Choosing A Name: A “Good Names” Extra (Revised & Extended)
Something unusual this week in that today’s article is a revised and expanded version of last week’s article on Names.
There are two reasons for that: first, I didn’t have time last week to prepare all the examples and material that I wanted to include; and second, today is my Birthday and I wanted to keep my obligations lighter than usual, anticipating more than the normal levels of disruption of my routines as a result.
(Image: FreeImages.com / blogmonkey)
Oh, and don’t fall into the trap of thinking that everything that’s been added is in a blue box like this. Some is, and some isn’t.
I don’t think I’ve ever described the process by which my co-GM and I choose NPC names.
Given the importance I attach to a good name (as shown extensively in the series A Good Name Is Hard To Find), this is a clear oversight, something that came to my attention while working on the Pulp Campaign yesterday last week.
We employ a fairly simple technique. To some extent, that simplicity is complicated by the fact that the campaign is a collaboration; but what we lose on the swings, we gain on the roundabouts. The need to reach agreement between us slows the task from time to time, but there are two of us throwing ideas around most of the time, and that more than makes up lost time.
That technique consists of six steps:
- Nationality – Naming Conventions
- Prioritization
- personality
- attributes/ability
- culture
- professional/education status
- nationality
- social class within nationality
- The first attempt
- Analysis – plot needs
- Stepwise Refinement
- Satisfaction? Or Change?
Today, I’ll walk readers through the process, step-by-step.
1. Nationality – Naming Conventions
Step one is always to identify the parameters within which we have to work – the naming conventions. That frequently requires determining the NPC’s nationality, and sometimes, the sub-culture.
A Canadian named “Jerome Peterson” is unlikely to be Inuit, or from Quebec; that means that the name and nationality immediately tell you something about the character. Similarly, a Canadian named “Patric Lavoisier” might not be from Quebec, but the smart money would look in that province first.
That’s often a more difficult decision than it first appears. There may be no cues to work from (difficult) or there may be very narrow parameters in terms of plot and required reaction to situations (difficult).
Quite often, we will have to think about stereotypes within cultures, and whether or not we want to play to- or against-the-cliché, or even a more complex (and realistic) situation in which the NPC plays to some part of the stereotype and plays against another.
A lawyer named “Ruben Dicky” is playing against type. A southern hick named “Ruben Dicky” probably is unlikely to make anyone blink. Similarly, a character named “David Jerome Fortesque IV” might be a politician, lawyer, or simply rich businessman; that name, applied to a sanitation engineer seems very out of place, but could be made to work if the personality was deliberately selected to play against type – and the name probably not used in its full form: “Davey Fortesque” works perfectly well for a character in that profession, and is just unusual enough to be distinctive.
Much often depends on the function that we want the character to perform within the plot, and the name is our guideline as to how the NPC will perform that function.
If you want a character to betray the PCs, they first have to be trusted by those PCs, so you wouldn’t choose a name with even the slightest hint of a sinister connotation. Nor would you make the name seem too sickly “nice and sweet” – trying too hard is just likely to tip your hand as blatantly telegraphing the character’s role. “Marie-Sue Goodsoul” and “Bartholomew Sludge” are both inappropriate. “Jeff Winters”, on the other hand, is colorful enough to be memorable, but is neither too sweet nor too sinister, and would be perfectly satisfactory.
Personality, if defined already, is also a major consideration, as we will want a name that reflects that personality, and in particular, we will want the way people would react to the name to correspond with the way we want the PCs to react to the character. Often, and often preferably, we will not have a fixed personality in mind, and will use the name as a guideline to what that personality should be.
For example, “Alex” is the 29th most common christian name in Italy, and Esposito is the fourth most common Surname in Italy, according to Google. Yet, there is a lot of difference between a character with an Italian Name, such as “Alex Esposito” (which sounds more anglo-hispanic), and a character whose name sounds Italian, like “Giovanni Mantecino”.
One plays to the racial stereotype in name, the other does not, even though its elements are far more commonly found in the nation.
What’s more, in any genre in which they are common, “Giovanni Mantecino” is immediately suggestive of organized crime until proven otherwise. But “Andrea Colombo”, which is just as Italian if not moreso (especially when pronounced in a faux-Italian accent), has no such connotation.
There are a lot of non-nationalistic stereotypes that we might want to play to or against, and that is still another consideration, affording more scope for creativity in some respects and less in others.
The naming of the scientist in “Back To The Future” with as common a surname as you can think of – “Brown” – plus a more distinctive christian name, “Emmett” – is no accident; the very ordinariness is a reflection of the attitude of most of the inhabitants of Hill Valley toward him as “nothing extraordinary”, i.e. no genius. The obsessive, manic, quality of the performance in the role by Christopher Lloyd doesn’t really fit the name, but the discontinuity is deliberate, for comic effect. If the name had been chosen to more accurately reflect the performance that Lloyd provided, the character would be named “Cosmo Zappelstein” or something over-the-top like that.
This choice shapes every decision that follows; the less that was pre-determined, the more strongly this stage of the process influences the final choice.
2. Prioritization
The next step is determining what we want the name to symbolize and reflect – what our priorities are. There are 6 normal alternatives to consider, and these are so important that I listed them under this step in the process summary provided earlier. The 6 are (in no particular order):
- personality
- attributes/ability
- culture
- professional/education status
- nationality
- social class within nationality
Personality
If there’s a particular personality trait that the NPC has to have, AND we want that trait to be obvious, we will attempt to hint at it in the name. If there are other aspects of the character that will indicate a stereotype particularly strongly, on the other hand, we may wish to finesse that impression by undercutting it with a contradictory name indication.
Let’s name a Sleazy character as an example.
There’s an obvious example from Harry Potter in the form of Severus Snape. Now, I’m not aware of Severus being a real christian name (Snape is quite believable), so let’s replace that with Silas. “Silas Snape” is immediately sinister and menacing as a name. But is that really “sleazy” or has the first attempt been mis-targeted from word one? ‘Sleazy’ means sordid, corrupt, or immoral, not outright villainous.
Another character from Harry Potter better fits the prescription: Draco Malfoy. Draco is latin for Dragon, and dragons aren’t well-thought-of in most western stories; more commonly, the name is used to denote characters who have power and misuse it. This somewhat soft impression is reinforced quite strong by the surname starting with “Mal”; the prefix “Mal-” denotes something present in an unpleasant manner or degree, or faulty and/or inadequate.
Using this as our template, ‘Slink’ becomes ‘Link’ and replaces ‘Draco’ (power is not what we want to convey), giving us “Link Mal-something”. The something can be anything virtuous, which the “Mal-” will then subvert within the name, provided that the result works as an overall name. “King” would work: “Link Malking”.
Attributes/Ability
This option applies particularly when we are going to present the character with a Nickname. It provides an opportunity to tell part of the story of how the character became who he is, through the name-and-nickname combination.
Take the surname Macmahon, which is fairly neutral in tone, and see how the impression of a character changes with the application of different Nicknames: ‘Axe’ Macmahon, ‘Sloppy’ Macmahon, ‘Hack’ Macmahon, ‘Perfume’ Macmahon, ‘Grater’ Macmahon, ‘Speedy’ Macmahon, ‘Honest’ Macmahon, ‘Tingles’ Macmahon, ‘Preacher’ Macmahon, ‘Shotgun’ Macmahon, ‘Roses’ Macmahon, ‘Brains’ Macmahon… the list goes on and on, but that’s enough to demonstrate the point.
Some of these are also neutral in character, for example “Speedy”; but the majority either connect directly with a weapon or act of violence, or they invert something more peaceful to once again suggest some form of nastiness – ‘Honest’ Macmahon, for example. Even “‘Brains’ Macmahon” is suggestive of someone who is either very bright or who doesn’t realize just how dim-witted they are.
But there are more subtle approaches. Characters named for well-known scientists are immediately suggestive of intelligence: “Stephenson Fermi Unsworth” gives that impression, which is strongly reinforced (almost to, or even beyond in some cases, the point of caricature) by prefixing the name with “Doctor” or “Professor”.
Culture
There are often times when the most important thing about the NPC is their native culture. Building that into the name itself provides an immediate mnemonic device to both players and GMs, in addition to the usual benefits of a good character name.
For example. “Jean-Phillipe” immediately sounds French. So does “Christophe”. “Bud” sounds American, as does anything with “Jnr” or “Snr” attached to it; a generational numeral sounds more English. “Han Pak Wu” sounds Chinese (and traditional), but might also be Korean; it does not sounds Japanese. “Manupingu” is Australian Aboriginal in sound. It doesn’t matter where these names come from, or even if they are real – they convey the flavor of the nationality through the sound they make. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with naming a Swedish character “Philipe” – but anyone hearing the name will look for a French connection.
Professional/Education status
While this is, in itself, a clichéd approach, there are times when we want to at least tip a hat in the direction of the cliché because of the reaction that it will invoke.
This is probably the most confusing, most poorly-explained statement in the entire article. So let me start by clarifying it:
Using a name such as “Shyster” for a lawyer. Using a name such as “Newton” for a scientist. Using “Gates” for a businessman. These are clichés because they derive either from a well-known representative of the profession or use a common nickname for the profession.
Nevertheless, there are times when it is useful to hint at this association purely because of the reaction it will cause in the players. So, instead of “Samuel Shyster” for the name of your lawyer, use something that places the implication a little more at arm’s length: “Samuel Detail” or “Samuel Coldhart”. Instead of “Professor Albert Newton”, use “Professor Newton Albers”. Instead of “Dominic Gates” for your entrepreneur, use “Dominic Dawes” – the similarity in meaning between “Gates” and “Doors” creating the association for you.
The other type of occasion when this becomes important is when there is a professional title involved; it’s important that the name be a good one both with and without the title. This can also bring up the issue of customary modes of address, providing still more variations on the name that need to be examined before it can be given final approval.
“Amber Wellings” gives a quite different impression of a character to “Doctor Wellings” which is also quite different from the impression created by “Minister Wellings”, which is quite different from the impression created by “Lady Wellings”. “Madame Wellings”, on the other hand, gives a fairly similar impression to “Amber Wellings”, though it might arguably suggest an older woman than the name alone. If you want to use one of the contrasting titles, you should either use a different christian name, or try a variation (title plus full name). The latter is usually the better option because you create two different impressions of the character and layer them together – “Lady Amber Wellings”, for example. In this case, the title plus surname create the initial impression, which is then nuanced by the christian name.
When we are feeling especially clever or devious, and a title is involved, and the character is important enough to justify it, we may attempt to craft a name that deliberately has slightly different implications or overtones depending on its usage. But experience has shown that this usually ends up being nothing more than an in-joke between the GMs, and can even distract us or create an inappropriate tone at the game table (relative to the emotional tone that we want to convey), so the practice is usually not worth the effort.
Nationality
There are times when the aspect of the NPC that we want to emphasize more than anything else is the nationality. At first glance, you might think that the easiest way to do so would be to Google-search a list of the most popular names in a given country, but things are not so straightforward in the modern era; many of these are often interchangeable, unless there is some distinct rendering of the name within the nationality desired.
The names of Saints and other biblical figures are particularly troublesome in this respect, and you will often find the names of Saints amongst the most common Christian names in many disparate countries. Perusing the list of most popular boy’s names in Norway, for example, one spots Jonas, Noah, Daniel, Jakob (when spoken aloud), David, and Gabriel amongst the top 50 (there are also a number of outliers that do not suggest “Norway” at all, such as William, Adrian, Tobias, Martin, Benjamin, Leon, Alexander, Jonathon, Filip (when spoken aloud), Oscar, and Herman). That’s 17 of the top 50 that can’t be used if you want a name that screams “Norwegian”.
On the other hand, there are times where the message is to be Anglicization and assimilation. “William Johannson” is a perfectly serviceable Norwegian name – but it sounds even more like a Norwegian ex-pat who has migrated to England, the USA, or Australia; the Christian name’s implied nationality undercuts that of the strongly nationalistic surname. The opposite can also be achieved – consider “Jørgan Barnes” as an example. “Barnes” is an Anglo-oriented name that would be common in any country with English roots – the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and (of course) Britain, while “Jørgan” implies more exotic origins.
However, when nationality is chosen as the priority, we always have to pause and ask ourselves “why” that choice. There are valid reasons – helping to convey the uniqueness of the location where the adventure is taking place by emphasizing a name or two that are strongly evocative adds greatly to the verisimilitude of a setting and its associated culture. But there are also reasons that are not so worthy – “individualization” for example. Such use not only undercuts the use of nationality by increasing homogeneity within the campaign, it neglects the opportunity to individualize by choosing one of the alternative priorities that is more enlightening as to the individual.
Another time when this is not entirely appropriate as a choice is as an expression of [culture]-aphilia. Just because NPC X is an Anglophile, it doesn’t mean that his name would reflect that; he didn’t choose it, his parents did. This is better communicated by means of a nickname, reserving the correct name for emphasizing/disseminating something else about the character. NPC X’s children, on the other hand, may well have quintessentially British names like “Derek” and “Roger”.
Social Class within nationality
When a character’s social class is important, the name is one of the best ways of putting character behavior into a context that announces that social class. The name “Rockefeller” may be German in origin, for example, but in the modern Zeitgeist, it exemplifies American Aristocracy. Further trappings such as inherited names (emphasizing the legacy of the name) only reinforce the impression: “Wilson Rockefeller III” can’t really be anything but old money and American.
Some names achieve similar effects using hyphenation, though this often seems more quintessentially British, especially with a British Peerage rank of some sort attached – “Lord George Winston-Cavenaugh” or “Sir Lawrence Crichton-Fellows”, for example. However, these names would translate directly across the Atlantic with only a slight push from some other nationalistic symbolism, especially in the Christian name. “George” is probably universal enough, but “Lawrence” seems more English than American; choosing something more general like “Thomas” or even something that has a more American flavor like “Bradley” facilitates this transfer.
The attaching of honors and honorifics can also emphasize social class, but these often differ from nationality to nationality. Americans, as a general rule, don’t have them. Nor are there very many in Canada. Australia has a few. The various constituents of Great Britain have many. As a general rule of thumb, however, only a few should be bestowed on an individual and represented as part of their name; there is a complicated set of rules regarding precedence of titles, and some supersede others, and the fewer you list, the less likely you are to run afoul of such complications.
3. The first attempt
Once we know what we want the name to represent or depict, what we want it to say about the character, one of us will suggest a possibility, usually the first one that comes to mind that fulfills the brief.
Sometimes the Christian name will come first, sometimes the surname. A lot depends on how we intend it to be subsequently used in conversations and discussions – sometimes the surname is more important, sometimes the individualism of the Christian name will dominate. And there are times when neither seems more important, and usage will be determined by the ultimate choice of name.
4. Analysis – plot needs
As soon as we have a suggestion, we immediately poke it with a stick in an attempt to punch holes in it, or at least, I do (and, at least sometimes, Blair does). We’ll mentally or aloud repeat it a few times to see how easy it is to use. We look at it in terms of the usage expected within the plot, and whether it serves our needs in that respect.
Is there some element if the name or it’s presentation that doesn’t quite capture the subtleties that we want to present? Names are a great way of sliding information into the campaign beneath the radar. For example, the following are all variations of “William”: Bill, Bille, Billie, Billy, Giermo, Gigermo, Gillermo, Guglielmo, Guilermo, Guilherme, Guillaume, Guillem, Guillermino, Guillermo, Guillo, Gwilym, Liam, Uilleam, Uilliam, Vasilak, Vasili, Vasilios, Vasiliy, Vaska, Vassili, Vassily, Vassos, Vila, Vilek, Vilem, Villem, Vilhelm, Vili, Viliam, Viljami, Viljo, Vilko, Vilmo, Vilous, Vilppu, Welfel, Wilhelm, Wil, Will, Wilek, Willem, Willhelmus, Willi, Williams, Williamsort, Willie, Willis, Willkie, Wills, Willson, Willy, Wilmer, Wilmot, Wilson, Wim, and Wolf. But these are NOT all interchangeable. And that’s even ignoring the possibility that William is not the name we should use at all! Perhaps “Harold” would be a better choice, or “Simon”.
Perhaps the Christian name and surname don’t play well together; we’re always cognitive of the “schoolyard effect” of a name and how that can influence the personality of the character.
5. Stepwise Refinement
If the name isn’t perfect, or – at least – isn’t “good enough” for the prominence of the character within the adventure – the next step is to try and refine it into something better. We might use a variation or alternative for either the Christian name or surname, or both. Once one of us has an alternative that he thinks is better, he then has to convince the other person that it is better; that’s sometimes as straightforward as offering the name and getting immediate acceptance, and sometimes we have to think carefully and enunciate specific reasons.
6. Satisfaction? Or Change?
One step that we like to perform, when we have time, is to then try the name out a few times in the actual usage that we expect to make. Sometimes that confirms our satisfaction, sometimes it shows that we’ve missed the mark, and sometimes we have chased ourselves down a rabbit hole by chasing entirely the wrong thing to emphasize, and the best choice is to scrap the name and start again.
When we are building a personality with the name as a seed, how easily do we find it to write or improvise interactions with that personality? How easily can we express the personality while still having scope for emotional overtones – or do we want the character’s mood to be hard to “read”?
There are occasions when a name is simple. There are also occasions when finding the right name has taken a good ten or twenty minutes.

(Image: FreeImages.com / blogmonkey)
Name-dropping
We make extensive use of the popular zeitgeist and associations with the names. In particular, we try to avoid connecting a name with anyone famous unless that works to our advantage. Our first choice is to use the real name of the real person who occupied a given position, if there is any such individual.
That’s why the Mayor of New York City in the Adventurer’s Club campaign is now Fiorello H. La Guardia. The name brings history and associations that we can use, massage, or overwrite as necessary to suit the character’s role in the world of our campaign.
But there are all sorts of reasons why we might choose not to do so in any given case. For example, while working on the “Boom Town” plot yesterday, we needed a name for Mayor La Guardia’s personal secretary. It didn’t take long with a Google Search to locate one name from the mid-1940s, and to learn that before they were married, his future wife Marie had served in that capacity – this was while La Guardia was in Congress. The years in between were a total blank in terms of results from quick research.
If we were striving for historical accuracy, or had some other means of obtaining a quick answer, we would have taken it; but this is intended to be a minor character; it wasn’t worth more extensive searching. Instead, we decided to get creative. I suggested that it had been a while since we had featured a character from the Midwest, and a stolid, practical type might be appropriate. Examining a map showing the different Midwest states, and rejecting those that didn’t seem right for one reason or another (“too rural”; “too associated with organized crime”; “too connected with mining”; “we’ve had someone from there”; and so on), we quickly narrowed the choices down to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. Of those, we knew something of Wisconsin and Michigan, but not much about Ohio, so we turned to one of my Almanacs that is great for conveying a sense of a location. The number of US Presidents who were born in the Buckeye State (eight of them) is impressive, and one of them provided the next burst of inspiration – why not the son or grandson of a former US President, learning the political ropes before embarking on a career of their own? It didn’t take us long to find our way to Charles Phelps Taft II, the son of President William Howard Taft. Charles seemed to come out of nowhere, politically, becoming Mayor of Cincinnati in 1955 and holding the position for a single term, during which time Fortune magazine ranked Cincinnati as the best managed big city in the United States and earning the nickname “Mr. Cincinnati”. He was the right age (born 1897, so in his early-to-mid thirties), and it made sense to us that he might have learned from another very successful Mayor. What clinched the deal was that, while a Republican on state matters, Taft won the Mayoral race representing the Charter Party, a local minor party, and as a result, only held office for a single term. La Guardia was also a Republican, but was a vocal supporter of the New Deal; the implied slight maverick streak was a commonality that could be used to build rapport and agreement between the two. Charles Taft II was our man. It was almost certainly rewriting history, but it worked within the context of the plot and enlarged the game world just a little bit by connecting one piece of history with another.
Similarly, the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City is a half-fictional representation of the person who really held that position in the early 1930s.
But, just before we found Mr Taft, we were intending to create an entirely original NPC from Ohio, and if Taft had not been perfect for our needs, that’s what we would have done.
It’s certainly what we did for City Engineers Jimmy Rosenberg and Raymond Vecce, Deputy Commissioner Guiseppe Maglivelli of the New York Sewer & Water Department, and Deputy Commissioner Jeremiah Bradshaw of the same Department.
When To Name-Drop
The more likely the players are to have heard of the name-dropped individual, the more baggage “awareness” and context they will apply to the NPC. For example, most players will know who “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” (aka FDR) is, and may have some awareness of his policies, his political battles, and so on. “The New Deal” is still part of the common Zeitgeist. If FDR is your US President in a Pulp campaign, you are tying aspects of that campaign to historical reality.
This has its benefits and its drawbacks. The players can relate to the world far more easily, and can make certain assumptions about the society and the politics of the game world. But history is a tangled thread; this also makes it harder for the GM to change that campaign background, simply because no event ever occurs in isolation.
For example, for various reasons, it is part of the Adventurer’s Club background that the Great Depression was neither as deep nor as long-lasting as it was in our history. That has implications at almost every level. Personal: Employment is reasonably plentiful, and wages are at least reasonable. Social: the depression had profound effects on US society, which – in general – can be characterized as the democratization of the arts; for example, radio became a mass-communications medium (in part) because other forms of entertainment were too expensive. Furthermore, many of the social reforms of the New Deal would have been smaller or even non-existent, such as the Federal arts subsidies and Social Security. That meant that FDR would have needed to expend less of his political capital enacting these programs – but the loyalty that many of the middle-class felt toward him would also be weakened, making his tenure weaker. There would have to be serious doubt in the player’s minds whether or not he could hold on for the historic five terms he experienced in our history – two, maybe three is more likely. Lend-Lease will probably be his political undoing – and that will place someone completely different in the White House when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Heck, you even have to examine the historic undercurrents before you could even say for certain that this event would still happen. It probably will – but there’s just enough doubt about it that you would want to think about the question. So there is obviously a national and political impact, and that in turn has an international knock-on effect. But it doesn’t stop there; the same reduction in Depression Severity may or may not apply to England (it depends how much impact the Wall Street Crash had on their economy). Ditto France and the rest of Europe. In particular, it gives the Nazis a little less imperative and a slightly weaker stranglehold in Germany. Now, some of these changes are useful to us, and some are counterproductive; to get rid of those counter-productive impacts requires still more changes to history.
In essence, we name-drop when we want to bring some of the implied history into the campaign as background, context, and/or filler. As a general rule of thumb, if the players are likely to know the name of the office-bearer, we use the actual historical office-bearer unless contra-indicated.
When Not To Name-Drop
There are sometimes good reasons NOT to use the historical personage. If we intend to have the office-holder involved in anything shady or off-color, or even to look like they are involved in such activities, we will usually replace the real person with a fictitious creation, simply to give us more control over the situation. If we want the character to do anything that we don’t think the real person would have done, to protect that historical context, we will put someone else in the position. Finally, if we DON’T want the character to do what we think the real person would have done under the circumstances, we won’t name-drop.
And, of course, if we can’t find out anything about the historical reality using a reasonably quick search of Wikipedia and Google, we get inventive.
Quite often, our information falls somewhere in-between these two extremes, and we have to make a decision between inventing part of the existing person’s background and personality or creating something from whole cloth. This decision is usually based on the question of how consistent what we have to insert would be with the historic reality that we can establish.
In Fantasy
Things are a bit more difficult when it comes to Fantasy. You can’t quite so easily blend history, the modern zeitgeist, and fictional creation to achieve the richness that the Adventurer’s Club has to draw upon. You have to create more of the context yourself, through consistency and exposure of background to the PCs.
Nevertheless, it’s possible. Khalad, son of Khazad, son of Bahzad, son of Kallakh, son of Zallakh, son of Kherazk, son of Kherigh – introduce a single Dwarf that way, and forever more there will be naming traits associated with Dwarfs in the campaign. When the PCs find a scroll signed Dhalazk, it won’t take them much effort to connect the author with Dwarves and, in the process, impute a context to whatever the content is.
Similarly, Khaz et-Zekh, son of Zekh et-Lam, son of Lam et-Khal, son of Khal et-Turr, son of Turr et-Ubt, son of Ubt et-Kark: introduce an Orc that way, and despite the similarities to Dwarven names (lots of K’s, Kh’s, and Z’s), you would never confuse the two. The naming conventions are clear and distinctive. Even the meaning of “et-” is obvious when it is used in this context.
But perhaps a naming convention which celebrates some aspect of the physical reality – “Khaz Strong-eye” might suit the Orcish culture that you are creating more effectively.
Or you could incorporate the spirit-guide concept from Amerind culture, and have the “surname” reflect the spirit guide in some way: “Khaz Beaverclaw”, “Khaz Ravensblood”. It might even be that the “et-” form of the name refers to young that have not yet proved themselves by undergoing their spirit quest, while the spirit-guide-based name automatically conveys the cultural connotation that the bearer is a proven warrior.
Fantasy gives you more room to be creative, but requires you to work harder. Perhaps that’s why many GMs don’t seem to put enough effort into their fantasy names. It’s not a good enough excuse.
PC Names
The GM should always work with the players to name the PCs, especially in a fantasy campaign. Naming conventions should not be flouted with impunity; instead, they should be a mnemonic for the player to bring to mind everything else they know about the culture from which their character derives. Consider the discordance of a PC Dwarf named “Eric Bloodpants” if the naming convention suggested as an example earlier is in effect.
When a player gives a character an inappropriate name, what are they saying to the other players? Either the information they needed wasn’t available to them, or they aren’t taking the game seriously. If that’s the flavor you want, no problem; but if it isn’t, it’s disrespectful, or childish, or both, and it fails to access the richness of the campaign that is being provided. At the very least, it indicates a shallow character, and a wasted opportunity.
There aren’t enough of those that you can afford for one to be thrown away like that. It doesn’t matter what genre your campaign is; names are things to be respected and considered very carefully.
- A Good Name Is Hard To Find
- The Wellspring Of Euonyms: Name Seeds
- Sugar, Spice, and a touch of Rhubarb: That’s what little names are made of
- With The Right Seasoning: Beyond Simple Names
- Grokking The Message: Naming Places & Campaigns
- Hints, Metaphors, and Mindgames: Naming Adventures (Part 1)
- Hints, Metaphors, and Mindgames: Naming Adventures (Part 2)
- Memorials To History – an ‘a good name’ extra
- Choosing A Name: A “Good Names” Extra (Revised & Extended)
- The Surprising Value of Clickbait to a GM
- A Good Name 11: Culinary Delights
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March 18th, 2016 at 2:30 pm
I think it is totally redundant.
… Un deed. I think it’s totally redundant to write a huge post about it.
I mean no disrespect nor harm with my opinion.
Just think it requires a slow mind, and to lack a ton of common sense to not come up with fitting names or just random names based at least on race, or Lore friendly at least.
It’s basic.
If you can’t came up with a fitting name, quit “DMing”
… My opinion.
March 18th, 2016 at 2:37 pm
I mean. I’m sorry but naming a NPC doesn’t take 6 over extensively explained steps.
Sorry but… Don’t want to think how much it take you to name a whole Kingdom.
… Can’t even visualize you creating a session.
(settings, lorrzstory plot, posible branches, items, secret, encounters, monsters, maps, more than 5 NPCs!) damn. That must be a year for you..l
Sorry but it’s nuts in My opinion.
March 18th, 2016 at 9:52 pm
Of course it doesn’t take six steps to name an NPC. It takes 6 steps to give an NPC a good name, however. Of course, you can name a President or Prime Minister “Rumplestiltskin” or “Norm Manners” or “Homer Simpson” if you want to, taking no longer than it required to type the names. They don’t add much to the campaign, however, beyond a standard of frivolity that is counterproductive in terms of serious gaming.
Personally, I consider it nuts to even consider naming everyone within a Kingdom. I would prefer to focus my attention on the NPCs who might possibly be encountered or named by such people; there are usually surprisingly few in any given game session.
You seem to be of the opinion that each of the steps I describe must be followed rigorously and meticulously, occupying a span of time similar to that required to spell out the different considerations involved. The real world doesn’t work that way; if you analyze, describe, and explain any process, it will seem long and complicated, and especially so in comparison to the actual implementation of the process. Consider, for example, the process of turning a corner at an intersection:
1. Identify the upcoming turn as the one you want to take
2. Identify the lanes of traffic that are permitted to turn at the intersection
3. Look for a window in the traffic to enable you to enter the nearest such lane of traffic
4. Activate turn signals to indicate that you intend to change lanes
5. Accellerate or slow to match the speed of traffic in the desired lane without causing an accident in your current lane
6. Get into the correct traffic lane, watching both ahead and behind and avoiding being struck by another vehicle in that lane
7. Begin to slow as you approach the intersection, activate your indicator signal, and look for traffic signals/signs controlling the flow of traffic within the intersection
8. Queue behind other traffic waiting to make that turn if necessary
9. When it is permitted to do so, and it is safe to do so, accelerate and make the turn
10. continue on your journey, having completed the turn.
It takes at least a minute to read that synopsized explanation, and would take longer if I described complications like “no right turn”, “no left turn”, “right lane must turn right” (or the equivalent, “left lane must turn left”, etc. Yet it takes vehicles only seconds as they approach an intersection to execute a turn or stop as required until permitted to do so.
But I suspect that you knew that and were being deliberately melodramatic or obtuse to make a point, having missed the point of the exercise.
Before health problems interfered, I was running up to 6 campaigns a month. I still have two, play in a third, and have one weekend off per month, plus an occasional extra campaign that fills empty weekends every now and then.
Here are the facts: Most NPCs are named within 10-20 seconds of the need for a name being identified. Important NPCs we take a little more time over, perhaps as much as 5 minutes if we need to consult biographies of real people – but usually still less than a minute.
In conclusion, Jorge, you’re welcome to your opinion. You don’t have to adopt any of the techniques I describe in this or any other post; I don’t use all of them, myself. Select the ideas and methods that work best for you, and that satisfy your players; that’s the best that any of us can do.
March 20th, 2016 at 4:58 pm
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