Are you a creative namer?

[Glop_dweller]

I once called the Black Isle support line to report a bug... My first time playing, and an NPC had joined my party, and took the given last name of my PC—for so it must have been... or so I thought.

And the guy looks it up, and then says, "So your PC's name is Kraven BloodAxe?, that's what [the dwarf NPC] is called in the game; Korgan BloodAxe".

 

[Ismaul]

What, no porn star names?

Dick Long
Anna Lise
Rose Butts
Jack Offenbaker
Deep Tong
Magnus Packer
Jenny Talia
Sweet Dee
etc.

I don't usually do this, I go with setting-appropriate names, but I might start!

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

血腥的手, Fighter
血腥的靴子, Fighter
阴茎血腥, Fighter
高兴, Thief
魔法导弹, Mage
天人, Priest

 

[Bara]

血腥的手, Fighter
血腥的靴子, Fighter
阴茎血腥, Fighter
高兴, Thief
魔法导弹, Mage
天人, Priest

If google translate is correct I feel bad for fighter number 3.

 

[Thac0]

血腥的手, Fighter
血腥的靴子, Fighter
阴茎血腥, Fighter
高兴, Thief
魔法导弹, Mage
天人, Priest

Bloody Hand
Bloody Boots
Bloody Penis (and there is a character for fish in there? Chinese is weird man)
Lucky
Magical Rocket
Heaven

Calling a priest heaven in a different language is kinda cool.

 

[Not.AI]

The best names in fiction, like in nonfiction, are always made by smashing two words together.

Stone + Man = Billy Stoneman

Flinch + Dike = Tara Flinchdike

Spur + Field = Jason Spurfield

Sound + Cloud = Lusille Soundcloud

Blizzard clearly understands good naming.

For example, in real life, we have Roger Penrose. Michael Stonebreaker. What good names.

As for bad names ... Cloud Strife?

Why not rather Sam Cloudstrife? Much better I think.

Yeah and then some languages are naturally like that when it comes to names. Chinese for instance. See the Water Margin.

 

[BING XI LAO]

Avernum 2 party is:
Are Nige (referring to Nigel Farage)
*names of nerd or friend from school for mage*
The Donald, who will handle all the skills like lockpicking and shit, while having no combat role except wands/scrolls. Feels like he is the leader of the party, while the rest are combatfag munchkins.

 

[blitzer]

I always name my new main character after dead NPCs or companions in previous games I played, for example
I name my protagonist in Fallout 4 Mordin (Mass effect 2,3),
I call my female watcher in Pillar of Eternity Nyreen (ME Omega), and so on.

I think it is meaningful to remember them and the adventurous time we spent together in some way.

 

[octavius]

Avernum 2 party is:
Are Nige (referring to Nigel Farage)

If I have a Human merchant type character in my party I liked the name Niggardly Nigel.

 

[Humanophage]

I usually only bother in MMOs. In party-based games, I mainly aim for the names to be visually easily distinguished. In RimWorld, I had a scheme where each character was named according to their best skills plus a number, which was a bit detrimental to humanising them but useful. I did give LARPy names to colonies though, like "Knights of the Burning Algiz".

E.g., in TESO I had the following characters:
Humoix Lephage - Breton wizard
Converses-Politely - lizard sneaky warrior
Hmumoj Chunkshanks - cat sun priest
AmRen the Racially Loyal - dark elf flame knight with a whip
Skingrad Curbstomper - skinhead-looking Nord shadow mage

 

[jackofshadows]

What, no porn star names?

Some guy from my Diablo 3 clan have had female only chars and named them after actual porn stars, every single of them: Sasha Grey, Riley Reid etc etc. His wife was in the clan too and while she was sorta ok with that, she'd started to name her chars after most handsome actors: Depp, Pitt etc. We've discussed it quite a while too with suggestions, comparing and everything, good times.

On topic - no and I'm not a huge lore-sperg but still trying to keep names fit the setting. Suspention of disbelief is important, after all. Also I have a tendency to name female chars ancient Greek names. In cases of real struggle with some werid-ass race names, I usually google examples/generators.

 

[Lord Commissar Alexer]

Honestly, i name my main char always the same. For companions...it depends.

 

[Yosharian]

I have a collection of interesting names that I've... collected over the years, I usually pick from that list when I'm making characters

 

[ManaJunkie]

Main: Zardoz
Party: Othon, Honorata, Aghnar, Oda, Steelhead, Dona Vincenta, Aghora, Nameless

 

[Silverfish]

I'm not creative at all, I usually just steal names from superheroes.

My main guy is always named KANE (all caps)

Because he sees no evil?

 

[Casual Hero]

Nice topic.
Through the years as I have played party-based RPGs, I've actually developed characters that I use in every game that I play. They all have specific personalities and archtypes, and I try to fit them to whatever class is most suiting to them in that specific RPG.

Masaki the barbarian; very mirthful and usually uses axes or hammers.
Percy the mild-mannered paladin type.
Ceterum the ranger
Max the cunning thief
Jade the alchemist/ magic-user
Bardwell the Cleric

It almost feels like a regular table-top RPG group, and it kind of connects all of the RPGs I play.

 

[Casual Hero]

I never use females in my party.

Go play Might & Magic 1.

 

[Dyspaire]

Sometimes I re-use a name and character I've used before in another crpg or pnp game. I have a small stable of names and mindsets I will use more than once.

Sometimes I make a party with names from a favorite book series. Way back in the day I used to use the main Dragonlance characters a lot. My fighter would be named Caramon Majere, my dwarf was Flint Fireforge, my rogue Tas Burrfoot, my mage would be Raistlin, etc.

Sometimes I still make up fresh new characters if the game allows it. Currently trying to get through Pillars of Eternity as a rakish bard-like elven character named Trevan Alfar.

I create characters, not just names, and I try to make decisions that those characters would make as the game progresses. You know, role-playing.

Of course, when I play an evil mage or necromancer-type character, I always name him... Kevin.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Bliblablubb]

For male chars I just run with whatever autogen comes up.
The female run will always be a female (looking) potato-brazil-prosper hybrid trannie named Codexia. Codex represent.

If it's some MMO requiring many pylons, I start with my traditional faux latin potatogirl name joke and go down the whole plant family (tomato, aubergine, paprika etc) until I run out of vegtables.
Sometimes people even get the joke.

 

[turkishronin]

I name characters after codex members

 

[Bliblablubb]

I name characters after codex members

Did that with niu X-Com, named them before they got their specs.
Scrooge turned out to be a murderous melee monster, KingComrade died in a freak accident, Darth Roxor was a heavy weapons guy and Crispy ended up never leaving the base.

 

[Reinhardt]

The best names in fiction, like in nonfiction, are always made by smashing two words together.

Stone + Man = Billy Stoneman

Flinch + Dike = Tara Flinchdike

Spur + Field = Jason Spurfield

Sound + Cloud = Lusille Soundcloud

Blizzard clearly understands good naming.

For example, in real life, we have Roger Penrose. Michael Stonebreaker. What good names.

As for bad names ... Cloud Strife?

Why not rather Sam Cloudstrife? Much better I think.

Yeah and then some languages are naturally like that when it comes to names. Chinese for instance. See the Water Margin.

That's some weak shit. Why not just give everyone injun names then. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Yellow Snow.

 

[JarlFrank]

I always name my girls after goddesses from various mythologies. Inanna, Freyja, Aphrodite, Minerva etc. They're usually fitting to the class/role of the character. Fighters are Inanna and Freyja, rangers are Artemis and Skadi, clerics are Aphrodite, wizards are Minerva and Athena, etc.

If the game doesn't let me do all-female parties for some reason (maybe not enough female portraits to go for 6 girls, or if it's a single char RPG where you have to play a male character), I use names of mythological heroes for men. Hector, Beowulf, Siegfried, Hercules, Gilgamesh etc.

In single character RPGs my default name is Inanna for female chars and Beowulf for male chars.

 

[Grauken]

I've used Codexer names for a couple of years now, always amuses me