Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Shiftkitty May 12, 2009 14:48:31	What are some of the more illustrative or clever names you've come up with? My first ever PC back in '81 was the oh-so-creative Borg the Bold. He died by boldly falling off a ledge, and boldly splatting on the bold rocks below. He was replaced by the only slightly more cleverly-named Carl the Cautious. I've since gotten better with names, and sometimes my players do quite well with such things. An elven warrior who was all spit and vinegar would become a whirlwind of death in combat, combining a high DEX with a high STR and pretty much made mincemeat of any foe who go too close: Stormbringer. A human barbarian, single-minded and determined: The Bull One from my game is a sorceror who is proud of his self-taught arcane skills: Sonnick the Hedge-Mage
#2 entropy_judge May 12, 2009 15:12:38	My first character (AD&D) was a half-elven Ranger named Robert. Oh, am I so glad that was a 1-shot. Now they tend to be ... odd. Liath Bas, for example, is a LN Wizard (Liath is Irish for Grey, Bas for Death). He wears brown and grey, and likes Evocation and Necromancy. I have fun with him.
#3 nowiwantmydmg May 12, 2009 15:28:21	in 2e I had some terrible names, the worst were: Norion(yes the constellation with an extra letter) 1/2 elf fighter/cleric and Rueben (Like the sandwich) Human Wizard.
#4 bone_naga May 12, 2009 15:35:18	I have a friend that names almost every one of his characters Robert, and we called him Bob for short. He played a mind flayer one time, who had no concept of name because a completely telepathic society had no concept of them (basically each mind had its own recognizable "signature" and as such there was no need for a name, as that signature was all the recognition that was needed). When asked for a name he mind probed one of the NPCs, drove them insane in the process, and came up with the name "Bob". He also played a barbarian with an unpronounceable name, so everyone just called him Bob. Finally, he decided he needed a change of pace, so he created a noble hero named Sir Bobert, and we called him Rob.
#5 baneofelves May 12, 2009 15:42:04	Poof-Poof the Wizard. Everyone laughed at him because of his name, but he was BADASS. You don't **** with Poof-Poof.
#6 Stuntman May 12, 2009 17:37:14	I had a player who had characters named, "Brother Bob" and "Father Bob". When he joined my game, he had a better name: "Bobgar".
#7 Centauri May 12, 2009 18:17:13	Eric the Cleric, I'm afraid.
#8 doneisi May 12, 2009 19:20:26	Adrian the monk. All wolf animal companions are wolffy el pooffy with an increasingly large number.
#9 burnincoal_dup May 12, 2009 19:37:56	I ran a 3.5 campaign for my friends for onyl one session. My friend was a paladin who demanded a shark as his mount, even though we weren't in an aquatic campaign. It became a land-shark and we called it Garchomp. Not exactly a character name, but it was pretty bad...
#10 drillbossd May 12, 2009 19:55:03	Props to Eric the Cleric. I played Pythagoras "One-eyed Piet" Thompson, human axe fighter. My PCs currently play the fighter and rogue brothers Vercingetorix and Constantine van Rijn. We call them Torix and Constantine. They came with the first names and let me make a last name. Their father is named Prospero van Rijn. I have some weird NPC names, but I stick to real world words cause it fits for the setting. The BBEG is Vincent Violet, who is now the leader of the human empire as Kaiser Vincent. Also his wife, Rose van Dam, angers the bros. There's also "Shotglass" Alderman, a player favorite. -Drillboss
#11 d_gibb May 12, 2009 21:00:39	I am guilty of some overcomplicated names like my 2e Psionicist Biad D'bajjecep (he was fun), but there are more that have become quite fun. At the outset of 3e, I was studying abroad in Japan, but that didn't stop us from running a mini campaign. I ran an elven warpriest of Tempus named Leryn who was overpowered by a half-orc ranger named Crush and a human barbarian named Gark. The DM kept calling the barbarian Mike for some reason, so his name became Gark the Mike. Currently, I am playing in a group that includes Randy the half-elf Swordmage (makes me smile just typing it) and Drew the female human Artificer. Fun names.
#12 tethryn_lahralein_dup May 12, 2009 21:16:08	I can't claim credit for this but one of my friends' first character was: Nick Danger the Danger Ranger. He had 1 Hit Point thanks to a very poor roll. Died to a kobold in his first encounter.
#13 cecil777 May 12, 2009 21:17:47	Adrian the monk is AWESOME. Is he ravaged with OCD and solves crimes on his downtime? Cain the wizard and Abel the paladin were my firsts. They were twins. Partly inspired by the bible story, and partly inspired by MOTHER 3. Currently I'm playing Gilead Vector, the bard. Yeah, my names aren't too wacky. But they aren't really NORMAL either. Don't know how I come up with them. I just think "That name might fit this guy" or "I want a name that starts with this letter".
#14 tequila_sunrise May 12, 2009 21:32:09	One from my game is a sorceror who is proud of his self-taught arcane skills: Sonnick the Hedge-Mage Thank you, Shiftykitty, you just made my day. I played two characters named MacCool [in different campaigns] before I realized that everyone thought the name was a not-so-subtle way of saying "look how cool I am!" (MacCool is actually the name of a legendary Irish hero.)
#15 Nived May 12, 2009 21:36:55	Nived was my first PC when I got back into D&D back around '02, I had played some second edition with my older brother when I was a little kid but nothing long term. Nived is my middle name, Devin, backwards. Not terribly creative perhaps but I liked it. He was a Gnome Druid, and amusingly enough, the only PC I've ever had to retire happily. As opposed to dying horribly or the campaign meandering off. Sir Tarn Dolestone The Pious, Reverend Son of Kijo the Blade, Defender of the Throne, Knight of the Realm, Hero of Prophecy, General of the Green Pheonix Legion, Demonslayer (and Pig Bane). By the end of the campaign he did introduce himself as that, every time he got an oportunity he'd pull out his ever growing title. The Pig Bane was thrown in by the other players due to a recurring component for a commune spell. Had his soul ripped out in the final battle of the campaign and the soulgem thrown into a chaotic planar portal.
#16 ciaran May 12, 2009 22:57:50	Eric the Cleric, I'm afraid. Best name ever! I might steal that for an NPC. My first serious character was a 1st edition ranger named Buck. Clever, huh? Back in the days of 2nd edition I played David the Gnome for quite awhile, a mostly ineffective illusionist-thief and also there was a grappling hook wielding cleric named Mong. In 3rd edition, Brother Thadeud was a singing, pole-vaulting monk. A 3.5 duergar ranger was named Sevros "Elf Splitter". Guess what his favored enemy was? He got plenty of chanced to prove his name. Good times. Now I've got Ali K'shenta Reyhan ibn Mushin Shadid.
#17 crossblade May 12, 2009 23:13:31	Silliest I got is Rogan. Sure, might sound different, but it's 1 letter different from my real name. :P Next to that would be Ryal... which is 1 letter different from my 2nd name. Names that are from past group-mates but are silly include Cookie, a tiefling wizard... dude was eating a cookie at character creation time, and C.W. Troll the Half-Orc cleric (kid got the name off a box he kept his dice in).
#18 umcorian May 13, 2009 0:09:05	What are some of the more illustrative or clever names you've come up with? My first ever PC back in '81 was the oh-so-creative Borg the Bold. He died by boldly falling off a ledge, and boldly splatting on the bold rocks below. He was replaced by the only slightly more cleverly-named Carl the Cautious. I've since gotten better with names, and sometimes my players do quite well with such things. An elven warrior who was all spit and vinegar would become a whirlwind of death in combat, combining a high DEX with a high STR and pretty much made mincemeat of any foe who go too close: Stormbringer. A human barbarian, single-minded and determined: The Bull One from my game is a sorceror who is proud of his self-taught arcane skills: Sonnick the Hedge-Mage Easy way to make names that don't suck: 1. Brainstorm 10-20 common letter combinations. Cor, Bra, Jan, Mon, Dra, Era, Por, Joh, Ral, Spe, Mat, Div, Cod, Dax 2. Mix and match. Pro tip: Don't often put 2 vowels together. Never put 3. Corjan. Moncor. Drapor. Johdra. Ralbra. Matspe. Divjoh. Codmat. Daxjoh. Cordra. Porbra. Janjoh. Moncod. Eracor. Porbra. Johral. Ralcor. Spejan. Matral. Mondiv. Coddax. 3. Find one that sounds good. Then use it in this sentence: "My name is , son of Arathor." If you can keep a straight face, it's good. 4. Use it for your next character name. For example, I like Coddax, Matral and Eracor. I'll probably use one of them for my next character.
#19 nightwyrm May 13, 2009 0:30:24	I once made a ray focused 3.5 sorcerer named Ray. His last name was Gunn.
#20 evil_weevil May 13, 2009 1:02:20	In 3.0 I had a gnome rogue that I hadn't gotten around to naming so in the mean time I wrote in the place holder Evil Weevil, so just to see what others would say when asked the characters name I said Evil.. Evil Weevil. The rest of the group liked it, so my little gnome rogue became Evil Weevil. Every NPC he met that heard his name always did a double take and he would explain that the Weevil clan has been around for hundreds of years, and frankly he was surprised that they were unheard of in these lands. The funnest part of the character was that he was a loyal liar and thief with a soft spot for animals of all type, even the most obscure. His best friend in the whole world was a halfling rogue who helped him liberate wizards familiars, or at least as well as they could.
#21 Arcane_Guyver May 13, 2009 1:37:04	I think my favorite character was a gnome named Yuri Cleansweeper, Magical Janitor. When not webbing & blasting enemies with his meticulously clean crossbow, he'd be picking up after his companions in a bar (due to some serious OCD) or reciting racist epithets from his grandfather about kobolds & goblins. Nowadays, I wonder how I got the idea to make a janitor out of a wizard...
#22 yaliceme May 13, 2009 3:10:30	I played in a one-shot with a guy who decided to name his character "Who." We initially just thought it was odd and harmlessly amusing. But we quickly found that it made normal conversation confusing almost to the point of being impossible. DM: Everybody make a perception check. *players do so and privately report their rolls* DM: Ok, Who notices something odd about the room. Player1: Er... we don't know. Aren't you supposed to tell us who? DM: No, no... I meant the character "Who." Player1: Ohhhh, ok. Player2: Wait, sorry, who made their perception check? DM: Yes, that's what I just said. Player2: HUH?? And so forth. By the end, I think the DM was very tempted to arbitrarily kill this guy for having such an infuriating name. I think we have a standing house-rule now that you are not allowed to name your character after a common question-word.
#23 m4kitsu May 13, 2009 4:28:48	I and the groups I attract must be strange. My character names tend to either come from character traits (Sebastien "Seb" Aiolos is a freerunner and a mage in a M:tA chronicle. "Aiolos" is a form of Aeolus, the greek god of the wind), or from the original inspiration of a character (Lieutenant Ezri-Lynne Boer is the navigator aboard the Lyrandar airship Dawnsray, and Ezri Dax was played by Nicole de Boer on DS9). I think the oddest names my group has ever come up with was Chris, a human Jedi, and Remi "Death on a Stick" Thunderheart, a halfling fighter. Chris' player, when asked, said, "There's a frelling Luke and a Ben in the movies. Why not?" I couldn't argue with the logic. Remi was a Talenta Halfling, and believe me, he earned the name.
#24 entropy_judge May 13, 2009 5:29:47	I played in a one-shot with a guy who decided to name his character "Who." We initially just thought it was odd and harmlessly amusing. But we quickly found that it made normal conversation confusing almost to the point of being impossible. DM: Everybody make a perception check. *players do so and privately report their rolls* DM: Ok, Who notices something odd about the room. Player1: Er... we don't know. Aren't you supposed to tell us who? DM: No, no... I meant the character "Who." Player1: Ohhhh, ok. Player2: Wait, sorry, who made their perception check? DM: Yes, that's what I just said. Player2: HUH?? And so forth. By the end, I think the DM was very tempted to arbitrarily kill this guy for having such an infuriating name. I think we have a standing house-rule now that you are not allowed to name your character after a common question-word. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmvkO5x6Ng
#25 thelorekeeper_dup May 13, 2009 8:25:43	My Halfing Wizard is rather enthusiastic, so when he first killed an oyster-like monster; he took on the noble title of Merinn Molluskslayer
#26 _jayne_cobb_ May 13, 2009 8:42:31	A dwarf named B.B. Maxwell Silverhammer Half ogre named Slobb the Large, brother to Klogg and Thudd Halfling rogue named Lord Clancy Autumnbottom Barbarian named Fred the Viking Mage named Tarquin Fintimlinbinwhinbimlim Bus Stop F'tang F'tang Ole Biscuit-Barrel (commonly known as "Tar")
#27 wrecan May 13, 2009 8:52:41	My first magic-user (I was 12) was named Akron, just because I liked the sound of the word. In college, I had a ranger named Petruchio (whose animal companion was a dire shrew). As I DM, I've had to deal with a monk who insisted his name was "Bobo" (not a nickname -- his given name), and an archer-ranger named Fletcher (though we eventually made him concede it was a nickname), and one guy who insisted his halfling thief's name was utterly original... Bodo Fraggins.
#28 prator_the_golden May 13, 2009 10:01:12	I once attempted to start a game with a Swashbuckler character called Guybrush Threepwood, who wanted to be a pirate. I was immediately kicked out of the group.
#29 Forehead May 13, 2009 11:35:59	Aladdin the Paladin, reporting in.
#30 wayne_frobisher May 13, 2009 14:30:03	My first ever character was a half-elf sorcer. My DM told me that the standard naming convention for half-elves is a common first name and a surname composed of two elements taken from nature. "Is Nicolas ok?" I asked. He nodded. "How about Wolfwood?" Pain ensued. My current character is a Dwarf cleric of Berronar. He started off named Mjolheiddr (Hammer-Bright in old Norse). He got poked in his right eye by a needle trap and then obtained a magic spear from another trap. So he adopted the name Odin and multiclassed Shaman--his spirit companion is a pair of ravens that occupy one square. This was also to help the other players who found his name unpronouncable.
#31 yaliceme May 13, 2009 14:57:53	In college, I had a ranger named Petruchio (whose animal companion was a dire shrew). You get 200 culture points and a cookie.
#32 wrecan May 13, 2009 15:03:23	Thanks. Of course, the shrew's name was Kate.
#33 atanakar May 13, 2009 15:12:31	One of my first players way back in 1982 ALWAYS played a ranger and ALWAYS called him UL with a slight variation... UL, UL ii, UL iii, UL iv, UL v, etc
#34 pluisjen May 13, 2009 15:51:04	I once player Maximilian Giganticus, the great and terrible gladitorial Halfling. He grew up in a Kobold Arena; was always the biggest of the bunch. Boy was he shocked when he first entered Human lands...
#35 Stuntman May 13, 2009 16:03:21	Cheezy names I used are based on font names. I had characters named Palatino, Coron (short for Coronet) and Garamond.
#36 _jayne_cobb_ May 13, 2009 16:22:20	Cheezy names I used are based on font names. I had characters named Palatino, Coron (short for Coronet) and Garamond. I still do that. The medicine chest is also a great place for names from Abacavir to Zyvox. A lot of them make especially good villain names for some reason.
#37 zerotwo May 13, 2009 16:32:57	Heh. I keep an emergency NPC names sheet laying around while I play... I keep updating it in Google Docs every time I come up with a new name for a race... Haven't updated it for PHB2... but... let's say I really enjoy naming Dwarves and Halflings... Halflings (M) Rek Muckdeep Bret "One Ton" Sailstrider Gogol Curlbroom* Len Catthrasher Knox Sharpwire* Halflings (F) Polly Bridgebreaker Reine Slykiss* Mary Pocketswipe Queenie Goldeye Dwarf (M) Rafdag Braceblow Leggid Ironscowl Hfafnr Curlbrow * personal favourites A character I've played? ...either Leyland of the Arbor-Sworn (Paladinlock of Corellon) or Laurel Tiberius Fielding (Deeply troubled Star-Pact Warlock) I can't play if I don't have a good name.
#38 bsgreym May 13, 2009 16:46:43	My first PC was a Gnoll Druid named Dunn Klee-Shay. I'm still playing this character, and people who keep joining/leaving the group all seem to like the name, even though I'm convinced it's pretty lame. You never can tell, can ya?
#39 leffa May 13, 2009 16:50:00	My first character I can remember was a halfling cleric named Garret. Currently I'm playing a Bard that's using the artist name Paco Bello. He has refused to reveal his real name, it's got too many r's, k's and z's to pronounce when he one day becomes famous. Oh, and it helps him stay hidden from his murderous ex-wife.
#40 Shiftkitty May 13, 2009 16:54:53	In a Star Wars game, one non-human NPC told us it would be pointless for us to know his name because even combined we didn't have enough tongues among us to pronounce it correctly.
#41 arelia May 13, 2009 17:14:29	I know for a while I had an NPC Dwarf named Durnblunder Ironbits. And his brother, Durnhammer Ironbits. Still, one of my favorite character names I've used is Quail. Also known as "Quail MyParentsDidntSpeakCommonAndThoughtItSoundedPretty"
#42 crossblade May 13, 2009 18:27:43	In a Star Wars game, one non-human NPC told us it would be pointless for us to know his name because even combined we didn't have enough tongues among us to pronounce it correctly. There's a creature like that in the KoToR games. Findable in a few ares. It looks like a small guy riding a larger guy backwards.
#43 narukagami May 13, 2009 18:47:19	With all the random silliness like unnecessary apostrophes and incomprehensible syllables players and even writers put into fantasy names these days, I find seemingly normal names to be much more refreshing and original. That said, I currently am playing a Warlord named Konrad. :D
#44 Mad_Jack May 13, 2009 21:02:42	Eric the Cleric, I'm afraid. Theric Clief the Cleric/Thief... :D (And yes, that was one of the few combinations a gnome could actually play back then...) My first ever character, back in the Red Box days, was an elf named... SilverRain. I'm pretty sure I stole it from one of the rule books. I played a lizardman once who's name was pretty much unpronounceable for anyone whose face actually had lips, lol, so the party rechristened him as the nearest phonetic equivalent - Swamp-gas... :D Liath Bas, for example, is a LN Wizard (Liath is Irish for Grey, Bas for Death). Uisge Dhu (Black Water) was my badass shred-o-matic 3.5 twf fighter/rogue...
#45 jamfalcon_the_gnome May 13, 2009 21:22:40	My favorite name I've ever had for a character was Viking Phil. I think Viking is a great first name.
#46 roninfrosty May 13, 2009 21:38:51	*ahem* My first character was Ilmig, the Dwarven Fighter. ...what?
#47 wyld_mutation May 13, 2009 22:48:12	Kaid, with a variety of surnames depending on race and class. Kaid Tarhiel is a favorite. *Human Sorceror, all editions
#48 fugitive_unknown May 14, 2009 0:04:23	Lets see, there's one guy who would name all his characters exactly the same. Planko the pirate, Flanko the Fighter, Yanko the theif, Wanko the Wizard, Clanko the cleric.. and every time he'd make a new one he'd just add a number after the name, so we'd have Flanko the XIVth. There was the dwarf campaign which included Rubin Raw and Lorf the Dwarf. There was the idiot who insisted upon naming his character Lesbina - that's the only time I can recall a group vetoing / strangling someone over their name. A goblin named Crud Crapbag.
#49 roninfrosty May 14, 2009 0:08:48	Kaid Tarhiel is a favorite. You from Carolina?
#50 CCS May 14, 2009 1:18:25	My first ever character, back in the Red Box days, was an elf named... SilverRain. I'm pretty sure I stole it from one of the rule books. Sounds like a relitive of Silverleaf - who really was lifted from my basic rule books example of play section. In fact all of the characters named in that section have served as NPCs at some point in my games. My own 1st oddly named character (way back in those Basic era days) was Uno, the halfling. Another oddly named character hails from Battle-Tech. Slash. So "named" because in the name space I simply put down a ---. Wich caused some grief when recording inititive order.... When we eventually played the RPG version I simply kept the "name" & just added Lt. in front of it. Here we are 20 some years later & Lt. Slash still hasn't been properly named. My most recent character? Brother Reis, a 3.5 cleric.
#51 Keiichi_m May 14, 2009 5:58:18	Minotaur Gladiator named "Thats Bull" Hands down the best I've seen Oh and I made a qharnvastlasdavac once. we had a chaos game, roled 3D6 6 times placed in order and then rolled our class and race and so on, I decided to also roll my gender, then the number of letters in my name followed by each letter individually. I actually figured out how to pronounce it to, it was fun for the 4 hours we played.
#52 Nai_Calus May 14, 2009 16:00:52	I had a character in a d20 Deadlands game, who was supposedly a Chinese antiques dealer from New York. (He was actually an elf. Sadly the campaign petered out before that got to mindscrew anyone.) I wanted to give him a nice generic-sounding Chinese name. ...I named him Li Shang. Three weeks in I finally realised where else that name had been used. I will never get the song I'll Make A Man Out Of You out of my head now. I usually tend towards Generic Fantasy Names for PCs/NPCs: Danien Kesar, Isri Arellan, Saresha, Kerazt Vareth, Celenden and Celendrien Theleril, Vel Theryn... The character I've wanted to play but wasn't allowed by 3.5's rules and is largely pointless in 4e due to differing gods and god rules is a half-orc cleric of Corellon Larethian, God of the Elves, named Thrull Elfkiller.
#53 durendal_mn May 15, 2009 0:49:55	One of my players decided to name his new action hero style character after two different movie heros. Jack Banister from the movie Frighteners, and Ash from evil dead. It took him a few weeks before he finally caught on to his accidental pun with the name Ash Banister.
#54 entropy_judge May 15, 2009 8:38:02	At least it wasn't "Jack Ash" ....
#55 ekio May 15, 2009 8:49:47	One from my game is a sorceror who is proud of his self-taught arcane skills: Sonnick the Hedge-Mage Oh, Sega, why can't you make a good game...?
#56 s-marrow May 15, 2009 9:46:01	I've always been fairly good with making reasonable sounding player names. The exception was when I made a halfling named Pirra Twobanks. I thought it sounded alright at the time, but that was before I had watched one particular Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch. Apparently all of my party members had seen it, and poor Pirra was never taken seriously.
#57 koradzi May 15, 2009 12:00:54	I once made a ray focused 3.5 sorcerer named Ray. His last name was Gunn. Mine was female, named Scarlett Ray. Hehe. Otto Maddox the Ranger was good, too.
#58 _jayne_cobb_ May 15, 2009 12:15:07	I had a female halfing Rogue named Robin Banks.
#59 johnthedm7000 May 15, 2009 16:44:33	My first character was a (rather arrogant) Druid/Sorcerer named Oren the Awakened.
#60 draconascendant May 15, 2009 17:04:54	I'm guilty of naming a Kobold Shield, and Spear "Aegis" and "Javelin". I kid you not, they were the most hardcore &#^ing LV1 Kobolds -ever-.
#61 Novacat May 15, 2009 17:29:40	My first D&D character was a human (albino) wizard named Beebop. I wasn't being entirely serious, and it was such a horrible, horrible character to learn the game with, that I quickly switched to a fighter named Verrick (he was a custom race). Most of my best names have been made for NPCs: Ravenstorm Falthyron (whom the PCs called "Filthy John"), and his son Malithyron Vanderhaven Albereth "The Betrayer" Hawklin Saiborwolfe Saibrock, Son of Saiborwolfe Zentou Balbados Radkasten Asheron (The first red dragon) Embral (The first green dragon) Cindariel (The first white dragon) Alexastria (The first gold dragon)
#62 redshellhead May 15, 2009 18:31:10	Dwarven fighter who isn't so bright. His command of the common tongue is... dubious. His name, in Dwarven, would have been kind of like the connotation that 'ladykiller' has. He introduced himself as Wenchbane; Chugface Wenchbane. Next time my party needs a defender...
#63 Mad_Jack May 16, 2009 23:08:50	Dwarven fighter who isn't so bright. His command of the common tongue is... dubious. His name, in Dwarven, would have been kind of like the connotation that 'ladykiller' has. He introduced himself as Wenchbane; Chugface Wenchbane. Next time my party needs a defender... That's like my 3.5 kobold rogue/sorceror Kryk-ik-T'kyk... He swears his name means something along the lines of "Heart of Dragons" in Draconic, but the literal translation into Common is "Wyrm Guts"... :D
#64 Mad_Jack May 16, 2009 23:12:06	Sounds like a relitive of Silverleaf - who really was lifted from my basic rule books example of play section. Ha! I knew it was something like that... I remember now - I was being just sooo terribly original and unique by changing the name from Silverleaf to SilverRain... Of course, in my defense, I was only about seven or eight at the time... :D
#65 Caeric May 17, 2009 14:24:03	My first character was made four or five years ago when I first got into the game in 3.5. I made a Warmage, actually, by the name of Elkin'Ador. Human Warmage. Not sure why I made that name, but I did. No, it's not a reference to anything. But it sounds cool. He didn't even have a last name. That was just... his name. Now adays, I'm making characters with better names or reasons for their names. For example, a Warforged Warlock named Eric, because he's actually a human soul trapped in a Warforged body. I don't make silly names too often anymore.
#66 scipio May 17, 2009 21:27:08	During 3.5 I had a bard with one heckuva name: Armando Joaquin Eduardo Horacio Octavio Eladio Manuel Cordoba III He was a smooth talking, ladies man type. Modeled a bit off of Puss-n-Boots from Shrek actually (complete with big floppy hat.) Edit: I just realized I've probably left off at least 2-3 of his middle names but I can't recall which ones.
#67 wids May 19, 2009 20:56:31	my first character was a half orc barbarian. i had to come up with somehting on the spot, so the naming process went something like: thick+neck = thnek the barbarian! thnek liked to smash stuff....
#68 foxtrott May 19, 2009 21:09:29	My very first character's name was Rose, short for Rosentia. Well, I thought it would fit for a half-elf druid. My current character's name is Castle Rook, a druid shifter. I noticed most of the sample names were of objects, so I named her after a chess piece. Also, Eric the Cleric is an awesome name. xD
#69 darfy May 20, 2009 2:24:01	I had the bright idea of letting my group name a character. He was a Warforged Ranger named Douchebag Phineas Worthington. Sadly he only lasted one session.
#70 entropy_judge May 20, 2009 11:21:43	My very first character's name was Rose, short for Rosentia. Well, I thought it would fit for a half-elf druid. My current character's name is Castle Rook, a druid shifter. I noticed most of the sample names were of objects, so I named her after a chess piece. Also, Eric the Cleric is an awesome name. xD Rook is also a name for a raven or crow, which really fits a Druid.
#71 Mad_Jack May 20, 2009 19:30:49	I had the bright idea of letting my group name a character. He was a Warforged Ranger named Douchebag Phineas Worthington. Sadly he only lasted one session. Ye gods.. you got off lucky on that one. :D
#72 bobbi_wilburn May 27, 2009 11:48:04	I wish I could lay claim to this one, but a friend thought of it. Steelroy Nobeard. If someone absolutely needs to play a cliche like a halfling who grew up with dwarfs...this is the golden name.
#73 koradzi May 27, 2009 19:44:49	Almost forgot about this one... wasn't feeling terribly inspired when my group was rolling up temp-toons for our Delve session, so I just clicked the "Random" button on the character generator and got "Geoffrey." A few minutes later, one of the other players somehow misheard "Geoffrey the Fighter" as "Geoffrey Thunder." With the usual chorus of angels and beam of heavenly light, Jeff Thunder was born.
#74 Mad_Jack May 27, 2009 19:48:44	Steelroy This reminded me of something... For about ten seconds back when warforged were first introduced in 3.5, I considered making an insane warforged named Roy Batty.
#75 savevsstupidity May 28, 2009 10:05:12	My first ever 1e character was a cleric named "Alto Sax".
#76 narukagami May 28, 2009 12:34:19	Great name for a Warforged: Johannes Quinque. A cookie for anyone who can figure out the reference.
#77 fenris_lathiin May 28, 2009 15:05:26	My first character was a Dwarven Fighter named Gawain. I'm terrible at names, so I went to my mom who is a lifelong fan of Arthurian legend. She suggested Gawain. I don't play very often, so I've only got a handful of characters: Terra Morris- a British spy in a martial only D&D game set in an alternate Europe. Donovan Faust- a retired adventurer, wizard and professor at a magical university. Lastly, David Adama- a 26th level 70 year old Warlord Demigod. He's half Solid Snake, Half William Adama. Sadly only one person in my group got either reference. My players are much better at coming up with names, especially my best friend, who often does a lot of research to make sure his character's name is accurate to the culture being represented, even if the culture is entirely fictional. He came up with a meaning for his character's name and translated it into the Draconic found in Races of the Dragon. He's done this twice now, once with a Dragonborn Paladin back in 3.5 (his human Paladin, Reynald Lambert, underwent the transformation) and again in our current 4e game as a human sorcerer (who was raised by a dragon and speaks every language with a fake Scandnavian/Middle Eastern accent. I don't know how he does it either). Unfortunately, both names are very elaborate and difficulty to pronounce, so they're always shortened and the full names (and meanings) forgotten.
#78 bobbi_wilburn May 28, 2009 16:45:20	on the subject of warforged names, I have a friend who loves 'em. His warforged bard was Clank, and his Warforged barbarian was Maul.
#79 editrix May 28, 2009 17:53:30	Great name for a Warforged: Johannes Quinque. A cookie for anyone who can figure out the reference. Number Five is alive! ;)
#80 narukagami May 28, 2009 19:37:05	Number Five is alive! ;)
#81 yaliceme May 29, 2009 13:12:41	Speaking of names, does anybody else compulsively name all of your character's weapons? It's fun, though it takes me forever, since I also do the obsessive research where I think of what connotations I want the weapon name to have and go looking up words in various languages. I tend to lean toward latin roots for names in Common (the main human empire of our campaign being loosely inspired by the Roman Empire). And then I lean toward arabic roots for names in Primordial (since most of the "stock" genasi names have a vaguely arab flavor). So far, my genasi taclord has the following named weapons: +1 Flaming Longsword = "Pyrrhonar" (Not very creative... basically translates to "flaming flames") +1 Distance Handaxe = "Accipiter" (The latin word for "hawk," an image that seems to fit given that it's a thrown weapon that returns to your hand after attacking. I tried to create a more original name by mixing in other "bird of prey" words from other languages real or fictional, e.g. "Thorcipiter" or "Sorcipiter" to incorporate sindarin/quenyan. But "Accipiter" just has a nicer sound to it.) Whip = "Tezarbheen" (An amalgam of the arabic words for "rapid," "strike," and "intelligence".... yay for Commander's Strike using an off-hand reach weapon!)
#82 Nyronus May 29, 2009 15:55:38	Maxter Baxter the Master of Disaster. A half-elf rouge/cleric of a god named Waldo who lived inside of a box of everlasting rations that manifested itself as a box of endless twinkies. He was completely crazy and had an accent which shifted every few sentences. He was delightful fun. Then there was: ****'belei Shimmerwing, a Half-elf/Half-man/Half- Copper Dragon Spell-theif who worked as a detective along with the local Baron's son who happened to be a Knight. Everyone called him ****. Later, he was evesdropping on a pair of party members only to find out that one was the human-turned-shifter missing prince of the kingdom. He told the knight, who then swore an oath that he would not reveal the secret. The knight went to his father, was about to tell him, but couldn't break the oath and then immediately spat out, as a cover, "I think **** is gay." The next morning the Baron suddenly found the half-dragon family friend far more friendly than he should be.
#83 Lineov May 29, 2009 16:03:24	Just built a wizard (4e) that tromps around in Plate Mail... Human... Charles "The Tank" Sherman
#84 swordsworth May 30, 2009 22:52:23	I currently have a Dragonborn who I've named Vythner. I was quite proud of the name. I used draconic words from the 3e draconomicon. It means "Steel Spear". He's a fighter that uses a spear, by the way. Everyone in my group has trouble pronouncing it though. And they end up mercifully making fun of the name, usually ending up speaking as if they have a lisp. :D They've got me doing it as well.... "Vythner attackth with his thspear!"
#85 tegemea Jun 02, 2009 11:36:06	The first character I've ever played - Dux (pronounced doox) Then there was Roonta but most of my favorites were NPCs: Fezziwig Arthurius Butchingheimer the fremlin (2ed) Thastley the wizard Coktizo the wizard Tiny the ogre General Arvan Flinthorpe Lady Selucia, aka Tendris, a 1/2 dragon doppleganger Ukoda the druid Wryksis the sahuagin the one i came up with completely off the top of my head that became the campaigns biggest joke (and a recurring NPC) - Punishing Fist the monk i am also frequently guilty of thinking I have come up with a good-sounding name, and then someone in my party points out the source that I grabbed the name from without realizing it.
#86 supertd Jun 05, 2009 13:47:17	In our campaign, there is a Gnome called Gleb Ficklebonce and Human called Frank Buckswashler.
#87 bodzilla Jun 05, 2009 14:23:19	My Gnome Wild Magic Sorcerer is named Frug Moodweaver. He also took the Scales of War Background "Born Under a Bad Sign". The tribal shaman who was present at his birth and naming ceremony was interrupted for some reason and pronounced his family name as Doomweaver. He's stuck with that moniker ever since. Goes real well with my uber-destructive Chaos mentality. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
#88 nightmare_scenario Jun 05, 2009 20:58:04	Another player in the first campaign I joined ran a Gnome Wizard named "Lon." I glee-ed. Other ideas: A psionist named Pinky...an Illusionist named Gob...I could keep going.
#89 Caliber42 Jun 06, 2009 20:05:18	Azrazar, Magic-User from old Red Box, ressurected the name when I moved to Advanced, 2E and then 3E. Vaziir Jivaan, Drow Rogue 3.5E Haramiir, an elven Cleric of Corellon 3.5E Aringor, a Fighter/Cleric of Hoar 3.5E And many many many many more.... -Cal
#90 Dralenan Jun 07, 2009 2:17:02	Everyone knows the greatest magician of all time was Tim the Enchanter...
#91 dxyn Jun 09, 2009 9:20:47	I still remember one of the characters from my first ever game. A player came to the table for Keep on the Borderlands from the basic set with Phrodeaux the Halfling. In a 2nd Ed game, we had Tirion, a Fighter/Cleric that talked like a sterotypical superhero. d
#92 mercurion Jun 09, 2009 11:38:32	I've had a couple of names that I enjoyed, and a couple of names that didn't go as planned. Names I liked: Tachibana Ukyo, Tiefling fighter (3.5) (my first character). Clubbed to death by our party's paladin within a couple of sessions. Legion, the 1/2 elf fighter (3.5). I played him for over two years from lvs 1 to 7 in a very long campaign. He was a lot of fun. Vaelus Eil'sindar (4e) the drow rogue. (Vaelus evolved from an NPC's mispronounced name, courtesy of a buddy, in WoW). Ash'il An'oran (4e) eladrin. Latest character in a latest campaign. Ash for short. Names that didn't go as well: I had a character I'd named "Uren, the Sorcerer" - pronounced with an 'oo' sound as in boo + wren. My buddy (we'd just switched to him DM'ing a 3.5 campaign that I had begun and this character was my newly rolled avatar of death) took a look at my character sheet and decided that Uren's name was now to be pronounced 'urine'. Uren began mouthing off to dragons at every opportunity. And for a game I was DM'ing, my players demanded the last name of an NPC they had just met (they were locked up in jail and, after recovering their equipment, found that some of their gear had found its way into a locker labelled "Smith"). The best I could come up with on the spot was "Ramshackleford"... one successful sense motive vs a terrible npc bluff check later, and John "Ramshackleford" Smith knew it was going to be a bad night.
#93 entropy_judge Jun 09, 2009 12:03:03	Tachibana Ukyo, Tiefling fighter (3.5) (my first character). Clubbed to death by our party's paladin within a couple of sessions. What.
#94 mercurion Jun 09, 2009 12:09:26	What. 1: The guy playing the paladin was/is a complete moron. 2: My guy was questionably evil.
#95 _jayne_cobb_ Jun 09, 2009 12:13:29	…pronounced with an 'oo' sound as in boo or book… The "oo" in "boo" and "book" are not pronounced the same.
#96 mercurion Jun 09, 2009 14:00:59	The "oo" in "boo" and "book" are not pronounced the same. Yeah, that's true. My brain has been disengaged for weeks now.
#97 teabeeyea Jun 10, 2009 5:35:30	Teabeeyea.... Which was the spelled out version of TBA. Since I didn't have a name at the time the session started and my gm couldn't pronounce the first name I came up with for the PC and kept calling me "TBA", or To be announced. Paldarain Air Corps - For a Summoning Druid that always brought his own personal air force to the battlemat
#98 Sathery Jun 12, 2009 16:53:59	Coming up with names is the hardest part for myself and the other players. Backstories are pretty basic and easy to come up with. I've had Sathery, Calcade Legallow, and Harzath. There have been other names that I've come up with, but with the falling of those characters and their ineptness in combat I haven't remembered any of their names. Gotta name the riding beasts too, all of them are Cecil. It's so much easier that way.
#99 illraven Jun 12, 2009 17:40:20	Back in AD&D days, one of our players had an Elf Thief with the trite name 'LightFoot'. Then he rolled his height - minimum possible... and his weight - maxed out... causing us to rename him 'HeavyThud'. I had a recurrent, wagon-riding, wandering merchant named Bitiborium. The handpainted sign on the wagon always reflected what he was selling... Bitiborium's Magic Emporium Bitiborium's Weapon Emporium
#100 gread Jun 13, 2009 19:38:16	One of my favorite characters to date was a gnome artillery wizard, by the name of 'Zapgeist Rabdeghast' In the future I am looking forward to rolling up a minotaur bruiser. His name? His name will be Mookau.
#101 _jayne_cobb_ Jun 15, 2009 11:17:09	In the future I am looking forward to rolling up a minotaur bruiser. His name? His name will be Mookau. I'd go for a Cleric and call him "Holy Cowman".
#102 RPJesus Jun 16, 2009 22:19:26	The silliest half-vampire ever was named "Kyoki Nekono" which assuming I did it right translated to "Cat's Lunacy" if you reversed the first and last name (and separated the particle I guess but you get the idea). Also a friend and I rolled up some charries for a fourth ed game, and had a conversation something to the effect of; I'm making a warforged rogue, largely for the lulz. He points out that we're technically not supposed to be talking about it (The DM is going for the whole "srsbsns hardcore" type feel) I say that we'll know eachother in game, and almost immediately decide that he should play a 4' tall human wizard with a metal arm and leg and replacing his ritual caster feat with alchemist. Also we're adopted brothers. I'm Edward and he's Alphonse. :D
#103 always_a_fighter Jun 16, 2009 23:24:38	I've had a kobold ranger that I named Trogdor. I had a ogre mage character that I named Burrito for some reason. And my favorite was my Minotaur barbarian named "Angus"
#104 skyhoof Jun 17, 2009 0:19:22	My first character, back when I was seven and playing 2e, was a wizard named after myself. He got killed by stirges about a level in. Later on, my characters turned to more common names. I'm generally fond of recycling Jonas, William, Nicolas, Michael, and Marcus for humans and half-elves. My current character is a Warforged whose identity is Warforged Heavy Combat Unit #H357999. Everyone calls him Nine.
#105 trentl Jun 17, 2009 9:43:11	My first characters were in 2nd ed (At least the ones I remember) There was: Karth Bloodaxe a human barbarian from unearthed arcana Raislin Bloodmoon (Renamed to Khelben, and finally changed to Denzil) human rogue/cleric/psionic/wizard (Played him a long time, I loved powerful wizards in books and copied their names, around 16 I realized it was cooler having my own name) I've also had a slew of other names: Hoshi Akira, Guan Akira (Father and Son... though at the time I had no idea that Guan Yu's first name was actually Yu... family name Guan) I had a dwarf fighter called Ruskeg, a well known swimmer (Held his breath and walked across rivers)
#106 _jayne_cobb_ Jun 17, 2009 12:45:08	Also a friend and I rolled up some charries for a fourth ed game, and had a conversation something to the effect of; I'm making a warforged rogue, largely for the lulz. He points out that we're technically not supposed to be talking about it (The DM is going for the whole "srsbsns hardcore" type feel) I say that we'll know eachother in game, and almost immediately decide that he should play a 4' tall human wizard with a metal arm and leg and replacing his ritual caster feat with alchemist. Also we're adopted brothers. I'm Edward and he's Alphonse. :D Err…huh?
#107 shadow_viper Jun 17, 2009 13:02:29	It's a reference to the Anime, Full Metal Alchemist.
#108 _jayne_cobb_ Jun 17, 2009 13:45:21	It's a reference to the Anime, Full Metal Alchemist. Ah. That would explain why I had no frakking clue what it was in reference to.
#109 elfspeaker Jun 17, 2009 17:34:52	In the game I run we have one player who consistently comes up with bad character names. Lauriel the Elf Ranger Failin the Shadar-kai Sword Mage and now... Osprey the Human Fighter Every time anyone at the table says her name, one or more of the players make a loud 'caw' sound. It's both great and terrible.
#110 vverevvolf Jun 17, 2009 19:22:00	I've only started playing with 4th Ed, but I do have a few quirky-named characters... Gnoll Beastmaster Ranger : Ug (his Hyena is named Lee) Warforge Bard: Nickelodeon
#111 elfspeaker Jun 17, 2009 20:45:54	My brother played an eladrin wizard named Lunestal and used the sleep spell regularly. (Lunesta is a sleep medication) He didn't realize what he was doing. Another player in my game played a minotaur barbarian named Bruce. We ended up calling him Brucci (pronounced Bru-che) Yet another player named his doppelganger bard Molophos but I thought is was Mololophos. This quickly devolved into Mololololophos. Another player in the same game is playing a halfling rogue named Fox Butterfield. Funny enough, that's actually the name of a reporter for the New York Times in the '80s. In a recent one off game, the same player ran as Bink, the happy-go-luck gnome dark pact warlock. Finally, I most recently played an elf ranger named Vyssarion Ithilinov Charoiskina. I spoke in a thick Russian accent for the entire game.
#112 skole_morgenrood Jun 18, 2009 8:46:39	I once had a character that I was having trouble thinking of a name for, a halfligh rogue/wizard/arcane trickster. In the end I decided to call him Unnamed pronounced oo-nah-med. I also had a Carlos the Dwarf (stolen from the great TV show Freaks and Geeks). I had an elf called Angrod at one stage. But he argued constantly with my mates dwarf cleric alot, who used to call him "ya wee f&^%ing jessie!" in a scottish accent. Basically calling him a wuss. After that he was usually referred to as Jessie. I also played a gay (hope that doesn't offend anyone) human bard called Taylor Cotton. Simply cos I heard the name somewhere and it made me think of a gay bard. Oh and once there was a Human cleric/monk monk called simply Jamaal. He was a Touv (the Greyhawk equivalent of africans) and spoke with a jamaican accent. His monk martial arts style was capoeira and he worshipped Kundo the Touv Diety of music and noise. His catch line was "I won't beat you to the punch, I'll punch you to the beat". oh and a gnome illusionist called Leopold or "Leo, the lion of the Sepia Uplands". Also I played a warforged artificer called Switch. He considered himself part of a circuitboard type arrangement between himself and his magical items, and he was in essence the master control switch for activating them. I am waiting to play my newest character Darwin Rollins. He's a halfling bravura warlord that acts very stupidly/bravely thus he got the name Darwin from the Darwin Awards (which in the real world are given each year to people who improve the human gene pool by removing themselvef and their stupidity from it by killing themselves accidentally in extremely stupid ways). And Rollins from the musician Henry Rollins, because I just like the idea of a halfling being named after Henry Rollins.
#113 humanmind Jun 18, 2009 17:35:28	Both of these are names my players used (I mostly DM). There was a gnome famliy that had a last name of Fondalmystaff. Lots of creative frist names came from this but the best was Uncle. The second was a Dwarf clan called gempalm (from the leigons magic set). First there was Rusty Gempalm, the rouge. Then Polished, the paladin. Sparkle, the wizard......
#114 slivvy_gaidin Jun 18, 2009 20:00:28	In an Oriental Adventures game I played just before 4th edition came out, I played a Dragon Hengeyoki, and played it up that he was the venerable spirit of a place called White Mountain, and he spent all his time sleeping at the bottom of a river, emerging when the villagers came to pray to him for protection His name was Mizuchi, Yama Kawa Tatsu (Water-father, Mountain River Dragon), and he was truly venerable and wise (I played that he was old, in the realm of 300 - 500 years - TBH quite a young dragonspirit :D) In a Star Wars game I played a 7ft tall police droid named Paladin. He was a self professed defender of the innocent, upholder of justice, friend to neighborhood children and keeper of stray cats. He had rusty chipped red paint, a poncho he picked up on a desert planet, and a police light/siren that popped up on his head and flashed when he was chasing a criminal. Due to his friendly nature his tagline was "I put the 'pal' in Paladin" (obviously said in dorky emotionless metallic voice) Aw.. i loved that guy. He was so fun to play
#115 Mad_Jack Jun 18, 2009 20:08:38	In the current campaign I'm in, the druid's player named her "Slooluna"... Since she spends most of her time in wildshape, I gave her a female werewolf mini to use, and promptly rechristened her "Snoopy" since everybody keeps screwing up her name.
#116 LadyAthena Jun 19, 2009 18:40:22	Silliest I got is Rogan. Sure, might sound different, but it's 1 letter different from my real name. :P That amused me greatly because we have a RL Logan in our group and I call him Rogie-Bear as a joke. I don't know how it got to this but now Rodebare (rhymes with Rogie-Bear) is the god of all things not already covered. Like...ham sandwiches and red crayons...? :P Other names that went out of control: Master Bates Because the DM didn't have a last name prepared before someone snickered, "Bates?" This one was a person pet peeve.
#117 themightybiggun Jun 19, 2009 19:13:52	Oh man, we were so bad at names when we first started out... I remember, one of our most reliable conventions was just rearranging irl names into something that sounded cool... Luke=Kelu, Jordan= Danjor, As we got older, we started copping names out of our favorite sources... I still give my little brother crap for his human fighter "Cloud Strifebringer." And just about every halfling ever has a very Shire-like name. Every hobbit/halfling/kender that my brother has played (there have been many,) have all been named Porto Chubb.
#118 LadyAthena Jun 19, 2009 19:40:25	Since we're on the subject of names, The Extraordinary Book of Names from our beloved Gary Gygax's supplemental fantasy book series is a fantastic resource. Unbelievably helpful, even if you don't use the exact names directly out of it. Some of the best D&D money I've ever spent. My whole group peruses it from time to time.