
Just have a bit of a think about the places history and culture and I'm sure a name will start to form.
You're doing a bang up job
Does anyone have a name for a dark winter forest with werewolves. Or maybe a name that describes the whole world of the supernatural.
@BraydenDrake, mashing words together makes for some of the best fantasy names (like Mirkwood). You can look up fantasy-sounding synonyms for common words like "woods," "lake," or "mountains" to get some variety. Try something like Howlfirth, Moonholt, Silverweald, or Chillbrake.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
www.fantasynamegenerators.com is a good one
Supreme Cat-lover Of The First Grade
I AM A CAT PERSON. /\_____/\
She/her pronouns please. (=^.^=)
One thing I like to do is to pick a foreign language and a theme. Then mispronounce the words. Makes for names that you can tell come from the same culture.
Example, Spanish, weather related words, used to name Ogres:
Hot = Caliente = Calint
Cold = Frio = Freyo
Warm = Calido = Calid
Storm = Tormenta = Tormen