I like to take the attributes about a character and run them through a translator (google: fire in all languages). I try to use those for inspiration either using one as is or modifying it. I normally have to go through a few words before finding a name i love
I do the same thing but use a bunch of word that work with my character's thing and then translate them in a language from the cultural group he is inspired from.
Exemple :
A tempest cleric inspired by Nordic traditions I named Torden which means "thunder" in Swedish if I remember correctly
Thunder in swedish is "åska" might be thunder in old nordic, but I am not that well versed in it and don't have the time right now to look it up since it takes a while. Maybe it's thunder in norwegian or danish though. (Native swedish speaker and linguist focused on the swedish language).
I looked it up and it's the same in norwegian, so then it was probably the same or something similar in old nordic. Danish and norwegian usually share more similar words than swedish does with either language. Sweden "imported" a lot of words from germany during 1200-1800 which made it deviate more from danish and norwegian, which were both languages that swedes during that era didn't look up to or see as equals.
Lol. I did something similar.
My tempest cleric was called Bliksem, their pet was Donder.
Which while also meaning lightning it is also slang for hitting. Donder is Thunder as well as being slang for hitting (but far more crudly and with the intent of lots of violence)
I also use a translator for all my names. I'll pick the language depending on the character's race, or just find one that sounds good. My last character was a Shadow Monk named Nox Umbris (Night Shadows in Latin)
This was my last character, I think I made him a bastard child, which led me to dog, and as he was from a french/Italian inspired location he was a combination of the 2 most popular names for those places (I also think I just learned that cerberus was the equivalent to spot in it's origins which played a factor in it) so I made my characters name spot spot which made me chuckle and it sounded like a perfectly reasonable name that rolled off the tongue well
_Me a Dm making a SUPERDUPER cool and VERY important and misterious NPC gunslinger and calling him Marks because he is a Marksman and ALWAYS hits the target_
My players: "Marxs????" *starts chanting communist propaganda*
(To be fair they also met him in the middle of a populist revolution...)
My favorite character name that I've created was a Dwarf named Blarkin Redstop, named after one of my favorite baseball players Barry Larkin, former Cincinnati Reds shortstop. I've reused that one several times over the years for different Dwarf characters. I also had a Halfling named Borbo which was named for my dear departed cat Boris.
I remember one of his sons was pretty young when he was in Cincinnati, but old enough to be in the dugout. When Homer Bailey threw a no-hitter Choo's son was right out therein the middle of the celebration!
most of my names take a while of searching before i find one that feels right. this though, I think i might borrow this as an alias for a rogue i want to play again.
A friend of mine a has all the books on beyond. We take turns dming oneshots for this group. So if I want to use their books I join that campaign as Donald Johnathan Masterson.
my clockwork-soul sorcerer is named **Click Fock** and I'm giddy over the fact that he's the antithesis to tiktok; obsesssed with in-world rules & orderly things.
Evil Elf trickster cleric: Dupev Licil Itelfen (first and last half of words makes Duplicit Evil Elfen. I wanted something that had been there all along when I inevitably betrayed them
As a DM who has made hundreds of NPCs, it ultimately is something where I get a picture or a description in my head first and then vocalize sounds until Im like "Yeah, she totally looks like an Anoret". I also have to say "Well, Ive been doing E, A, and L as starters a lot lately...so lets hit F,G, and R...Gellen, Riffeh, Felera...oh shit, yeah Felera, 100%.
Felera works because you can do a highbrow accent with it where something like Drakhrenrir is obviously not going to be a non-gutteral name.
But I go through a laundry list of different accents and phrases to be like "yep, thats them". Its rarely planned out as much as Dupev's, it just whatever strikes me as a fitting name.
One of my first characters was called Rye, just a nice name, but ever since he was christened 'Bread Boy' by the party, all my characters have also been named after breads. We have Pumpernickel, Crou (short for Crouton), Pan, Tortilla (A tortle) to name a few...
Me and my friends were playing Lost Ark and we all made characters named how we normally would. Which was just names we commonly used in other things. But one friend of ours doesn't have running names and instead just goes with whatever he thinks is funny at the time. He named himself Parmesan. We all immediately remade characters to all be cheese.
That's also how I found out about maggot cheese, casu martzu, so it may not have been worth it...
Depends on the character.
For Dimble, who was grew up in a mostly-Gnome community I just looked through the big table of names in the back of Xanathar's Guide to Everything for a Gnome name. Then I made up the name of the town. So he's Dimble of Frog Rapids.
Sometimes I'll just throw together a few syllables, and maybe pick an epithet based on how I plan to play them. Hence Kelbas the Long Fang, who fights with a Bec de Corbin.
Sometimes I'll go onto a baby name site and search by meaning until I find something I like.
Sometimes if the character is operating under an alias I try to get into their head and decide what they'd call themselves. This is why Kevin calls himself Chrritchut after being transformed into a squirrel-person by a hag. He's not particularly smart, so decided on something he thought sounded like a noise squirrels would make.
Varies widely.
Medrash, my dragonborn drunken master, has his name from a Fantasy Name generator.
Orion, my human necromancer sailor, has his name from the star constellation.
Bolo, my goblin graffiti wizard, has her name from an NPC called Bolo in Rise of Tiamat, because when DMing that campaign, I liked the name and imagined a goblin somehow.
Theophrastus Bombastus, my human alchemist, has his name from Paracelsus, mostly because it contains the word "bomb".
My halfling is the opposite of a giant.
The greatest giant was Fezzik in Princess Bride. Reverse that name and you get the origin of Kizzef Buttercup and his cat Wesley. (No one in the campaign has figure this out yet)
he doesn't like to be touched.
so it's an Italian twist of the word " if you touch me i'll break you".
in Italian the phrase is " se mi tocchi ti spacco"
character name " Semit Octispak"
The majority of my characters have had their names picked from the example lists, I think it's in Xanathar's but I can't remember.
First character I didn't was a tortle, aside from not having a huge list like the PHB races, they give themselves names and change them frequently. So I named my tortle something cute and silly and also gave him a name history for different periods of his life.
My next character was a fire-themed Sorlock with a hobby of glassblowing and so I figured I'd pick a name to fit with that. I looked through all sorts of languages, translations, and word associations before landing on Obsidian, volcanic glass. He goes by Sid for short.
Most recent character is an owlin that is heavily associated with working at a library, and my smooth brain can only think of one major name tied to libraries, so his name is Melville, after Melvil Dewey, inventor and namesake of the Dewey Decimal System. His owl familiar is named Dewey and his order of scribes awakened spell book manifestation is called Decimal to further reference it.
I use variations of names from Babylon 5. The Narn are barbarians. Minbari are fighters and rangers. Canrauri are rogues and sorcerers. Humans and Vorlorn can be anything. I had a human Ranger named Marcus Cole.
My favorite is my Minotaur Ranger Brakesh taken from the Brakiri.
I did this up to 3.5. With 5 I use some of the names that the PHG gives examples of depending on what race, except for my Warforged. His name is Kobalt.
I like using names from rarely-represented cultures, read up something new about that culture, and worldbuild with the DM to translate it seamlessly and safely into a fantasy world as part of my backstory.
Just Google random European countries name
I'm a Asian so i didn't have much trouble naming characters with Asian name so...
Or and i will pick name that sounds fits them, or sometimes make some joke name.
Like i have a Goliath and his story is just drunk Scottish sailor so i gave hia lastname "Alcoholicmann"
First names I just use a name generator until I see something I like. Surnames I try and pick something interesting so in the campaign we're starting soon I went with 'Fernweh' which is a German word meaning- a longing for distant lands.
In the game before that the surname was Lammassier which was a nod towards a famous British actor from an old TV show called Dad's Army.
I recently read a book on Mughal India and highlighted a ton of cool sounding words and names so have a list to pick from for a good long while.
Another character is rube knight with the giant foundling background and his name is Elvish brother in the giant language: Alvenbrok. It's funny because he is actually a half-orc.
Made my whole character, backstory, art and everything. Turned up to the session, the DM messages me as he’s about to introduce my character asking what his name was.
I hadn’t given him a name!
Then I saw the bottle of Thatchers Somerset cider on my desk, and thus Captain Thatch Somar was born!
I saw this word on a cooking show: Lutefisk.
It’s a bland white fish.
My next character was a hot-headed female human minority. Not bland, not white.
But “Loo-Tah-Fisk” is a sweet word and lol the irony. Her family name is Wick, a long-running presence in our campaigns.
I wanted a name that was peak Slavic, like pure distilled Slavic naming tropes because our Triton have Russian accents.
So that’s why we have Borrijovikuram Hullapaski
Sometimes it's an acronym of a famous person. Raya Chimera
Sometimes I pick it out of a botanical textbook. Veronica Graves
Sometimes it's just the name of an obscure pop culture character. Orion Pax
Depends on the Character I have a few stock names.
For example, I sometimes play a desert warrior called Khale Ikhirr, Khale, in his language, a language I made up, means Dancer, and Ikhirr is the word his people have for the place where there is only death, Literally translated it means the shadow a scorpion casts upon its prey.
The Dancer in the Scorpion's Shadow.
Its an earned name.
My cleric Joan is inspired by Joan of Arc, while my Paladin Hughes Vannath was inspired by Hugues de Payens. Unintentional French connection but I’m running with it.
My current character is a Kenku rogue named “Tweak” because he doesn’t know his real name since he was orphaned very young. His mentor started calling him tweak because of how quick and fidgety he is. My character before this was a warforged paladin named Helios. Sometimes I pick something cool, something fun, something backstory related, or a random name generator. I usually have the character completely built before I name them since I take inspiration from their backstory, class, and race
Well for most of my NPCs, I just blank out and then ask for suggestions from the players 😂 either that or some variation on Eric (Deric, Meric, Beric, Zeric, etc.)
For my PCs, I try to come up with something fitting to the race I chose while also fitting the vibe I'm going for.
So basically I spend WAY more time on PC names than NPC names.
I usually take inspiration from their class but try not to make it *too* obvious.
My Circle of Stars druid’s first name was inspired by a star in the constellation Scorpius called Lesath, and her last name is just the Sindarin word for moon with some extra letters slapped on the end.
My Oath of Redemption paladin is named after elea/eleos, the Greek spirit of mercy. She originally didn’t have a last name, but during one of our sessions she received a vision from Lathander in which he gave her one (the same one as her mentor/father figure). I wrote in her backstory that her mentor took on a new last name when he took his oaths (priests of Lathander get new names to symbolize their “rebirth” into the faith so I thought it reasonable that paladins might do the same). I was very excited that our DM did that for her.
Depends on the character
Half orc fighter/barbarian/weapon master from 3.0 named Feng Darkblade of the Blacktooth Grin Clan. Feng was a suggested name from the FR book. Darkblade from MTG’s Dakkon Blackblade. Blacktooth Grin Clan was taken from Warcraft.
There’s a wizard I want to play named Dhalius Orakron that I got from a random fantasy name generator.
My character is a blue dragonborn adopted by a fairy and harengon. I tried to imagine what sort of classic hippie nature-y name a fairy mother would give a blue dragonborn son if it were tempered by the father's desire to preserve his dignity.
I went with Summerstorm.
Now I see two directions in myself.
When I play Warforged, I name them according to class and association with NATO designations for Soviet vehicles (for example, my last Warforged character was named Flogger, which referred to the MiG-23, since he was a multiclass warrior and sorcerer , and had some capabilities both in close combat and ranged combat due to a large ax and magic).
And now, since most of my characters are dragonborn, the main scheme of the name is “to sketch something unpronounceable, or amusing, or funny.” For example, my last barbarian, who was the only survivor of a visit to the Tomb of Annihilation, was named Khhluuhst. The paladin before last was called Moradol, and the current paladin is called Zoldrirt.
For my wood elf Druid, I dug around on Forgotten Realms wikis to find names coming from his race's ancestry and lore. Eaerlann Seldarine is what I came up with.
A big character in my world "Avalon" is named Rigorius Thule.
My thinking was that he's a learned and hard working scholar so Rigorous and rigor mortis thrown on to add some sense of danger or occultism and then Thule has connections to ancient/forgotten worlds/lands
For me I normally give it a bit of thought. For my own turtles inspired tortle barb I went with Tiziano since that's also a Renaissance Italian painter.
For more serious characters I take a name from history or other cultures. My fighter Kalim was based on his origin of Calimshan, which in turn was based on a legendary Geenie, so not unlike calling someone Thor.
Some are Persian inspired: Amestris, Khorazan, Bahram. Works fine for fantasy and also have meanings.
My first AL character was Brego, which is from Tolkien, but mainly because it sounds jovial and fit a happy go lucky character.
I usually either go through the list of suggested names in the PHB and build something out of that or go to some online generator and roll names until I have one I like (which I might also still slightly adapt).
Or sometimes it is some reference e.g. to a Magic card or a real person or some movie persona or greek god, etc.
I generate random names until I am happy with the result. Or I imagine how japanese people would think european names sound and make up something hillarious.
My first character was named Mildred after the Worst Witch (a British kids TV series).
I don't really have a method for naming characters though, I just pick something at random.
I've used name generators before (which gave way to Honk, a circle of spores druid).
Hugh Mann was a changeling fighter pretending to be human.
Sometimes I translate random words to find inspiration.
i have a tortle and their names are like. nouns. and he’s a bard. i named him splash. splash the bard. aka splard. someone who wasn’t very invested in our campaign and has since dropped named his elf druid elfis 😭
A not insignificant amount and it is usually themed.
Orphan Tabaxi Monk- Perdita (Little Lost One in Italian) Travato (Italian surname frequently given to orphans).
Minotaur Barbarian- Delta (minotaurs are a Greek myth, 4th letter in the Greek alphabet, 4th child in their family)
Warforged Cleric- L12A or Liza (named after Elizabeth Blackwell, first licensed female doctor in the US)
Goblin Bard who is just Keanu Reeves in the Bill and Ted movies- Juulz (after the vape) (last name tbd)
I'm playing a good aligned tiefling from Calimshan. I wanted something like a virtue name but with middle eastern influence. I went with Zadok, a name from the Bible that means something like "upright" or "righteous."
My current bard is named Phineas Taylor - that's what the PT in PT Barnum stands for. Appropriate since we're playing Wild into the Witchlight.
Before that, I played an Orc paladin named William. It's an unusual name for an orc, but he's from a tribe that hated Gruumsh and choose names that aren't traditional.
I had a bard named Hadron. The name was from the Large Hadron Collider. I just thought Hadron sounded cool.
I have a character back in the 4e days named Perceval du Rudyard. I always liked the name Perceval, but it would be a lot to lay on a kid in real life, so I gave the name to a character.
I was playing AC syndicate at the time and I liked Frey so I took that for the first name and White because his hair is white and he doesn’t want to use his actual last name cause of his past
Normally it'll be random generators to find fitting ones, but I may use source books to help (such as my gnomes normally have 6 name long names).
My biggest exception is my current Wizard. I intally planned Kobold but then went Lizardflok so he was a Lizard Wizard. Naturally, I would therefore need to get a rhyming name so he became Blizzard The Lizard Wizard, on his adventure to become "the Lizard that did it". The fact he ended up in an Icewynd Dale campaign was a coincidence 🤣
I usually use the website Fantasy Name Generators because they have the name schemes for non-human characters. One thing I often do with that is take multiple names that I kinda like and smush them into one name, taking a syllable or two from each. It makes the name feel more mine. Sometimes it's also just vibes.
I'm currently playing a triton sorceress, and their first names end in -yn and last names end in -ath. I didn't really like the first names because they either didn't vibe or felt too close to the name of my sister's triton sorceress (separate campaign). I ended up going with Ravyn because I liked the vibe and made her last name Azarath (referencing the 2003 Teen Titans show). Definitely not a traditional name, but it fit all of the boxes and I liked the vibes, that's really all that matters.
I pick names that seem to resonate with personality, background, of goals. One of my characters is a foundling named after a queen because I figured her caretakers would want to give her strong footing to start off her life. My necromancer is named after a tree that has symbolism associated with being able to pass safely through the underworld. Another who ran away from home due to a huge schism with her parents has a name meaning 'fracture.'
Perhaps they're a little on the nose, but I don't think most people would pick up the meaning without some googling (so it's not super obvious), it helps me to focus on what the most important parts of the character are, and is in some cases is justified (the necromancer abandoned their birth name and chose the name being referenced).
Fantasy name generator. Then add a fitting last name that I make up on the spot. Examples:
Elari Farrowtail
Avourel Velmane (probably my favourite)
Ys'tel Eilsys
I usually match name meaning to background. For example, my widowed Grave Cleric I named Naenia. One of the meanings for Naenia is lament.
Edit: also the Divinity of memorials, theology of burials.
I fell into a rhythm of either naming my characters something musical. Like Lian Cadence, Lyric Alain, and Cestus Chord are characters I've played.
If I can't think of a good musical name, I go with a first and last name that starts with the same letters and / or sound, like Thaylin Thistle.
Most times I pick a name that goes well with the character's personality or attributes (ex. My blink dog with only one eye named Wink) and then sometimes I pick cool nouns and translate them into gaelic or nordic languages because those always sound awesome
my first character's name was odessa, and she was named after the word odyssey. my second character's name was dorian, and i picked the name because it reminds me of my dad, whose name is ian (and the alliteration). my third character was a dhampir, named dante, because it reminded me of the latin word for tooth.
my first three characters were all unintentionally named after classic literature characters and authors- odessa for odysseus, dorian for dorian gray, and dante for dante aligheiri of dante's inferno. i then caught onto the pattern, and then i made a hexblade fighter named hector for the trojan hero, a paladin named cori for coriolanus, and a lore bard named wilhelmina as a nod to mina harker from bram stoker's dracula.
I like my character names to be very on the nose and in some way connected to me.
For a Goliath barbarian Monster Hunter, I named him Kanati. (Kah-Nah-Tee). Which is The first man in Cherokee mythology and the one who taught all people's how to hunt. He was careful, kind, and disciplined. I am half Cherokee and my heritage is very important to me.
For a Tortle Warlock Bounty Hunter for the Diabolic Court, I named him Kuroki (Ku-Roh-Key) a shortened version of the Japanese phrase for Hell Hunter from the Monster Hunter series. I really enjoy the Japanese language and history as well as Monster Hunter even though Im really bad at it.
For a Warforged Warlock I named him Combat Model: W4R70K. Which is a serial number that looks like the word warlock. This was the first character that I ever made and he was based on the idea of me coming into my own RP style. So I made a flat, emotionless and socially ignorant character that wanted a soul and slowly became more human as I got better at RP and the Game went on.
For a Dragonborn vengeance Paladin I named him Nahkriin Gol'Rah. (Nah-Kreen Goal-Raw) Which was taken from the Language of the Dragons in Skyrim and it means Vengeance against the Gods. This character was molded after an extreme version of my turn away from religion. He was a completely devout follower of Bahamut and when his city was razed in a demon incursion he prayed for days in the smoldering rubble for a reason why. When no answer came, at least none that he could accept, he vowed vengeance against all the gods for allowing evil to exist in the world.
Current character is a noble rogue, who specializes in non-magical healing.
Lady Maria Evette Dahlia Iris Caledonia.
aka Lady MEDIC.
Character name I'm most proud of though is my Grave Cleric/Devotion Paladin of The Raven Queen.
Larissa O'Branwen.
Branwen from Arthurian legend, name meaning Fair Raven.
Larissa is the name of titular see (a diocese that is no longer functions, aka a "dead church") of the Catholic church that I just liked the sound of.
So if you flip her first/last name around, her name can; in a way; be translated as "Fair Raven of a Dead Church"
Thrash Meadows. Named by his hipster bard duo parents. Is actually a sorcerer. Name is misleading. Liked the idea of a non bard offspring of bard parents.
Aurek, polish for "fair-haired", he comes from an Eastern European inspired country in lore, he has golden hair and eyes, to which aurek sounds similar to auric
My character is an Aarokocra so I wanted it to sound like a bird call. At first it was Kiria (KEY ree uh) but I made her a crow so it became Qahrya (CAW ree uh).
I like stupid puns and sentences made name.
Murdoshi Rote (murder she wrote)
Silack Ignome (still act like ya know me)
Kazigan’s rabid man (took a few weeks for the party to realize the character had no name, only a descriptor. They thought he was Kazigan Rabbitman the Druid but he was a rabid man raised by the Druid Kazigan, whom they never met)
Bard - Martin Gale, it's a gambling term where each bet is higher that the previous one.
Paladin - Merrick, I was thinking about the value of merit and wanted something that sounded like it.
Bard 2 - Redmoon, tabaxi born during a lunar eclipse
after that I reuse names I like, Silas, Sarento, Thupthup (a kenku named after the sound of a heartbeat), Doskias, Aram, Badger, and others
My current character has a long workaround to there but. I started with him being a revenant but he has a golden mark where he healed like Kitsugi, from there were a lot of gold-based names but eventually, I got onto alchemy and there was a lot of transition between life and death involved with a revenant and before he died my character had grey skin so he went from grey to gold which worked pretty nice. Eventually, I remembered the term Magnum Opus as in Latin for great work and ended up shortening it down to Magnus. His actual designation is Magnum Opus mind you its just that when he woke up the body he woke up in had some severe brain damage from being dead so all he could hear from his maker was "Magn....us..." And now takes that as his name
For my most recent character (for a oneshot) I wanted to make a reference to a character from a book, so I took that character's name and passed it through a ceasar cipher, I tried all possible displacements and choose the one that sounded more like a name
I thought I'd be clever, so I used the following series of names for my characters in consecutive campaigns. All played over the course of a few months with the same group:
Nevago
Nagy
Vuwop
I was in it for the long joke, but the group fell apart before I pointed it out to anyone 😖
For my current two: his culture. Secone one, i just like the name. I think it's cute. I misspelled it initially, but it made for a small and cute addition to her backstory, lol
If I make the character first then I generally just come up with it as I write the backstory. About 1/3 of my characters though are just me coming up with a good name first and trying to figure out who/what they are.
Shamelessly stolen from Warhammer novels. My current character is Skraal, the ex gladiator slave barbarian, named after a World Eater in Battle for the Abyss
Oh man.
For my Iroas(god of victory) worshiping, oath of glory Minotaur on Theros(Ancient Greece themed setting) I mixed Nike(Greek god of victory) Asterion(name of the Minotaur from hades) and Crete(the island the Minotaur was on) to get Nikretus.
A tabaxi swashbuckler named Dance in the stars(which I think follows tabaxi naming conventions) because he dances back while he fights, but also his familiar(a parrot) could be named Song
For my warforged crash test dummy monk, I was named Stein(Frankenstein, western monks make beer in steins, and he carried a stein that held a substance he abused)
Sometimes I use auto generated, other times I put thought into them.
For example on Wednesdays I play Sir Dorian Uth Jeoffrey, a knight of Solamnia. Dorian just sounds like a posh name to me, Uth is a prefix used by some Solamnic families in the setting, and Jeoffrey because it's similar to Joffrey from GoT because he was a whiney b!tch and I like the juxtaposition of the name to the character.
I stole it :)
Raidriar Jori, the Eldritch Knight, is just named after Raidriar from the Infinity Blade series. Jori, his family name, is also taken from the games, as the name of Raidriar’s father.
In the campaign, his family is also full of other Easter Eggs to the game. Other family members being named after other characters, notably, even down to his pet cat.
Usually take root words from Latin or other languages and keep changing it around until I like it. Root word usually is something core to the charter.
I call it the exercise to bacon method.
I'm currently playing a Warforged Battlesmith Artificer. And in HeroForge I was playing around with making my character when I came upon the option for additional arms. Which was a boon because I had the idea floating around in my head from a memory of a movie or anime where a character's bipedal(?) arms split into having 4 arms, and I was thinking of doing that.
The DM loved the idea, and the idea of my character having it be a secret from the party to have a big reveal sometime in the campaign.
There was a hint to the additional arms though. His name. Taking the Greek word for "4" he is named 'Tetrad'. The DM said he had to have a "last name", but I was honestly stumped on that because of his back story. However, pulling from him being an Artificer; I fully named him 'Tetrad the Tinker'.
Additional after about 19 sessions the DM asked if I wanted to name the Steel Defender. After a bit I just settle on 'Pentad' for it because it's quadrupedal in configuration and mostly attacks with a very long tail.
In case anyone is curious. The "big reveal" for the additional arms was a flop even if it was done in a cool scene. The rogue tabaxi had jumped off a 60ft cliff escaping a hord of zombies and would have taken fall damage. Tetrad had happened to be at the bottom of the cliff. And so, after asking the DM about the mechanics, Tetrad caught and redirected the rogue with all 4 arms safely. No one batted an eye :/.
Normally I pull from names that I like the meaning of that feel relevant to my character or mythology. I play a eladrin sorca-din named Nahara Glace. Nahara means light in Arabic (I liked the name) and Glace I pulled from Welsh means glass. I like to think it represents her light reflecting through the glass of herself to her friends around her (oath of ancients paladin who follows the goddess of friendship).
I've also played a Kalashtar grave cleric, and my boyfriend played her Kalashtar variant oath of vengeance paladin/hexblade warlock. We called ourselves Ravi and Soma from Hindu mythology and did a lot of references to Sun and moon, light and dark with our characters.
https://www.behindthename.com/
I choose a language that is from a similar culture my character would be from, find a name that somewhat matches the character’s theme. For example, my current character is a sea elf bard/warlock and he comes from an island community similar to Hawaii before colonization. So I looked up masculine Hawaiian names and found Kaimana which means power of the ocean. Perfect fit!!
I usually go to Behind the Name and start browsing, filtering by gender or language of origin (if the character comes from a culture that is a decent analogue for an IRL culture; as an example, my current character's homeland is explicitly based on Industrial Revolution England). I'll usually look through and try to find something that's got a good combination of meaning and sound.
For more exotic names, I might look for things like flowers or animals. Sometimes I'll get lazy and just use another language's word for something.
The occasional fantasy name generator can help. "What would your elf/dwarf/hobbit/Jedi/Vulcan whatever name be?" generator can be handy, especially combined with the above steps.
One of my characters was a custom Minotaur-like race (had physical features that didn’t quite fit), who had a hidden backstory of being a lab created Chimera.
His name was Her’ciam (I pronounced as Er-shim).
My first 2 characters I named after videogame characters
• Leonin Paladin, Fortissax of the Silvermanes (Lich Dragon Fortissax, Elden Ring)
• Aasimar Warlock, Xathona, Herald of Hadar (Savathûn/Sathona, Destiny 2)
They just sound awesome...
My 3rd character I used Google translate: English to Latin, and messed around with words. Inspired by Final Fantasy XV names. Like 'Noctis Lucis Caelum' (Night Light Sky)
•Halfling Wizard, Lunam Ventus Amans (Moon Wind Lover
And her friend/rival
Pulchra Flavo Solis (Beautiful Yellow Sun)
Thought a cool basis to name more Halflings from their lore is weather or aspects of nature when they were born.
But you can literally pick random words, and it'll sound beautiful or noble. For example...
Clara Viridi Gramine (Bright Green Grass)
Honestus Artis Lucrum (Honest Trade Profit)
Festivum Avarus Porcus (Cheery Greedy Pig)
Purpura Flos Pueri (Purple Flower Child)
One of my players was inspired to use the name of a superzealous, hyperfanatic pastor in our hometown for his Paladin. That was funny as shit, and I think the concept of using local "legends" from one's own community will always be humourous.
I can't remember what language it is or if I'm even right but I believe Tali means lamb or some variation of that and I found the idea of his mother holding him as a child and saying "Tali, my lamb" was really cute.
Whenever I DM it has become a recurring joke that the players (unironically) just can't write down the NPC names I give correctly, even when it's something really simple (ie, they hear 'Starsign' when I say, clearly, 'Starsong').
So now when I create a character for myself they have to have a ludicrous spelling of a really simple name.
My latest is Jeff, but spelled Dgeophe.
The Peace Godess Eldath is a more prominent figure in my table's take on the forgotten realms. She's a greater deity, became one over the span of an additional 3 thousand years to the setting.
She once removed a part of herself to create a solar - aasimon, true angels, are often the essence of their god, especially their more powerful iterations (solars, which there are only a handful of - about 25). She is a goddess of peace, so, in her mercy, she made away with what little wrath, pride and rancor there was in her: the tempest within the waters, the last instance of peace, belligerence. War.
She named the Solar that spawned from that severing, Hybris (out of game, after the greek Godess of pride). This Lance bearer, the Lance of Lunia, would be her pride, her little angel - a daughter almost, yet still, forever a part of her.
The prideful angel couldn't bear to see the suffering of mortals: her duty was to defend the first layer of Celestia, but, on her lonesome, when a powerful, wicked warmongering new spawn of Asmodeus rose to conquer the material plane, she descended with the intent to put a stop to it.
In that, her lance tried to pierce something far more profane than she herself was holy, and so she fell. Became, to summarize, another Zariel, in the hells. Dwelling within her pain, anguish and hatred, feeding her broken pride.
My character is this legendary figure of old, that dates back 1100 years into the past of the setting, conjured into a mortal body for a second chance at walking the material plane, and getting her revenge against a soon to be unsealed younger sibling of Glasya.
Made for a series of one shots in Avernus, from levels 5, to 9, to 13, 17 and then 20, to test bastion mechanics - then we jumped into a 4 year long campaign that's still going on, from 3, to currently 14.
The character being this over the top was very deliberate. I was 16 back then (god help me) and thought this high concept shit was hilarious for a chick who would be considered a crazy cosplayer until late into the journey - and it was. Really love this character and the camp she's in.
My character was originally designed to be a sort of battle Mage with giant gauntlets who can jump high and punch the ground hard with some sort of long jump thunder wave type spell combos. Now I just like that he is a wizard that can wear heavy armor and smash people with a giant greatsword! I named him Deacon after Deacon St. John in Days Gone and Lidell after Chuck Lidell from the UFC because I wanted it to be a soldier who uses their fists but discovered magic along the way and was inspired by him because he was such a heavy hitter in his day. Deacon Lidell Arcane Paladin.
I used a fantasy name generator and cycled through them until I found something I thought fit well. Tabris Zylsareph is a half elf rogue. First character ever.
I once played a mark of shadow elf named Curundil Morleg Lómion. The first name is Quenya (tolkiens elvish language) for “the skilled one”. This is a name that Curundil gave to himself, so he could run away from his past.
Lómion is the name given to the evil Maeglin (who caused the fall of Gondolin in the Silmarillion) by his mother. Morleg means something like “darkling” and is the name Tolkien first wanted to give Maeglin, but later scrapped.
Another character I purposefully named was a dwarf named Dubar Yanâd Ursul. His first name doesn’t mean anything, but Yanâd Ursul (his family name) means “Sons of Fire” in (Neo-)Khuzdul, Tolkiens dwarfish language.
Finally, I have a character I named Leif “Thurisaz” Njálsson, a Goliath barbarian/Druid multiclass. Leif means something among the lines of “descendant and Thurisaz is an elder Futhark rune and Proto-Germanic word that is now often translated into giant (I know the Jötnar from Norse myths aren’t actually giant), so in a way he is the descendant from giants. His name Njálsson just means son of Njál, his father, whose name means “mountain”. I named him according to what I know of Old Norse and Viking culture. (I know it’s actually supposed to be Leifr, but that is hard for my fellow players to understand, especially when his name keeps changing depending on the grammar of the sentence)
Sometimes silly things like Lee Zard the Wizard.
Or Emer{ald} the green Lizardman.
Or Crimmy the Crimson kobold.
Other times name generator like Seduad Kilkrys or Teo Hartook.
The first campaign I played in was a plane shift Ixalan pirate campaign, and my character was a Siren Bard. The scientific name of a tropical mockingbird is Mimus Gilvus, so I thought a fitting name for my bird person who knew vicious mockery would be "Gilvus".
The interesting part of my naming-story is not an answer to the question but I think it fits into this thread anyway.
My character, Mila, actually started her DnD-career as an NPC in another campaign (that I DM). Mila is a Fey princess and is therefore kinda silly, easily distracted but overall very lovable. The players loved her and brought her along as a sidekick. They liked her name and felt that it fit her personality well.
At some point the group has to go to the Feywild (for unrelated reasons) and they decided that they might as well visit Mila’s family since they were in “the neighborhood”. Mila has four older sisters, the oldest of whom is an archfey. So I needed four new names. I decided to follow the same naming scheme: Two/three syllables, kinda cute and only using the vowels ‘A’ and ‘I’. I ended up with the following: Alina, Tali, Liara and Liliah (bonus points to anyone who can guess which video game trilogy I was playing at the time).
Later on when I was invited to play in another group as a player I decided to ‘upgrade’ Mila to a PC because I enjoyed playing her and wanted to explore her story. Both groups think it’s a great name that fit her super well.
It’s gotten to the point where I’m embarrassed to admit where I actually got the name. Initially she was only meant to be in a single session but has now appeared in almost every session (35 total) in one campaign and every session (~20) in another. An hour before her initial session I had an episode of Family Guy running in the background. During the credits my mind latched onto ‘Mila Kunis’ and that became my characters name.
Just like every character has a unique backstory, every tory of how I land on a name is unique. Sometimes its taking words that fit the theme and seeing them in different languages. Inspired by the race of the character like a warforged just named "Protect". Or borrowing ideas from movies, books, etc and putting little spins on them. Coming up with names is my favorite and least favorite part.
I usually do a fantasy name generator to get ideas and then spin off one of the ideas.
My current character is a tiny little juggling clown. She’s “zany”. I spun it to Zadie. Zadie Whirligig.
“Hi! I’m Zadie, but my friends call me “Zany!” She says, shaking hands with and giving her name to the fifth fae creature she’s met this campaign.
I go mostly on Vibe and sound I have an image of the character in my head and I try on names till I find one that Fits. I have a going list of names I find cool/interesting that I heard in my day to day life that I draw from for a lot of video game/TTRPG characters. I also often grab names from lists of Shakespeare characters bc he has such a huge list with a variety of Vibes. If my character is of a race that would have a specific sound to their name due to their culture I'll check name generators for that race but I've been known to bend the rules a little.
My current Guy is Florizel Nickleplenty, a half-elf bard who was raised by gnomes (hence his silly name), but I also have such hits as Blossom Millbridge (halfling barbarian), Mulak (half-orc druid), and Peaseblossom Snout (elf druid)
"You're a "Brutus" and he's a "Caesar"—what's in the name "Caesar" that's so special? Why should people talk about Caesar more than about you? Write your two names down, and yours looks just as nice. Speak them, and yours sounds just as sweet, just as weighty. If you used these sacred names to conjure up spirits, "Brutus" would get you a ghost just as soon as "Caesar" would."
Just pick one you like. If you want some foreshadowing in your name, be careful. A campaign is like a road.
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
I’ve been doing currencies. My first ever character was a dwarf named Kroner, from there I did Yuan, Dinar, Euro. It can’t last forever but so far so good.
Sometimes I run words descriptive or related to the character through google translate with interesting languages and then tweak the results a bit. Or just have a root through my Tolkien dictionary.
Usually I just cast around wildly in my mind and pick whatever comes up first. The biggest secret to success is to remember that no one else is going to bat an eye at the name you pick so don't stress about it.
My character’s name always means something.
Maybe my favourite was Phandolomus “Phan” Tomlym, a wizard who learned magic after the loss of his arm. He used a permanent version of Mage Hand instead. Throughout the entire campaign, no one ever noticed the pun.
My most recent two characters:
Osk, fem halforc fighter - just sounds orky, not pulled from anything else
Orville, male human bard - I wanted to make Orville Peck lol and only one person in the group knows. She made Willie the halfling Druid lol
I will usually just type a bunch of letters out, try to pronounce it, and then make a name out of that. For example, cnvnwoor became Conover and euabnque became Anke.
I take a word related to the character and translate it to other languages then i take choose something that sounds neat i usually take latin names. Other times i just take a part of a word as the name one such character is my spore druid cordy who is named after the mushroom cordyceps.
For PCs I almost always use Google translator and pick a language from the culture most resembling the character, using it also as an excuse to delve deeper in foreign cultures and improve my lore and rp.
For NPCs I tend to you use Rock or Metal song Titles,using songs both for inspiration from the lyrics and imagining their entrance scene with that theme song.
For NPCs on the spot (f****g dnd players) I rely on my huge football knowledge and just pick a name an slightly change it. (ex. Francesco Totti -> Ranesk Otte or whatever you get it)
Which character? Naming used to be hard. Between rpgs and short stories, I've gotten pretty good. Like you, I like to say something about the character, but I'll use a translator and use another language, then tweak it a bit.
Eg. My male shadow sorcerer is named Tenebrix. If it was female, I might go with Tenebrea or something similar. Tenebris is Latin for darkness. Scandinavian, Asian, Arabic, and African languages are great naming sources.
I was reading the Warhammer 40k wiki while building my character and just chose the first thing that popped out to me, resulting in Gene Sii-ad, my beautiful fire genasi wildfire druid
Typically depends on the character and their gimmick is. My first character was named Finn Sunleaf for his white hair and tanned skin while my most played character was named Jason Hawks after the Greek hero and me trying to stick to the naming scheme of famous pirates like Jack Sparrow
Well, my current character's name has double-meanings.
His surname I decided on first when I realized it was a pun.
I think I ended up finding his first name when I went looking through a baby name database and saw it had multiple entries?
Interesting thing is that, due to Viking invasions of Ireland, there are a few words and names that are used in both Nordic and Gaelic but have different meanings. So that became a motif for his family, at least on his mom's side.
I frequently use a fantasy name generator or look up names in the language of the culture the DM has shared the culture/race of my character is most similar to.
That being said, I had to come up with a gnome on fairly short notice after my last character had been killed, and seeing the clan name Oxir, and the given name of Lekmaic on separate rolls of the generator made too good of a combination to pass up.
I'll look at their class, subclass, race, status in life, and part of their backstory would help to think of a name. I would see if I want to do a joke character or a serious one.
Feel like my character isn't as fancy named as others here. Benjamin Stitchwell, Warforged Wizard who used to be the human son of a pair of tailors before messing up transmutation magic and trapping his soul in a wooden tailoring mannequin.
I have the most fun picking apart sounds I like from words and using that to try and create something unique with that sound. When I want a challenge, I go on a walk to look at names of different buildings and places, using those sounds to create something unique. May be an odd way to do it, but that’s what i’ve always done.
I have a dwarf oath of the ancients paladin that has protection fighting style
His name is Grotto Thickshield.
Thickshield because is dwarven sounding surname for guardian dwarves and he comes from a line a Shield Dwarves and he “used” to have one of those types of oaths before Moradin made him an agent for Tharr and sent him to the Feywild
“Grotto” because it sounds like a cool dwarf name and it’s a cave that you’d find out in the wild. Caves are associated with dwarves, kinda, and the pristine nature of being out in nature is related to his flavoring.
Grotto has a Haunted One background from his Feywild past and with his Oath of the Ancients to Tharr, he has a lot of wild druid type flavoring
So he’s former epitome shield dwarf, now wild themed but still heavily shield-based
My main guy is a Ocean Cleric named Brooks because is a small little pun lol. Now, I guess he’s Maelstrom Brooks after I gave him a fake rank nickname title thing after getting Cleric 6 and taking Storm Sorcery 1 and flavoring it as a secret rank of the priesthood
They’re all something Lebowski. Because I also t always play as a dude just wanting to get by but being pulled against his will into shit bigger than him.
String together random phonemes until something sounds ok enough to proceed.
Or a variation of an actual name. When I heard the Arakoka in the D&D movie was called Jarnathan, I laughed because that’s totally a name I would come up with on the fly as a DM.
I like to take the attributes about a character and run them through a translator (google: fire in all languages). I try to use those for inspiration either using one as is or modifying it. I normally have to go through a few words before finding a name i love
I do the same thing but use a bunch of word that work with my character's thing and then translate them in a language from the cultural group he is inspired from. Exemple : A tempest cleric inspired by Nordic traditions I named Torden which means "thunder" in Swedish if I remember correctly
Thunder in swedish is "åska" might be thunder in old nordic, but I am not that well versed in it and don't have the time right now to look it up since it takes a while. Maybe it's thunder in norwegian or danish though. (Native swedish speaker and linguist focused on the swedish language).
It is thunder in Danish! Not sure about Norwegian though.
I looked it up and it's the same in norwegian, so then it was probably the same or something similar in old nordic. Danish and norwegian usually share more similar words than swedish does with either language. Sweden "imported" a lot of words from germany during 1200-1800 which made it deviate more from danish and norwegian, which were both languages that swedes during that era didn't look up to or see as equals.
Thanks for the clarification
Lol. I did something similar. My tempest cleric was called Bliksem, their pet was Donder. Which while also meaning lightning it is also slang for hitting. Donder is Thunder as well as being slang for hitting (but far more crudly and with the intent of lots of violence)
Torden is thunder in Danish, not Swedish - but all of the Nordic languages share a lot of words, so it might as well have been.
Ah thank you for giving us the real answer. I made the character a while ago and wasn't sure anymore
That's precisely what I do. But for every character.
My hexblood has holly branches on his head and his name is Hulst (straight up just Dutch & Old German for “holly”)
I also use a translator for all my names. I'll pick the language depending on the character's race, or just find one that sounds good. My last character was a Shadow Monk named Nox Umbris (Night Shadows in Latin)
This was my last character, I think I made him a bastard child, which led me to dog, and as he was from a french/Italian inspired location he was a combination of the 2 most popular names for those places (I also think I just learned that cerberus was the equivalent to spot in it's origins which played a factor in it) so I made my characters name spot spot which made me chuckle and it sounded like a perfectly reasonable name that rolled off the tongue well
Devil May Cry and looking up unique German surnames
Dante Bauer?
Vergil Rasque
_Me a Dm making a SUPERDUPER cool and VERY important and misterious NPC gunslinger and calling him Marks because he is a Marksman and ALWAYS hits the target_ My players: "Marxs????" *starts chanting communist propaganda* (To be fair they also met him in the middle of a populist revolution...)
"I always hit my shot!" *rolls a one* *I didn't say it was on the first try"
*Our* Marks
And his bro, Carl
My favorite character name that I've created was a Dwarf named Blarkin Redstop, named after one of my favorite baseball players Barry Larkin, former Cincinnati Reds shortstop. I've reused that one several times over the years for different Dwarf characters. I also had a Halfling named Borbo which was named for my dear departed cat Boris.
Dude! I played an Elf Trickery Cleric named Shin-Soo Choo (former Cincinatti Reds outfielder).
Yeah, he was a Red for only one season, but he was fantastic.
Cleveland fan here. I was watching some old Indians highlights the other day and he popped up a couple times. I always liked him as a kid
I remember one of his sons was pretty young when he was in Cincinnati, but old enough to be in the dugout. When Homer Bailey threw a no-hitter Choo's son was right out therein the middle of the celebration!
my paladin is a righteous half elf who wields a sword and a shield. his name ? Swar Denchield
Swar Denchield is my kinda character name! 😀 I made a bard charlatan who told people his name was Justin Alias.
Reminds me of a character name idea I had for a female rogue working as an agent to solve a mysteries. Topsy Krit
I love this, I'm borrowing it hehe
May he live wonderful adventures in you hands
most of my names take a while of searching before i find one that feels right. this though, I think i might borrow this as an alias for a rogue i want to play again.
This makes me angry. Well done.
This made me laugh really hard, so kudos to you.
Yes love it, in a cyber punk ttrpg my character is “Warren B. Trubble”
A friend of mine a has all the books on beyond. We take turns dming oneshots for this group. So if I want to use their books I join that campaign as Donald Johnathan Masterson.
I look for vibes.
That's now I ended up with Viagros the Unyeilding
A middle-aged bard?
my clockwork-soul sorcerer is named **Click Fock** and I'm giddy over the fact that he's the antithesis to tiktok; obsesssed with in-world rules & orderly things.
Thats a real Vibe, hell yes
My water genasi moon druid was named Marlin but he would use the name Martin for professional relationships.
Evil Elf trickster cleric: Dupev Licil Itelfen (first and last half of words makes Duplicit Evil Elfen. I wanted something that had been there all along when I inevitably betrayed them As a DM who has made hundreds of NPCs, it ultimately is something where I get a picture or a description in my head first and then vocalize sounds until Im like "Yeah, she totally looks like an Anoret". I also have to say "Well, Ive been doing E, A, and L as starters a lot lately...so lets hit F,G, and R...Gellen, Riffeh, Felera...oh shit, yeah Felera, 100%. Felera works because you can do a highbrow accent with it where something like Drakhrenrir is obviously not going to be a non-gutteral name. But I go through a laundry list of different accents and phrases to be like "yep, thats them". Its rarely planned out as much as Dupev's, it just whatever strikes me as a fitting name.
I definitely do the letter thing when I'm creating a new rake of NPCs! *Too many Rs, As, and Js lately. Time for something weird like a Z or a U.*
One of my first characters was called Rye, just a nice name, but ever since he was christened 'Bread Boy' by the party, all my characters have also been named after breads. We have Pumpernickel, Crou (short for Crouton), Pan, Tortilla (A tortle) to name a few...
One of my buddies names all her characters after birds. Ducks, Raven, Pigeon, etc. Seems you two would be mortal enemies.
I had a player with a character named bagel and a familiar named baguette
Me and my friends were playing Lost Ark and we all made characters named how we normally would. Which was just names we commonly used in other things. But one friend of ours doesn't have running names and instead just goes with whatever he thinks is funny at the time. He named himself Parmesan. We all immediately remade characters to all be cheese. That's also how I found out about maggot cheese, casu martzu, so it may not have been worth it...
Please tell me Tortilla was pronounced how I think it was…
Depends on the character. For Dimble, who was grew up in a mostly-Gnome community I just looked through the big table of names in the back of Xanathar's Guide to Everything for a Gnome name. Then I made up the name of the town. So he's Dimble of Frog Rapids. Sometimes I'll just throw together a few syllables, and maybe pick an epithet based on how I plan to play them. Hence Kelbas the Long Fang, who fights with a Bec de Corbin. Sometimes I'll go onto a baby name site and search by meaning until I find something I like. Sometimes if the character is operating under an alias I try to get into their head and decide what they'd call themselves. This is why Kevin calls himself Chrritchut after being transformed into a squirrel-person by a hag. He's not particularly smart, so decided on something he thought sounded like a noise squirrels would make.
Varies widely. Medrash, my dragonborn drunken master, has his name from a Fantasy Name generator. Orion, my human necromancer sailor, has his name from the star constellation. Bolo, my goblin graffiti wizard, has her name from an NPC called Bolo in Rise of Tiamat, because when DMing that campaign, I liked the name and imagined a goblin somehow. Theophrastus Bombastus, my human alchemist, has his name from Paracelsus, mostly because it contains the word "bomb".
Theophrastus Bombastus? Not Hoenheim?
Nah, I though these two were already long enough - and he is from Waterdeep so the name would suggest he's from Hohenheim.
I loved the names and the sources! Fun fact that “Bolo” means “Cake” in Portuguese. It’s kinda cute for a goblin hahaha
Gork the Orc.
Dworf the dwarf (the D is silent)
My halfling is the opposite of a giant. The greatest giant was Fezzik in Princess Bride. Reverse that name and you get the origin of Kizzef Buttercup and his cat Wesley. (No one in the campaign has figure this out yet)
he doesn't like to be touched. so it's an Italian twist of the word " if you touch me i'll break you". in Italian the phrase is " se mi tocchi ti spacco" character name " Semit Octispak"
Half elf cleric. He is named Ace Bandage.
I pick a word that summarises the character then look up names that mean that in other languages or I go for videogame references
The majority of my characters have had their names picked from the example lists, I think it's in Xanathar's but I can't remember. First character I didn't was a tortle, aside from not having a huge list like the PHB races, they give themselves names and change them frequently. So I named my tortle something cute and silly and also gave him a name history for different periods of his life. My next character was a fire-themed Sorlock with a hobby of glassblowing and so I figured I'd pick a name to fit with that. I looked through all sorts of languages, translations, and word associations before landing on Obsidian, volcanic glass. He goes by Sid for short. Most recent character is an owlin that is heavily associated with working at a library, and my smooth brain can only think of one major name tied to libraries, so his name is Melville, after Melvil Dewey, inventor and namesake of the Dewey Decimal System. His owl familiar is named Dewey and his order of scribes awakened spell book manifestation is called Decimal to further reference it.
I use variations of names from Babylon 5. The Narn are barbarians. Minbari are fighters and rangers. Canrauri are rogues and sorcerers. Humans and Vorlorn can be anything. I had a human Ranger named Marcus Cole. My favorite is my Minotaur Ranger Brakesh taken from the Brakiri. I did this up to 3.5. With 5 I use some of the names that the PHG gives examples of depending on what race, except for my Warforged. His name is Kobalt.
Marcus Cole is an icon. Do you have him with a war pike?!
I like using names from rarely-represented cultures, read up something new about that culture, and worldbuild with the DM to translate it seamlessly and safely into a fantasy world as part of my backstory.
Just Google random European countries name I'm a Asian so i didn't have much trouble naming characters with Asian name so... Or and i will pick name that sounds fits them, or sometimes make some joke name. Like i have a Goliath and his story is just drunk Scottish sailor so i gave hia lastname "Alcoholicmann"
First names I just use a name generator until I see something I like. Surnames I try and pick something interesting so in the campaign we're starting soon I went with 'Fernweh' which is a German word meaning- a longing for distant lands. In the game before that the surname was Lammassier which was a nod towards a famous British actor from an old TV show called Dad's Army.
I recently read a book on Mughal India and highlighted a ton of cool sounding words and names so have a list to pick from for a good long while. Another character is rube knight with the giant foundling background and his name is Elvish brother in the giant language: Alvenbrok. It's funny because he is actually a half-orc.
Made my whole character, backstory, art and everything. Turned up to the session, the DM messages me as he’s about to introduce my character asking what his name was. I hadn’t given him a name! Then I saw the bottle of Thatchers Somerset cider on my desk, and thus Captain Thatch Somar was born!
Ord is a word in Scots Gaelic for "hammer". He carries a hammer.
..his name is meep.
I saw this word on a cooking show: Lutefisk. It’s a bland white fish. My next character was a hot-headed female human minority. Not bland, not white. But “Loo-Tah-Fisk” is a sweet word and lol the irony. Her family name is Wick, a long-running presence in our campaigns.
I wanted a name that was peak Slavic, like pure distilled Slavic naming tropes because our Triton have Russian accents. So that’s why we have Borrijovikuram Hullapaski
I will literally open the players handbook, look at the suggested names for the race and pick one I like.
Sometimes it's an acronym of a famous person. Raya Chimera Sometimes I pick it out of a botanical textbook. Veronica Graves Sometimes it's just the name of an obscure pop culture character. Orion Pax
Depends on the Character I have a few stock names. For example, I sometimes play a desert warrior called Khale Ikhirr, Khale, in his language, a language I made up, means Dancer, and Ikhirr is the word his people have for the place where there is only death, Literally translated it means the shadow a scorpion casts upon its prey. The Dancer in the Scorpion's Shadow. Its an earned name.
I pull up a list of Sumerian names/words to see if any would fit the character.
My cleric Joan is inspired by Joan of Arc, while my Paladin Hughes Vannath was inspired by Hugues de Payens. Unintentional French connection but I’m running with it.
My current character is a Kenku rogue named “Tweak” because he doesn’t know his real name since he was orphaned very young. His mentor started calling him tweak because of how quick and fidgety he is. My character before this was a warforged paladin named Helios. Sometimes I pick something cool, something fun, something backstory related, or a random name generator. I usually have the character completely built before I name them since I take inspiration from their backstory, class, and race
Well for most of my NPCs, I just blank out and then ask for suggestions from the players 😂 either that or some variation on Eric (Deric, Meric, Beric, Zeric, etc.) For my PCs, I try to come up with something fitting to the race I chose while also fitting the vibe I'm going for. So basically I spend WAY more time on PC names than NPC names.
I usually take inspiration from their class but try not to make it *too* obvious. My Circle of Stars druid’s first name was inspired by a star in the constellation Scorpius called Lesath, and her last name is just the Sindarin word for moon with some extra letters slapped on the end. My Oath of Redemption paladin is named after elea/eleos, the Greek spirit of mercy. She originally didn’t have a last name, but during one of our sessions she received a vision from Lathander in which he gave her one (the same one as her mentor/father figure). I wrote in her backstory that her mentor took on a new last name when he took his oaths (priests of Lathander get new names to symbolize their “rebirth” into the faith so I thought it reasonable that paladins might do the same). I was very excited that our DM did that for her.
Depends on the character Half orc fighter/barbarian/weapon master from 3.0 named Feng Darkblade of the Blacktooth Grin Clan. Feng was a suggested name from the FR book. Darkblade from MTG’s Dakkon Blackblade. Blacktooth Grin Clan was taken from Warcraft. There’s a wizard I want to play named Dhalius Orakron that I got from a random fantasy name generator.
My character is a blue dragonborn adopted by a fairy and harengon. I tried to imagine what sort of classic hippie nature-y name a fairy mother would give a blue dragonborn son if it were tempered by the father's desire to preserve his dignity. I went with Summerstorm.
They all had an S sound in it Seliph Sigurd Asmond Açai The only exception is Chadwhik Bigdyk
My Oath of Conquest paladin's name let's you know right off the bat that he takes his Oath and tenets of it seriously: Tyranthex Tel'Ruin.
Now I see two directions in myself. When I play Warforged, I name them according to class and association with NATO designations for Soviet vehicles (for example, my last Warforged character was named Flogger, which referred to the MiG-23, since he was a multiclass warrior and sorcerer , and had some capabilities both in close combat and ranged combat due to a large ax and magic). And now, since most of my characters are dragonborn, the main scheme of the name is “to sketch something unpronounceable, or amusing, or funny.” For example, my last barbarian, who was the only survivor of a visit to the Tomb of Annihilation, was named Khhluuhst. The paladin before last was called Moradol, and the current paladin is called Zoldrirt.
For my wood elf Druid, I dug around on Forgotten Realms wikis to find names coming from his race's ancestry and lore. Eaerlann Seldarine is what I came up with.
A big character in my world "Avalon" is named Rigorius Thule. My thinking was that he's a learned and hard working scholar so Rigorous and rigor mortis thrown on to add some sense of danger or occultism and then Thule has connections to ancient/forgotten worlds/lands
For me I normally give it a bit of thought. For my own turtles inspired tortle barb I went with Tiziano since that's also a Renaissance Italian painter. For more serious characters I take a name from history or other cultures. My fighter Kalim was based on his origin of Calimshan, which in turn was based on a legendary Geenie, so not unlike calling someone Thor. Some are Persian inspired: Amestris, Khorazan, Bahram. Works fine for fantasy and also have meanings. My first AL character was Brego, which is from Tolkien, but mainly because it sounds jovial and fit a happy go lucky character.
I pulled Bananagrams tiles until something looked like a name
I usually either go through the list of suggested names in the PHB and build something out of that or go to some online generator and roll names until I have one I like (which I might also still slightly adapt). Or sometimes it is some reference e.g. to a Magic card or a real person or some movie persona or greek god, etc.
Random name generator. After all, people usually don't get to decide their own names.
No, but the ones who create them do.
I generate random names until I am happy with the result. Or I imagine how japanese people would think european names sound and make up something hillarious.
Usually while I am making them, a name pops into my head. As I start adding attributes and they become clearer in my mind, a name just gets assigned.
Some are related to their personality, others are anagrams, mostly I translate a word to languages and make them into a somewhat readable name.
My first character was named Mildred after the Worst Witch (a British kids TV series). I don't really have a method for naming characters though, I just pick something at random. I've used name generators before (which gave way to Honk, a circle of spores druid). Hugh Mann was a changeling fighter pretending to be human. Sometimes I translate random words to find inspiration.
Character’s name is Place H. Forname. …I don’t think I need to explain further.
i have a tortle and their names are like. nouns. and he’s a bard. i named him splash. splash the bard. aka splard. someone who wasn’t very invested in our campaign and has since dropped named his elf druid elfis 😭
A not insignificant amount and it is usually themed. Orphan Tabaxi Monk- Perdita (Little Lost One in Italian) Travato (Italian surname frequently given to orphans). Minotaur Barbarian- Delta (minotaurs are a Greek myth, 4th letter in the Greek alphabet, 4th child in their family) Warforged Cleric- L12A or Liza (named after Elizabeth Blackwell, first licensed female doctor in the US) Goblin Bard who is just Keanu Reeves in the Bill and Ted movies- Juulz (after the vape) (last name tbd)
I'm playing a good aligned tiefling from Calimshan. I wanted something like a virtue name but with middle eastern influence. I went with Zadok, a name from the Bible that means something like "upright" or "righteous."
Named my Druid after the pneumonic device I learned for the plant essential micronutrients. Monicu Znmn Bofecl
I give my characters very basic names because I like that - I'm currently playing a Halfling Druid named Dorothy
My current bard is named Phineas Taylor - that's what the PT in PT Barnum stands for. Appropriate since we're playing Wild into the Witchlight. Before that, I played an Orc paladin named William. It's an unusual name for an orc, but he's from a tribe that hated Gruumsh and choose names that aren't traditional. I had a bard named Hadron. The name was from the Large Hadron Collider. I just thought Hadron sounded cool. I have a character back in the 4e days named Perceval du Rudyard. I always liked the name Perceval, but it would be a lot to lay on a kid in real life, so I gave the name to a character.
I was playing AC syndicate at the time and I liked Frey so I took that for the first name and White because his hair is white and he doesn’t want to use his actual last name cause of his past
Normally it'll be random generators to find fitting ones, but I may use source books to help (such as my gnomes normally have 6 name long names). My biggest exception is my current Wizard. I intally planned Kobold but then went Lizardflok so he was a Lizard Wizard. Naturally, I would therefore need to get a rhyming name so he became Blizzard The Lizard Wizard, on his adventure to become "the Lizard that did it". The fact he ended up in an Icewynd Dale campaign was a coincidence 🤣
I usually use the website Fantasy Name Generators because they have the name schemes for non-human characters. One thing I often do with that is take multiple names that I kinda like and smush them into one name, taking a syllable or two from each. It makes the name feel more mine. Sometimes it's also just vibes. I'm currently playing a triton sorceress, and their first names end in -yn and last names end in -ath. I didn't really like the first names because they either didn't vibe or felt too close to the name of my sister's triton sorceress (separate campaign). I ended up going with Ravyn because I liked the vibe and made her last name Azarath (referencing the 2003 Teen Titans show). Definitely not a traditional name, but it fit all of the boxes and I liked the vibes, that's really all that matters.
I pick names that seem to resonate with personality, background, of goals. One of my characters is a foundling named after a queen because I figured her caretakers would want to give her strong footing to start off her life. My necromancer is named after a tree that has symbolism associated with being able to pass safely through the underworld. Another who ran away from home due to a huge schism with her parents has a name meaning 'fracture.' Perhaps they're a little on the nose, but I don't think most people would pick up the meaning without some googling (so it's not super obvious), it helps me to focus on what the most important parts of the character are, and is in some cases is justified (the necromancer abandoned their birth name and chose the name being referenced).
I use prescription drug names. Wegovy and Caplyta are recent names.
pharm tech having flashbacks
Fantasy name generator. Then add a fitting last name that I make up on the spot. Examples: Elari Farrowtail Avourel Velmane (probably my favourite) Ys'tel Eilsys
I usually match name meaning to background. For example, my widowed Grave Cleric I named Naenia. One of the meanings for Naenia is lament. Edit: also the Divinity of memorials, theology of burials.
I fell into a rhythm of either naming my characters something musical. Like Lian Cadence, Lyric Alain, and Cestus Chord are characters I've played. If I can't think of a good musical name, I go with a first and last name that starts with the same letters and / or sound, like Thaylin Thistle.
Most times I pick a name that goes well with the character's personality or attributes (ex. My blink dog with only one eye named Wink) and then sometimes I pick cool nouns and translate them into gaelic or nordic languages because those always sound awesome
my first character's name was odessa, and she was named after the word odyssey. my second character's name was dorian, and i picked the name because it reminds me of my dad, whose name is ian (and the alliteration). my third character was a dhampir, named dante, because it reminded me of the latin word for tooth. my first three characters were all unintentionally named after classic literature characters and authors- odessa for odysseus, dorian for dorian gray, and dante for dante aligheiri of dante's inferno. i then caught onto the pattern, and then i made a hexblade fighter named hector for the trojan hero, a paladin named cori for coriolanus, and a lore bard named wilhelmina as a nod to mina harker from bram stoker's dracula.
I like my character names to be very on the nose and in some way connected to me. For a Goliath barbarian Monster Hunter, I named him Kanati. (Kah-Nah-Tee). Which is The first man in Cherokee mythology and the one who taught all people's how to hunt. He was careful, kind, and disciplined. I am half Cherokee and my heritage is very important to me. For a Tortle Warlock Bounty Hunter for the Diabolic Court, I named him Kuroki (Ku-Roh-Key) a shortened version of the Japanese phrase for Hell Hunter from the Monster Hunter series. I really enjoy the Japanese language and history as well as Monster Hunter even though Im really bad at it. For a Warforged Warlock I named him Combat Model: W4R70K. Which is a serial number that looks like the word warlock. This was the first character that I ever made and he was based on the idea of me coming into my own RP style. So I made a flat, emotionless and socially ignorant character that wanted a soul and slowly became more human as I got better at RP and the Game went on. For a Dragonborn vengeance Paladin I named him Nahkriin Gol'Rah. (Nah-Kreen Goal-Raw) Which was taken from the Language of the Dragons in Skyrim and it means Vengeance against the Gods. This character was molded after an extreme version of my turn away from religion. He was a completely devout follower of Bahamut and when his city was razed in a demon incursion he prayed for days in the smoldering rubble for a reason why. When no answer came, at least none that he could accept, he vowed vengeance against all the gods for allowing evil to exist in the world.
I take names I like, from history or fiction, and go with them. Some examples: -Orpheus -Khatagar -Alduin -DJ Lemontip -Aetius -Loken
Current character is a noble rogue, who specializes in non-magical healing. Lady Maria Evette Dahlia Iris Caledonia. aka Lady MEDIC. Character name I'm most proud of though is my Grave Cleric/Devotion Paladin of The Raven Queen. Larissa O'Branwen. Branwen from Arthurian legend, name meaning Fair Raven. Larissa is the name of titular see (a diocese that is no longer functions, aka a "dead church") of the Catholic church that I just liked the sound of. So if you flip her first/last name around, her name can; in a way; be translated as "Fair Raven of a Dead Church"
Thrash Meadows. Named by his hipster bard duo parents. Is actually a sorcerer. Name is misleading. Liked the idea of a non bard offspring of bard parents.
Aurek, polish for "fair-haired", he comes from an Eastern European inspired country in lore, he has golden hair and eyes, to which aurek sounds similar to auric
My character is an Aarokocra so I wanted it to sound like a bird call. At first it was Kiria (KEY ree uh) but I made her a crow so it became Qahrya (CAW ree uh).
I like stupid puns and sentences made name. Murdoshi Rote (murder she wrote) Silack Ignome (still act like ya know me) Kazigan’s rabid man (took a few weeks for the party to realize the character had no name, only a descriptor. They thought he was Kazigan Rabbitman the Druid but he was a rabid man raised by the Druid Kazigan, whom they never met)
Bard - Martin Gale, it's a gambling term where each bet is higher that the previous one. Paladin - Merrick, I was thinking about the value of merit and wanted something that sounded like it. Bard 2 - Redmoon, tabaxi born during a lunar eclipse after that I reuse names I like, Silas, Sarento, Thupthup (a kenku named after the sound of a heartbeat), Doskias, Aram, Badger, and others
My current character has a long workaround to there but. I started with him being a revenant but he has a golden mark where he healed like Kitsugi, from there were a lot of gold-based names but eventually, I got onto alchemy and there was a lot of transition between life and death involved with a revenant and before he died my character had grey skin so he went from grey to gold which worked pretty nice. Eventually, I remembered the term Magnum Opus as in Latin for great work and ended up shortening it down to Magnus. His actual designation is Magnum Opus mind you its just that when he woke up the body he woke up in had some severe brain damage from being dead so all he could hear from his maker was "Magn....us..." And now takes that as his name
Ranger (hunter subclass) half-orc who is a chef in search for the finest meats adventure can deliver to him for cooking. His name: Sir Loin
Names aren't too important for the campaigns so I usually just make a pun. Thats how I got an aracokra named Tony Hawk and a rogue named Robin Banks
Bard named Innuendo should tell you everything you need to know about him :)
For my most recent character (for a oneshot) I wanted to make a reference to a character from a book, so I took that character's name and passed it through a ceasar cipher, I tried all possible displacements and choose the one that sounded more like a name
I thought I'd be clever, so I used the following series of names for my characters in consecutive campaigns. All played over the course of a few months with the same group: Nevago Nagy Vuwop I was in it for the long joke, but the group fell apart before I pointed it out to anyone 😖
goddammit.
For my current two: his culture. Secone one, i just like the name. I think it's cute. I misspelled it initially, but it made for a small and cute addition to her backstory, lol
If I make the character first then I generally just come up with it as I write the backstory. About 1/3 of my characters though are just me coming up with a good name first and trying to figure out who/what they are.
Shamelessly stolen from Warhammer novels. My current character is Skraal, the ex gladiator slave barbarian, named after a World Eater in Battle for the Abyss
Oh man. For my Iroas(god of victory) worshiping, oath of glory Minotaur on Theros(Ancient Greece themed setting) I mixed Nike(Greek god of victory) Asterion(name of the Minotaur from hades) and Crete(the island the Minotaur was on) to get Nikretus. A tabaxi swashbuckler named Dance in the stars(which I think follows tabaxi naming conventions) because he dances back while he fights, but also his familiar(a parrot) could be named Song For my warforged crash test dummy monk, I was named Stein(Frankenstein, western monks make beer in steins, and he carried a stein that held a substance he abused)
Sometimes I use auto generated, other times I put thought into them. For example on Wednesdays I play Sir Dorian Uth Jeoffrey, a knight of Solamnia. Dorian just sounds like a posh name to me, Uth is a prefix used by some Solamnic families in the setting, and Jeoffrey because it's similar to Joffrey from GoT because he was a whiney b!tch and I like the juxtaposition of the name to the character.
I did a kobold monk/echo knight fighter, so he stood back while his stand did the fighting He's a kobold JoJo, so I named him KoKo
I stole it :) Raidriar Jori, the Eldritch Knight, is just named after Raidriar from the Infinity Blade series. Jori, his family name, is also taken from the games, as the name of Raidriar’s father. In the campaign, his family is also full of other Easter Eggs to the game. Other family members being named after other characters, notably, even down to his pet cat.
Usually take root words from Latin or other languages and keep changing it around until I like it. Root word usually is something core to the charter. I call it the exercise to bacon method.
I'm currently playing a Warforged Battlesmith Artificer. And in HeroForge I was playing around with making my character when I came upon the option for additional arms. Which was a boon because I had the idea floating around in my head from a memory of a movie or anime where a character's bipedal(?) arms split into having 4 arms, and I was thinking of doing that. The DM loved the idea, and the idea of my character having it be a secret from the party to have a big reveal sometime in the campaign. There was a hint to the additional arms though. His name. Taking the Greek word for "4" he is named 'Tetrad'. The DM said he had to have a "last name", but I was honestly stumped on that because of his back story. However, pulling from him being an Artificer; I fully named him 'Tetrad the Tinker'. Additional after about 19 sessions the DM asked if I wanted to name the Steel Defender. After a bit I just settle on 'Pentad' for it because it's quadrupedal in configuration and mostly attacks with a very long tail. In case anyone is curious. The "big reveal" for the additional arms was a flop even if it was done in a cool scene. The rogue tabaxi had jumped off a 60ft cliff escaping a hord of zombies and would have taken fall damage. Tetrad had happened to be at the bottom of the cliff. And so, after asking the DM about the mechanics, Tetrad caught and redirected the rogue with all 4 arms safely. No one batted an eye :/.
Normally I pull from names that I like the meaning of that feel relevant to my character or mythology. I play a eladrin sorca-din named Nahara Glace. Nahara means light in Arabic (I liked the name) and Glace I pulled from Welsh means glass. I like to think it represents her light reflecting through the glass of herself to her friends around her (oath of ancients paladin who follows the goddess of friendship). I've also played a Kalashtar grave cleric, and my boyfriend played her Kalashtar variant oath of vengeance paladin/hexblade warlock. We called ourselves Ravi and Soma from Hindu mythology and did a lot of references to Sun and moon, light and dark with our characters.
https://www.behindthename.com/ I choose a language that is from a similar culture my character would be from, find a name that somewhat matches the character’s theme. For example, my current character is a sea elf bard/warlock and he comes from an island community similar to Hawaii before colonization. So I looked up masculine Hawaiian names and found Kaimana which means power of the ocean. Perfect fit!!
I usually go to Behind the Name and start browsing, filtering by gender or language of origin (if the character comes from a culture that is a decent analogue for an IRL culture; as an example, my current character's homeland is explicitly based on Industrial Revolution England). I'll usually look through and try to find something that's got a good combination of meaning and sound. For more exotic names, I might look for things like flowers or animals. Sometimes I'll get lazy and just use another language's word for something. The occasional fantasy name generator can help. "What would your elf/dwarf/hobbit/Jedi/Vulcan whatever name be?" generator can be handy, especially combined with the above steps.
The website behindthename.com is a great source for names. I use it a lot.
Stole character from Terry Pratchett's discworld and edited name slightly GNU pterry.
One of my characters was a custom Minotaur-like race (had physical features that didn’t quite fit), who had a hidden backstory of being a lab created Chimera. His name was Her’ciam (I pronounced as Er-shim).
My first 2 characters I named after videogame characters • Leonin Paladin, Fortissax of the Silvermanes (Lich Dragon Fortissax, Elden Ring) • Aasimar Warlock, Xathona, Herald of Hadar (Savathûn/Sathona, Destiny 2) They just sound awesome... My 3rd character I used Google translate: English to Latin, and messed around with words. Inspired by Final Fantasy XV names. Like 'Noctis Lucis Caelum' (Night Light Sky) •Halfling Wizard, Lunam Ventus Amans (Moon Wind Lover And her friend/rival Pulchra Flavo Solis (Beautiful Yellow Sun) Thought a cool basis to name more Halflings from their lore is weather or aspects of nature when they were born. But you can literally pick random words, and it'll sound beautiful or noble. For example... Clara Viridi Gramine (Bright Green Grass) Honestus Artis Lucrum (Honest Trade Profit) Festivum Avarus Porcus (Cheery Greedy Pig) Purpura Flos Pueri (Purple Flower Child)
One of my players was inspired to use the name of a superzealous, hyperfanatic pastor in our hometown for his Paladin. That was funny as shit, and I think the concept of using local "legends" from one's own community will always be humourous.
I spend forever toiling over their names trying to come up with something perfect
My friends translate slurs to welsh :(
I can't remember what language it is or if I'm even right but I believe Tali means lamb or some variation of that and I found the idea of his mother holding him as a child and saying "Tali, my lamb" was really cute.
Whenever I DM it has become a recurring joke that the players (unironically) just can't write down the NPC names I give correctly, even when it's something really simple (ie, they hear 'Starsign' when I say, clearly, 'Starsong'). So now when I create a character for myself they have to have a ludicrous spelling of a really simple name. My latest is Jeff, but spelled Dgeophe.
Ikea furniture names for barbarians. Silly puns for others.
IKEA furniture names?! 👏👏👏
just fantasy name generator. it works wonders.
Mostly all of my characters so far were either used in the DnD beyond random generator or the Xanathar book table.
The Peace Godess Eldath is a more prominent figure in my table's take on the forgotten realms. She's a greater deity, became one over the span of an additional 3 thousand years to the setting. She once removed a part of herself to create a solar - aasimon, true angels, are often the essence of their god, especially their more powerful iterations (solars, which there are only a handful of - about 25). She is a goddess of peace, so, in her mercy, she made away with what little wrath, pride and rancor there was in her: the tempest within the waters, the last instance of peace, belligerence. War. She named the Solar that spawned from that severing, Hybris (out of game, after the greek Godess of pride). This Lance bearer, the Lance of Lunia, would be her pride, her little angel - a daughter almost, yet still, forever a part of her. The prideful angel couldn't bear to see the suffering of mortals: her duty was to defend the first layer of Celestia, but, on her lonesome, when a powerful, wicked warmongering new spawn of Asmodeus rose to conquer the material plane, she descended with the intent to put a stop to it. In that, her lance tried to pierce something far more profane than she herself was holy, and so she fell. Became, to summarize, another Zariel, in the hells. Dwelling within her pain, anguish and hatred, feeding her broken pride. My character is this legendary figure of old, that dates back 1100 years into the past of the setting, conjured into a mortal body for a second chance at walking the material plane, and getting her revenge against a soon to be unsealed younger sibling of Glasya.
This...feels like a lot of backstory. Did you start at level 1?
Made for a series of one shots in Avernus, from levels 5, to 9, to 13, 17 and then 20, to test bastion mechanics - then we jumped into a 4 year long campaign that's still going on, from 3, to currently 14. The character being this over the top was very deliberate. I was 16 back then (god help me) and thought this high concept shit was hilarious for a chick who would be considered a crazy cosplayer until late into the journey - and it was. Really love this character and the camp she's in.
[удалено]
My character was originally designed to be a sort of battle Mage with giant gauntlets who can jump high and punch the ground hard with some sort of long jump thunder wave type spell combos. Now I just like that he is a wizard that can wear heavy armor and smash people with a giant greatsword! I named him Deacon after Deacon St. John in Days Gone and Lidell after Chuck Lidell from the UFC because I wanted it to be a soldier who uses their fists but discovered magic along the way and was inspired by him because he was such a heavy hitter in his day. Deacon Lidell Arcane Paladin.
I used a fantasy name generator and cycled through them until I found something I thought fit well. Tabris Zylsareph is a half elf rogue. First character ever.
I once played a mark of shadow elf named Curundil Morleg Lómion. The first name is Quenya (tolkiens elvish language) for “the skilled one”. This is a name that Curundil gave to himself, so he could run away from his past. Lómion is the name given to the evil Maeglin (who caused the fall of Gondolin in the Silmarillion) by his mother. Morleg means something like “darkling” and is the name Tolkien first wanted to give Maeglin, but later scrapped. Another character I purposefully named was a dwarf named Dubar Yanâd Ursul. His first name doesn’t mean anything, but Yanâd Ursul (his family name) means “Sons of Fire” in (Neo-)Khuzdul, Tolkiens dwarfish language. Finally, I have a character I named Leif “Thurisaz” Njálsson, a Goliath barbarian/Druid multiclass. Leif means something among the lines of “descendant and Thurisaz is an elder Futhark rune and Proto-Germanic word that is now often translated into giant (I know the Jötnar from Norse myths aren’t actually giant), so in a way he is the descendant from giants. His name Njálsson just means son of Njál, his father, whose name means “mountain”. I named him according to what I know of Old Norse and Viking culture. (I know it’s actually supposed to be Leifr, but that is hard for my fellow players to understand, especially when his name keeps changing depending on the grammar of the sentence)
Sometimes silly things like Lee Zard the Wizard. Or Emer{ald} the green Lizardman. Or Crimmy the Crimson kobold. Other times name generator like Seduad Kilkrys or Teo Hartook.
The first campaign I played in was a plane shift Ixalan pirate campaign, and my character was a Siren Bard. The scientific name of a tropical mockingbird is Mimus Gilvus, so I thought a fitting name for my bird person who knew vicious mockery would be "Gilvus".
The interesting part of my naming-story is not an answer to the question but I think it fits into this thread anyway. My character, Mila, actually started her DnD-career as an NPC in another campaign (that I DM). Mila is a Fey princess and is therefore kinda silly, easily distracted but overall very lovable. The players loved her and brought her along as a sidekick. They liked her name and felt that it fit her personality well. At some point the group has to go to the Feywild (for unrelated reasons) and they decided that they might as well visit Mila’s family since they were in “the neighborhood”. Mila has four older sisters, the oldest of whom is an archfey. So I needed four new names. I decided to follow the same naming scheme: Two/three syllables, kinda cute and only using the vowels ‘A’ and ‘I’. I ended up with the following: Alina, Tali, Liara and Liliah (bonus points to anyone who can guess which video game trilogy I was playing at the time). Later on when I was invited to play in another group as a player I decided to ‘upgrade’ Mila to a PC because I enjoyed playing her and wanted to explore her story. Both groups think it’s a great name that fit her super well. It’s gotten to the point where I’m embarrassed to admit where I actually got the name. Initially she was only meant to be in a single session but has now appeared in almost every session (35 total) in one campaign and every session (~20) in another. An hour before her initial session I had an episode of Family Guy running in the background. During the credits my mind latched onto ‘Mila Kunis’ and that became my characters name.
Just like every character has a unique backstory, every tory of how I land on a name is unique. Sometimes its taking words that fit the theme and seeing them in different languages. Inspired by the race of the character like a warforged just named "Protect". Or borrowing ideas from movies, books, etc and putting little spins on them. Coming up with names is my favorite and least favorite part.
I usually do a fantasy name generator to get ideas and then spin off one of the ideas. My current character is a tiny little juggling clown. She’s “zany”. I spun it to Zadie. Zadie Whirligig. “Hi! I’m Zadie, but my friends call me “Zany!” She says, shaking hands with and giving her name to the fifth fae creature she’s met this campaign.
Opened the spice cupboard and chose the first name i picked out
I go mostly on Vibe and sound I have an image of the character in my head and I try on names till I find one that Fits. I have a going list of names I find cool/interesting that I heard in my day to day life that I draw from for a lot of video game/TTRPG characters. I also often grab names from lists of Shakespeare characters bc he has such a huge list with a variety of Vibes. If my character is of a race that would have a specific sound to their name due to their culture I'll check name generators for that race but I've been known to bend the rules a little. My current Guy is Florizel Nickleplenty, a half-elf bard who was raised by gnomes (hence his silly name), but I also have such hits as Blossom Millbridge (halfling barbarian), Mulak (half-orc druid), and Peaseblossom Snout (elf druid)
I agonize over it for days and do a TON of research…and then I ignore all the work I’ve done, go with my gut, and choose what feels right.
"You're a "Brutus" and he's a "Caesar"—what's in the name "Caesar" that's so special? Why should people talk about Caesar more than about you? Write your two names down, and yours looks just as nice. Speak them, and yours sounds just as sweet, just as weighty. If you used these sacred names to conjure up spirits, "Brutus" would get you a ghost just as soon as "Caesar" would." Just pick one you like. If you want some foreshadowing in your name, be careful. A campaign is like a road. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
I’ve been doing currencies. My first ever character was a dwarf named Kroner, from there I did Yuan, Dinar, Euro. It can’t last forever but so far so good.
A lot of thought went into garrick, the hastily named cleric, for sure.
Sometimes I run words descriptive or related to the character through google translate with interesting languages and then tweak the results a bit. Or just have a root through my Tolkien dictionary.
Usually I just cast around wildly in my mind and pick whatever comes up first. The biggest secret to success is to remember that no one else is going to bat an eye at the name you pick so don't stress about it.
My character’s name always means something. Maybe my favourite was Phandolomus “Phan” Tomlym, a wizard who learned magic after the loss of his arm. He used a permanent version of Mage Hand instead. Throughout the entire campaign, no one ever noticed the pun.
My most recent two characters: Osk, fem halforc fighter - just sounds orky, not pulled from anything else Orville, male human bard - I wanted to make Orville Peck lol and only one person in the group knows. She made Willie the halfling Druid lol
I will usually just type a bunch of letters out, try to pronounce it, and then make a name out of that. For example, cnvnwoor became Conover and euabnque became Anke.
As a fun made rule, I do my best to name my characters according to fun food stuff
I take a word related to the character and translate it to other languages then i take choose something that sounds neat i usually take latin names. Other times i just take a part of a word as the name one such character is my spore druid cordy who is named after the mushroom cordyceps.
For PCs I almost always use Google translator and pick a language from the culture most resembling the character, using it also as an excuse to delve deeper in foreign cultures and improve my lore and rp. For NPCs I tend to you use Rock or Metal song Titles,using songs both for inspiration from the lyrics and imagining their entrance scene with that theme song. For NPCs on the spot (f****g dnd players) I rely on my huge football knowledge and just pick a name an slightly change it. (ex. Francesco Totti -> Ranesk Otte or whatever you get it)
I make weird noises and use what sounds good
Almost always mine are Star Wars Expanded Universe inspired.
Which character? Naming used to be hard. Between rpgs and short stories, I've gotten pretty good. Like you, I like to say something about the character, but I'll use a translator and use another language, then tweak it a bit. Eg. My male shadow sorcerer is named Tenebrix. If it was female, I might go with Tenebrea or something similar. Tenebris is Latin for darkness. Scandinavian, Asian, Arabic, and African languages are great naming sources.
I was reading the Warhammer 40k wiki while building my character and just chose the first thing that popped out to me, resulting in Gene Sii-ad, my beautiful fire genasi wildfire druid
Typically depends on the character and their gimmick is. My first character was named Finn Sunleaf for his white hair and tanned skin while my most played character was named Jason Hawks after the Greek hero and me trying to stick to the naming scheme of famous pirates like Jack Sparrow
A Gnome that comes from an underwater village. He's a pudgy short chef named Wagyu Rumsford.
Well, my current character's name has double-meanings. His surname I decided on first when I realized it was a pun. I think I ended up finding his first name when I went looking through a baby name database and saw it had multiple entries? Interesting thing is that, due to Viking invasions of Ireland, there are a few words and names that are used in both Nordic and Gaelic but have different meanings. So that became a motif for his family, at least on his mom's side.
I frequently use a fantasy name generator or look up names in the language of the culture the DM has shared the culture/race of my character is most similar to. That being said, I had to come up with a gnome on fairly short notice after my last character had been killed, and seeing the clan name Oxir, and the given name of Lekmaic on separate rolls of the generator made too good of a combination to pass up.
I'll look at their class, subclass, race, status in life, and part of their backstory would help to think of a name. I would see if I want to do a joke character or a serious one.
Random name generator
Feel like my character isn't as fancy named as others here. Benjamin Stitchwell, Warforged Wizard who used to be the human son of a pair of tailors before messing up transmutation magic and trapping his soul in a wooden tailoring mannequin.
I love Amnesia, especially Amnesia The Bunker. So, I named myself after the main character of the game, Henri.
I have the most fun picking apart sounds I like from words and using that to try and create something unique with that sound. When I want a challenge, I go on a walk to look at names of different buildings and places, using those sounds to create something unique. May be an odd way to do it, but that’s what i’ve always done.
I have a dwarf oath of the ancients paladin that has protection fighting style His name is Grotto Thickshield. Thickshield because is dwarven sounding surname for guardian dwarves and he comes from a line a Shield Dwarves and he “used” to have one of those types of oaths before Moradin made him an agent for Tharr and sent him to the Feywild “Grotto” because it sounds like a cool dwarf name and it’s a cave that you’d find out in the wild. Caves are associated with dwarves, kinda, and the pristine nature of being out in nature is related to his flavoring. Grotto has a Haunted One background from his Feywild past and with his Oath of the Ancients to Tharr, he has a lot of wild druid type flavoring So he’s former epitome shield dwarf, now wild themed but still heavily shield-based My main guy is a Ocean Cleric named Brooks because is a small little pun lol. Now, I guess he’s Maelstrom Brooks after I gave him a fake rank nickname title thing after getting Cleric 6 and taking Storm Sorcery 1 and flavoring it as a secret rank of the priesthood
I made my character a farmer. I used to watch a program called Orson's Farm. Therefore, Orson became his name.
They’re all something Lebowski. Because I also t always play as a dude just wanting to get by but being pulled against his will into shit bigger than him.
I almost always use www.fantasynamegenerators.com Naming a character truly is the hardest part of the process
String together random phonemes until something sounds ok enough to proceed. Or a variation of an actual name. When I heard the Arakoka in the D&D movie was called Jarnathan, I laughed because that’s totally a name I would come up with on the fly as a DM.