Goodman Games

What method do you guys use to name your characters?

Me personally, I like to open any book at random, put my finger on a word or if I happen to cover more than one word with the tip of my finger then I use two or three depending, then modify the letters some how.

Example:
My current character's name is Reifdom - Which is "modifier" spelled backwards sans the "i".

My other method is to take two completely unrealted words and translate them into another language:

Example:
An old Warhammer RPG character I had was named Bubikoff Gallenstein - German for Bob Gallstone.

Two easy ways to name a character.

Those are good tips to remember. I often hit a stumbling block when naming NPCs. Sometimes it just comes to me because there's a perfect name, but other times I sit there mumbling sounds (and looking crazy to anyone who sees it) until something seems to click!

You have to be careful with using foreign words; the WoTC forums are full of posts by writers that claim Drizzt's name translates to 'spit' in Finnish. You'd hate to sell a book, 'berg, then have rampant otaku readers chewing you out on line for poor character development.

That said, names are always such a delicate balance between dramatic and corny. How much disbelief can you suspend? "Doc Savage" works for me, but I'm sure there are millions of readers that don't agree.

I run into the same problems with short stories / novels; get the name right and it will resonate with the reader until the end of time. Get the name wrong and it just fades into the cultural dross.

I'm a big fan of The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook. It has about 20,000 names and their meanings, across about three dozen ethnic categories. If I want to create a fantasy character based on an entry in the book, I just use the tried-and-true method of swapping a vowel or two.

The book isn't in print anymore (I think), but it's easy to find on eBay or Amazon's Z-stores.

--Ken

Must go shopping now!!!!

I do the same thing! Sometimes I randomly type letters, or pick them from a short impromtu (mental) list of ones that are appropriate- for example, if I want a word to sound hard, I might start it with a G,K,Z, V, or X. I go from there, only picking letters that sound appropriate, and finally do a once over to add letters for pronuciation, or remove them when they're uneeded. I just try to keep in mind the overall flow of the type of word; more important ones tend to have more syllables (for me), unless they don't.

I mostly DM (okay, almost exclusively) and I want names to have a regional "sound" so I use the ColdStone Name Generator. It's made by a company called Beenox Inc. and is fully customizable - you enter the syllables you want and it randomly generates the name.

I've got different sets for different races and countries so that players always know that Shed'eth is from Ethnagaria, Liorion is an elf, and Higvar Orn Kapesk is from Erlacor.

Quite handy really. Not every name is a gem, but it's quite easy to generate off a list of 100 names with similar conventions to pull from.

When asked “what should I name my character?” by new players to my table, I usually take their middle name, modify it a bit, and make that their characters name. I find that newbies can get comfortable with a name that they are familiar with (and helps them answer quickly and stay in the moment when someone talks to them in character and calls their name.)

IE: Michael might become Mik’hale. John might become Jahnothan.

For last names I usually do what I saw some others do in the other posts. Start with a letter G X C F and works some vowels in afterward.

Usually my setting have some degree of comparison to actual Nations, kingdoms, city states, or empires that have actually existed on earth at sometime.
The same can be said about those games that in which I'm just a player and have no imput on the setting creation.

Because of this the majority of us tend to use;

http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/index.htm

As the prime source material for creating character names.

for characters i play, i usually take a look at how people like my character usually are anmed, and work frmo there

with my current rogue character, i picked a good sounding name and a variation of my RL surname for his

with a recent character that i made for a DragonMech campaign, i wanted somehting that had more meaning (and related directly to the character's mysterious past) so i popped upon a book on elves and named him with translations of some english words that had the desired meaning (or close enough)

when i don't particularly care, though... i have a couple tools that randomly generate names based on characrer race

I've rarely had a problem generating names.
Once I have a solid concept of who a character or NPC is and who they are supposed to be, the name just sorta flows out from that.
I polish it afterward, throw in some variations for the character or NPCs native language, maybe swap around a syllable or two, but once the CONCEPT is named, the character is named.

I used EBoN for a while, but it was a toy that lost its luster quickly.

I can usually come up with names quickly, and then later I'm also capable of realizing I made a horrible mistake when I say the name to my group... Either they can't pronounce it, it means something in the foreign language that the players speak (Latin, German, Spanish... Maybe French), or possibly, sounds funny in english.

good, very good!

Normally I just sit and think until something that relates well to the character pops into my head. I try to stay away from anything corny or humerous.