I liked the feeling of sitting around a table while you explained things. I thinks it suits more with the roleplaying and tabletop games your channels are about.
On names like "Lucy" and "Garry": The "-y" suffix more or less means "little", and the suffix is to imply a sort of diminutive connotation. For example "Garry" means "Little Garret" while Lucy means "Little Lucius".
Sigil Spellweaver doesn't know a lick of magic, the name comes from centuries ago. 'And your name is Cooper. Do you know how to coop? I can't make magic any more than you can make barrels.'
I've got a dwarf fighter who lost both his hands,was given golem prosthetics. Lost them fighting his former captain who tried to commit genocide on the orcs they were at war with, and later was knighted, and given the house name Steelgrip. All this was created because of the surname Steelgrip, which is pretty cool in my book.
My favorite method of finding names for pc´s or npc´s is looking around and reversing the names of objects around me. One of my favorite pc´s is Ispep Aloc. As a gm I used this method a lot but when my group picked up on it they started making fun so I had to employ other methods to reduce the laughs as it tended to slow sessions down having the players make comments about Efink the sharp, Eot the stinky etc. Nice channel btw. just subscribed. Enjoying it very much.
Baldur Magnússon Ooh, I really like that. Reversed names really have that fantasy feel that I never noticed. It sounds like a great tactic for one-shot characters because of how easy it is to make while also being memorable.
I want to meet a character called Pepsi cola. Now that I think of it in hearts of iron I had a navy fleet made of Pensacola’s and I named it the Pepsi cola’s so I’m biased.
When I come up with names I try to associate the race, region, whatever to an established language. For example my Elves tend to have French or Sindarin names, Dwarves have Scandinavian names, and beings from the upper planes have Latin names. This will also add an element of history to my games because I could have an Elven region that mixes French and Latin names to show that the Elves have or had a connection to the Angels.
We've also used names of whatever was on the table or nearby at the time we needed a name, One of our main villains in AD&D was Ronin Pringles. As the movie Ronin and Pringles crisps. He was a good reoccuring villain from level 3 -14.
I was playing with my friends some iron kingdoms and my character was named aba yagur and they couldn't remember it. so when Gordon Ramsey ( long story, turns out he is is a menite) called my character "fish fuck" it stuck. the rest of the campaign I was called fishfuck by literally everyone
Looking at these jokes about mighty creatures reminds me of how I couldn't think of a name for a sea beast species so I just collectively referred to them as Steve.
I prefer looking at the etymology and giving the character(s) names that are either fitting their personality or aspirations, or create an ironic opposite; for instance, give a cowardly character a name that derives from courage or bravery, such as Baldwin (old high German for _bold friend_, apparently), and work from there. I find there's RP potential to a character who's either trying to live up to their name, or running from it.
I was sceptical when I read the title of this video. How can anyone help me naming characters in general?! I didn't think that there was a method... But you did a fantastic job as always. Thanks a lot.
After a hiatus of 33 years, I started playing D&D again about 11 months ago. I am an avid geocacher so took those letters and mixed them up a little. I am a wizard and my character's name is Orcegache. I like it because it's got a semi-secret meaning to me. Our DM and a couple of other players have taken to calling him "Orsh" which makes for a nice nickname. Thanks for posting this video; quite enjoyable!
What I usually do for fantasy names is picking a word that fits my character in some way, and then translating It to several languages. After that, I take the versions I like the most and mix them together until I get something that sounds good.
The moment when you remember that one of the TAZ NPC's who was a dark elf was literally named Magic Brian when the dude gave that Brian the Elf example.
First character I ever made was named Sudigog, son of Sudigast, grandson of Sudigoth. I felt using the Greek and Abrahamistic method of presenting lineage as a way of labeling ones' self significant worked well in the instance of a the half-orc with chief blood from his father, though I do look forward to using this methodology alongside Xanathar's Guide's list of racial names
My elven ranger is named Amber Moonstone because her employer couldn't remember her birth name. Therefore she went by her name translated into Common so he could pronounce/remember it, and the name just stuck. Only her half sisters remember her birth name now, and they think she's dead.
That's amazing. I am really bad at coming up with names, probably the most difficult part of character creation and I usually just tack on a cop-out of a name. With these tips it took me less than 5 minutes to come up with a name that I'm happy with for my character. Thank you.
While I was watching this the name Rose popped into my head, whenever I hear the name or word rose I think of someone or something sweet ,but since every Rose has it’s thorns, the person or thing can be annoyed easily and can willingly or accidentally hurt you
Any chance on doing a video on character death? My first one recently kicked the bucket and still being fairly new to the scene it's left me a bit stumped; All your videos, however, are really helping me start to put the new one together.
I like giving my male characters with high charisma feminine names. Currently I'm working on a Half-Elf Warlock named Blair. The name was given to him by his Patron Titania.
Guy, I go from clean shaven to high mountain scary, from time to time. Let the look grow on you, and the viewers. Keep tossing us the good "how to" information, and we'll watch no matter how you're coiffed. Love the channel. Been following for about two years I think now. Your series has made me a better GM
In one of the current games I'm playing in, I'm a half-elf. The interesting part of this comes in with the fact that in this campaign world, the humans and elves have been at war a long time. So my character is a Bastard and a blight, by both nations. So I named him 'Finn' Keeper. Finnegan is of course a human name, and Finore is an elven name. Keeper is the given name for bastards within the Empire, while Felleaf is the one for Elven Lands. Finn disguises himself as a human in Imperial lands, and as an elf in elven lands. I picked the name because it was so easy to convert back and forth, and really plays to his dual-nature within the campaign world.
One other way to find good names is look up obscure historic figures. People like philosophers or generals that while inportant enough to have their names recorded are not commonly known. Another thing I often add is some kind of distinctive title that matches personality or physical traits; ironwood for an elf that defends others, or frail for the sickly wizard
So what i got from this is that my female half-orc swashbuckler shouldn’t be named Rebecca (or Bec for short) and instead should be called something like Rebooshca or Ribeacker
One trick I use for lady elves is - the higher their social status the more vowels but keep a 'hard' sounding consonant to round it out. e.g. I use Meriele Amastacia for a respected alchemist from an established family (9 vowels total, balanced with a 'T' and 'R'. The 'C' is a soft pronunciation there so it blends rather than balances.). For ladies in a solid fantasy setting names ending in 'A' are usually a good bet for soft to neutral human or half-elf names, depending on what you combine them with. I use Freya for a cheerful commoner because it's kind of fun to say and can actually sound cheerful without feeling forced if you use an upbeat intonation, Vianna for a snooty noble since it sounds similar to Vienna , and Nia'sha for a more weary feel since it sounds almost like a sigh when spoken aloud. 'Ya' endings are good for upbeat names because the pronunciation calls for a slight sing-song feel to it and 'sh' is good for sly or tired characters depending on what comes after. 'Coincidence' names are also handy - like a Druid who was never meant to be a druid being named after a plant or the bard who just happens to be named Melody or Aria.
Also, Virtue Names for Tieflings can and should be used to their full extent. Did your Tiefling take a Virtue Name because they truly believe it? Or are they trying to hide that their parents really did name them Brian?
I have a Tabaxi (cat person)! Tabaxs’ names are more like short sentences or something and then one of the words become their ‘main’ name. Kinda like “song by the river” would be their full name and “River” is their main name that they go by. I absolutely love dandelions and liked the name “dandelion wishes” and “wish” for the name. And although I like dandelions, I’m sure my character does too, but she doesn’t like them as much as I do. So I watched this to help a little. All Tabaxis have something they are extremely interested in and will explore to find them. Mines pretty basic at first look, collecting. She loves to collect and put smaller things in her junk journal, like cool leaves or feathers, and things too big for it go in her bag of holding. However, her favorite-est things to collect are stories! She loves stories, to listen and to tell. So that’s a big part of her: her positive attitude and her love of stories. So I thought of “Teller of the Untold Story” or “Story” for short. I loved this idea because it fits her perfectly and my mom even (at one point) wanted to name me Story. My dad thought it “sounded too hippy” so my dad chose a fairly simple and normal name. But I think Story is a beautiful name! And perfect for my character.
I love coming up with names for characters. Every mmorpg I've played, it's exciting every time I create a new character (my son calls me an altaholic) to come up with the perfect name for that character. My son DMs a few D&D campaigns with his friends online (I'm now allowed to join...darn it), but I did create a character and name he could toss in as an NPC villager or something.....and that's good enough for old mom.
I named my first character Yamaguchi. She’s a gnome wizard in our Pathfinder game. I basically just took the name of one of my favourite anime characters, thought it suited the world and the character enough, and slapped it on the character sheet. We’re playing a home brewed version of Pathfinder, so I had the freedom to make up my own small chunk of the world. Since my character has a Japanese name, I modeled her home country after feudal Japan. Now, she can never return home after her adventures because she would be thrown into prison or killed for leaving the isolated nation. I doesn’t sound like much, but it was easy to do for my first game, and I enjoyed making it.
I am seriously so bad with names that I once made a joke name for a sandcastle as a kid, it is now my name for every single kingdom I have or eve will make, solely because it’s the best I’ve got.
In the four games I've been in, these are the names I chose: Cunith Linguise (an Elite in a Halo campaign). Meresiel (A half-elf druid in Pathfinder) Justin Caviness (A game where the players were to be themselves in the D&D apocolypse) Sin Liesel (A Bothan in the Old Republic)
I had a character named Cleric Bob. His actual name was Robert Taleswapper, but I think that lasted five minutes into the campaign before my dad just started calling him Cleric Bob and he was stuck with it.
Names are fun, but I generally rely on keeping names reasonably simple and short. For example my new character, Etca (pronounced Etka), was initially "Eternal Carnival", but I felt it was simply too long. But different strokes for different folks.
I like ke the new look, but (like Bianchi says) the feeling of you sitting at a table with me was (personally) better, I also liked how it was a closer view of your face and arms/hands, as those are the parts of your body you are most expressive with. While I coukd get used to this new look, I also would not mind if it was changed back (to either the same, or just something similar) Regardless the choice is yours and still greatly enjoying the videos, just finishing off the playlist before i sleep, and i will check back ocassionally for (new videos) and also top ups for me to better remeber stuff :) have a good night (or day)
Thank you for your feedback and glad that you feel part of my table, you are! Think we are staying with the new look due to everyone's responses however we can look at making it feel more welcoming as before, really constructive feedback. Also we upload every Monday and Wednesday if you wanted a schedule for new uploads. Thanks for watching and have a good day or night or mid morning or twilight :P
My character's name is Norian Locris Siankiir. I got Siankiir by working out how elven names worked in the PHB and then mixing two together that still made a Common translation. I can't remember where Norian came from, I think it just sounded good. Then I went really nerdy, because Norian sounds like the Dorian mode in music, so I went looking for some other modes, and found out they're all names after ancient greek kingdoms, the Locrian mode being named after Locris.
My go-to is always my tattered copy of "Name Your Baby". To follow you, look up "Graham", but this book provides its root, its etymology and, for more popular names, alternate nationality versions. "Graham" has no variations for other countries, but it derives from Old English "Graeg Hamm" - "From the grey land or the grey home". Almost always sends my imagination bouncing happily.
One method I like to use to name my characters and places is to hone in on a quality or characteristic of the character or place then find a word in another language that means that word. Assuming it sounds like it could be a name I will often go with it, if it doesn’t I will keep looking for a more adjacent word that means something similar but sounds more like a name. For instance, I’m workshopping a character who is an elven orphan and who never knew who his birth parents were. When he was taken to the city orphanage as a young child, the man who oversaw it named him Fia (deer in Irish) because he had the biggest, brownest eyes he’d ever seen and he has a soft, gentle nature about him. Even then
I've just started with RPGs, and my first D&D character is named Sir Boone Gunn, because he's a Tiefling Paladin. Richard Boone played the character Paladin in the 1950s television show Have Gun Will Travel. But he could be a boon companion to his friends. My second is a Halfling Bard, and the name Kjell just popped into my head. So Kjell Littlejohn he became. I tend to go with my gut sometimes. It just feels right to me, and it does help in building a personality and backstory.
On mobile as well, cant edit comments so here is the one for after the video, i liked the naming process (I even though of a varient of my actual name i like :) ) thanks again loving your videos
My half-elf wizard Valmaxian uses his human dad's name Maximilium and his elven mom Val'loria. I use the last name Vance since the author of the Dying Earth, which the dnd magic system is based on.
I created a family of dwarves for my AL PC. Father's name is Borin, so his firstborn is Bori. He named his other six sons by replacing the first letter of each name by alphabetical order, so they're Dori, Fori, Kori, Mori (my PC), Lori & Thori. I had fun coming up with the names and each dwarf's unique personality, best part was that it totally felt like something a dwarf would do.
Sorry, I just pictured the scene where a new father is naming his quadruplets. "You're a bobby, you're an Angelique, you're a Kurt, you're... uh, Brown."
Now I really should go to bed since it is 1 am my time (wanted to watch your vids though) the green screen is good and the library setting is a good match! Maybe a corner seat in a library so that you can (as you said in a different vid) sit down. The audio seems good as well (at least for me).
I currently have a fire genasi named Ember and am working on a kobold named Spinel. Out of the two of them the kobold was the harder one to name, but something about naming her after a gemstone felt right to me.
If I have no idea what to name a character, I roll a d-20 and have someone give me that many random letters (you want about 1/4-1/3 of the letters to be vowels) I made a golden dragon sorcerer that I couldn’t figure out a name for, and someone gave me the letters I needed to make the name Midas Thex. They are now the coolest PC at the table.
I'm a bit late to the party, but I just wanted to say that this video helped me a lot. I am still relatively new to DnD. Despite this, I have grown a fondness of writing back stories for my characters. I find that doing so helps me RP better, because I know their motivations and personalities. With that said, I have troubles coming up with a name that fits the character. At first I would use the example names in the PHB, but those are just cookie cutter names that seem to impersonal. I then tried name generators, running into the same issue. Recently, I have been given the chance to start playing again, so I am dusting off some old ideas and writing up some back stories. One in particular was a wild sorcerer, that I couldn't come up with a name for. I googled how to come up with a good name, and your video was the first result. I came up with Timan of the Glade. It is a derivative of Thomas. He is a simple village boy who was cursed with wild magic by an evil deity. He was then taken in by a follower of a nature healing deity, whose holy places are forest glades. There is more to the story, but I still need to flesh it out and put it to words. Thanks for your help.
I get what he means with this video. I love puns and I made this (sometimes dopey) orphan water genasi druid. I decided to name him with something in druidic, and what I picked was the translation of the phrase "from water comes one", which is something like Salrn Tulmu (when written). And since his last name sounds something like "tool" when you actually say it, that was his nickname when he used to be a sailor. Now he just say his name is Sal (which in druidic is still the verb "come")... Yeah, I REALLY like puns. But I think it suits him, especially cause I really like that other druids don't take him seriously because of his damn name given to him by other druids! Works so well with his backstory! I'm kinda proud of that name.
In our current campaign, I'm a mountain dwarf with the name Fargrim Frostanvil, (O' the Mirror Mountain Frostanvils. of course, lol). He always feels the need to add that qualifier even though it's meaningless to most people. Before that, I had a forest gnome warlock named Blyxzeth. It just struck me as gnomish when I was randomly smashing letters together.
Reminds me of my goliath barbarian, Swiftwalker (soon unofficially named to Sweetwalker because elk barbarians make travel quick and anger DMs with set timelines)
An interesting system. I prefer starting with a vowel or word and forming a name around it. That's how I named most of my (half-elf) characters like Helwick Hawthorn or Aeleral or Edelrade.
What do ya'll think of names with a lot of history, whether fictional or nonfictional? My next character was going to be a soldier of less than reputable nature named Iago. As one of my favorite villains in history he played a big influence in this one, and while I have no desire to rehash Othello, a lot of the characteristics and desires lineup. That, and it is a rather unique and evocative name. However, does this type of naming lead to problems or expectations when playing the game? For a more simple and modern example, would playing a Wizard named Harry break the immersion too much with real world expectations and preconceptions?
My personal favorite npc’s in my game are tiefling twins named “Misdemeanor” and “Felony”. Slight spoiler, their parents are part of the local thieves guild.
My character is an Aasimar with a Dragonborn name, as she was abandoned as a baby (reason unknown to her) then found and raised by a Dragonborn Bard (Sage). Her name is Sora Turnuroth, Sora means sky (Aasimar), and I can actually say Turnuroth so I picked that name. Good name? Or not?
I think of one element of the character and go from there with different language or colloquialism Ludwig/Iwanka Hammerhand (human/dwarf folk hero smith) Sir Gregor Pale (half orc noble knight) "Pidge" the pidgeon (Street Urchin/criminal who wears a plaguedoctors mask) "Fueryon" Beast in Draconic (lizardfolk/dragonborn ranger/barbarian/druid) But this is a great video for naming NPCs
Are names like felheit, keikhei, quirrou, sana, luce, or mortar good? Above listed names with their race/class below Felheit ravenloe-rouge teifling Keikhei-rouge kenku Quirrou denfeir-lizardfolk fighter Sana haibi-rouge tabaxi Mortar Tinril-dark elf draconic sorcerer Luce tenfhel-high elf paladin Keikhei has no last name cause he was previously a normal crow who was experimented on and escaped so he has no real last name These characters are ones I made and I plan on using them all. I mainly am asking cause I second guess myself a lot so I'm not sure if these names fit or sound good so what do you guys think?
If you like mythology, like I do, I name mostly all my characters after gods that somehow describe my character, it's almost like an easter-egg. One of my favorites, my pyromaniac sorcerer with two personalities, Agni, named after the two headed Hindu god of fire. I like to tease my character somehow if you were to google their name, maybe giving a hint about the characters personality etc.
When I name characters, I usually first take a look of proposed names in the sourcebook. For example, when naming my Tiefling, I choose not to have a virtue name, because in my native(Hungarian), they wouldn't really work. Human names seemed like a cop-out, so I looked to the third option presented in the book; they looked like someone chopped up the Lemegeton and randomly glued it back together, so I came up with a demonic-sounding name of my own: Laexis. Since he is of noble birth, i needed a family name with a meaning. Since his bloodline got 'cursed' with infernal legacy because an ancestor struck a pact with Levistus in grieving their lost love and hoping to use the power to avenge them, i started putting words like 'love', 'heart', 'revenge', 'punishment', 'price', etc., into google translate, and ended up with 'kara' and 'kier', which are 'chastisement' and 'heart' in Polish. To make it sound more weight-bearing, I dropped the 'e' and doubled the 'r', so I got Karrakir, which as an added bonus, suggests the sound of cracking ice(at least to me), which is nice because as we know, Levistus was entombed in a humongous iceberg as punishment for trying to overthrow Asmodeus. On another occasion, I went with a quite shallow, but still (in my opinion) cool name. I had a Killoren character who was a druid, intending to become a geomancer. So I took 'lithos', which is 'stone' in Greek, and added 'äijö', which is a Finnish word that is best translated as 'old coot' or 'old man', since he was kinda grumpy. Since Killoren names are always three syllables, and tend to roll off the tongue easily(at least that is my impression), I ended up with the name Lithvaïa. (whew this became a long comment)
Newbie here. I've created a mixed blood spellscale elf (DMs idea) born to a well off family of tailors. Using the elf suffix prefix table we came up with the name Kain sehtan which translates to dragon brother soft spinner. Just an example of how you can utilize characteristics to find a name. Of course this did take some time to put together though
It looks important to do those things step by step. If you took John and Germanized it, you'd have Johannes - with the short version Hannes. I'd like to add another part to it: if names can be made fun of, players will make fun of it. I remembered that when you introduced the elven name "Gihi" which sounds an awful lot like "G.I.".
If you play in a near reality world or you just want a name that does not go too far from our world, try to seek for ethymology and origins of names, you may find a name that descript your charater (Or the absolute contrary so you cannot "joke" about it, like, my name mean "strong" but i'm a just a bookstore keeper)
just a quick side note: the german "von" mostly implies nobility, often designating the inherited thief. commoners would likely go without it (the dutch "van" is much more common throughout the general population of that country)
In medieval times in the german area surnames like "aus" (meaning "from") were common, but as said, the "von" (meaning "of") was reserved for nobles. So the name Michel aus Lönneberga (although a Astrid Lindgren bookcharakter) could make up a "german" commoners name. Whereas Michel von Lönneberga would be the name of a noble, most likely the noble in charge of "Lönneberga". But besides being a history pro, the easiest way to get good charakter names is, find out which writers, put there mark so deeply into our understanding of a "culture" that we see the names given to there main characters are recognized as tied to that culture. Like Alexander (Greek), Thorin Oakshield (Dwarven), Galadriel (Elfish). Then look were they got there inspiration from (in case of Tolkien it s mostly the Edda) and take those names the have left out of the book. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien%27s_influences) The German version list an excerp from the Edda with about 30 names, about 10 used by him. „[…] Nyi und Nidi, Nordri und Sudri, Austri und Westri, Althiof, Dwalin, Nar und Nain, Niping, Dain, Bifur, Bafur, Bömbur, Nori; Ann und Anarr, Ai, Miödwitnir. Weig, Gandalf, Windalf, Thrain, Theck und Thorin, Thror, Witr und Litr, Nar und Nyrad; nun sind diese Zwerge, Regin und Raswid, richtig aufgezählt. Fili, Kili, Fundin, Nali, Hepti, Wili, Hannar und Swior, Billing, Bruni, Bild, Buri, Frar, Hornbori, Frägr und Loni, Aurwang, Jari, Eikinskjaldi. […]“ (Dvergatal)
Made a human variant monk for an upcoming day. I don’t want an Asian feel to him, and was picturing him more of a European monk who was kicked out of his monastery for being corrupt and liking to fight. Currently named him Flanko, but not in love with them name. Any suggestions?
This is helpful. I'm working on my first character who is a dragonborn with two different last names. His original last name he got from his parents. His "new" last name he got from his foster father who raised him after his parents died. The name he goes by, Alazar Brisbane, is his foster father's surname and his own given. His foster father was a slave that chose his own surname after escaping and that's why it's more human sounding. Brisbane's original last name will be more fitting of a dragonborn but I can't read the names from the generators.
I just posted this same comment on the newer video, but I thought it was still relevant and, hopefully, helpful to others. One of my favorite things about character creation is naming my character. After all, "once you name IT, you start getting attached to IT," right? ^_^ 1) Backwards such as Acirema -- Make it a theme by adding other characters with the same naming convention, such as Selaw 2) Word mashups such as Doordon Ontry (do, or, do, not, no, try) 3) Literal meanings such as Nemo (literally means "nothing" and was a character who had lost his mind and didn't know who he was) 4) Descriptors such as Furry Lizard (a leopard tabaxi [humanoid cat] with the name Sandy Reptile [taken from the surrounding habitat] chose a new alias which reflected the first part of her name [sandy-colored fur] and the last part of her name [a lizard is a reptile] 5) Direct meanings or translations such as Timothy [honouring God] for a valiant character or Takashi [noble, prosperous] for a nobleman fighter 6) Stereotype names such as Olga for a strong female character 7) Different variants of the same name such as Olga and Helga (to represent a close attachment) 8) Direct translation mashups such as Lunsolisa (luna + solis = moon & sun) 9) Self-chosen names meant to make a specific statement or give a desired reaction such as Roaring Bloody Death The Tiger! (Don't forget the exclamation mark!) for an excitable character or Bob for an average guy character that's going to develop later on 10) Paying homage to another character or real life person such as Granny Smith (which has a personality similar to the My Little Pony character) 11) Puns such has Jīng-Chàng Zhāng (pronounced Ching-Chang Chong but with the real and relevant meaning of "gentle" "smooth" and "stretch" for an aristocratic archer) or Mossy Minnows (mas y minos is Spanish for "more or less") 12) Anagrams [mixing up letters in a word or name] such as Deliv (for "devil") 13) Invented words based on real words or names such as Inferretta Complexia for a character with an inferiority complex or Debbiza Berry of Thorn (Debby, Eliza, Thornberry) 14) Themes such as Mary, King Cole, Governor Moon, Jack, and Puff the Dragon for a nursery rhyme themed setting 15) A cool name you've always liked! I hope this helps! We always have so much fun in our campaigns! XD
I love my current character's name. She's a Tabaxi barbarian who uses a rather large warhammer, and her name is Problems Look Like Nails (or just Nails for short).
Hi Sir! Kush here. Hope you are well. I am stuck in a problem! I am writing a novel, but am stuck with the character name. I got hardly a name for HIM, but I can't have him a surname. So is it necessary to give him a surname? Or only a name will be enough? Please sir, help me in this problem. Thank you very much sir.
There's always the short-cut... Most useful when encountering (or even as a long-standing player) at a table with two or three avid, and enthusiastic players. Half-ass it and give the PC a really REALLY dubious or just plain and stupid name. Then sit back after introduction and let the enthusiasts bitch and argue until something useful pops out of it. It rarely actually fails. It's occasionally humiliating, deriding, or just plain comical, but roll with the proverbial punches, and you'll usually have more fun for it. Yes, I once introduced a Barbarian named "Lamb-chop the Beard"... and it was GLORIOUS! :o)
I've struggled so much with names. Typically I ended up with a complete concept and a backstory with contacts and all the stats filled out and everything else done, and a big blank name box at the top of the character sheet. I get distracted by realism---your parents don't know what your personality will be like when you're born, so how could your given name reflect it? So I settle on something nondescript and hope no one asks. Nicknames and street names are a lot easier. My most satisfying name was created by taking my brother-in-law's character's name, reversing it, and applying a rot13 transform. Amazingly the result was not only pronounceable but properly fantasy-sounding.
I liked the feeling of sitting around a table while you explained things. I thinks it suits more with the roleplaying and tabletop games your channels are about.
Noted and added to the vote. Seems to me - sitting is the best option so far. And I prefer it personally too!
+1
+Pada LAN +1 Gone of beard
Noted and thanks for adding your voice.
I second that.
My triton fisherman, Fishmael, is my pride and joy. He is very excellent.
My human mystic/fighter is named Le'Skyl Starblade.
"Call me Fishmael."
Fishmael is the name my friends gave me to mock me....The Memories
Weeb! Me too.
That is amazing!
On names like "Lucy" and "Garry": The "-y" suffix more or less means "little", and the suffix is to imply a sort of diminutive connotation. For example "Garry" means "Little Garret" while Lucy means "Little Lucius".
I did not know what. I like it!! Thank you for sharing.
Matthew Campbell I always knew there was a reason I wouldn't allow myself to be called 'Matty'.
What about Larry? haha
Lawrence or Laurence.
This is me taking jokes seriously again.
So name your 8 foot tall giant of a man with a y at the end for humor.
Sigil Spellweaver doesn't know a lick of magic, the name comes from centuries ago. 'And your name is Cooper. Do you know how to coop? I can't make magic any more than you can make barrels.'
“All shall beware, I am *Jon Arbuckle* “
I've got a dwarf fighter who lost both his hands,was given golem prosthetics. Lost them fighting his former captain who tried to commit genocide on the orcs they were at war with, and later was knighted, and given the house name Steelgrip.
All this was created because of the surname Steelgrip, which is pretty cool in my book.
My favorite method of finding names for pc´s or npc´s is looking around and reversing the names of objects around me. One of my favorite pc´s is Ispep Aloc. As a gm I used this method a lot but when my group picked up on it they started making fun so I had to employ other methods to reduce the laughs as it tended to slow sessions down having the players make comments about Efink the sharp, Eot the stinky etc. Nice channel btw. just subscribed. Enjoying it very much.
Baldur Magnússon Ooh, I really like that. Reversed names really have that fantasy feel that I never noticed. It sounds like a great tactic for one-shot characters because of how easy it is to make while also being memorable.
At least you reversed them! Sony is just one example from our old dm
I want to meet a character called Pepsi cola. Now that I think of it in hearts of iron I had a navy fleet made of Pensacola’s and I named it the Pepsi cola’s so I’m biased.
@kylekataryn
You know that Ch & Kh are the same in Greek, right?
The same goes with C & K
When I come up with names I try to associate the race, region, whatever to an established language. For example my Elves tend to have French or Sindarin names, Dwarves have Scandinavian names, and beings from the upper planes have Latin names. This will also add an element of history to my games because I could have an Elven region that mixes French and Latin names to show that the Elves have or had a connection to the Angels.
that's an awesome idea! I love it! thank you for sharing.
Thanks! Use it well if it pleases you.
Yeah, I do something similar. Dwarves are German, Elves are French, Orcs are Spanish, Trolls are Norse, ...
We've also used names of whatever was on the table or nearby at the time we needed a name, One of our main villains in AD&D was Ronin Pringles. As the movie Ronin and Pringles crisps.
He was a good reoccuring villain from level 3 -14.
Me too! I also like to take fantasy names and change them for example if i choose Rand Al’thor from Wheel of Time, it might be Ranfeir Al’thoren
I was playing with my friends some iron kingdoms and my character was named aba yagur and they couldn't remember it. so when Gordon Ramsey ( long story, turns out he is is a menite) called my character "fish fuck" it stuck. the rest of the campaign I was called fishfuck by literally everyone
...I'm a mighty wizzard...
...my name is...Tim...! :D :D :D
I thought only some people called you... Tim...!
"I'm Timmotheous, the might and powerful!"
"Timmy! Go clean your room!"
"MOM! You're ruining my vibe!"
That awesome tim
"Say, what is your name mighty Enchanter?"
"My name is... Tim, The Enchanter
@@caodogao4327 lolll
I had a fellow PC name their Variant Tiefling Monk Brosef Stalin he immediately died at that beginning of the first encounter
Looking at these jokes about mighty creatures reminds me of how I couldn't think of a name for a sea beast species so I just collectively referred to them as Steve.
I prefer looking at the etymology and giving the character(s) names that are either fitting their personality or aspirations, or create an ironic opposite; for instance, give a cowardly character a name that derives from courage or bravery, such as Baldwin (old high German for _bold friend_, apparently), and work from there. I find there's RP potential to a character who's either trying to live up to their name, or running from it.
I was sceptical when I read the title of this video. How can anyone help me naming characters in general?! I didn't think that there was a method...
But you did a fantastic job as always. Thanks a lot.
I never thought of going *that* deep in character's names before. I'll have to apply these tips now.
I will definitely take this advice to heart.
Hell, I want to know more about Grehagh of Tol Branhagh. Great video.
After a hiatus of 33 years, I started playing D&D again about 11 months ago. I am an avid geocacher so took those letters and mixed them up a little. I am a wizard and my character's name is Orcegache. I like it because it's got a semi-secret meaning to me. Our DM and a couple of other players have taken to calling him "Orsh" which makes for a nice nickname.
Thanks for posting this video; quite enjoyable!
What I usually do for fantasy names is picking a word that fits my character in some way, and then translating It to several languages. After that, I take the versions I like the most and mix them together until I get something that sounds good.
The moment when you remember that one of the TAZ NPC's who was a dark elf was literally named Magic Brian when the dude gave that Brian the Elf example.
First character I ever made was named Sudigog, son of Sudigast, grandson of Sudigoth. I felt using the Greek and Abrahamistic method of presenting lineage as a way of labeling ones' self significant worked well in the instance of a the half-orc with chief blood from his father, though I do look forward to using this methodology alongside Xanathar's Guide's list of racial names
My elven ranger is named Amber Moonstone because her employer couldn't remember her birth name. Therefore she went by her name translated into Common so he could pronounce/remember it, and the name just stuck. Only her half sisters remember her birth name now, and they think she's dead.
A woman needs a name
asked
I actually did something similar, the village my character is from had a strong connection to the fire plane and everything had an Italian name.
"Hi, I am an elf named Brian." But is he magical?
he has all kinds of sinister magics
That's amazing. I am really bad at coming up with names, probably the most difficult part of character creation and I usually just tack on a cop-out of a name. With these tips it took me less than 5 minutes to come up with a name that I'm happy with for my character. Thank you.
While I was watching this the name Rose popped into my head, whenever I hear the name or word rose I think of someone or something sweet ,but since every Rose has it’s thorns, the person or thing can be annoyed easily and can willingly or accidentally hurt you
Any chance on doing a video on character death?
My first one recently kicked the bucket and still being fairly new to the scene it's left me a bit stumped;
All your videos, however, are really helping me start to put the new one together.
I'll be honest, I wasn't super into a few of the earlier videos I saw of yours, but the depth of analysis you put into them is phenomenal. I'm a fan.
Noone wants to see the elf named Brian: Thinks about Magic Brian the drow in TAZ
Welp
And don’t forget spider Bryan
"Oh Bryan, Bryan, I am so proud of them!"
This video wiped away decades of confusion on how to come up with names for my characters. I just wanted you to know that.
I like giving my male characters with high charisma feminine names. Currently I'm working on a Half-Elf Warlock named Blair. The name was given to him by his Patron Titania.
So he's your Blair Witch Project?
Guy, I go from clean shaven to high mountain scary, from time to time. Let the look grow on you, and the viewers. Keep tossing us the good "how to" information, and we'll watch no matter how you're coiffed. Love the channel. Been following for about two years I think now. Your series has made me a better GM
In one of the current games I'm playing in, I'm a half-elf. The interesting part of this comes in with the fact that in this campaign world, the humans and elves have been at war a long time. So my character is a Bastard and a blight, by both nations. So I named him 'Finn' Keeper. Finnegan is of course a human name, and Finore is an elven name. Keeper is the given name for bastards within the Empire, while Felleaf is the one for Elven Lands. Finn disguises himself as a human in Imperial lands, and as an elf in elven lands.
I picked the name because it was so easy to convert back and forth, and really plays to his dual-nature within the campaign world.
My Skyrim character's name is Kuriles D'rtan he was born in Rorikstead but was crossing the border trying to find his birth mother in cyrodil
One other way to find good names is look up obscure historic figures. People like philosophers or generals that while inportant enough to have their names recorded are not commonly known. Another thing I often add is some kind of distinctive title that matches personality or physical traits; ironwood for an elf that defends others, or frail for the sickly wizard
Love ya! tell every player to look at all your videos and I ask my DM to watch you. You are so helpful, I loved the backstory vido.
Doesn't always have to be fantastical either. You could also go full Monty Python if you want. "There are those who call me... Tim"
Magic Brian the Elf would beg to differ with you, sir. #TheZoneCast
Hello hello welcome to my cave
So what i got from this is that my female half-orc swashbuckler shouldn’t be named Rebecca (or Bec for short) and instead should be called something like Rebooshca or Ribeacker
Rebooshca sounds Slovak for some reason. Like a contraction of rebecca and babushka. I like it
why not Ribena*TM*
Rebecca is a wonderful name for a half orc and anybody
One trick I use for lady elves is - the higher their social status the more vowels but keep a 'hard' sounding consonant to round it out. e.g. I use Meriele Amastacia for a respected alchemist from an established family (9 vowels total, balanced with a 'T' and 'R'. The 'C' is a soft pronunciation there so it blends rather than balances.). For ladies in a solid fantasy setting names ending in 'A' are usually a good bet for soft to neutral human or half-elf names, depending on what you combine them with. I use Freya for a cheerful commoner because it's kind of fun to say and can actually sound cheerful without feeling forced if you use an upbeat intonation, Vianna for a snooty noble since it sounds similar to Vienna , and Nia'sha for a more weary feel since it sounds almost like a sigh when spoken aloud. 'Ya' endings are good for upbeat names because the pronunciation calls for a slight sing-song feel to it and 'sh' is good for sly or tired characters depending on what comes after.
'Coincidence' names are also handy - like a Druid who was never meant to be a druid being named after a plant or the bard who just happens to be named Melody or Aria.
Also, Virtue Names for Tieflings can and should be used to their full extent. Did your Tiefling take a Virtue Name because they truly believe it? Or are they trying to hide that their parents really did name them Brian?
I have a Tabaxi (cat person)! Tabaxs’ names are more like short sentences or something and then one of the words become their ‘main’ name. Kinda like “song by the river” would be their full name and “River” is their main name that they go by. I absolutely love dandelions and liked the name “dandelion wishes” and “wish” for the name. And although I like dandelions, I’m sure my character does too, but she doesn’t like them as much as I do. So I watched this to help a little. All Tabaxis have something they are extremely interested in and will explore to find them. Mines pretty basic at first look, collecting. She loves to collect and put smaller things in her junk journal, like cool leaves or feathers, and things too big for it go in her bag of holding. However, her favorite-est things to collect are stories! She loves stories, to listen and to tell. So that’s a big part of her: her positive attitude and her love of stories. So I thought of “Teller of the Untold Story” or “Story” for short. I loved this idea because it fits her perfectly and my mom even (at one point) wanted to name me Story. My dad thought it “sounded too hippy” so my dad chose a fairly simple and normal name. But I think Story is a beautiful name! And perfect for my character.
I love coming up with names for characters. Every mmorpg I've played, it's exciting every time I create a new character (my son calls me an altaholic) to come up with the perfect name for that character. My son DMs a few D&D campaigns with his friends online (I'm now allowed to join...darn it), but I did create a character and name he could toss in as an NPC villager or something.....and that's good enough for old mom.
I named my first character Yamaguchi. She’s a gnome wizard in our Pathfinder game. I basically just took the name of one of my favourite anime characters, thought it suited the world and the character enough, and slapped it on the character sheet.
We’re playing a home brewed version of Pathfinder, so I had the freedom to make up my own small chunk of the world. Since my character has a Japanese name, I modeled her home country after feudal Japan. Now, she can never return home after her adventures because she would be thrown into prison or killed for leaving the isolated nation.
I doesn’t sound like much, but it was easy to do for my first game, and I enjoyed making it.
I am seriously so bad with names that I once made a joke name for a sandcastle as a kid, it is now my name for every single kingdom I have or eve will make, solely because it’s the best I’ve got.
My biggest question has been how to come up with awesome names. Thank you so much
In the four games I've been in, these are the names I chose:
Cunith Linguise (an Elite in a Halo campaign).
Meresiel (A half-elf druid in Pathfinder)
Justin Caviness (A game where the players were to be themselves in the D&D apocolypse)
Sin Liesel (A Bothan in the Old Republic)
You look much better with the beard
Yes. Grow it back!
I had a character named Cleric Bob. His actual name was Robert Taleswapper, but I think that lasted five minutes into the campaign before my dad just started calling him Cleric Bob and he was stuck with it.
Names are fun, but I generally rely on keeping names reasonably simple and short. For example my new character, Etca (pronounced Etka), was initially "Eternal Carnival", but I felt it was simply too long.
But different strokes for different folks.
I like ke the new look, but (like Bianchi says) the feeling of you sitting at a table with me was (personally) better, I also liked how it was a closer view of your face and arms/hands, as those are the parts of your body you are most expressive with. While I coukd get used to this new look, I also would not mind if it was changed back (to either the same, or just something similar)
Regardless the choice is yours and still greatly enjoying the videos, just finishing off the playlist before i sleep, and i will check back ocassionally for (new videos) and also top ups for me to better remeber stuff :) have a good night (or day)
Thank you for your feedback and glad that you feel part of my table, you are! Think we are staying with the new look due to everyone's responses however we can look at making it feel more welcoming as before, really constructive feedback. Also we upload every Monday and Wednesday if you wanted a schedule for new uploads. Thanks for watching and have a good day or night or mid morning or twilight :P
Sorry, who are you?
The same guy just naked because no beard :( :(
I also prefer the old style, i'd prefer if it looked like you were sitting at a table with the viewers
ah, he must have cast alter self
Your vote has been cast! Thank you for the feedback... and the spell worked right? :)
I must agree, I prefer the beard as well.
I like the old look more. It feels more relaxing and engaging. This way you feel much farther away.
My character's name is Norian Locris Siankiir. I got Siankiir by working out how elven names worked in the PHB and then mixing two together that still made a Common translation. I can't remember where Norian came from, I think it just sounded good. Then I went really nerdy, because Norian sounds like the Dorian mode in music, so I went looking for some other modes, and found out they're all names after ancient greek kingdoms, the Locrian mode being named after Locris.
In my current setting, I threw my players off guard by having Dwarvish Japanese names and honor culture. It's worked out really well
There's a mind bender... lol! This is a great of example of twisting things up!
oof
I prefer Bob the Elf xD
We have \ had an elf named Günter xD
Nice bob
My go-to is always my tattered copy of "Name Your Baby". To follow you, look up "Graham", but this book provides its root, its etymology and, for more popular names, alternate nationality versions. "Graham" has no variations for other countries, but it derives from Old English "Graeg Hamm" - "From the grey land or the grey home". Almost always sends my imagination bouncing happily.
So Graham the Grey would be From the grey land the grey? That's pretty trippy! Baby books are a great idea for names!
When he said an elf named Brian, I thought of magic Brian the black spider from adventure zone. Then i thought of taako and laughed.
One method I like to use to name my characters and places is to hone in on a quality or characteristic of the character or place then find a word in another language that means that word. Assuming it sounds like it could be a name I will often go with it, if it doesn’t I will keep looking for a more adjacent word that means something similar but sounds more like a name. For instance, I’m workshopping a character who is an elven orphan and who never knew who his birth parents were. When he was taken to the city orphanage as a young child, the man who oversaw it named him Fia (deer in Irish) because he had the biggest, brownest eyes he’d ever seen and he has a soft, gentle nature about him. Even then
I've just started with RPGs, and my first D&D character is named Sir Boone Gunn, because he's a Tiefling Paladin. Richard Boone played the character Paladin in the 1950s television show Have Gun Will Travel. But he could be a boon companion to his friends. My second is a Halfling Bard, and the name Kjell just popped into my head. So Kjell Littlejohn he became. I tend to go with my gut sometimes. It just feels right to me, and it does help in building a personality and backstory.
On mobile as well, cant edit comments so here is the one for after the video, i liked the naming process (I even though of a varient of my actual name i like :) ) thanks again loving your videos
Sadness that mobile is causing you trouble but thanks for taking the time to comment anyway. Glad it helped and would love to hear the variation :)
My half-elf wizard Valmaxian uses his human dad's name Maximilium and his elven mom Val'loria. I use the last name Vance since the author of the Dying Earth, which the dnd magic system is based on.
I created a family of dwarves for my AL PC. Father's name is Borin, so his firstborn is Bori. He named his other six sons by replacing the first letter of each name by alphabetical order, so they're Dori, Fori, Kori, Mori (my PC), Lori & Thori.
I had fun coming up with the names and each dwarf's unique personality, best part was that it totally felt like something a dwarf would do.
Sorry, I just pictured the scene where a new father is naming his quadruplets.
"You're a bobby, you're an Angelique, you're a Kurt, you're... uh, Brown."
Now I really should go to bed since it is 1 am my time (wanted to watch your vids though) the green screen is good and the library setting is a good match! Maybe a corner seat in a library so that you can (as you said in a different vid) sit down. The audio seems good as well (at least for me).
My thanks and yes! To bed with you! But just watch one more vid ok? :)
I currently have a fire genasi named Ember and am working on a kobold named Spinel. Out of the two of them the kobold was the harder one to name, but something about naming her after a gemstone felt right to me.
I dig the new look. Seems a whole lot more professional. Suiting to a channel such as your's!
New look with the green screen ? Or no beard ? :)
Thanks for your feedback. Yeah we also like it but just want to see what you all think ? :)
I love the way Graham sounds in his accent
Didnt know you were such a big fan of Grian
If I have no idea what to name a character, I roll a d-20 and have someone give me that many random letters (you want about 1/4-1/3 of the letters to be vowels)
I made a golden dragon sorcerer that I couldn’t figure out a name for, and someone gave me the letters I needed to make the name Midas Thex. They are now the coolest PC at the table.
I'm a bit late to the party, but I just wanted to say that this video helped me a lot. I am still relatively new to DnD. Despite this, I have grown a fondness of writing back stories for my characters. I find that doing so helps me RP better, because I know their motivations and personalities.
With that said, I have troubles coming up with a name that fits the character. At first I would use the example names in the PHB, but those are just cookie cutter names that seem to impersonal. I then tried name generators, running into the same issue.
Recently, I have been given the chance to start playing again, so I am dusting off some old ideas and writing up some back stories. One in particular was a wild sorcerer, that I couldn't come up with a name for. I googled how to come up with a good name, and your video was the first result.
I came up with Timan of the Glade. It is a derivative of Thomas. He is a simple village boy who was cursed with wild magic by an evil deity. He was then taken in by a follower of a nature healing deity, whose holy places are forest glades. There is more to the story, but I still need to flesh it out and put it to words. Thanks for your help.
I get what he means with this video. I love puns and I made this (sometimes dopey) orphan water genasi druid. I decided to name him with something in druidic, and what I picked was the translation of the phrase "from water comes one", which is something like Salrn Tulmu (when written). And since his last name sounds something like "tool" when you actually say it, that was his nickname when he used to be a sailor. Now he just say his name is Sal (which in druidic is still the verb "come")... Yeah, I REALLY like puns. But I think it suits him, especially cause I really like that other druids don't take him seriously because of his damn name given to him by other druids! Works so well with his backstory! I'm kinda proud of that name.
Okay, das a cool intro animation. And I think that the name is probably the most important part of your character.
In our current campaign, I'm a mountain dwarf with the name Fargrim Frostanvil, (O' the Mirror Mountain Frostanvils. of course, lol). He always feels the need to add that qualifier even though it's meaningless to most people. Before that, I had a forest gnome warlock named Blyxzeth. It just struck me as gnomish when I was randomly smashing letters together.
Reminds me of my goliath barbarian, Swiftwalker (soon unofficially named to Sweetwalker because elk barbarians make travel quick and anger DMs with set timelines)
Another brilliant video with wonderfully useful advice!
Thank you for sharing, and I hope to enjoy more videos! (Sadly work beckons now...)
Work! that accursed thing that pays for our addiction...I too must dance the merry tune... in 30 minutes...
its fun coming up with names...my vary favorite Character ive ever created is a Paladin of Bahamut who's full name is "Daegen Kaiser Ryoku"
An interesting system. I prefer starting with a vowel or word and forming a name around it. That's how I named most of my (half-elf) characters like Helwick Hawthorn or Aeleral or Edelrade.
What do ya'll think of names with a lot of history, whether fictional or nonfictional? My next character was going to be a soldier of less than reputable nature named Iago. As one of my favorite villains in history he played a big influence in this one, and while I have no desire to rehash Othello, a lot of the characteristics and desires lineup. That, and it is a rather unique and evocative name. However, does this type of naming lead to problems or expectations when playing the game?
For a more simple and modern example, would playing a Wizard named Harry break the immersion too much with real world expectations and preconceptions?
My personal favorite npc’s in my game are tiefling twins named “Misdemeanor” and “Felony”.
Slight spoiler, their parents are part of the local thieves guild.
My character is an Aasimar with a Dragonborn name, as she was abandoned as a baby (reason unknown to her) then found and raised by a Dragonborn Bard (Sage). Her name is Sora Turnuroth, Sora means sky (Aasimar), and I can actually say Turnuroth so I picked that name. Good name? Or not?
I think of one element of the character and go from there with different language or colloquialism
Ludwig/Iwanka Hammerhand (human/dwarf folk hero smith)
Sir Gregor Pale (half orc noble knight)
"Pidge" the pidgeon (Street Urchin/criminal who wears a plaguedoctors mask)
"Fueryon" Beast in Draconic (lizardfolk/dragonborn ranger/barbarian/druid)
But this is a great video for naming NPCs
Are names like felheit, keikhei, quirrou, sana, luce, or mortar good?
Above listed names with their race/class below
Felheit ravenloe-rouge teifling
Keikhei-rouge kenku
Quirrou denfeir-lizardfolk fighter
Sana haibi-rouge tabaxi
Mortar Tinril-dark elf draconic sorcerer
Luce tenfhel-high elf paladin
Keikhei has no last name cause he was previously a normal crow who was experimented on and escaped so he has no real last name
These characters are ones I made and I plan on using them all. I mainly am asking cause I second guess myself a lot so I'm not sure if these names fit or sound good so what do you guys think?
If you like mythology, like I do, I name mostly all my characters after gods that somehow describe my character, it's almost like an easter-egg. One of my favorites, my pyromaniac sorcerer with two personalities, Agni, named after the two headed Hindu god of fire. I like to tease my character somehow if you were to google their name, maybe giving a hint about the characters personality etc.
When I name characters, I usually first take a look of proposed names in the sourcebook. For example, when naming my Tiefling, I choose not to have a virtue name, because in my native(Hungarian), they wouldn't really work. Human names seemed like a cop-out, so I looked to the third option presented in the book; they looked like someone chopped up the Lemegeton and randomly glued it back together, so I came up with a demonic-sounding name of my own: Laexis. Since he is of noble birth, i needed a family name with a meaning. Since his bloodline got 'cursed' with infernal legacy because an ancestor struck a pact with Levistus in grieving their lost love and hoping to use the power to avenge them, i started putting words like 'love', 'heart', 'revenge', 'punishment', 'price', etc., into google translate, and ended up with 'kara' and 'kier', which are 'chastisement' and 'heart' in Polish. To make it sound more weight-bearing, I dropped the 'e' and doubled the 'r', so I got Karrakir, which as an added bonus, suggests the sound of cracking ice(at least to me), which is nice because as we know, Levistus was entombed in a humongous iceberg as punishment for trying to overthrow Asmodeus.
On another occasion, I went with a quite shallow, but still (in my opinion) cool name. I had a Killoren character who was a druid, intending to become a geomancer. So I took 'lithos', which is 'stone' in Greek, and added 'äijö', which is a Finnish word that is best translated as 'old coot' or 'old man', since he was kinda grumpy. Since Killoren names are always three syllables, and tend to roll off the tongue easily(at least that is my impression), I ended up with the name Lithvaïa.
(whew this became a long comment)
Newbie here. I've created a mixed blood spellscale elf (DMs idea) born to a well off family of tailors. Using the elf suffix prefix table we came up with the name Kain sehtan which translates to dragon brother soft spinner. Just an example of how you can utilize characteristics to find a name. Of course this did take some time to put together though
It looks important to do those things step by step. If you took John and Germanized it, you'd have Johannes - with the short version Hannes.
I'd like to add another part to it: if names can be made fun of, players will make fun of it. I remembered that when you introduced the elven name "Gihi" which sounds an awful lot like "G.I.".
Yes sadly making fun of names is a thing... but well... sometimes it can be good to roll with it :)
If you play in a near reality world or you just want a name that does not go too far from our world, try to seek for ethymology and origins of names, you may find a name that descript your charater (Or the absolute contrary so you cannot "joke" about it, like, my name mean "strong" but i'm a just a bookstore keeper)
I know this is an old video but this popped up right in the middle of struggling to name my newest dnd character
just a quick side note: the german "von" mostly implies nobility, often designating the inherited thief. commoners would likely go without it (the dutch "van" is much more common throughout the general population of that country)
In medieval times in the german area surnames like "aus" (meaning "from") were common, but as said, the "von" (meaning "of") was reserved for nobles. So the name Michel aus Lönneberga (although a Astrid Lindgren bookcharakter) could make up a "german" commoners name. Whereas Michel von Lönneberga would be the name of a noble, most likely the noble in charge of "Lönneberga".
But besides being a history pro, the easiest way to get good charakter names is, find out which writers, put there mark so deeply into our understanding of a "culture" that we see the names given to there main characters are recognized as tied to that culture. Like Alexander (Greek), Thorin Oakshield (Dwarven), Galadriel (Elfish). Then look were they got there inspiration from (in case of Tolkien it s mostly the Edda) and take those names the have left out of the book. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien%27s_influences) The German version list an excerp from the Edda with about 30 names, about 10 used by him.
„[…] Nyi und Nidi, Nordri und Sudri,
Austri und Westri, Althiof, Dwalin,
Nar und Nain, Niping, Dain,
Bifur, Bafur, Bömbur, Nori;
Ann und Anarr, Ai, Miödwitnir.
Weig, Gandalf, Windalf, Thrain,
Theck und Thorin, Thror, Witr und Litr,
Nar und Nyrad; nun sind diese Zwerge,
Regin und Raswid, richtig aufgezählt.
Fili, Kili, Fundin, Nali,
Hepti, Wili, Hannar und Swior,
Billing, Bruni, Bild, Buri,
Frar, Hornbori, Frägr und Loni,
Aurwang, Jari, Eikinskjaldi. […]“ (Dvergatal)
Thanks I just named my character very helpful
Made a human variant monk for an upcoming day. I don’t want an Asian feel to him, and was picturing him more of a European monk who was kicked out of his monastery for being corrupt and liking to fight. Currently named him Flanko, but not in love with them name. Any suggestions?
This is helpful. I'm working on my first character who is a dragonborn with two different last names. His original last name he got from his parents. His "new" last name he got from his foster father who raised him after his parents died. The name he goes by, Alazar Brisbane, is his foster father's surname and his own given. His foster father was a slave that chose his own surname after escaping and that's why it's more human sounding. Brisbane's original last name will be more fitting of a dragonborn but I can't read the names from the generators.
I just posted this same comment on the newer video, but I thought it was still relevant and, hopefully, helpful to others. One of my favorite things about character creation is naming my character. After all, "once you name IT, you start getting attached to IT," right? ^_^
1) Backwards such as Acirema -- Make it a theme by adding other characters with the same naming convention, such as Selaw
2) Word mashups such as Doordon Ontry (do, or, do, not, no, try)
3) Literal meanings such as Nemo (literally means "nothing" and was a character who had lost his mind and didn't know who he was)
4) Descriptors such as Furry Lizard (a leopard tabaxi [humanoid cat] with the name Sandy Reptile [taken from the surrounding habitat] chose a new alias which reflected the first part of her name [sandy-colored fur] and the last part of her name [a lizard is a reptile]
5) Direct meanings or translations such as Timothy [honouring God] for a valiant character or Takashi [noble, prosperous] for a nobleman fighter
6) Stereotype names such as Olga for a strong female character
7) Different variants of the same name such as Olga and Helga (to represent a close attachment)
8) Direct translation mashups such as Lunsolisa (luna + solis = moon & sun)
9) Self-chosen names meant to make a specific statement or give a desired reaction such as Roaring Bloody Death The Tiger! (Don't forget the exclamation mark!) for an excitable character or Bob for an average guy character that's going to develop later on
10) Paying homage to another character or real life person such as Granny Smith (which has a personality similar to the My Little Pony character)
11) Puns such has Jīng-Chàng Zhāng (pronounced Ching-Chang Chong but with the real and relevant meaning of "gentle" "smooth" and "stretch" for an aristocratic archer) or Mossy Minnows (mas y minos is Spanish for "more or less")
12) Anagrams [mixing up letters in a word or name] such as Deliv (for "devil")
13) Invented words based on real words or names such as Inferretta Complexia for a character with an inferiority complex or Debbiza Berry of Thorn (Debby, Eliza, Thornberry)
14) Themes such as Mary, King Cole, Governor Moon, Jack, and Puff the Dragon for a nursery rhyme themed setting
15) A cool name you've always liked!
I hope this helps! We always have so much fun in our campaigns! XD
I love my current character's name. She's a Tabaxi barbarian who uses a rather large warhammer, and her name is Problems Look Like Nails (or just Nails for short).
Hi Sir! Kush here. Hope you are well.
I am stuck in a problem!
I am writing a novel, but am stuck with the character name. I got hardly a name for HIM,
but I can't have him a surname.
So is it necessary to give him a surname?
Or only a name will be enough?
Please sir, help me in this problem.
Thank you very much sir.
Look's great!!
Haha, Gent is a pretty place, and I live there. :p
Oh are you Krehim? or is he your brother. I can never tell the two of you apart.
There's always the short-cut... Most useful when encountering (or even as a long-standing player) at a table with two or three avid, and enthusiastic players.
Half-ass it and give the PC a really REALLY dubious or just plain and stupid name. Then sit back after introduction and let the enthusiasts bitch and argue until something useful pops out of it. It rarely actually fails. It's occasionally humiliating, deriding, or just plain comical, but roll with the proverbial punches, and you'll usually have more fun for it.
Yes, I once introduced a Barbarian named "Lamb-chop the Beard"... and it was GLORIOUS! :o)
My Oath of the Crown Paladin is called Charles Shepard, he's a relative small human (5'3") in his mid 40s, looking after his fellows like lambs
Great name, and has his party followed his guidance?
I've struggled so much with names. Typically I ended up with a complete concept and a backstory with contacts and all the stats filled out and everything else done, and a big blank name box at the top of the character sheet. I get distracted by realism---your parents don't know what your personality will be like when you're born, so how could your given name reflect it? So I settle on something nondescript and hope no one asks. Nicknames and street names are a lot easier.
My most satisfying name was created by taking my brother-in-law's character's name, reversing it, and applying a rot13 transform. Amazingly the result was not only pronounceable but properly fantasy-sounding.
tim the demon exiled from the depths of the underworld
My favorite PC name was for a dark-skinned islander human fighter-monk from a culture similar to Jamaica. His name was "Jabjab Catoncq."