Fantasy Gaming Names

[Oni]

Heh, I think my next character should be named Blood Darkstrong.

I've been all over the place with naming, what's really important to me is that sound right for the character. I've spend longer on trying to pick a name than putting a character together before. I do really hate blatantly jokey names.

Some characters I've played off the top of my head.

Aegis of Ravenshadow
Finius the Chastised
Fergus Roundbottom (my friends poked fun at me because it wasn't cool enough)
Ichithix
Selina Arcana
Katrina Lovek
Galen Coldstone
Bjorn Helquist
Dameon Black
Karnus aka Karn
Lynn d'Arches
Lorn d'Cannith aka Lorn Spellwright
Magnus Madiron
Jarl Frostbiter
Kylek
Lily Lenore
Siv
Keth Shinsplitter aka Cub
Nevin ir'Laan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey, Rat-Tale!!!! Yep, that's how nicknames are born!

And they can lead to all kinds of role-play opportunities...especially if the player/PC doesn't like the nickname.

My PC Pierre listed above? His original nickname- the one I gave him on his sheet- was "Lucky." But, because of RW idioms and his lack of a "manly" weapon (he fought TWS with Pick & Whip), the other players soon started calling him "Gay."

In a RIFTS campaign, the Techno-Mage was nicknamed "Scooter" within just a couple of adventures because of his skyboard...and the player's one-time error in forgetting his PC's name!

My PC- Johnny Bones- had some in-game suggestions that led to another PC getting a nickname. This (NE) Ftr/Th suggested that we cover the party Wizard with blood (donate by the townies) in order to draw out some lions into an ambush. The blood plus his frailty would make him an almost irresistible target. The gambit worked. We tried using the Wizard as a decoy another couple of times, all successfully, and all without the Wizard getting a scratch (they were very well planned ambushes). His nickname?

"Master Bait."

 

[Nai_Calus]

Hah! A few years ago I joined a Mutants & Masterminds game - until that point I knew little about comics - I made up my character and was looking for a name so I grabbed two books off of my shelf. Emma by Jane Austen and a book of poetry by Robert Frost so... Emma Frost. Needless to say everyone else had a good laugh.

I played d20 Deadlands a while back, and settled after some thinking on a nice generic-sounding name for my chinese antiques dealer from New York.

...I named him Li Shang.

Cue endless singing of I'll Make A Man Out Of You from Mulan. Fortunately I like that song, and it kept them from making the otherwise inevitable gay jokes. I'd seen the movie a few times years before, but I'd completely forgotten the character's name. 'Li' seemed like a good generic name, then 'Shang' sounded better than 'Chen' or 'Wong'

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, even if you use real names, you have to know who you're gaming with or the jokes will happen anyway. The reason? Some names, as well we all know, sound funny in one language even though they're just normal names back in the home country.

I mean, there was a video store near my former residence in Irving (TX) with the unfortunate-sounding, double-entendre name (to English speakers) of "Dong Wang Video". Dallas used to have a Chinese restaurant near Love Field Airport called House of Wang. This was additionally unfortunate due to its close proximity to a dozen or so strip clubs.

And I'm sure non-native speakers of English could recount similar stories from gaming and the English sounds like something in their native tongue.

For example, I lived for 3 years in Germany, and picked up the language pretty well.

So when I overheard an American describing a superheroic campaign to his buddy from Frankfurt, I snorted with laughter along with his pal at the name of his ghost-like Batman/Wolverine character, Deathmist.

"Mist" is German for dung, btw.

 

[Ssadral]

So, fairly basic first names with a moniker or evocative clan name, except Zot, who was a mysterious guy anyway.

Well there was a fairly cool comic in the 80's called Zot!

It was by Scott McCloud for those who ever picked up or heard of the book, "Understanding Comics" he wrote that.

I really, really enjoyed Zot! and highly recommend hunting down the back issues.

But before you do that, you can get a taste of Zot! through this website.

www.scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/zot/index.html

I mean, there was a video store near my former residence in Irving (TX) with the unfortunate-sounding, double-entendre name (to English speakers) of "Dong Wang Video). Dallas used to have a Chinese restaurant near Love Field Airport called House of Wang. This was additionally unfortunate due to its close proximity to a dozen or so strip clubs.

Well it could've been worse and they could've called it Long Duck Dong.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In honor of George Clooney's new movie...

Glimmerlyn Glassy-Eye, Gnome Psionicist (Telepath)...He Who Glares at Stoats.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One good spot for names

20000-NAMES.COM: 20,000+ Names from Around the World--baby names, pet, pets, sim, story character, meaning, origin, etymology, etymologies, meanings, origins

lots of different stuff there.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

We have a guy new to 4E in my current 4E group who created a fighter named "Mark." We all chuckled when he said his fighter's name was "Mark." Everyone was like, "Hmm.. makes sense, I guess." After a single game of hearing his "name" tossed about constantly in battle, however, he changed it. Haha!

Markey Mark? ...and the Fireball Bunch?

Actually it's Phoenix... Dark. Dark... Dirk. Pheonix Dark Dirk. I was christened Dirk Steel and then I changed it to Phoenix...

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Oh, I have fun with names.

There are the jokes:
Victorian-age gravediggers named Abercrombie and Fitch.
The scary Sister Mary Bobbit of the Emasculate Conniption.
The dwarven Axebeard the Stereotype.

In my Ravenloft campaign (Hi, Theroc!) there are a mess of gnomes with lots of names. First, they have long names they use with each other, but then shorten them for use with humans.
Alekalargo Combledorn (human name Alek), his brother Templeton (Temp) and sister Breechalgandigroot (Bree).
Adalavas ko'Pigglemorth (Ada).

Outside of Ravenloft, I've also named the gnomes Kimble Nooglie Mingo "The Brain" Foonshizzle, and Fenwick Findlefarb Woogodoo Nanoquick Kruknik Nashizzar (but you can call him Brighteyes, everyone else does).

In Changeling, I had a Nocker named Heneriustalakadardivestrixarane (aka Henry).

In a superhero campaign, we were all a new set of Hellions. My character was a healing factor daredevil who went by Johnny Bollocks. One of the other characters was constantly threatening to tell our superiors about my hijinks, so I declared her superhero name to be Tattletale. She hated it, but everyone liked it, and she was a telepath, so it stuck. We had the great exchange:

TT: Stop calling me Tattletale or I'll-
JB: Or you'll WHAT?
TT: ...never mind...

I've had lots of other names, far more normal. A dwarf Fighter/Cleric called Darghwehr Tolmun, a Flan wizard named Ciaran apCallain, and a bunch of others I can't remember.

Oh, yeah, Shadowrun! I had a street samurai named Jack (before Samurai Jack ever came out; his real name was Tak), an interesting media-type who went by Mike TV, and an Ork Bear Shaman called Dr. Orson Pitts.

Yeah, I love names.