How do you come up with a decent character name?

[Servo]

Fantasy name generators tend to produce shit:

Lyam Cyanlute
Ramzey Ambermoth
Greagoir Bloodymoon

I usually pick some random permutation of names from the glossary at the back of The Silmarillion.

How do you come up with a decent character name?

 

[Jaesun]

Alcohol, usually beer.

 

[Servo]

Alcohol, usually beer.

Dogfish Bitterhop
Stone Drinklots
Belgian Yeastman

What about scotch?

Rusty Glenoak
Oban Smokestack
Talisker Peatmoss

 

[Jaesun]

I like Rusty Glenoak.

 

[Ovplain]

Depends. I've got a few favorites that I use all over the place, Vaniya, Vae, Rona, Veidt,... Sometimes they're purely random, especially for weird races. Not too hard to think of something guttural & mean-sounding for an orc-type race or whatever. IIRC for 'Wasteland 2', I just googled 'cool names' and 'cool surnames'. Ended up using 'Ayelen Maiara, Kate Ingram, Tessa Cormier & Trevor McClintock', which was good enough for me. Even for pure 'fantasy' names I tend to stick with shit that's based in reality, I go and google obscure & cool sounding 'old timey' names until I find something that sounds appropriate.

 

[Servo]

Even for pure 'fantasy' names I tend to stick with shit that's based in reality, I go and google obscure & cool sounding 'old timey' names until I find something that sounds appropriate.

Good call. I've never given much thought to "realistic" names. I found a few good ones here:

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/celtic_names.php (Risteard Brùn, Seumas Ros)
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/croatian-names.php (Krilan Plazibat, Hamdija Malic)
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/anglo-saxon-names.php (Gaerwulf, Ricbert, Hibald the Cantrell)
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/posh-names.php (Felix Smythe, Silas Durchville)
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/victorian-names.php (Verner Raycraft, Harper Kerran)

 

[Horus]

http://www.behindthename.com/

I prefer to use the local culture names so for example if my character was born in italian culture(trading city states with lots and lots of mercanaries) i would name him something like lorenzo gentille, angelo bianchi etc. Other thing i love to do is, look at the meaning of the names and pick a name that suits my character. For example gentille means noble in italian which was suited to my corrupt papal guard who bought his name with money. And angelo bianco(white) who believed himself to be a prophet who came to cleanse the world and spread the name of Vincent(which was symbolized by white light) to all living beings. Including devils and demons which unfortunately resulted in his horrible death.

 

[Xathrodox86]

Popular culture, foreign languages and alcohol of course. I love word games so I've never had any problems with names in my games.

 

[Scruffy]

All my characters are usually called Candrian Illborne

 

[Severian Silk]

I like Rusty Glenoak.

Are the characters you come up with all gay?

Mine aren't.

 

[Gregz]

I usually pick some random permutation of names from the glossary at the back of The Silmarillion.

That's a pretty good method actually.

This player character from Dungeon Master:

was named Gothmog by the devs for instance.

Gothmog was apparently one of the Maiar that followed Melkor to exile, and because of either his brilliant mind or because of his ability to assume an immensely powerful physical form, he was made the Lord of Balrogs.

At the Dagor-nuin-Giliath he mortally wounded Fëanor, but called a retreat upon the approach of the Sons of Fëanor with a sizable force.[1] He next appeared at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, where he was also named high-captain of Angband, again inferring his power and status as essentially Morgoth's right-hand Balrog (Sauron, another spirit, played a more domestic than front-line role for his master). There at the Nirnaeth he slew Fingon, thus allowing him to boast of having slain two of the five High Kings of the Noldor.[2] He also captured Húrin Thalion alive in this battle on Morgoth's command, despite this order allowing Húrin to slaughter of many of Gothmog's troll-guard.[3]

He was again deployed as Morgoth's front-line commander in the Fall of Gondolin, where he was slain by Ecthelion.[4] According to the (albeit uncanonical) text, Gothmog piled his iron siege equipment against the North Gate of Gondolin until it broke from sheer pressure.[5] The same text states that he also took a front-line position against Rog, turning the tide in that part of the battle.[6] More confirmed canonically, he beat down Tuor in single combat, but the elf-lord Ecthelion of the Fountain, who was badly wounded, rose and stood over him. Ecthelion stood no chance against the Lord of Balrogs, and lost his sword in the brief struggle. But then Ecthelion leaped forward, and stabbed Gothmog in the breast with the spike atop his helm. They both fell into the Fountain of the King, where Gothmog, if not already killed by the spike, drowned with his opponent.[7]

Gothmog.mp3
By Ardamir. (Help; more articles)
[edit] Etymology
The name Gothmog is derived from the roots GOS-/GOTH- "dread", and MBAW- "compel, force, subject, oppress" (found also in the title for Morgoth "Bauglir": the tyrant or oppresor).[8]

 

[Old One]

Select an adjective that describes the character (preferably but not necessarily a long one) then mutate it one letter at a time until you come up with a name you like:

Praiseworthy
Draiseworthy
Draiseworthe
Draisezorthe
Draisezornhe

And so on. Prune it if you like.

Drayzorn

 

[Ludo Lense]

Something incredibly short to move things along. I detest when people get super long names and insist you use them, especially if its something with like 10 vowels.

I remember playing a few sessions of the Warhammer fantasy roleplaying game and everyone scoured the net for austrian/germanic names and strung along 5 of the damn things.....I was Jim the Watchman.

 

[Cthulhu_is_love]

I don't, they are all terrible.

 

[Morblot]

My friend came up with the method of going to Wikipedia and hitting Random article until something worthy came up.

I like behindthename.com and fantasynamegenerators.com, which were already linked.

 

[Norfleet]

Rogues don't have names, they have aliases. Anytime you actually need a name in-game, just make one up on the spot. It doesn't have to be good.

 

[Xathrodox86]

Rogues don't have names, they have aliases. Anytime you actually need a name in-game, just make one up on the spot. It doesn't have to be good.

"Shifty Fingers" or something. I use it all the time.

 

[Eirikur]

I often go with an old Proto-Germanic version of my own first or middle name.

 

[DraQ]

Fantasy name generators tend to produce shit:

Lyam Cyanlute
Ramzey Ambermoth
Greagoir Bloodymoon

I usually pick some random permutation of names from the glossary at the back of The Silmarillion.

How do you come up with a decent character name?

It really helps if the setting isn't shit and has established naming conventions for different races/cultures.

Otherwise I don't and settle for shitty one.

 

[Shadenuat]

I use ancient names, like Babylonian, Greek or Celtic
Just open list of ancient rulers, gods and mythological characters and use the obscure ones - since nobody knows history, 95% of them would qualify

Can also use things like rare latin plant or animal names etc

 

[Caim]

I use the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Name Generator:

 

[Don Peste]

SS Divisions (Dirlewanger, Skanderbeg...), Nuremberg Trials defendants (Konstantin von Neurath, Seyss-Inquart, Streicher...), etc.

 

[Servo]

Rogues don't have names, they have aliases. Anytime you actually need a name in-game, just make one up on the spot. It doesn't have to be good.

My rogue likes this idea.

Funny, that's how I usually come up with user names

 

[Servo]

http://pony.namegeneratorfun.com/

 

[Old One]

"Shifty Fingers" or something.

Sticky Knuckles.