Best Character Names

My one and only Star Wars P&P character was an Ithorian ("Hammerhead") with the name Wrw Dungon.

The first name was conceived to imitate the sounds the hammerheads might make (especially during that Cantina scene"), and according to what I knew about their two mouths.

The second name was ... well, it was partly made to remind me and the others of the word "dungeon", since it *was* an role playing game after all ...

Dunmore Stonefist - my dwarf name. IMHO it sounds exactly what a dwarf name should sound like.
Nalaas Shadowblade - my elven melee name.
Khass of Dawnspire - my caster/scholar-type name for every race.

Khass said:

Dunmore Stonefist - my dwarf name. IMHO it sounds exactly what a dwarf name should sound like.
Nalaas Shadowblade - my elven melee name.
Khass of Dawnspire - my caster/scholar-type name for every race.

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Good ones. I'll still stick to Fearghus for my dwarves, tho. The last name varies, but I usually work "stone" or hammer' in as well. I actually think I used the name Earthenfire once

btw, nice sig Khass.

Zaleukos said:

Dwarves are the trickiest characters to name... Humans are easy and for elves one can simply take a Chinese name that has been translated to English...

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As you see, I've solved my dwarven issues, and I agree on humans and elves; however, I've always thought it was Native American names being translated.

I cheat with my character names. I always use Kerria as a first name, and the last name will reflict either the mod I am using it in, or the particular session or type. For example, I have Kerria Evolon who is my evil character in my second run through NWN2, and I have a Kerria Socatis, my sorc character.

I always name my main male character Bandax Lorn. It's a name I came up with for a story that I wrote many, many years ago, and I've always stuck with it. Bandax has had so many CRPG adventures that he can't even remember most of them any more

Ah, and by the way, the sheet of the "Dark Eye" RPG system's character "Alrik Fassbauer" is still lying around somewhere ...

Cm said:

I cheat with my character names. I always use Kerria as a first name, and the last name will reflict either the mod I am using it in, or the particular session or type. For example, I have Kerria Evolon who is my evil character in my second run through NWN2, and I have a Kerria Socatis, my sorc character.

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I don't know if you know this but Kerria japonica is a nice yellow-blooming shrub suitable to the woodland garden--and would make an excellent name for a monk or druid.

Thanks magerette

And a question for those who like to invent names on the spot (like I do), how much time do you stand thinking about it? I usually consume ~20-50 minutes, if given time. Record probably stands at about 1.5 hours, for Khass of Dawnspire, for which the 'of ...' part had had about 50 variants

speaking of japonicas, back at my old job where i worked for five years once a year i had to poke tiny holes in ~1000 Popillia japonica (japanese beetles) as lab quality control for people in the field checking traps. thankfully the job was often far more interesting than that.

i usually spend anywhere from 1-10 minutes which i wish was always the last choice since i can spend hours on the rest of charcter creation (ie nwn 2) only to scrap the character and their name.

I spend up to two nights.

No names "on the spot" for me I'm afraid...

Khass said:

And a question for those who like to invent names on the spot (like I do), how much time do you stand thinking about it? I usually consume ~20-50 minutes, if given time. Record probably stands at about 1.5 hours, for Khass of Dawnspire, for which the 'of ...' part had had about 50 variants

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Once I know what my character looks like, I usually stick with the first name that comes to my mind, so it's roughly 2 to 5 minutes.
This is probably the fault of our Star Wars GM: at the start of the Imperial campaign back in '97, he let the players of 'regular' characters (Navy, Security, ISB etc.) pick their names the 'regular' way while the three stormtroopers were given a designation (like SDA-1501 and so on). If players wanted a nick, they had exactly one minute to think of one, starting...now...
The folks at the neighboring table had just discussed mass storage media, so my thoughts went 'M/O drive ... Zip drive ...Jaz drive ...', and I blurbed out : "Jaz." The GM looked on a piece of paper in his hand, shook his head and said: "Name taken already. You have 30 seconds left." Pictures of the PC game I had just finished flashed through my mind... it was Cyberstorm... my favorite bioderm had been Tarn, the cybrid-hybrid...
"Tarn," I croaked. The GM cocked a brow.
"Good," he said. "Jaz Tarn. Should you ever meet the other guy, he's Jaz Prime now."

When I think up a character name for a book, it takes me even less time as I make them up on the fly, often modelling them after people I know or things in my field of vision. So a banker named Nordin who boastd of his past fame as a 'Quake wargod' was easily transformed into a brutal dwarven warrior named Norredin Stonefist, while a box with tea filters was inspiration for elvish extra Cilia...

Jaz said:

When I think up a character name for a book, it takes me even less time as I make them up on the fly, often modelling them after people I know or things in my field of vision. So a banker named Nordin who boastd of his past fame as a 'Quake wargod' was easily transformed into a brutal dwarven warrior named Norredin Stonefist, while a box with tea filters was inspiration for elvish extra Cilia...

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My Dunmore has a brother? Oh dear ... I foresee a fight for the head of the Stonefist house of the Tharym kingdom. Although Dunmore has had some experience with this issue (which included decapitations, heads-on-a-stick and an self-exile), this brutal Norredin might give him some problems. Ah well ... *sharpens greataxe*.

Actually, Norredin's name is Steinfaust; I just translated it for this thread. Your Dunmore might be a cousin from another continent ... my 'guy' is an advisor to a dwarven king.

Necro action!!!

Four years passed, and I just discovered that most of my CRPG characters of the last few years were called Irean or Ireane, respectively.

Many of my characters have a forename and surname beginning with the same letter and the surname offering a hint of the characters profession.

Wiona Windcraft (mage)
GiGi Goodwill (cleric)
Synthia Shadowdancer (rogue)
Silvia Silfershield (knight)

Fighter: Callahan - It's just a tough sounding name, especially when you consider it comes from the "Dirty Harry" series. Started with that one when I started playing Fallout.

Thief: Havelock Vetinari - After the Patrician in the Discworld series, who was trained as an assassin.

Mage: Tain Xell - Got this one after beating my head on a wall for hours trying to figure out a name. Looked at a Maxell cassette tape, and a Mountain Dew (weird) bottle.

I use silly names for the most part:

A hideous orc will be Ugmug or Grimlock, depending on mood. Go Transformers!

A nearly-naked chick will be Leia Meedown

A caster will be named after his specialty: Pyrus Arcanus for fire or Terra-Ble for an earth mage, Aether Wise for an astral or ethereal caster, etc.

Priests are normally named for their deity-Tyrsonne, Apollo Genix, Jehovah's Witness, etc.

Girl archers are Quiver and guys are Shaft or Fletch.

Rogues are typically called Pilf or Kleptia

Most characters are named Lloyd, which is my real name. I use that because if I don't throw something in there, I'll never play the game - I'll just be staring at the name box for years.

Some that I remember:
Face_Of_Butt - D1 online fighter
Mister_Gaga - D2 barbarian
Pisser - Torchlight alchemist (with dog named Flea Bag)

Other than that, just Lloyd.

I use the names of various characters from one of the worst films ever made: Red Zone Cuba (originally titled Night Train to Mundo Fine). They did an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with this movie.

Griffin (or Griff)
Landis
Cook
Chastain

I used Doris as the first name of my female Shepard in Mass Effect.

I use these over and over as a sort of personal joke to myself, but they're also fairly simple and plausible names. I hate long "fantasy" names with too many vowels and hyphens.

Huzzah for silly names!

My DDO ranger: Wouldii Wohnty
My NWN half-orc barbarian: Turd Ferguson (shamelessly stolen from an SNL skit, but I actually worked up an extended back story for him, which I don't usually mess with)
Wiz8: Ook the Mook (cmon, it's mandatory!)