D&D Tips: Naming Characters #Shorts

I have 2 go to methods.

1. Watch a movie. Steal names from the credits. Seriously human names run wide.

2. Grab any thing that says its ingredients(from snack foods to drugs) swap two letters and optionally add an single quote... sooo. Tumeric from my mustard becomes Tim'eruk. And Neomycin Sulfate, from Neosporin becomes Ceomynin Su'Fatel. This method was developed for a Darksun game. And because Chemicals in drugs often have similar formations they can generate whole clans and families!

Jivey

Stardew merch?

The bard I made for a recent (and extremely unserious) one shot was a dwarf named Khaza Minchia. I named him after Casanova, the Italian adventurer/mansl*t.

The name was derived from "Casa-" sounding similar to "Khaza" (as in "Khazad-Dûm") and "Minchia" being 2 syllables and ending on the "uh-" sound like "-nova" (it also happens to be a Sicilian word for d*ck, which I figured was suitable for this character).

I also love using Google translate for this! I pick a word that relates to the character, and then find a word that I like and maybe change it a little bit. This also helps get names that don't sound like English :)

Do a respectful walk through a cemetery. Tons of amazing names to inspire

One easy trick I have when I'm feeling exceptionally lazy is to just take a brand name or something and reverse it.

Odent Nin the Myconid casino dealer who is committing insurance fraud by making their pipes leak, coming to a game near you.

Bonus points for how loud the groan is when your players eventually realise where the name came from

Ah yes, the Owlin Wizard, Riphadach Tawnee Hootdini

Yuan-ti wizard named Clare Koans (anagram for coral snake) XD

I have a set of 7 corrupt priest's who became undead and are anagrams of the 7 deadly sins. My favorite is Thols who has a zombie acolyte who interacts with the players for him while he himself is indistinguishable from a mundane if well preserved corpse.

I have a long list of names that i like that i constantly add to, i pick one every time i need one

my character comes from a technologicly advanced world and went to the campaign's world (a normal fantasy world). her name is Qwerty Asd.

Ok these are REALLY good ideas.
I always struggle with names!

I don't sadly play DnD, but whenever I play games, where I can name the character I love making puns, so it's both easy to remember them. But they still have to fit in the world.

For example:
Hogwarts Legacy - Emma Gicker (to me it feels like a British name and also includes the word MaGic in it)

Method five: get inspiration randomly from real life. My dwarven druid got her name from a belt sander in the metalworking lab. (Esmeriladora, or Esme if you don't want her to get annoyed with you)

Oakde oak-de-a ❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

I myself since I am playing demon hunters decided to give them the “Helsing” last name little bit of a wink wink nudge nudge to Van Helsing

I guess studmuffin blackheart would be a little too accurate for a 17-charisma warlock with a sex addiction.

"Say you're making a fire Genasi, maybe incorporate 'ember'!"
Me: Gideon 😂😂

Google translate+misspelling

OOOOOOH I HAVE A STORY
last year I made a tabaxi character who lost their parents in an accident when they were a kid, so a dwarf friend of theirs took them under his care. So this character has a tabaxi name, a shortened form of that name, AND a dwarven name, because their mentor wanted them to feel fully like they are part of the clan. All of them have similar sounds in spanish, and the tabaxi name is sort of a small hint towards this character's arc, which is developing their potential and talents as self growth. I put lots of work into into it, and im really proud of this boi.

I like taking the theme of my character, fire, water, fish, forgotten, nature. Then throw that shi into Greek Google translate, have fun with synonyms and feel free to add a few letters to make it sound more name like. I always love having a name that means something

I use behindthename a lot for characters in general. Chose Brógán for my Winter Eladrin because I read somewhere that a lot of fae/elven names take inspiration from Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish... and because its pronunciation sounds similar to "bro gone," which has potential to be a running joke whenever he wanders off to be alone for a bit

Personally, when I need a name for anything (character, town, continent, etc) I go on google translate and translate a usually commonish word into an uncommon language. Most nerds know enough about latin to see through it, but how many people are going to know the Icelandic word for Fire?

I'm a writer ( that loves D&D ). This was super helpful. Thank you!

I like taking words that I’m familiar with. I just made a tiefling warlock named Myeuzik, who I styled after a combination of Prince and Jafar.

Keysmash is how I came up with one of my favourite characters. Smrfl the Unclean (it is pronounced without vowels. No I will not explain).
He started as a PC for an MMO, now he invades many of my stories and appears in my campaigns as a traveling alchemist selling only the most stupid and dangerous potions (he's still necromancing, naturally)

I use Behind the Name. They gave both a random name picker where you can filter by gender and national origin (helpful if you already have an accent in mind) and also search by meaning.

I randomly named my character Carnelian, then google translated ember into Greek and shadow into Chinese (I know how Chinese last names work, this is a fantasy world), giving me Carnelian Chovoli-Yinying. One of my friends google translated traumatised into Latin and used it as a last name, she also gave a character a name meaning help.

My dnd ocs name is candle 😂

I like to translate fitting words into languages like Latin, Greek, Japanese, Korean or German (depending on what suits the character), tweak them a bit and voila!

Bonus tip: Greek works particularily well for Dragons

Gezekal (also called Kal, or Kally) >:3
(Keysmash helps!!!)

I just go on the IKEA website

or just something completely stupid because it sounds cool. K. Chow the goblin or Bingo Boingo the gnome.

DesDurham GrimKnach son of Gilgram GrimKnach, Cleric of Moradin, Wielder of the Valestich Gloves, destined to defeat the lord of shadows , the lich of the purge.






He died in the second session to a very small horde of goblins. 😂

Key smash: I love this technique. I have been doing it for literally years.

Lol, my newest character is Guhnharnds (gunhands but spelt slightly differently)

I'v rewatched the video after I spent 2-3 hour finding my character's perfect name. (Felldween)
It could have been so much easier.

Some of my character names...
A character whos made an army of warforged to act as his puppets. I wanted a name that meant something generic and un attention worthy, his concept is "look at the puppet and not me"
The name of the puppet "Lorem"
As in Lorem ipsum aka place holder/generic text, not meant to be read.

A character who was once a researcher along side his brother and father, til they were exploring unknown land, and his family was taken from him, and he was lost to the wilderness for decades on his own.
His name is "Lowne"

I like baby name lists, then finding a name with meaning that reflects my character

Or hear me out, try to find words written in the "language"
Tolken has a lot of elven, I looked up elvish and chose "swift death" or taelan malthar. He's a shadar-kai twilight cleric

I really like to use another languages, i think of some word that relate to the character and then look down on Google Translator for the words on diverse diferent languages, then i choose one of those that catch my eyes then make something up with it

Something I use for NPCs is the Jarnathan: take a common name and tweak a letter or two.

Stede
Kisa
Charmie
Melan

I usually take to most defining trait and put it into google translate and choose some more obscure languages or i take similar concepts to the afforementioned trait and search for sayings or phrases in different languages

I often use baby name websites; I distinctly remember looking up "Orc Baby Names" once

My locathah’s name is the scientific name of carp

You could also think about a word meaning something else in a different language or context

For example I’m playing a multi class barbarian with the storm fury path and sorcerer with storm sorcery

His name is entropy wich is a chemistry term for measure of chaos and is used partially when talking about electricity

It fits perfectly for a reckless chaotic lightning barbarian

I made a Dwarf called Frag Meister and I don't regret it.

Meanwhile my character is called meep

one of my favorite ways to name a character is to think like the parent, either the parent really didn't want to have the kid, or the kid is destined to be special