Silly Character Names

[D+1]

I am also reminded of a rule I'd seen some game designer somewhere espouse in an article. I think it might have been Robin Laws' series in Dragon, but it might have been a writing seminar. Names must be pronouncable. It immediately struck me as being worthy of RULE #1 status because I recall at the time having become fed up with coming across characters in games and fiction named Urth'k t'vlit'ktvlk and similar crap. It was kind of a watershed moment for me because I started getting more serious about naming characters.

Prior to that I would occasionally get lax about it, and thus get characters with names like Nikoteen, and Casio. Nikoteen at least seemed to be liked by others at the table at the time but I'd never allow it now as a DM. Both of those choices I now see as HIGHLY lame and uncreative. After reading Rule #1 about character names I started making lists, looking for lists, and collecting names used by others, even though I've never been "stuck" for coming up with names on my own. I had also noticed that other players did seem to get stuck quite often on so simple a thing as inventing a name for a PC. I finally found a sample printout from a name generator someone had. CURSE me until the day I die I did not note much less save for posterity the actual program. But the output was perhaps 10 pages CRAMMED with names, generally falling into a few "regional" conventions. For example it has a section that seems Italian in origin, one that's Slavik, one that's more Spanish, etc. I guard it carefully and may never make it publicly available I consider it that valuable. Players always get handed that list when stuck for a name.

I occasionally go through and make "short lists" out of the names I've accumulated. I went to it just yesterday for a name for a new MMORPG character. I wound up using something not ON the list, but having the list - ANY list - available is an incredible help. I heartily recommend that players/DM's accumulate such a list. If, for example, a DM wishes to encourage certain naming conventions in a given campaign he shouldn't say, "Follow these guidelines and rules," he should present players with a nice, long list of possibilities - with great variety - to choose from or be inspired by.

 

[Chimera]

I tend to offend in this as a GM, not so much in the sense of deliberately silly names, but in using movie and literature character names. Why? Because in my last campaign I had 600+ named NPCs. Sorry, but I'm not so anal, nor do I have so much time on my hands, that I can sit back and follow some silly convention to name them all.

So we saw clerics named... Yeta Nother, Ann Danother and Ann Stillmore. I had a monk named Quigon. A minor villain named Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin from Batman, but NOT "The Penguin"). Some of the Batman police officer names were used for major members of the town guard. Rupert Thorne (also from Batman) was used as the name of a merchant/gangster in another nearby town.

So???


Having come from the Spiderman threads in the other section, I wonder how many campaigns will see a PC or NPC named "Doc Ork" this summer.

 

[kirinke]

hmmm. i tend to use names from a variety of different sources, mixing and matching as i see fit.
here are a coupla working character names:
Aenilaen Sorne, elf ranger-cleric, her name translates out as angel or angela
Teleri Shadow-Song moon elf fighter-cleric.
Marisa Veridath aasimar ranger-cleric.

i actually do a google search for sites dealing with names. just type in baby names, unique baby names etc.

heck Frank Zappa named his kids Moon unit and Dwezil. No lie. So, silly names do exist in real life. It's how the player role-plays the character that counts. Not the name.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Heh. As a DM, it is my right to disallow names. If I had someone tell me they dont want to play because they dont like the fact that I dont want my game wrecked by their Thief named Gonnoreah the Quick, then the door is close by and I hope it doesnt swing too wide for them on the way out. There is nothing as frustrating as working hours each week on a finely tuned campaign to have some fool totally crash your game with this sort of rot. Having said that, if the tone of the game is silly (mine very seldom are), then have at it. You are there to have fun, after all is said and done.

Of course.

In most cases, the name doesn't matter too much. However, if a DM shoots down a non-silly name that I think is appropriate on the grounds that it doesn't fit his vision of the world, I'll wonder if the game is going to be one I'll enjoy, since obviously the DM cares more about the world he's creating than the enjoyment of his players. And if that's the case, then I'd be justified in walking, as the game probably isn't one I'd enjoy.

Brad

 

[tarchon]

My first gaming group was big into silly names. One player had characters named Amnesia and Hypoglycemia. Another had one named Arrowroot, which isn't all that silly, except that he made a point of adding on "Son of Arrowshirt" to the end of it. We also had a gnome named Alaska in the party.

My regular group isn't really into silly names, although silly encounters do happen frequently.

I had a Gnome named Alaska once for a one-shot. He was a pirate.

 

[tarchon]

I'm an avatar on a fantasy MUD, and so I use the same rules to create my character's names for DnD that I use to rate the names of new characters on the MUD. Maybe these rules could help you figure out some basic guidelines for name rules in your campaign.

* First, the best names are medieval sounding or otherwise similar to a
fantasy setting.
* Second, names must be names. (Slasher, Mauler, Bashur, these aren't names)
* Nicknames are unlikely to be accepted. (ie Slim, Baldy, Skippy)

! Have you ever heard any real Medieval names? Roger Bacon, for instance? Skull-Grim? Harald Bluetooth? Odo? Ivar the Boneless? Brian Boru? Sichelgaita? Amalasuintha? Beatrice of Aa? Liutprand? Clovis? Cnut? You'd probably nix most of those right away. I suspect the only reason you don't think most Medieval names are silly is that you don't know very many and you don't know what they mean. The problem with excessive name regulation is that you're forcing your taste on your players, and - pardon me if I say this - but it's amply apparent from this thread that the average DM is not so wise and well-informed that he or she has a monopoly on good taste. I don't presume to say that just because something like "Rufus" sounds funny to me, that there's something inherently silly about it. There are over 30,000 people in the US alone named Rufus for Pete's sake. If you have a character named "Odo" and players sit around making Deep Space 9 jokes through the entire session, the problem isn't the name; the problem is that you're gaming with 12-year-olds.

DM: "John the Gnome comes up to you and..."
Player 1: "Flushes"
Player 2: "Asks how much it'll be for an hour with him and two buddies"
DM thinks "Gosh, I should quit using silly names like John."

It's everyone's game. Sure, the DM has more control and should prevent extremely bad names, but you have to let players have some latitude to contribute to the campaign setting with details like that. There's a serious risk of losing their interest if you quash everything they come up with because it doesn't meet your own refined and elegant standards. D&D doesn't stand for "Dictating & Demanding."

 

[Neo]

The problem with excessive name regulation is that you're forcing your taste on your players, and - pardon me if I say this - but it's amply apparent from this thread that the average DM is not so wise and well-informed that he or she has a monopoly on good taste. I don't presume to say that just because something like "Rufus" sounds funny to me, that there's something inherently silly about it. There are over 30,000 people in the US alone named Rufus for Pete's sake. If you have a character named "Odo" and players sit around making Deep Space 9 jokes through the entire session, the problem isn't the name; the problem is that you're gaming with 12-year-olds.

It wasn't Xath who objected to the use of Rufus it was me... and just to clarify my objection it was not to people called Rufus it was to characters called Rufus and even then mostly in reference to the Village of Hommlet that has a veritable cornucopia of names that degenerate my group into fits of hysteria and just because of the disruption that name causes.

However that aside those who GM can probably assosciate with this more, but If I take a week out of my time to plan and plot and produce adventures for my groups benefit to have all that time and effort, which is FOR them anyway! degenerated into a farce because someone wants to be called "Sputum the Wonderdonkey" then i'm afraid that person as far as I am concerned is not only wasting my time they being disrespectful to the work and effort i've put in for their benefit and not taking into considerations anyone else at the table whose wanting to play.

As I said before a silly name serves no purpose other than to draw attention to itself and cause disruption and after the laugh has been had, all it does is continue to cause disruption.. it makes light of a game and the work that went into producing it.
It is all well and good if someone gets an embarrassing name or reputation through play as that is story based, but silly character names are just intentional disruptions that lend nothing to a game but disorder.

Disallowing a silly name is not about stamping out your players fun, its about ensuring the fun is shared by everyone, and ensuring that its not at everyones elses expense or the time they have rearranged thier lives in order to free up so a game can happen..and that includes the DM's.

This is not to say silly names have no place in roleplay at all of course, as it entirely depends on the game being played. In some like Paranoia, Toon, Hackmaster, teenagers from Outer Space etc.. you'd kind of expect parody names as that is the nature of the beast...
But when i've spent a week preparing a session and countless months building the tension and the atmosphere of a setting to be a certain way and emulate a certain mood and ambience... then finding that when the heroes having fought long and hard to free thier people from the predations of the vile Cyric worshippers and their demonic hordes, only to come to stand amidst the burning ruins of another slaughtered village thier friends and loved ones dead or dying all around them... ONLY to then have all that hard work undone because one of the players finds it necessary to announce Furkin Pubewig is here to help save the day!!!.. I mean seriously instantly all that hard work and story development is undone and the atmosphere goes up in smoke.. the players instantly become squealing five year olds and the session goes to hell... four hours wasted out of everyones lives and all anyone will remember of that session is not the tragedy that occured or the lives they saved... but the introduction of some moronicly named character.

So for me fun "through" play ... I'm All for it, but intentional disruptions whose only contribution to a game is to destroy play and make light of the work I have put in or the time people give up... not at my table, not in my house, not in my game. and like the guy a few posts said earlier if that proves a problem for any participating player well.. they know where the door is.

For me anyway it hasn't been a problem for a long time, my players know what I expect and accept on that front, silly names were disallowed long ago for my lot because it became obvious to everyone in our group that they served no purpose other than to cause problems. Their were no objections to thier being banned and had there been it would have been discussed but like the book says "DM's decision is final".

I have found through my 24 years of GMing however that silly names are a lot like people cheating at stat rolls, compare character sheets or wanting to start play at 20th level... they are traits of the young and new players predominantly and all part of the learning curve. Once they get to the point where its more about the story and their part in it then those things inevitably cease to be a problem witha little bit of discussion and an explanaton as to how they take from a game as opposed to contribute to it.

 

[Dark Jezter]

"Most really silly names for characters are given to elf PCs by gamers attempting to be artistic."

-E. Gary Gygax

 

[Neo]

"Most really silly names for characters are given to elf PCs by gamers attempting to be artistic."

-E. Gary Gygax

That sounds like something one of the players in my group would say I have one player whose convinced all Elves are actually just big smurfs.

 

[Chunklets]

My first gaming group was big into silly names. One player had characters named Amnesia and Hypoglycemia. Another had one named Arrowroot, which isn't all that silly, except that he made a point of adding on "Son of Arrowshirt" to the end of it. We also had a gnome named Alaska in the party.

Isn't Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt taken directly from Bored of the Rings? Not that there's anything wrong with that, although I always preferred Gimlet, son of Groin.

I've never vetoed a name as a DM, but I do try to give my players linguist guidelines for names that will fit the campaign's flavour. It's up to them whether they take my advice, though.

The only character with a silly name I can remember playing was a fighter named Batguano (I was in Jr. High at the time). I can't remember if I came up with that one myself, or plagiarized it from some piece of comic fantasy.