BackworldTraveller
SOC-13
What are the best NPC names that you've come up with or come across?
What makes a good name?
What makes a good name?
Naming your NPCs
- Thread starter BackworldTraveller
- Start date
for what makes a good name - one I can pronounce! I've players that come up with character names that look really cool but I cannot pronounce them (admittedly I have a hard time pronouncing a lot of things for some reason) I've used random name generators for my NPCs most of the time and try to pick ones I can pronounce.
I do like Wolf Blitzer though. Although I try to stay away from the real world, his name just seems made for RPGs!
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
I'm not creative enough to come up with a lot of names from scratch, so usually I just find real historical names and tweak them a little so they don't sound like they are from Earth. So for instance, in my current campaign, Syleans are a dominant ethnicity and I use Ancient Roman names as my go to source for the base/root of their names and then I tweak them a bit so its not a straight steal from history and not overly Latin sounding.
Since we have so many Vilani name examples and word generators out there, I usually just pick from the list for first names and run a word generator for the last name. Sometimes I just run a word generator twice.
As for the aesthetics of names, that is highly personal. I avoid the puns (I see you Wolf) and go for verisimilitude and a tone that matches the character.
Since we have so many Vilani name examples and word generators out there, I usually just pick from the list for first names and run a word generator for the last name. Sometimes I just run a word generator twice.
As for the aesthetics of names, that is highly personal. I avoid the puns (I see you Wolf) and go for verisimilitude and a tone that matches the character.
Frodey Gatzendorfer.
A few years ago I was cleaning up my fathers effects and stumbled upon a handful of Ptouch generated names attached to magnets. They may have been just random names, though I think they were of old coworkers. The ones that stuck out to me were "Frodey" & "Gatzendorfer".
I put them on the front of my heater in memory of the old man and didn't think about them for awhile. Then one day I was working on my much maligned passion project of a campaign, I had to think of an unusual name for an NPC...what would you name a human adopted Vargr??? After staring at the four corners my eyes alighted upon...Frodey Gatzendorfer. BINGO!
Now Frodey had become a crime figure as time went on so he needed a moniker. I am a fan of James Ellroy's series L.A. City of Demons. His alliteration was was epic.
In the series he had a fictitious sidekick character, who is a computer-generated dog. A corrupt police K-9 named "Barko". He's based on Ellroy's real dog, Barko, the Bull Terrier.
His tagline was "I'm the dog every girl wants, and every guy wants to be".
So thus Frodey "Barko" Gatzendorfer was born.
"I'm the Vargr every girl wants, and every guy wants to be".
You can't get any better than this folks.
A few years ago I was cleaning up my fathers effects and stumbled upon a handful of Ptouch generated names attached to magnets. They may have been just random names, though I think they were of old coworkers. The ones that stuck out to me were "Frodey" & "Gatzendorfer".
I put them on the front of my heater in memory of the old man and didn't think about them for awhile. Then one day I was working on my much maligned passion project of a campaign, I had to think of an unusual name for an NPC...what would you name a human adopted Vargr??? After staring at the four corners my eyes alighted upon...Frodey Gatzendorfer. BINGO!
Now Frodey had become a crime figure as time went on so he needed a moniker. I am a fan of James Ellroy's series L.A. City of Demons. His alliteration was was epic.
In the series he had a fictitious sidekick character, who is a computer-generated dog. A corrupt police K-9 named "Barko". He's based on Ellroy's real dog, Barko, the Bull Terrier.
His tagline was "I'm the dog every girl wants, and every guy wants to be".
So thus Frodey "Barko" Gatzendorfer was born.
"I'm the Vargr every girl wants, and every guy wants to be".
You can't get any better than this folks.
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Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I will raid science fiction stories and military history books for names and pretty much anything else for that matter. On the planet of El Paso, in my Out Rim Sector, the county sheriff and Customs Enforcement Officer is named Wyatt Holliday. The main hotel is Rosa's Cantina. I have not named more, but you get the picture as to what will be the origin of additional names.
In the Space: 1889 campaign I am working on the names are a mixture of Jules Verne characters from Mysterious Island, historical figures, some draw from Robert E. Howard's Western and El Borak stories, and some I have just put together from other names. Bill Dixon is the sales manager for Sharp's Rifle Company on Mars. Bradley Fiske is the U.S. Navy's buying agent for liftwood along with being a naval attache. Gideon Spillett is a reporter for the New York Herald. The captain of the U.S. Marine Company at Thymiamata is a quiet individual by the name of Smedley Butler.
In the Space: 1889 campaign I am working on the names are a mixture of Jules Verne characters from Mysterious Island, historical figures, some draw from Robert E. Howard's Western and El Borak stories, and some I have just put together from other names. Bill Dixon is the sales manager for Sharp's Rifle Company on Mars. Bradley Fiske is the U.S. Navy's buying agent for liftwood along with being a naval attache. Gideon Spillett is a reporter for the New York Herald. The captain of the U.S. Marine Company at Thymiamata is a quiet individual by the name of Smedley Butler.
Back in the day, where we lived there was a park. And as with many park, it was named after someone.
My friend and I thought the name was funny and we turned it in to an inside slur.
As in "Don't be a Smith" (no, Smith wasn't the name).
Eventually we morphed it in to a vulgar slur, and concocted an entire back story of this poor soul going through High School to the point that when the other boys would gang up on him and the Vice Principal intervened, the VP would ask "Who started this?" The attacking boys would immediately point "He did it!" and the VP would use the boys vulgar name "Alright XXX, come with me."
Poor kid never had a chance.
But what was curious about the exercise was how normal it all sounded. Sometimes I wonder about words, where they come from, how some "fit" and others don't. And this one fit. This poor kid went through imaginary Hell.
My friend and I thought the name was funny and we turned it in to an inside slur.
As in "Don't be a Smith" (no, Smith wasn't the name).
Eventually we morphed it in to a vulgar slur, and concocted an entire back story of this poor soul going through High School to the point that when the other boys would gang up on him and the Vice Principal intervened, the VP would ask "Who started this?" The attacking boys would immediately point "He did it!" and the VP would use the boys vulgar name "Alright XXX, come with me."
Poor kid never had a chance.
But what was curious about the exercise was how normal it all sounded. Sometimes I wonder about words, where they come from, how some "fit" and others don't. And this one fit. This poor kid went through imaginary Hell.
Recently I used the Vilani word generator to come up with a name for a Far Trader. The result:
Zuusirkikharushi.
I then went to a Vilani dictionary to see if there was any meaning to this random word. Much to my surprise there was!
"Be clever the stars allow death".
Then I rolled for quirks for the ship (Mongoose Trav. 2nd ed.) and got Notorious.
Since the ship was 40 years old I decided one of its previous owners was a pirate, and the name was intended to intimidate victims.
Finally, the current crew was a mixture of species (a Vargr captain, a Bwap, a Droyne, a Darrian, and one regular Human), so the crew has nicknamed the ship The Zoo and call themselves The Zoo Crew.
It was all an incredible series of coincidences, helped along with some imagination.
I know you asked for NPC names, but often a ship can be pretty close to an NPC in its own right.
To me what makes a good name is that it fits well into its environment.
Zuusirkikharushi.
I then went to a Vilani dictionary to see if there was any meaning to this random word. Much to my surprise there was!
"Be clever the stars allow death".
Then I rolled for quirks for the ship (Mongoose Trav. 2nd ed.) and got Notorious.
Since the ship was 40 years old I decided one of its previous owners was a pirate, and the name was intended to intimidate victims.
Finally, the current crew was a mixture of species (a Vargr captain, a Bwap, a Droyne, a Darrian, and one regular Human), so the crew has nicknamed the ship The Zoo and call themselves The Zoo Crew.
It was all an incredible series of coincidences, helped along with some imagination.
I know you asked for NPC names, but often a ship can be pretty close to an NPC in its own right.
To me what makes a good name is that it fits well into its environment.
The prime truth of names, whether in RL (like pets) or in a game or other fiction.
Seconded!
I've been naming a bunch of Asuran NPC's lately. Lots of northern European/Scandinavian names.
I just use a name generator. My fav. https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I will third that. If some player wants to get creative with his character's name, he or she needs to be able to pronounce it readily and clearly for all of the other players. Otherwise, it turns into "Hey, you".
General Hottean Pixx
Just created from the Title of a SPAM Thread that was on Today's Posts.
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Just created from the Title of a SPAM Thread that was on Today's Posts.
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General Hottean Pixx
Just created from the Title of a SPAM Thread that was on Today's Posts.
cool - meta and unique at the same time! sort of reminds me of that dormant thread where we were taking real world headlines & rewriting them for Traveller. Reality can often be a good source of fantasy
Ideally you want a name that sounds good and appropriate - cool names will have a bit of appeal. Most importantly, however, is one that you can think of.
A while ago, I spent an evening cribbing a big list of names from whatever sources I could find on the interwebs. There are a little under 13,000 here, from mixed languages. Pick one and then hack about if you feel like it. Rinse. Repeat.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=39588
A while ago, I spent an evening cribbing a big list of names from whatever sources I could find on the interwebs. There are a little under 13,000 here, from mixed languages. Pick one and then hack about if you feel like it. Rinse. Repeat.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=39588
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Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
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