I came up with a fairy name that I'm really proud of. A fairy was asked what it's name was, and so it looked around and named the first thing it saw. "Nighttime". I love the idea that this creature looked around and instead of perceiving anything in the scene, it saw the time of day. It's just a little alien to think as the time of day as an object at hand. And then my players used Nighttime like a name for 4 sessions, and it was cool
After gaining the favor from an Archfey she promised she’d send some help at a time the party needed it. He showed up without introduction and someone asked “are you the help?” And he responds “sure that name works, I’m The Help”
Especially because if it's an idea she can't get out of her mind, it means that it's probably something that I have worried about before but already gave up on.
I have a fairy that regularly helps people in exchange for strange favors and the like, almost a reverse Hag in the sense that it’s helpful but never quite what you asked for. His name is “Next Tuesday” because the first person that he helped he told to come back in a week and the person thanked him and then said see you next Tuesday, as a declaration. He mistook that for a goodbye and he was so touched that a mortal gave him a name that he kept it.
My favorite naming scheme of Forgotten Realms’ dragons is when they have a crazy name that gets reduced to common, which then becomes a regular word. This is how the word “inferno” became a word in common, from the ancient red dragon “Imvaernarho.” So fun. Also easy to work back from; find an evocative word in common and bastardize it into something close but strange enough to sound like a name
I hope Dael doesn't take offense to this, but I have a rule in my D&D campaign world: every gnome character and NPC must be named by throwing two darts at a map of Australia. Seriously. It works. Every Australian town sounds like the name of a gnome. Try it! Marla Ravensthorpe. Leonora Cocklebiddy. Roxby Downs. Barkly Opalton. Wagga Wagga Wollongong. Derby Drysdale. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.
I have a Tiefling character and when I was trying to find a name for them, I read the virtue names lore and decided to name them Virtue. They were a Peace cleric, and the idea is that, as part of their faith, they see the act of finding a virtue and choosing to stick to it as itself a virtue.
I'm posting a second comment because I love this topic so much and I can't be stopped. When it comes to True Names, in my setting I have it so speaking a devil's true name gives you power over them, and speaking a demon's true name gives them power over you. Speaking a demon's true name once makes it aware of your presence, twice opens your heart/soul to its influence, and a third time gives it permission to cross the planar barrier and get to you. As a result, demonologists refer to specific demons by epithets rather than their true names. And typically more notable demons have very, very long times. Like, names that take several minutes to pronounce correctly, which is what cultists are chanting when they're trying to summon or worship a fiend.
Just this morning a co-worker and I were coming up with an archfey antagonist for my campaign world who was exiled from the Feywild by his peers for exceeding his ambitions, and he was attempting to harvest joy from children in order to reconnect and return to the Feywild. It was decided that his name was the Duke of Dour Gloaming.
The bit about a Tiefling parent naming their child Sorrow reminds of Wednesday Addams, who was, in universe, named for a nursery rhyme line, "Wednesday's child is full of woe." Like, her mother looked at a baby and was like, "yeah, this kid's gonna be troubled."
I once joined a DM friend’s Witchlight campaign as a one-session guest player. I was a creepy fae character simply introduced as “a friend”. A mossy satyr/goblin type little figure with a wide smile that had far too many sharp little teeth in it.
I keep telling my boyfriend about your "email this to your grandma" line because I think it is the funniest outro. I have of course made it more and more impossible for him to appreciate the hilarity in the line with every explanation of its brilliance.
My favorite D&D names are Kenku names, 'cause they come in the level of "specific sound effect that only Kenku can replicate" and "how everyone describes that sound in Common." So we can have our pirate bird named "[the sound of the hammer being pulled back on a flintlock pistol], or Pistolclick to the rest of you," while our librarian can be "Pageturner... well, [the rustling of someone rapidly flipping through a book to find the right page] to be precise."
I have an English name and a Romani name in addition to a Romani nickname, so this is a favorite topic. Growing up, my impression was always that names had a power over the fae because humans are the only ones with the power to name things. Name a dark forest and we gain power over it. Name a monster and suddenly it seems more coherent and understandable. Might be cause the idea goes back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden, but I have always felt like 'naming' was the one supernatural humans have that gives us an edge over the misbegotten strange things in a more magic world. Naming (and semiotics) is OUR one and only true magic. The experience of the world getting less magical or smaller as we expanded our understanding of it through history, as we name every last square mile on the planet, is just the natural outcome of that supernatural gift given to humankind. Fae (and demons or devils and all the other things) do not protect their names because their names are inherently powerful on their own. Fae protect their names because their names have power *in the hands of a human*, even if that power is merely a diminishment of the named thing's own strength.
i laughed a little at the references to MCDM's "naming conventions" because anytime someone asked matt on stream about his naming conventions and how he comes up with names his answer is basically "is that how things are named? with rules/guidelines? i dont think it is."
I love your "Cooking not Baking" approach to naming cities. I made a city that I literally had no map for that I called "Eastharbor" and just in the name we found out a whole lot out of it.
Talking about fun naming conventions in D&D lore and also the Jellicle Cats, Tabaxi names are my personal favourites. So poetic and tied to the character. Brook in the Vale, Mist of the Morning, Dew on the Window
Halfway through any of Dael's videos I'm always astonished at HOW MUCH stuff there is in them. So many little ideas and glimpses into process. And then the poetry starts. Love. It.
PC: WHY DO YOU CALL IT RAVING RIDGE? NPC: *confused, dancing, points to the river* River: *rave sounds* Also "Tall Mike" makes me think of Fa...-bulous Neil from Community. Faerie name: Fair-wind Nancy, Bottled Bill, the Delightsome Tower
I'm just imagining there are rocks in the river just before a tiny little waterfall. There is also a remarkably stable mass of pebbles on a cliff upstream that are dislodges in rain. As a result, whenever there's a big rain, the result is a steady sound of debris hitting the rocks a half-second before falling down the waterfall. "thump-splash, thump,-splash, thump-splash." The rock gnomes in the area take those opportunities to come and party, and dance while waving about their glowing magical devices.
I had a tiefling bard NPC in my campaign who's name was Limelight. Guaranteed my party wrote him off but will be very surprised when he reappears as a lich.
I like giving dragons a name AND both a complimentary epithet and a derogatory epithet, and then a title: Kathridris Dreadflight, the Tyrant, the Beautiful, the Butcher, the Infinite, He Who Rules the World
A while ago I had a wip where I had to name a lot of fairies. Some of the ones that I really liked were "Larkabout Johnny" "Brickabrack" and "Comethither". Only one of those fits the "cheat formula" but I still like them.
I love the Wee Free Men's 'Not as Wee as Wee Davey but not as big as Medium Davey Davey' for pure silliness but also descriptive flavour. I also like the idea of using this fairy naming approach to Brownies, because surely you'd just wind up with "Hungry Joe" or "Jane of the Cookie Jar." "Milkjug Henry" and "Felix Spindleturner"
❤❤ As a Brazilian, what a joy to see you referencing a relatively small city in the northeastern corner of our country… and using Brazilian Portuguese as a template for naming places in a fantasy setting. You ended up with a beautiful name. Thanks for another precious video.
Ok, I had a thought as you were describing Faerie names, and I had to pause the video to post it. I blame this idea on a friend of mine who associates Fae with stories, The idea of a Faerie's true name being their true role in the course of a story. She is The Maiden, and He, The Hunter
Oh man I'm SO PUMPED for a new arc I thought of bc of what you said about humans! BBEG is a mortal trying to find their true name to unlock their true connection to magic. Please y'all let me know if you gravitate to one of these motives more than the others or have another idea! -Perhaps they are trying to give all material plane beings their true name in order to make the plane dominant? Somewhat understandable motive and could easily have a great backstory for them. Sparks a planar war? -Perhaps they are seizing enough power to cut the connection between all beings and their true names because they believe it to be too much power for any being to possess. That would cause SO much chaos if the party doesn't/can't stop it (hehehehehe end of campaign and start the next one dystopian 100 years later?) -Perhaps the previous point but only cutting the connection of, say, Devils. Their spouse entered a faustian deal to safely deliver their child without the bbeg knowing about the deal. She tells them before dying after childbirth but ..... heheheh fine print...... the child survives the birth but dies 6 months later. Now bbeg has sworn to destroy all Devils -Perhaps they angered some deity who punished them with an Eldrich-style moment of understanding of their true name before it was taken away again. Now they will tirelessly, senselessly, mercilessly, search for their true name because they feel nothing anymore.... less than empty without it. Do they go for the deity afterwards? Do they get driven further into insanity once they learn it bc mortals are not meant for that connection? Is their body possessed by another being (maybe the same deity) as an avatar on the material plane (queue Calamity)? Soooo many possibilities so few campaigns!!!!
I came up with a naming convention that I consider to be quite good for Kenku. It takes the Kenku Mimicry and runs with it. Kenku have two names: their Kenku name, and their Common name. The Kenku name is a literal sound that the parents heard when they were born, while the Common name is the description of that sound. My PC was born to a family that lived near a collection of ruins on the edge of a city that sat perched on a wind-blown cliff top, so he was called Wind-in-Ruins by his party members and the actual sound of wind blowing through ruins at night by his family. I thought it was a really neat thing that leans into part of what makes Kenkus unique.
I run my games as a series of oneshot adventures but it's always the same party each game, so I do have a vaguely defined overall plot (like quest that relate to PC backstories or a 3-4 session long BBEG plot). Because of this often I'll end up creating places unique to that adventure as a result it's become a bit of a running joke in my games that I'll give these places and the establishments in those places silly names to signify that these places aren't important beyond that adventure. Some examples are; Some Town You’re Never Coming Back To, So I Didn’t Bother Coming Up With A Clever Name. There's was a small cluster of villages with the names: This Town, That Town, Your Town, My Town, and Their Town. A trading post named Something Important Sounding, But Not Too Important Sounding. A run down tavern, where the sign on the door read Withered away by time. That being said, the places that I know the party will be going back to a lot like the main hub town have more sensible names as the players may need to remember these location as they will be going back there when we touch upon that vaguely defined overall plot. *edit* When it comes to naming npcs, I generally don't have any race or occupation dependent naming conventions I just name them what ever sounds right, with 3 exceptions: Gnomes, Kobolds, and random npc's that have no story relevance the party want to know the name of. Gnomes always have cute silly names like Gooseberries Mopolopeles no mater their occupation (in my game instead of orc herds I have Gnome herds which makes this quite funny). Kobolds are named after onomatopoeias ie, Bonk or Thud. and those random npc's are given what ever 3-4 letter long name fist pops into my head.
This reminds me of the Witchlight Campaign that I was in. I played a Warforged. A lot of Warforged had names that were their purpose. The intention was that mine was the same. But then they got lost in the Carnival, and then lost something of great importance. Whenever someone asks their name they respond "My name is gone, you cannot have it." The party called me 'Gone'.
In the game Rain World has some excellent names for their bizarre ancient beings such as: "Droplets Upon Five Large Droplets" "Six Grains of Gravel, Mountains Abound" "Looks To The Moon" "Five Pebbles"
Grouping names for "normal folk" by primary ability score is genius, I never would have thought of that. Having specific conventions for highly unusual or magic creatures like dragons or fairies doesn't feel like a contradiction of that great idea
A couple of things I came up with/adopted from who knows where for my homebrew setting: 1) Elves pick their name (and gender) at the age of majority. I picked this one up from Ann Leckie's Provenance. Since elves who live in mixed communities often feel the need to 'graduate with the class,' as it were, you have a whole subset of elves who opted to become adults at 18, instead of 50, and go through a sort of protracted adolescence. 2) Dragons have names, but also titles, and are always 'the' something, because no dragon would accept an indefinite article. 3) Devils collect names, which are the tool by which they forge and enforce deals. Closing enough deals earns new names and promotion to higher orders of devil. Breaking deals takes away the names they are sealed against, demoting the devil. The higher the name they seal the pact against, the greater its power and the more they stand to lose if they are somehow forced to renege. I think I borrowed the basics of this from the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons. 4) Demons collect names. They just pick them up and start using them to take the mick out of devils. 5) Any name a faerie owns eventually becomes its name, with some or all the baggage that entails, so the fey prefer titles or descriptors to names. Names are things they pick up and put down circumstantially. Jack of the Bracken is likely only Jack of the Bracken for his dealings with one specific human or small group of humans, to prevent the name sinking into his bones. To others, he would be the Duke on the Heath, the Lost Boy, or Whistle-Down-the-Wind. Conversely to dragons, a fairy known as Jenny Greenteeth is likely not *the* Jenny Greenteeth, just *a* Jenny Greenteeth.
I once made a Dragonborn path-of-the-beast barbarian for a one shot who was raised from hatching by pixies , so his name was Jellyfrost. The juxtaposition of the name, which represented his personality well, and the animalistic nature that came out when he was angry (usually when civilization was doing bad to the natural world) was a big hit.
I love different name lore in dnd! gnomes collect names (I like to think they trade names and bequeath them in their wills too), kenku names are transliterated into descriptions of a sound central to their identity, elves chose their names as part of their coming of age, tiefling names represent a destiny or aspiration whether chosen by the individual or their family, firbolgs come from a culture that don't use names, dragons see their names as reflecting their importance.
I like to think of a fairy's true name as both a blessing and curse. The name gives them power, but at the same time binds them to a certain fate, or existence. For example, a fairy whose true name is "Conquest" would be powerful, but at the same time it would be forced to "conquer" and wage wars. It creates great anti-hero type villains, they may not even want to do it, but that's their inescapable fate.
Making a simple naming language might be THE most underrated strategy in worldbuilding! Following a guide, you can create a faux language for your setting in just an hour or two. No grammar or dictionary necessary - just a list of sounds and how they legally combine. Here are the advantages: - Your world will feel real, because people and places will have unique names like in the real world (instead of English names like they often do in fiction) - Each culture gets a distinct naming convention which is wholly unique to your setting - You can show off relationships between different cultures through their language - You can design your language to subtly evoke real-world cultures without being an obvious clone - You can easily come up with personal names using the constraints imposed by your naming language - It sets up an "iceberg effect," where your players will believe that the world is far more fleshed out than what you've shown them Given how easy it is, I think it's totally worth the time. Worldbuilders spend way more time freaking out about much smaller things.
3.5 fairy name I came up with recently, a "petal" (1.5' tall, 3 lb. winged fey with hair and wings the color of flowers and wearing tiny leaves woven or sewn into clothing) named Noddin Rose, so called for the rose-red color of his hair and wings and the fact that he often nods to himself to emphasize what he's saying. Someone called him Nodding Rose but he didn't like the "g" sound, so he dropped it when he tells mortals what they can call him. Most petals are NG, and act as mere servantsm messengers, and attendants for more powerful fey, being 1 hit die, sometimes advancing to 2 or 3 hit dice due to surviving long enough. Petals are known for helping travelers get a good, comfortable, and long night's sleep, whether they want it or not, and they do so by singing lullaby and sleep magic. Noddin Rose however is a rare petal who was fascinated by more arcane and eldritch magics, was blessed with superior abilities, and has mastered several levels in both bard and warlock classes, and while he seldom acts the part, has essentially become a significant member of the Seelie Court...
Just want to add something here from my actual life. At one point I was in a department where 5 Jessicas all sat together. We got annoyed with everyone coming over and just saying "Jessica" and catching all of us off guard. So one of us got to be Jessica. Another went by Jess. And two of us went by our last names only. I think sometimes people avoid reusing names in RPGs, but in the real world these kinds of things happen OFTEN. I've been able to execute this idea in my RPGs before - 2 shopkeepers in nearby cities had the same first name. They sold DRASTICALLY different things (one was an herbalist and the other a map maker). People mixed them up all the time and the players loved making jokes about it. Sometimes another NPC would annoy them and they would send them to the wrong shop keeper on purpose. But yeah, tl;dr give multiple NPCs the same name and enjoy
I really enjoyed Brennan Lee Mulligan’s lore about names in Worlds Beyond Number where the more names/titles a “great spirit” has, the more powerful it’s meant to be. Was terrifying to learn after the party met a spirit who had 3 names/titles.
Your approach to attribute-based character naming is really compelling, and it adds a unique depth to character creation. Applying the same principle to locations, using names that symbolize their role or significance in the setting, is a fantastic tip that I'll definitely utilize. The concept of adapting T.S. Eliot's 'naming of cats' to characters-assigning them a common, dignified, and secret name-strikes me as incredibly ingenious. This could add a new dimension when creating characters for the Faewild; the secret name could potentially act as their 'true name.' Love the thoughtfulness that's been put into these ideas!
My favourite dragon name is, naturally, Vermithrax Pejorative - "The Worm of Thrace which Makes Things Worse" And, speaking of dragons, the slayer of Glaurung - Túrin Turambar - called himself Agarwaen son of Úmarth (Bloodstained son of Ill-Fate). I always liked the idea that Ursula K le Guin used in her Earthsea stories - that knowing the True Name of something gives you power over it
I love the idea of magic from knowing your true name Sorcerers know it inherently, but that brings risk of sharing it, especially with a fae. Wizards are working to learn theirs. Clerics have been gifted the knowledge of their gods true name,druids the land they protect, and warlocks have stollen their patrons. That last part needs work, and I don't know how to work in half casters
Fairy name: Let's see. Start with a less than common name from one of the more than common races. Then mush it with something about the being since it's an outwardly given name. Maybe an event or place they frequent. Ooh, I've got one. Dael Kingsmill fits the criteriia
I don't have a faerie name but Ghlower Craghwind the Black sails on massive leathery wings, haunting the entire southern coastline. Her reputation(read: legend) stretches along the winding road from the township of Shoreway to the decedent gardens of the capital, Coronation.
When you talk about Fae names, I'm reminded of Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song and the notion of binding your True Name inside a Taken Name in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.
As the Party marches southward, past Covered Brook Town, a gentle flute plays a series of Cs and Gs, and everyone looses their weapons from their scabbards; cautious that Knucklebone Henry, the Pan-Player of Pity lurks nearby...
In my current game, the king accidentally pronounced the PCs the "Winter Champions" because they won a midwinter tournament. THE Winter Champion, a powerful fae knight, appeared to accept the challenge and wrecked the party
1. The Man in the Moon (Stolen from pop culture but I think there's something charming in a figure everyone's heard of but no one knows the origin) 2. William Blake the King of the Hollow (a fey snached child who became a king in human lands) 3. Mr. Litwick (a fey who works as a gentleman merchant but always with goods and prices just beyond sense)
I had a lot of fun naming spirits in my world of darkness game. I like the idea of an aspect to non-human sentience being that others can manipulate who you are at a deep level. The faeries who repairs shoes, for instance, probably did not start that way, but their interaction with some hero of the past changed their nature to be helpful. So, my favorite name from the new world of darkness was a spirit of a botanical garden named Six Trellis Climber. A group had formed a temporary cult with the goal of transforming this Spirit into something more dangerous that they could control. If the players had not stopped the cult, I would have had the Spirit take on a new true name.
I once ran a one-shot adventure (that took 4 sessions to play :P) where the party were caught up in a conflict between an archfey and an ex-warlock of his. The gimmick of the whole shebang was using names to gain power over each character. Everyone was referring to the NPCs in jumbled acronyms and the conflict arose when the warlock learned his master's true name. Both sides tried to appeal to the party and they had to decide who to align with. It was very fun!
For my first Tiefling character, I took inspiration from a local homeless shelter. I don't remember the exact wording, but the shelter's name was meant to be like Mercy House, but it became known as the Misery House. I ended up naming my Tiefling character Misery, but, in game canon, he was supposed to be named Mercy.
My favorite NPC was a fairy with the stage-name Brock Honeybug. He was a world famous bard that talked like Dusty Rhodes and had a variety of nicknames (the Dean of Desire, the Earl of Ecstacy, the Leprechaun of Love). The party desperately wanted to learn his true name, and when they found out it was Gildy Cabbage and confronted him with it, the fairy lost all of his power and became an emo artist going through an existential crisis. Of course this lead to a Quest into the feywild to return Brock to his old (and much less obnoxious) self. So much fun!
I forgot about the Imp of Infatuation, the Duke of Debauchery, the Locust of Lust, the Fiend of Fidelity, the Rogue of Rapture, and my personal favorite: the Bootybug
I had a fey pact warlock player whose entire family were named after precious stones. Their patron was an anise hag called Granny Snaggletooth. She regularly played cards (using a deck of many things) with the BBEG, an archfey called Madam Magpie, the jealous sister of the Raven Queen.
I like the idea of fairies almost representing concepts found in the material plane - one I came up with is Samson's Silks. He's a fairy who is all the things that you know someone to have, but you never think of. Of course Samson had silks, he was a powerful hero, but that's never the important part. Samson's Silks is powerful in the sense that no matter where he is, people will either just accept that he belongs there, or just sort of passively acknowledge them, meaning he learns a lot of things.
My tiefling sorcerer's power came to light as a young adult, and she was compelled to leave her home - abandoning the life she was building - to uphold tradition and protect her people from her untested powers. In her resentment and mourning the life she would not be allowed to fulfill, she took the name Lacuna: an unfilled space or interval; a gap
I’ve always liked quality/virtue names for tieflings. Some of my favorites have been Exoneration, Temperance, Heaven… especially for true-breeding tieflings in cities, these sort of names tell you so much about their place in society.
I came up with a sea hag villain for my pirate campaign named captain Jill salt eyes. She collect sailors lost in the sea of the feywild to join her crew called the neverdead, imagine davy Jones’ crew mixed with the lost boys from peter pan. Jill was a name given to her by her crew so they had something to refer to her with, and salt eyes was a nickname given to her by her victims because her face is horrifying enough to bring salty tears to your eye, or maybe she got it because people who saw her ship thought that they where just seeing things because they had salt water in their eyes. Also she like to mutate her crew with magic. Like she made one guy infinitely grow teeth to use as amo in his gun.
One excellent source for fey names is the 13 Yule Lads of Iceland. A lot of them boil down to "Noun Verb-er", like Candle Stealer, Door Slammer, or Spoon Licker. A few break that convention, like Stubby and Gully Gawk. They were a big source of inspiration for me when DMing some campaigns for Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, which is a lovely little OSR game with a lot of importance given to True Names. I love the tone and aesthetic of the setting, and one thing it does is give all fey, demons, spirits, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. a true name, and there are specific mechanical benefits to learning an entity's True Name. Also, gaining a True Name unlocks the system's equivalent of feats for player characters. There is a lot to love about the system and I recommend it. Anyways, I came up with some fey names, both True and not, that I enjoyed a lot, like Takesies Backsies, Minister Nicholas, or just stealing Yule Lad names.
On the topic of Virtue Names, the actual play podcast The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One (from Worlds Beyond Number by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Lou Wilson, and Erika Ishii) has something similar with the Citadel Wizards of their setting. In the first episode, during a scene introducing Suvi’s - Aabria’s character’s - parents, Brennan asked Aabria for a single word that described each of them. The mother became Stone, and the father Soft - both names taken on by them as Wizards of the Citadel. There’s also names like Pain and Morrow. I really love the idea of these sorts of names, ones that describe aspects of the character plainly.
My wife has a friend, let's call her "Amy" because I can't give her true name in public. She's only about 5' tall. When we meet old friends, they ask my wife, "Have you heard from Amy?" while holding one hand about 5' off the ground. It's as if this hand sign is part of her identity. My takeaway from that is the idea of having NPCs talk about important NPCs in a way that visually identifies them. Instead of calling someone Big Steve, have the NPC mention Steve while gesturing upwards. Make a gesture like stroking a goatee while mentioning an NPC, signifying their facial hair. Done effectively, the party might encounter the NPC in question and "recognize" them from just their reputation plus that one gesture. Also, like Will imitating Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates movie, it can emphasize details to help the party remember them -- if the people in the town remember the NPC in that way, it helps lock the description in for the players.
The Fae and Demonic stuff made me think of Mxyzptlk from Superman. Superman always has to trick Mxyzptlk into saying his name backwards in order to banish him back to the 5th dimension.
Good to know I'm on the same page as a you on a lot of this stuff. My personal homebrew fantasy setting is centered around a massive magical metropolis called Amalgam, where humans, elves, and dwarves live alongside monsters, undead, and outsiders. The major factions vying for power and control in the city all have simple, easy to remember names (the Battalion, the Sewer Rats, the Ancients, the Freakshow, etc.). As do most of the neighborhoods (Seven Hills, the Towers, the Grotto, the Foundry, etc.)
I've only played one tiefling, and I love her name. Her half brothers preexisted her, and were named Michael and James the Strange. So along comes Sarah, very on brand for her dad, but as a rogue, she gave herself the name Surreptitious. Also, I'm from Pennsylvania, and my dwarf clan is the Keystone family.
I got a hag shopkeeper named Marcella Crittercackle in my DnD campaign who tricks adventures into the nearby swamp by offering to pay them handsomely for random ingredients, and them ambushing them and selling their stuff from her store.
Two of my lore-building names I'm proud of actually follow two of the principles you mentioned! Naming a place after a word/quality of the place: the biggest independent city-state on my continent, which prides itself on its populace's diversity and locale's beauty, is named Mosaic. Giving a person a name yourself because they won't or in this case can't: I once played a Kenku who was adopted by Halflings as a baby who hadn't yet heard any speech and could really only mimic one or two sounds. The first sound her adoptive parents heard her mimic was cricket calls, so they named her Cricket, and it stuck.
I do a similar naming system for dragons in my worlds! I give them a string of accumulated titles (with younger dragons only having one or two, and adult and ancient dragons gaining accumulated strings), and then usually translate a snippet of it into draconic and use that as their "shorthand" name. (e.g. from my recent campaigns: "Vythveri, the Distant Roll of Thunder in Steelrooted Mountains"; "Aujiirkapest, the Stormsong Above Soft Rivers"; "Kae'ervik, the Whispered Nightmare, Dancer in Shadows, Slayer of Wizards, Silver Death") Incidentally, I knew my system was working when the two times I gave dragons names that deliberately messed with that format, the players *immediately* picked up on it and went "Waaaiiiit, something's going on here". (One dragon simply called "The Lorelei", because a group of mages spitefully & deliberately eradicated knowledge of the rest of her name over several centuries, and one so ancient she refuses any shorthand or nickname and is always addressed in full as "The Fractal Aurora, Light of Divine Augury Illuminating Starlit Snow On a Clear Night")
“Your name is Scream?” “Well, not exactly. When I first crossed paths with your kind, I was called The First Scream of Summer, but you all tend to like short names, and introducing myself as [*screams like they’re being murdered*] tends to put people off, so generally, Scream it is.”
My player and I worked on making his faerie rogue (Pixie) together. He used a warrior cats name generator to come up with Crystal Blossom Lakewhisper as his given name. His True Name was Mi, as in the third note that was played when a trio of icicles landed on a frozen pond, birthing Do, Rey, and Mi.
The most significant group of fae in my current homebrew campaign are a series of river spirits (because classic Greek mythology has permeated so much of D&D's base assumptions, so nereids are fey) known collectively as the Daughters of the Rille, after the lake that the rivers all flow into or out of. The party has wisely(?) never asking any of them for their names, so I tend to refer to them by honorifics tied to their river, such as Lady Par for the spirit of the river Par, or the Lady of the Roar (the paladin's fey patron) for the spirit they meet at a waterfall. Also, for dragon names: the Dragon Shout syllables from Skyrim work beautifully to construct names with. So you gets names like Rahgolsu'um, Paaroblaan, and Grahkrest.
She brought up the Tiefling virtue names so I had to share the story of how my character got her name. Her parents were very devout humans who brought her to a mysterious abbot the night she was born because she came out with red skin and horns. She was going to be named Izabel but after her parents pleaded with the abbot and donated nearly all of their wealth to the abbey, they instead named her Penance. They did so as a sign of their (and her) gratitude for the abbot's help and their lifelong devotion to their god. In return, the abbot informed them of the necessary ritual to turn their daughter into a human.
For a fairy PC, I named him Clover, due to him being small (technically Tiny) and having short hair that sticks out like a clover. He is weak by feywild standards- no influence politically or physically- and thus can follow the standard adventurer path while within the material plane. It’s also meant to be slightly ironic, since he’s a rune knight fighter (though whether or not he is aware of the irony of his name is up for debate, since fey have very different ideas about names). However, I also have a very powerful archfey, which means he a) doesn’t need a common name like an adventurer and b) imo, should have a name befitting of his role. He essentially is a very high-up person in fey courts whose one role is to start shit. He doesn’t have a title that’s applicable to anything in mortal courts, as literally all he does is trade secrets about the other fey depending on his whims. So, I call him Snake in the Grass. I love having names be a cross between a phrase and a title, and I also like to think that he wouldn’t even have a common name attached to him, since he’s an untrustworthy figure that others would be loath to call even by a fake name.
Another amazing vid from Dael. I yelled (at a reasonable volume in my head) when she said Brutus, as we just had a strong NPC by that name die during a sending spell *gasp*. Aside from that, fascinating content as always, thank you!
I love figuring out names for the characters I create, and I have done everything you mentioned. One of my favorite rules for Gnomes is long, ridiculous, hard-to-pronounce, and multisyllabic for men, but easy names for women.
I’ve been infatuated for some time with the idea that all (Arcane) magic users MUST know their own True Name: Wizards discover it through diligent study. Sorcerers are born with inmate understanding of their own True Name. Warlocks are told their True Name by their Patron (and this knowledge may also be part of the hold the Patron has over them). I don’t really fit Artificer’s into this scheme, but I would argue they’re basically a Wizard variant.
You make great points in this video, thanks! In my opinion, one of the masterpieces of naming is Twin Peaks. It's amazing how Lynch portrays the most terrifying evil spirits behind everyday names like "Bob", "Mike", or (shudder) "Judy". The combination you mention of something familiar with something twisted is a powerful creative technique. I first learned about it in statements by Brian W. Aldiss, I think, but certainly many great authors have used it.
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I came up with a fairy name that I'm really proud of. A fairy was asked what it's name was, and so it looked around and named the first thing it saw. "Nighttime". I love the idea that this creature looked around and instead of perceiving anything in the scene, it saw the time of day. It's just a little alien to think as the time of day as an object at hand. And then my players used Nighttime like a name for 4 sessions, and it was cool
I kind of like the idea of a fey character doing that every single time that they're asked their name. Just always naming the first thing they notice.
This story is giving me SCP-4000 vibes.
Every "Mike" Dael has ever hung out with just asked themselves "am I the one with the annoying laugh?"
For a while I had like eight Mikes in my group. Last names helped a lot, but like half of those could also have been first names.
"Am I British Mike?"
My life is filled with Daves. There are SOOO many. Sometimes I just say "other Dave" without specifying which other Dave. None of them seem to care.
Plot Twist: It's all of them.
After gaining the favor from an Archfey she promised she’d send some help at a time the party needed it. He showed up without introduction and someone asked “are you the help?” And he responds “sure that name works, I’m The Help”
12:27 When one of my cousins was very young she very solemnly told me that when you are naming a cat, it's important to remember that they have magic.
I appropriately named both my cats after mages: Merlin and Maleficent
I love the idea of feys "creating" complex names and languages to throw off mortals from finding their true "simple" names
I love how most of the Monarch’s Factory videos I’ve seen are just an idea that Dael can’t get out of her mind so she has to talk about it.
Especially because if it's an idea she can't get out of her mind, it means that it's probably something that I have worried about before but already gave up on.
Most? Which ones have I missed???
@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3I noticed what your handle was and had to let you know I appreciate it.
@@CapnAlces thank you, I think you're only the second person to notice in all the years I've been on TH-cam!
@@lughness3382 She use to even have a label for them. I don't recall the acronym.
My favorite part of giving Dragons loads of titles, is having the party learn about 5 dragons and then it turns out they're all the same one.
Favorite comment so far as I’m scrolling through them. ❤
Oh that's a fun idea
That MCDM True Name isn't just any old sheet music. It's the opening riff to For Whom the Bell Tolls.
I have a fairy that regularly helps people in exchange for strange favors and the like, almost a reverse Hag in the sense that it’s helpful but never quite what you asked for. His name is “Next Tuesday” because the first person that he helped he told to come back in a week and the person thanked him and then said see you next Tuesday, as a declaration. He mistook that for a goodbye and he was so touched that a mortal gave him a name that he kept it.
My favorite naming scheme of Forgotten Realms’ dragons is when they have a crazy name that gets reduced to common, which then becomes a regular word. This is how the word “inferno” became a word in common, from the ancient red dragon “Imvaernarho.” So fun.
Also easy to work back from; find an evocative word in common and bastardize it into something close but strange enough to sound like a name
I hope Dael doesn't take offense to this, but I have a rule in my D&D campaign world: every gnome character and NPC must be named by throwing two darts at a map of Australia.
Seriously. It works. Every Australian town sounds like the name of a gnome.
Try it!
Marla Ravensthorpe. Leonora Cocklebiddy. Roxby Downs. Barkly Opalton. Wagga Wagga Wollongong. Derby Drysdale.
I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.
Tiefling "virtue" names is one of my favourite aspects of all DnD lore
There's just so much story to tell with them. Why was this person named Nemesis, or Memory, or Conquest? It gets across so much in so little time
I have a Tiefling character and when I was trying to find a name for them, I read the virtue names lore and decided to name them Virtue. They were a Peace cleric, and the idea is that, as part of their faith, they see the act of finding a virtue and choosing to stick to it as itself a virtue.
I'm posting a second comment because I love this topic so much and I can't be stopped. When it comes to True Names, in my setting I have it so speaking a devil's true name gives you power over them, and speaking a demon's true name gives them power over you. Speaking a demon's true name once makes it aware of your presence, twice opens your heart/soul to its influence, and a third time gives it permission to cross the planar barrier and get to you. As a result, demonologists refer to specific demons by epithets rather than their true names. And typically more notable demons have very, very long times. Like, names that take several minutes to pronounce correctly, which is what cultists are chanting when they're trying to summon or worship a fiend.
Everythig about this is dope as hell
@@MonarchsFactory
A Demon named John Wick, has much power
That is delectably fun sounding. What delicious world-building.
I concur with Dael, this is dope as hell (and its mine now, thank you)
Beetlejuice…
Just this morning a co-worker and I were coming up with an archfey antagonist for my campaign world who was exiled from the Feywild by his peers for exceeding his ambitions, and he was attempting to harvest joy from children in order to reconnect and return to the Feywild. It was decided that his name was the Duke of Dour Gloaming.
PERFECT archfey name!
Thin white Duke is always an option
The bit about a Tiefling parent naming their child Sorrow reminds of Wednesday Addams, who was, in universe, named for a nursery rhyme line, "Wednesday's child is full of woe." Like, her mother looked at a baby and was like, "yeah, this kid's gonna be troubled."
Technically its only cannon in the Wednesday show but it is based on how the original creator came up with the name
Can we request a supercut of you doing gnomish names in that high pitched gnome voice please. 😂
I haven't even watched the video yet and I still want this.
I second this
1:25
I third and fourth this.
I plus one this
I LOVE the idea of a true name being something like a tune.
Also, an idea for naming a fey, use a name they recieved when they once asked someone "can I have your name?"
I once joined a DM friend’s Witchlight campaign as a one-session guest player. I was a creepy fae character simply introduced as “a friend”. A mossy satyr/goblin type little figure with a wide smile that had far too many sharp little teeth in it.
I keep telling my boyfriend about your "email this to your grandma" line because I think it is the funniest outro. I have of course made it more and more impossible for him to appreciate the hilarity in the line with every explanation of its brilliance.
My favorite D&D names are Kenku names, 'cause they come in the level of "specific sound effect that only Kenku can replicate" and "how everyone describes that sound in Common." So we can have our pirate bird named "[the sound of the hammer being pulled back on a flintlock pistol], or Pistolclick to the rest of you," while our librarian can be "Pageturner... well, [the rustling of someone rapidly flipping through a book to find the right page] to be precise."
I have an English name and a Romani name in addition to a Romani nickname, so this is a favorite topic.
Growing up, my impression was always that names had a power over the fae because humans are the only ones with the power to name things. Name a dark forest and we gain power over it. Name a monster and suddenly it seems more coherent and understandable. Might be cause the idea goes back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden, but I have always felt like 'naming' was the one supernatural humans have that gives us an edge over the misbegotten strange things in a more magic world. Naming (and semiotics) is OUR one and only true magic.
The experience of the world getting less magical or smaller as we expanded our understanding of it through history, as we name every last square mile on the planet, is just the natural outcome of that supernatural gift given to humankind.
Fae (and demons or devils and all the other things) do not protect their names because their names are inherently powerful on their own. Fae protect their names because their names have power *in the hands of a human*, even if that power is merely a diminishment of the named thing's own strength.
This is such a cool way of thinking about it
Your uncle , Mr kettlewell, a teacher in Australia put your videos on in my elective history class
I'm minding the background. This is what an evil Dael Kingsmill video would look like
i laughed a little at the references to MCDM's "naming conventions" because anytime someone asked matt on stream about his naming conventions and how he comes up with names his answer is basically "is that how things are named? with rules/guidelines? i dont think it is."
Yeah, I don't think he has rules for naming, but I think he has patterns that float to the surface here and there
I love your "Cooking not Baking" approach to naming cities.
I made a city that I literally had no map for that I called "Eastharbor" and just in the name we found out a whole lot out of it.
Talking about fun naming conventions in D&D lore and also the Jellicle Cats, Tabaxi names are my personal favourites. So poetic and tied to the character. Brook in the Vale, Mist of the Morning, Dew on the Window
I find Tabaxi names wonderful. I played one in a desert-themed setting named Ghost upon Sands who I remember fondly.
The chosen name I had a Tabaxi NPC give my adventure party was Fisher, "because Tummyfull of Fish sounds wonderful yet too optimistic."
1:05 Ah, yes. The legendary Gnomish blacksmith. Shrinklilly, the Swoll.
Halfway through any of Dael's videos I'm always astonished at HOW MUCH stuff there is in them. So many little ideas and glimpses into process.
And then the poetry starts. Love. It.
PC: WHY DO YOU CALL IT RAVING RIDGE?
NPC: *confused, dancing, points to the river*
River: *rave sounds*
Also "Tall Mike" makes me think of Fa...-bulous Neil from Community.
Faerie name: Fair-wind Nancy, Bottled Bill, the Delightsome Tower
I'm just imagining there are rocks in the river just before a tiny little waterfall. There is also a remarkably stable mass of pebbles on a cliff upstream that are dislodges in rain. As a result, whenever there's a big rain, the result is a steady sound of debris hitting the rocks a half-second before falling down the waterfall. "thump-splash, thump,-splash, thump-splash." The rock gnomes in the area take those opportunities to come and party, and dance while waving about their glowing magical devices.
@@SingularityOrbit Eeheehee YES
@@sukihornplayer4 We call that waterfall 'the drop.'
@@crouchingmarker 😆 Ha!
the concept of true names being a musical tune gave me goosebumps, thats so cool!
The name in question is actually the opening riff from Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
My Glitchling bard whose name is opening to Cheval by Igorrr feels validated
@@starrmont4981I never bothered to try and figure this out, but knowing Matt's taste in music, I knew it would be something dope.
I had a tiefling bard NPC in my campaign who's name was Limelight. Guaranteed my party wrote him off but will be very surprised when he reappears as a lich.
I like giving dragons a name AND both a complimentary epithet and a derogatory epithet, and then a title:
Kathridris Dreadflight, the Tyrant, the Beautiful, the Butcher, the Infinite, He Who Rules the World
Me: "Wait, did the back-"
Dael: "IT'S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!"
Me: "Ok, let's talk about names, then."
A while ago I had a wip where I had to name a lot of fairies. Some of the ones that I really liked were "Larkabout Johnny" "Brickabrack" and "Comethither". Only one of those fits the "cheat formula" but I still like them.
I love the idea of one dragon per type and the way the communities interact with them and name them like a geological feature
I love the Wee Free Men's 'Not as Wee as Wee Davey but not as big as Medium Davey Davey' for pure silliness but also descriptive flavour.
I also like the idea of using this fairy naming approach to Brownies, because surely you'd just wind up with "Hungry Joe" or "Jane of the Cookie Jar." "Milkjug Henry" and "Felix Spindleturner"
❤❤ As a Brazilian, what a joy to see you referencing a relatively small city in the northeastern corner of our country… and using Brazilian Portuguese as a template for naming places in a fantasy setting. You ended up with a beautiful name. Thanks for another precious video.
Ok, I had a thought as you were describing Faerie names, and I had to pause the video to post it.
I blame this idea on a friend of mine who associates Fae with stories,
The idea of a Faerie's true name being their true role in the course of a story. She is The Maiden, and He, The Hunter
Oh man I'm SO PUMPED for a new arc I thought of bc of what you said about humans! BBEG is a mortal trying to find their true name to unlock their true connection to magic. Please y'all let me know if you gravitate to one of these motives more than the others or have another idea!
-Perhaps they are trying to give all material plane beings their true name in order to make the plane dominant? Somewhat understandable motive and could easily have a great backstory for them. Sparks a planar war?
-Perhaps they are seizing enough power to cut the connection between all beings and their true names because they believe it to be too much power for any being to possess. That would cause SO much chaos if the party doesn't/can't stop it (hehehehehe end of campaign and start the next one dystopian 100 years later?)
-Perhaps the previous point but only cutting the connection of, say, Devils. Their spouse entered a faustian deal to safely deliver their child without the bbeg knowing about the deal. She tells them before dying after childbirth but ..... heheheh fine print...... the child survives the birth but dies 6 months later. Now bbeg has sworn to destroy all Devils
-Perhaps they angered some deity who punished them with an Eldrich-style moment of understanding of their true name before it was taken away again. Now they will tirelessly, senselessly, mercilessly, search for their true name because they feel nothing anymore.... less than empty without it. Do they go for the deity afterwards? Do they get driven further into insanity once they learn it bc mortals are not meant for that connection? Is their body possessed by another being (maybe the same deity) as an avatar on the material plane (queue Calamity)?
Soooo many possibilities so few campaigns!!!!
Thistlevein seems like a Fae name, though not an actual name, but one they would allow themselves to be called.
I came up with a naming convention that I consider to be quite good for Kenku. It takes the Kenku Mimicry and runs with it. Kenku have two names: their Kenku name, and their Common name. The Kenku name is a literal sound that the parents heard when they were born, while the Common name is the description of that sound. My PC was born to a family that lived near a collection of ruins on the edge of a city that sat perched on a wind-blown cliff top, so he was called Wind-in-Ruins by his party members and the actual sound of wind blowing through ruins at night by his family. I thought it was a really neat thing that leans into part of what makes Kenkus unique.
I run my games as a series of oneshot adventures but it's always the same party each game, so I do have a vaguely defined overall plot (like quest that relate to PC backstories or a 3-4 session long BBEG plot). Because of this often I'll end up creating places unique to that adventure as a result it's become a bit of a running joke in my games that I'll give these places and the establishments in those places silly names to signify that these places aren't important beyond that adventure. Some examples are; Some Town You’re Never Coming Back To, So I Didn’t Bother Coming Up With A Clever Name. There's was a small cluster of villages with the names: This Town, That Town, Your Town, My Town, and Their Town. A trading post named Something Important Sounding, But Not Too Important Sounding. A run down tavern, where the sign on the door read Withered away by time.
That being said, the places that I know the party will be going back to a lot like the main hub town have more sensible names as the players may need to remember these location as they will be going back there when we touch upon that vaguely defined overall plot.
*edit*
When it comes to naming npcs, I generally don't have any race or occupation dependent naming conventions I just name them what ever sounds right, with 3 exceptions: Gnomes, Kobolds, and random npc's that have no story relevance the party want to know the name of. Gnomes always have cute silly names like Gooseberries Mopolopeles no mater their occupation (in my game instead of orc herds I have Gnome herds which makes this quite funny). Kobolds are named after onomatopoeias ie, Bonk or Thud. and those random npc's are given what ever 3-4 letter long name fist pops into my head.
Dael's right. Susanna Clarke's absolutely nailed unsettling fey names.
This reminds me of the Witchlight Campaign that I was in. I played a Warforged. A lot of Warforged had names that were their purpose. The intention was that mine was the same. But then they got lost in the Carnival, and then lost something of great importance.
Whenever someone asks their name they respond "My name is gone, you cannot have it."
The party called me 'Gone'.
In the game Rain World has some excellent names for their bizarre ancient beings such as:
"Droplets Upon Five Large Droplets"
"Six Grains of Gravel, Mountains Abound"
"Looks To The Moon"
"Five Pebbles"
Dael Kingsmill inadvertantly being inspired by mythology!? Truly no one could have foreseen this. 😜
Grouping names for "normal folk" by primary ability score is genius, I never would have thought of that. Having specific conventions for highly unusual or magic creatures like dragons or fairies doesn't feel like a contradiction of that great idea
I have always been fond of Bob Mortimer's cat names
A couple of things I came up with/adopted from who knows where for my homebrew setting:
1) Elves pick their name (and gender) at the age of majority. I picked this one up from Ann Leckie's Provenance. Since elves who live in mixed communities often feel the need to 'graduate with the class,' as it were, you have a whole subset of elves who opted to become adults at 18, instead of 50, and go through a sort of protracted adolescence.
2) Dragons have names, but also titles, and are always 'the' something, because no dragon would accept an indefinite article.
3) Devils collect names, which are the tool by which they forge and enforce deals. Closing enough deals earns new names and promotion to higher orders of devil. Breaking deals takes away the names they are sealed against, demoting the devil. The higher the name they seal the pact against, the greater its power and the more they stand to lose if they are somehow forced to renege. I think I borrowed the basics of this from the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons.
4) Demons collect names. They just pick them up and start using them to take the mick out of devils.
5) Any name a faerie owns eventually becomes its name, with some or all the baggage that entails, so the fey prefer titles or descriptors to names. Names are things they pick up and put down circumstantially. Jack of the Bracken is likely only Jack of the Bracken for his dealings with one specific human or small group of humans, to prevent the name sinking into his bones. To others, he would be the Duke on the Heath, the Lost Boy, or Whistle-Down-the-Wind. Conversely to dragons, a fairy known as Jenny Greenteeth is likely not *the* Jenny Greenteeth, just *a* Jenny Greenteeth.
To feed the algorithm I hereby submit the fey name "Twigfingers Maddy" as tribute
I once made a Dragonborn path-of-the-beast barbarian for a one shot who was raised from hatching by pixies , so his name was Jellyfrost. The juxtaposition of the name, which represented his personality well, and the animalistic nature that came out when he was angry (usually when civilization was doing bad to the natural world) was a big hit.
I love different name lore in dnd! gnomes collect names (I like to think they trade names and bequeath them in their wills too), kenku names are transliterated into descriptions of a sound central to their identity, elves chose their names as part of their coming of age, tiefling names represent a destiny or aspiration whether chosen by the individual or their family, firbolgs come from a culture that don't use names, dragons see their names as reflecting their importance.
I like to think of a fairy's true name as both a blessing and curse. The name gives them power, but at the same time binds them to a certain fate, or existence. For example, a fairy whose true name is "Conquest" would be powerful, but at the same time it would be forced to "conquer" and wage wars. It creates great anti-hero type villains, they may not even want to do it, but that's their inescapable fate.
Making a simple naming language might be THE most underrated strategy in worldbuilding!
Following a guide, you can create a faux language for your setting in just an hour or two. No grammar or dictionary necessary - just a list of sounds and how they legally combine.
Here are the advantages:
- Your world will feel real, because people and places will have unique names like in the real world (instead of English names like they often do in fiction)
- Each culture gets a distinct naming convention which is wholly unique to your setting
- You can show off relationships between different cultures through their language
- You can design your language to subtly evoke real-world cultures without being an obvious clone
- You can easily come up with personal names using the constraints imposed by your naming language
- It sets up an "iceberg effect," where your players will believe that the world is far more fleshed out than what you've shown them
Given how easy it is, I think it's totally worth the time. Worldbuilders spend way more time freaking out about much smaller things.
3.5 fairy name I came up with recently, a "petal" (1.5' tall, 3 lb. winged fey with hair and wings the color of flowers and wearing tiny leaves woven or sewn into clothing) named Noddin Rose, so called for the rose-red color of his hair and wings and the fact that he often nods to himself to emphasize what he's saying.
Someone called him Nodding Rose but he didn't like the "g" sound, so he dropped it when he tells mortals what they can call him. Most petals are NG, and act as mere servantsm messengers, and attendants for more powerful fey, being 1 hit die, sometimes advancing to 2 or 3 hit dice due to surviving long enough. Petals are known for helping travelers get a good, comfortable, and long night's sleep, whether they want it or not, and they do so by singing lullaby and sleep magic.
Noddin Rose however is a rare petal who was fascinated by more arcane and eldritch magics, was blessed with superior abilities, and has mastered several levels in both bard and warlock classes, and while he seldom acts the part, has essentially become a significant member of the Seelie Court...
Just want to add something here from my actual life. At one point I was in a department where 5 Jessicas all sat together. We got annoyed with everyone coming over and just saying "Jessica" and catching all of us off guard. So one of us got to be Jessica. Another went by Jess. And two of us went by our last names only. I think sometimes people avoid reusing names in RPGs, but in the real world these kinds of things happen OFTEN. I've been able to execute this idea in my RPGs before - 2 shopkeepers in nearby cities had the same first name. They sold DRASTICALLY different things (one was an herbalist and the other a map maker). People mixed them up all the time and the players loved making jokes about it. Sometimes another NPC would annoy them and they would send them to the wrong shop keeper on purpose. But yeah, tl;dr give multiple NPCs the same name and enjoy
I really enjoyed Brennan Lee Mulligan’s lore about names in Worlds Beyond Number where the more names/titles a “great spirit” has, the more powerful it’s meant to be. Was terrifying to learn after the party met a spirit who had 3 names/titles.
Your approach to attribute-based character naming is really compelling, and it adds a unique depth to character creation. Applying the same principle to locations, using names that symbolize their role or significance in the setting, is a fantastic tip that I'll definitely utilize.
The concept of adapting T.S. Eliot's 'naming of cats' to characters-assigning them a common, dignified, and secret name-strikes me as incredibly ingenious. This could add a new dimension when creating characters for the Faewild; the secret name could potentially act as their 'true name.' Love the thoughtfulness that's been put into these ideas!
My favourite dragon name is, naturally, Vermithrax Pejorative - "The Worm of Thrace which Makes Things Worse"
And, speaking of dragons, the slayer of Glaurung - Túrin Turambar - called himself Agarwaen son of Úmarth (Bloodstained son of Ill-Fate).
I always liked the idea that Ursula K le Guin used in her Earthsea stories - that knowing the True Name of something gives you power over it
I love the idea of magic from knowing your true name
Sorcerers know it inherently, but that brings risk of sharing it, especially with a fae.
Wizards are working to learn theirs.
Clerics have been gifted the knowledge of their gods true name,druids the land they protect, and warlocks have stollen their patrons.
That last part needs work, and I don't know how to work in half casters
Fairy name: Let's see. Start with a less than common name from one of the more than common races. Then mush it with something about the being since it's an outwardly given name. Maybe an event or place they frequent. Ooh, I've got one.
Dael Kingsmill fits the criteriia
I don't have a faerie name but Ghlower Craghwind the Black sails on massive leathery wings, haunting the entire southern coastline. Her reputation(read: legend) stretches along the winding road from the township of Shoreway to the decedent gardens of the capital, Coronation.
When you talk about Fae names, I'm reminded of Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song and the notion of binding your True Name inside a Taken Name in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.
As the Party marches southward, past Covered Brook Town, a gentle flute plays a series of Cs and Gs, and everyone looses their weapons from their scabbards; cautious that Knucklebone Henry, the Pan-Player of Pity lurks nearby...
Ajax, the Wizened Red Wizard. Boom. Send it. A BBEG the party would never expect
the cat naming and fey naming systems are coolest thing ever
In my current game, the king accidentally pronounced the PCs the "Winter Champions" because they won a midwinter tournament. THE Winter Champion, a powerful fae knight, appeared to accept the challenge and wrecked the party
1. The Man in the Moon (Stolen from pop culture but I think there's something charming in a figure everyone's heard of but no one knows the origin)
2. William Blake the King of the Hollow (a fey snached child who became a king in human lands)
3. Mr. Litwick (a fey who works as a gentleman merchant but always with goods and prices just beyond sense)
I had a lot of fun naming spirits in my world of darkness game.
I like the idea of an aspect to non-human sentience being that others can manipulate who you are at a deep level. The faeries who repairs shoes, for instance, probably did not start that way, but their interaction with some hero of the past changed their nature to be helpful.
So, my favorite name from the new world of darkness was a spirit of a botanical garden named Six Trellis Climber. A group had formed a temporary cult with the goal of transforming this Spirit into something more dangerous that they could control. If the players had not stopped the cult, I would have had the Spirit take on a new true name.
I once ran a one-shot adventure (that took 4 sessions to play :P) where the party were caught up in a conflict between an archfey and an ex-warlock of his. The gimmick of the whole shebang was using names to gain power over each character. Everyone was referring to the NPCs in jumbled acronyms and the conflict arose when the warlock learned his master's true name. Both sides tried to appeal to the party and they had to decide who to align with. It was very fun!
For my first Tiefling character, I took inspiration from a local homeless shelter. I don't remember the exact wording, but the shelter's name was meant to be like Mercy House, but it became known as the Misery House. I ended up naming my Tiefling character Misery, but, in game canon, he was supposed to be named Mercy.
My favorite NPC was a fairy with the stage-name Brock Honeybug. He was a world famous bard that talked like Dusty Rhodes and had a variety of nicknames (the Dean of Desire, the Earl of Ecstacy, the Leprechaun of Love). The party desperately wanted to learn his true name, and when they found out it was Gildy Cabbage and confronted him with it, the fairy lost all of his power and became an emo artist going through an existential crisis. Of course this lead to a Quest into the feywild to return Brock to his old (and much less obnoxious) self. So much fun!
I forgot about the Imp of Infatuation, the Duke of Debauchery, the Locust of Lust, the Fiend of Fidelity, the Rogue of Rapture, and my personal favorite: the Bootybug
I had a fey pact warlock player whose entire family were named after precious stones.
Their patron was an anise hag called Granny Snaggletooth.
She regularly played cards (using a deck of many things) with the BBEG, an archfey called Madam Magpie, the jealous sister of the Raven Queen.
I like the idea of fairies almost representing concepts found in the material plane - one I came up with is Samson's Silks. He's a fairy who is all the things that you know someone to have, but you never think of. Of course Samson had silks, he was a powerful hero, but that's never the important part. Samson's Silks is powerful in the sense that no matter where he is, people will either just accept that he belongs there, or just sort of passively acknowledge them, meaning he learns a lot of things.
My tiefling sorcerer's power came to light as a young adult, and she was compelled to leave her home - abandoning the life she was building - to uphold tradition and protect her people from her untested powers. In her resentment and mourning the life she would not be allowed to fulfill, she took the name Lacuna: an unfilled space or interval; a gap
I arrogantly thought I already knew a lot about naming in DnD. But of cause, Dael had some great points I never thought about!
I’ve always liked quality/virtue names for tieflings. Some of my favorites have been Exoneration, Temperance, Heaven… especially for true-breeding tieflings in cities, these sort of names tell you so much about their place in society.
I came up with a sea hag villain for my pirate campaign named captain Jill salt eyes. She collect sailors lost in the sea of the feywild to join her crew called the neverdead, imagine davy Jones’ crew mixed with the lost boys from peter pan. Jill was a name given to her by her crew so they had something to refer to her with, and salt eyes was a nickname given to her by her victims because her face is horrifying enough to bring salty tears to your eye, or maybe she got it because people who saw her ship thought that they where just seeing things because they had salt water in their eyes. Also she like to mutate her crew with magic. Like she made one guy infinitely grow teeth to use as amo in his gun.
One excellent source for fey names is the 13 Yule Lads of Iceland. A lot of them boil down to "Noun Verb-er", like Candle Stealer, Door Slammer, or Spoon Licker. A few break that convention, like Stubby and Gully Gawk. They were a big source of inspiration for me when DMing some campaigns for Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, which is a lovely little OSR game with a lot of importance given to True Names. I love the tone and aesthetic of the setting, and one thing it does is give all fey, demons, spirits, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. a true name, and there are specific mechanical benefits to learning an entity's True Name. Also, gaining a True Name unlocks the system's equivalent of feats for player characters. There is a lot to love about the system and I recommend it. Anyways, I came up with some fey names, both True and not, that I enjoyed a lot, like Takesies Backsies, Minister Nicholas, or just stealing Yule Lad names.
I love the idea of true-naming an NPC fairy after a player at the table and having them get really nervous whenever there's table talk.
On the topic of Virtue Names, the actual play podcast The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One (from Worlds Beyond Number by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Lou Wilson, and Erika Ishii) has something similar with the Citadel Wizards of their setting. In the first episode, during a scene introducing Suvi’s - Aabria’s character’s - parents, Brennan asked Aabria for a single word that described each of them. The mother became Stone, and the father Soft - both names taken on by them as Wizards of the Citadel. There’s also names like Pain and Morrow. I really love the idea of these sorts of names, ones that describe aspects of the character plainly.
My wife has a friend, let's call her "Amy" because I can't give her true name in public. She's only about 5' tall. When we meet old friends, they ask my wife, "Have you heard from Amy?" while holding one hand about 5' off the ground. It's as if this hand sign is part of her identity.
My takeaway from that is the idea of having NPCs talk about important NPCs in a way that visually identifies them. Instead of calling someone Big Steve, have the NPC mention Steve while gesturing upwards. Make a gesture like stroking a goatee while mentioning an NPC, signifying their facial hair. Done effectively, the party might encounter the NPC in question and "recognize" them from just their reputation plus that one gesture. Also, like Will imitating Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates movie, it can emphasize details to help the party remember them -- if the people in the town remember the NPC in that way, it helps lock the description in for the players.
The Fae and Demonic stuff made me think of Mxyzptlk from Superman. Superman always has to trick Mxyzptlk into saying his name backwards in order to banish him back to the 5th dimension.
Good to know I'm on the same page as a you on a lot of this stuff.
My personal homebrew fantasy setting is centered around a massive magical metropolis called Amalgam, where humans, elves, and dwarves live alongside monsters, undead, and outsiders. The major factions vying for power and control in the city all have simple, easy to remember names (the Battalion, the Sewer Rats, the Ancients, the Freakshow, etc.). As do most of the neighborhoods (Seven Hills, the Towers, the Grotto, the Foundry, etc.)
I like the draconic convention. Klax'nught, and Fl'gruun. I like the way they are hard to say.
I've only played one tiefling, and I love her name. Her half brothers preexisted her, and were named Michael and James the Strange. So along comes Sarah, very on brand for her dad, but as a rogue, she gave herself the name Surreptitious.
Also, I'm from Pennsylvania, and my dwarf clan is the Keystone family.
Well done! There is magic in humans who choose their own names, and some of us have our hidden preferred names usable by a select few.
I got a hag shopkeeper named Marcella Crittercackle in my DnD campaign who tricks adventures into the nearby swamp by offering to pay them handsomely for random ingredients, and them ambushing them and selling their stuff from her store.
Two of my lore-building names I'm proud of actually follow two of the principles you mentioned! Naming a place after a word/quality of the place: the biggest independent city-state on my continent, which prides itself on its populace's diversity and locale's beauty, is named Mosaic. Giving a person a name yourself because they won't or in this case can't: I once played a Kenku who was adopted by Halflings as a baby who hadn't yet heard any speech and could really only mimic one or two sounds. The first sound her adoptive parents heard her mimic was cricket calls, so they named her Cricket, and it stuck.
I do a similar naming system for dragons in my worlds! I give them a string of accumulated titles (with younger dragons only having one or two, and adult and ancient dragons gaining accumulated strings), and then usually translate a snippet of it into draconic and use that as their "shorthand" name. (e.g. from my recent campaigns: "Vythveri, the Distant Roll of Thunder in Steelrooted Mountains"; "Aujiirkapest, the Stormsong Above Soft Rivers"; "Kae'ervik, the Whispered Nightmare, Dancer in Shadows, Slayer of Wizards, Silver Death")
Incidentally, I knew my system was working when the two times I gave dragons names that deliberately messed with that format, the players *immediately* picked up on it and went "Waaaiiiit, something's going on here". (One dragon simply called "The Lorelei", because a group of mages spitefully & deliberately eradicated knowledge of the rest of her name over several centuries, and one so ancient she refuses any shorthand or nickname and is always addressed in full as "The Fractal Aurora, Light of Divine Augury Illuminating Starlit Snow On a Clear Night")
“Your name is Scream?”
“Well, not exactly. When I first crossed paths with your kind, I was called The First Scream of Summer, but you all tend to like short names, and introducing myself as [*screams like they’re being murdered*] tends to put people off, so generally, Scream it is.”
My player and I worked on making his faerie rogue (Pixie) together.
He used a warrior cats name generator to come up with Crystal Blossom Lakewhisper as his given name.
His True Name was Mi, as in the third note that was played when a trio of icicles landed on a frozen pond, birthing Do, Rey, and Mi.
The most significant group of fae in my current homebrew campaign are a series of river spirits (because classic Greek mythology has permeated so much of D&D's base assumptions, so nereids are fey) known collectively as the Daughters of the Rille, after the lake that the rivers all flow into or out of. The party has wisely(?) never asking any of them for their names, so I tend to refer to them by honorifics tied to their river, such as Lady Par for the spirit of the river Par, or the Lady of the Roar (the paladin's fey patron) for the spirit they meet at a waterfall.
Also, for dragon names: the Dragon Shout syllables from Skyrim work beautifully to construct names with. So you gets names like Rahgolsu'um, Paaroblaan, and Grahkrest.
She brought up the Tiefling virtue names so I had to share the story of how my character got her name.
Her parents were very devout humans who brought her to a mysterious abbot the night she was born because she came out with red skin and horns. She was going to be named Izabel but after her parents pleaded with the abbot and donated nearly all of their wealth to the abbey, they instead named her Penance. They did so as a sign of their (and her) gratitude for the abbot's help and their lifelong devotion to their god. In return, the abbot informed them of the necessary ritual to turn their daughter into a human.
For a fairy PC, I named him Clover, due to him being small (technically Tiny) and having short hair that sticks out like a clover. He is weak by feywild standards- no influence politically or physically- and thus can follow the standard adventurer path while within the material plane. It’s also meant to be slightly ironic, since he’s a rune knight fighter (though whether or not he is aware of the irony of his name is up for debate, since fey have very different ideas about names).
However, I also have a very powerful archfey, which means he a) doesn’t need a common name like an adventurer and b) imo, should have a name befitting of his role. He essentially is a very high-up person in fey courts whose one role is to start shit. He doesn’t have a title that’s applicable to anything in mortal courts, as literally all he does is trade secrets about the other fey depending on his whims. So, I call him Snake in the Grass. I love having names be a cross between a phrase and a title, and I also like to think that he wouldn’t even have a common name attached to him, since he’s an untrustworthy figure that others would be loath to call even by a fake name.
The gnome named Sue would be a super buff brawler with an absent father.
Another amazing vid from Dael. I yelled (at a reasonable volume in my head) when she said Brutus, as we just had a strong NPC by that name die during a sending spell *gasp*. Aside from that, fascinating content as always, thank you!
I love figuring out names for the characters I create, and I have done everything you mentioned.
One of my favorite rules for Gnomes is long, ridiculous, hard-to-pronounce, and multisyllabic for men, but easy names for women.
I’ve been infatuated for some time with the idea that all (Arcane) magic users MUST know their own True Name:
Wizards discover it through diligent study.
Sorcerers are born with inmate understanding of their own True Name.
Warlocks are told their True Name by their Patron (and this knowledge may also be part of the hold the Patron has over them).
I don’t really fit Artificer’s into this scheme, but I would argue they’re basically a Wizard variant.
You make great points in this video, thanks! In my opinion, one of the masterpieces of naming is Twin Peaks. It's amazing how Lynch portrays the most terrifying evil spirits behind everyday names like "Bob", "Mike", or (shudder) "Judy".
The combination you mention of something familiar with something twisted is a powerful creative technique. I first learned about it in statements by Brian W. Aldiss, I think, but certainly many great authors have used it.