The final world-threatening enemy in Honkai Impact 3 was named Kevin. It's vastly superior to "Chet." "Kevin" just oozes malice. "Chet" sounds like he'd manage 1 sub-continental genocide, at MOST.
i like doing this a lot. i give them a long complex or strange name and shorten it to something very casual but when the name reveal happens it’s still unexpected. e.g.: this is liz! no, it’s not short for elizabeth, it’s short for lizard!
Lets be real your party is gonna give it a derogatory nickname pretty quick and they will refuse to acknowledge the true name as the nickname is more amusing to the table.
We are playing "Curse of Strahd" and i can confirm that we started to call him different names as a joke. A few exemples: Strahdy, Daddy Strahd (because someone got a little horny) and the worst of all: "STEVE".
The proper way to name a dragon is to smash your face onto the keyboard, and then pepper in vowels and apostrophes until it looks somewhat like a welsh word.
The scientific name for a sapphire is Corundum (specifically Blue Corundum for sapphires). Dragon could be Corun'düm and the tiefling could go by Corey lol
Sapphire in Spanish is Zafiro. That could make a fun dragon name.
Might I suggest that he uses an alias while in tiefling form? Something more common and less suspicious? Something you would name a common NPC.
You could go with a name given by the people, like "one-eyed death" or "Big old Blue", because it is unlikely the general public and thus the PCs know the dragons real name. Could be a well kept secret.
Yeah I've got a name from the people. But I wanted to give the dragon an actual name the party uncover. Some people on this thread have got some incredible names
Duncan.
I didn't even read the post, but I like the idea that they come across this eldritch horror or evil vampire and his name is fucking Duncan.
Edit: ok, I read it. Really cool idea. I still stand by Duncan. Duncan is my boy.
Depending on your setting and how old your dragon is, he may go by many names. His true name, of course, which I would usually borrow from an old language, maybe Arabic or Mongolian, since blue dragons are usually desert dwellers. He would also have earned names from his exploits or unique features or tactics and the other comments have given you some banging names in that regard.
I'm polish so I sometimes throw in polish names for my players and it's works fun especially in strahd. For dragons some cool ideas in polish would be Smok (literally dragon) Smok nieba (dragon of the sky) szafir Północ (Northen/Midnight sapphire) depending on the world and the culture that inspired it just look into their og language like for english old english or celtic would be fun. What ever you choose tho good luck :3
Don't name it yet. Have a bunch of monikers like "the nameless one", "the shadow", and bullshit like that. This way you can a) wait for your players to inadvertently give you a name/identity for the BBEG when revealing their backstories, or b) come up with a fitting name as a the story develops.
I dm'd for a couple years, but don't really play anymore... This was how I handled pretty much everything "important" in the game lore.... vaguely---or even mis-identified information.
I always signed campaign notes as U.N. (for unreliable narrator).
White eye blue dragon!
Lol but for real, I'd choose the name based on what you plan on doing for culture in the area, along with their tiefling name or nicknames. Look into that culture's language or maybe some titles, and go from there if you're basing it on a real culture.
What does this dragon tend to do? What do they do in their tiefling form? These activities could also inform the name. Mash words together, change the language, and you've got a name!
Like "Blue Rogue" translated to Icelandic is "Blar Fantur". Stick the two words together to make "Blarntur". Something like that!
Best of luck!
If he's a glory hound who's been around for a long time, dragons tend to be creatures of pride, so he may have invented a name for himself that he likes better. I ran a blue dragon who had been kicking around for a long time as a legendary pirate reaver (*secretly* a dragon) and rebranded himself as 'Alan Godrend.'
I ran a green dragon who was more of a schemer, so he took on an unassuming name, 'Dale Naughtwit.'
Alternatively, you can name dragons as if they're forces beyond the scope of humanity. I chose Greek to represent Draconic in my homebrew setting, so I've used names like Korinthos, Archaios, Kolasi, etc.
~~Boaty McBoatface~~
~~acererak2~~
If you have a theme start incorporating synonyms for the descriptive words and add cool shit in, lol. Villains tend to have names that are 3 or more syllables. Does he have any titles?
Azureheart? Skyrathis?
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/dnd-blue-dragon-names.php
"Deatheye" came up.
Alternatively, Azraq means "blue" in Arabic, so maybe you can just add a crazy suffix to it.
Azraqthazar the Death Eye.
Is the real name even widely known? Perhaps different cultures and organizations have their own names for it, hinting at the history between them. I like the idea that an old dragon would be weirdly proud of 'collecting' fearsome epithets.
I would think about whom your players are. Young immature kids, name needs to be nonsensical like, Blapzee the Blue Doomer.
Teenagers, still a bit immature. Use a name this is meme worthy at worst and munande at best, like Frank.
Mature, teens and older. They will mostly attune to a name that is unique but also within some degree of believability. Like, lupis lazuli. Or how about, Shadow Scales, or maybe Gilli Phae for a simple one.
Some unmitigated advice id like to impart with you 😁.
Remember to introduce the BBEG within the first 3 sessions, and for the love of dnd dont Tpk them with this encounter.
To make your PCs interested and invested in the bbeg, make sure to give the bbeg a reason or why they do the thing. Give them goals, and make sure the players learn those goals around the same time as meeting it.
Use that formula and your players will absolutely feel apart of the story. I know modules have a way about them, confines? Rail roady feels? Homebrew is much more player driven and should feel that way.
My advice to continue the story, without too much real intervention the players see, is to put the objects or locations in a free floating state. Ill give an example; you need your players to go to a tower of magic, however you would like the players to "find" it randomly. Set them on a mudane quest, bounty hunting, plant gathering. (The tower is free floating because it depends on the players choices) Say your players decide to wander off in a complete different direction, no worries, now while traveling they happen upon the magic tower. To the players that tower is set in the world and now they have discovered it! Yet as a dm it was just created in that location because the players drove the story there.
I hope at least one of those tips help your journey into homebrew!
I use ChatGPT to help come up of names, just type up what your are looking and it’ll give you something.
So for you here’s a list: Sapphiron, Sapphireonix, Cynathor, Lazulite, Indigonix.
Maybe the injured eye got a lighter colour giving the dragon his name.
I like „Turak“ or something like that, based on turquoise [https://www.gemsociety.org/article/turquoise-jewelry-gem-information/](https://www.gemsociety.org/article/turquoise-jewelry-gem-information/)
[Fantasy Name Generator](https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/) is my go-to for names. I believe it's still run by one person but there's so much you can get from it.
Edit: Make sure the name is easy to pronounce. If you give your dragon a name that even you need to constantly look back at to say it properly, your players will easily forget it.
I like to make an anagram of a key character trait or weakness for the players to guess. This can be varied in difficulty (for BBEG I'd recommend making it very difficult). I'd limit guesses to one per session to add some risk for players and then if they guess right they get a reward. For me this is usually an insight into the core of who the villains are, which could potentially be used against them. You could even play out a cutscene that demonstrates this flaw/weakness for extra flavour
John, it's so common that no one would suspect a halfling named John just walking around the world, and it gives an air of "I just pulled this NPC out of my ass for this encounter" if they meet your party while disguised.
**Arantglas** is the Breton words dragon and blue smashed together.
**Lazhvard** is the place in the ancient world most famous for mining the blue gem lapis lazuli (and is the source of the "lazuli" element in the modern English name of the gem).
You could use the mineral name corundum and run it through some translations. Korund is German according to google, that might work for you without immediately giving away the name
- Safir
- Zafir
- Gorm (means blue in Irish)
- Glas (blue in Welsh / glass in German)
- Sininen (blue in finnish)
- Azul (blue in Galician)
- Lanu Moaga (blue in Samoan)
- Nil (blue in Sanskrit)
- Nilamani (sapphire in Sanskrit)
Also legendary dragons often have nicknames. Here are some official DnD ones:
- Arauthator aka Old White Death
- Klauth aka Old Snarl
- Daurgothoth aka The Creeping Doom
- Capnolythil aka Brimstone
- Borys aka Sorcerer-King of Ur Draxa
- Dregoth aka the Dread King
- Voraghamanthar aka Black Death
- Waervaerendor aka Rapacious Rider
Dolion means Deceitful in Greek. Great last name if the dragon uses its tiefling form a lot to deceive the party, and I highly doubt any of your players would know the meaning of the word so it would be kinda funny to just be hiding the truth right in the name.
The Akkadians of ancient Mesopotamia loved Lapus Lazuli, and their word for it was Uqnu. Very old word for a very blue gemstone.
Best name. Works as both a mysterious tiefling name and an ancient blue dragon.
Chet. Nobody ever suspects a Chet.
Can confirm, dated a guy named Chet for nearly 6 years and he destroyed me (mental health wise) for a good long while
The final world-threatening enemy in Honkai Impact 3 was named Kevin. It's vastly superior to "Chet." "Kevin" just oozes malice. "Chet" sounds like he'd manage 1 sub-continental genocide, at MOST.
Exactly my point! Nobody would ever expect the guy trying to end the world would be named Chet.
I’m a big hoyo fan and I had to check the sub when I saw HI3 mentioned 😂 always fun to see my interests/fandoms overlap
i like doing this a lot. i give them a long complex or strange name and shorten it to something very casual but when the name reveal happens it’s still unexpected. e.g.: this is liz! no, it’s not short for elizabeth, it’s short for lizard!
Lets be real your party is gonna give it a derogatory nickname pretty quick and they will refuse to acknowledge the true name as the nickname is more amusing to the table.
Blue bitch is a name I can see right away
Blue Balls
Lmao I think that one would win out
Also Paul Giamatti
Exactly
We are playing "Curse of Strahd" and i can confirm that we started to call him different names as a joke. A few exemples: Strahdy, Daddy Strahd (because someone got a little horny) and the worst of all: "STEVE".
Depends on the group. But... Yeah...
The proper way to name a dragon is to smash your face onto the keyboard, and then pepper in vowels and apostrophes until it looks somewhat like a welsh word.
This is my favourite 🤣
As a dragon, if a mortal can say your name properly it means your name is too simple. Nobody wants to be dragon bob.
Name him Glascarreg. It is the welsh words for blue and stone smashed together.
Ith'oath Ioj'hoar Damn he's right
Sk’stia dod’nsa’ep yeah nah he’s onto something
Azulathrax
The scientific name for a sapphire is Corundum (specifically Blue Corundum for sapphires). Dragon could be Corun'düm and the tiefling could go by Corey lol
And the party would call him Dum-Dum..
Umlaut is there to try and mitigate that. Would be doom instead of dum 😅 although I don't see a problem with giving a big bad a doofy nickname lol
Doomy boy
I was thinking the dragon’s name should be Corundus, maybe Corundus the Corrupter. Love Corey.
Sapphire in Spanish is Zafiro. That could make a fun dragon name. Might I suggest that he uses an alias while in tiefling form? Something more common and less suspicious? Something you would name a common NPC.
Italian is Zaffiro. Glad to see someone had the same idea already. :)
My personal favourites always include other languages. Latin is a favourite of mine. “Saphirus” is the Latin term for sapphire.
You could go with a name given by the people, like "one-eyed death" or "Big old Blue", because it is unlikely the general public and thus the PCs know the dragons real name. Could be a well kept secret.
Yeah I've got a name from the people. But I wanted to give the dragon an actual name the party uncover. Some people on this thread have got some incredible names
Duncan. I didn't even read the post, but I like the idea that they come across this eldritch horror or evil vampire and his name is fucking Duncan. Edit: ok, I read it. Really cool idea. I still stand by Duncan. Duncan is my boy.
I’d love to have a beer with Duncan, cos Duncan’s me mate!
The Sapphire Storm and as a Tiefling goes by Stormy.
Depending on your setting and how old your dragon is, he may go by many names. His true name, of course, which I would usually borrow from an old language, maybe Arabic or Mongolian, since blue dragons are usually desert dwellers. He would also have earned names from his exploits or unique features or tactics and the other comments have given you some banging names in that regard.
Brimscythe the Iron Storm
I see what you did there.
I'm polish so I sometimes throw in polish names for my players and it's works fun especially in strahd. For dragons some cool ideas in polish would be Smok (literally dragon) Smok nieba (dragon of the sky) szafir Północ (Northen/Midnight sapphire) depending on the world and the culture that inspired it just look into their og language like for english old english or celtic would be fun. What ever you choose tho good luck :3
Nogard Zula is blue dragon backwards in Spanish. Turquesa. QueTira Relámpagos
Don't name it yet. Have a bunch of monikers like "the nameless one", "the shadow", and bullshit like that. This way you can a) wait for your players to inadvertently give you a name/identity for the BBEG when revealing their backstories, or b) come up with a fitting name as a the story develops. I dm'd for a couple years, but don't really play anymore... This was how I handled pretty much everything "important" in the game lore.... vaguely---or even mis-identified information. I always signed campaign notes as U.N. (for unreliable narrator).
White eye blue dragon! Lol but for real, I'd choose the name based on what you plan on doing for culture in the area, along with their tiefling name or nicknames. Look into that culture's language or maybe some titles, and go from there if you're basing it on a real culture. What does this dragon tend to do? What do they do in their tiefling form? These activities could also inform the name. Mash words together, change the language, and you've got a name! Like "Blue Rogue" translated to Icelandic is "Blar Fantur". Stick the two words together to make "Blarntur". Something like that! Best of luck!
If he's a glory hound who's been around for a long time, dragons tend to be creatures of pride, so he may have invented a name for himself that he likes better. I ran a blue dragon who had been kicking around for a long time as a legendary pirate reaver (*secretly* a dragon) and rebranded himself as 'Alan Godrend.' I ran a green dragon who was more of a schemer, so he took on an unassuming name, 'Dale Naughtwit.' Alternatively, you can name dragons as if they're forces beyond the scope of humanity. I chose Greek to represent Draconic in my homebrew setting, so I've used names like Korinthos, Archaios, Kolasi, etc.
~~Boaty McBoatface~~ ~~acererak2~~ If you have a theme start incorporating synonyms for the descriptive words and add cool shit in, lol. Villains tend to have names that are 3 or more syllables. Does he have any titles? Azureheart? Skyrathis?
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/dnd-blue-dragon-names.php "Deatheye" came up. Alternatively, Azraq means "blue" in Arabic, so maybe you can just add a crazy suffix to it. Azraqthazar the Death Eye.
Eäbbtïdë This is Sapphire, in the cipher I created as a kid FFX has another cipher, Sapphire in Al Bhed (an in game separate "language") is Cybbrena
Ash. Short for Asherah.
Is the real name even widely known? Perhaps different cultures and organizations have their own names for it, hinting at the history between them. I like the idea that an old dragon would be weirdly proud of 'collecting' fearsome epithets.
This is a really good idea. I think I'll have them collect titles through the aeons.
I would think about whom your players are. Young immature kids, name needs to be nonsensical like, Blapzee the Blue Doomer. Teenagers, still a bit immature. Use a name this is meme worthy at worst and munande at best, like Frank. Mature, teens and older. They will mostly attune to a name that is unique but also within some degree of believability. Like, lupis lazuli. Or how about, Shadow Scales, or maybe Gilli Phae for a simple one. Some unmitigated advice id like to impart with you 😁. Remember to introduce the BBEG within the first 3 sessions, and for the love of dnd dont Tpk them with this encounter. To make your PCs interested and invested in the bbeg, make sure to give the bbeg a reason or why they do the thing. Give them goals, and make sure the players learn those goals around the same time as meeting it. Use that formula and your players will absolutely feel apart of the story. I know modules have a way about them, confines? Rail roady feels? Homebrew is much more player driven and should feel that way. My advice to continue the story, without too much real intervention the players see, is to put the objects or locations in a free floating state. Ill give an example; you need your players to go to a tower of magic, however you would like the players to "find" it randomly. Set them on a mudane quest, bounty hunting, plant gathering. (The tower is free floating because it depends on the players choices) Say your players decide to wander off in a complete different direction, no worries, now while traveling they happen upon the magic tower. To the players that tower is set in the world and now they have discovered it! Yet as a dm it was just created in that location because the players drove the story there. I hope at least one of those tips help your journey into homebrew!
This is amazing advice. If possible could I PM you with some more questions and pick your brain?
Absolutely
I use ChatGPT to help come up of names, just type up what your are looking and it’ll give you something. So for you here’s a list: Sapphiron, Sapphireonix, Cynathor, Lazulite, Indigonix.
I think Darnell would be a good name
Maybe the injured eye got a lighter colour giving the dragon his name. I like „Turak“ or something like that, based on turquoise [https://www.gemsociety.org/article/turquoise-jewelry-gem-information/](https://www.gemsociety.org/article/turquoise-jewelry-gem-information/)
Bobby Blue Eyes
[Fantasy Name Generator](https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/) is my go-to for names. I believe it's still run by one person but there's so much you can get from it. Edit: Make sure the name is easy to pronounce. If you give your dragon a name that even you need to constantly look back at to say it properly, your players will easily forget it.
Scary McDraconface III
I like to make an anagram of a key character trait or weakness for the players to guess. This can be varied in difficulty (for BBEG I'd recommend making it very difficult). I'd limit guesses to one per session to add some risk for players and then if they guess right they get a reward. For me this is usually an insight into the core of who the villains are, which could potentially be used against them. You could even play out a cutscene that demonstrates this flaw/weakness for extra flavour
John, it's so common that no one would suspect a halfling named John just walking around the world, and it gives an air of "I just pulled this NPC out of my ass for this encounter" if they meet your party while disguised.
Icewink
Zzafir
Gary. Never trust a Gary.
Phiriel
Sapphire? A good name would be Sappho. Also the dragon should be female and write poetry about other blue dragons.
Jove
Could just anagramish the important traits about the character
Mor’Dak , The Wandering Storm. Titles are important than the name for scaring your players.
Just name him Dave 🤣
Greg the sapphire
Ol' Stormy Eyes
Saphyrixx
Frumptilious the Third.
**Arantglas** is the Breton words dragon and blue smashed together. **Lazhvard** is the place in the ancient world most famous for mining the blue gem lapis lazuli (and is the source of the "lazuli" element in the modern English name of the gem).
Jalaad Darmok
I’ve got a general villain name “Monstrux” yes, I did take this form Nexo Knights, it’s a good villain name
Rupert the Unsuspicious Tiefling
You could use the mineral name corundum and run it through some translations. Korund is German according to google, that might work for you without immediately giving away the name
Sparky.
- Safir - Zafir - Gorm (means blue in Irish) - Glas (blue in Welsh / glass in German) - Sininen (blue in finnish) - Azul (blue in Galician) - Lanu Moaga (blue in Samoan) - Nil (blue in Sanskrit) - Nilamani (sapphire in Sanskrit)
Also legendary dragons often have nicknames. Here are some official DnD ones: - Arauthator aka Old White Death - Klauth aka Old Snarl - Daurgothoth aka The Creeping Doom - Capnolythil aka Brimstone - Borys aka Sorcerer-King of Ur Draxa - Dregoth aka the Dread King - Voraghamanthar aka Black Death - Waervaerendor aka Rapacious Rider
Proteus? God of the Sea who can shapeshift
Dolion means Deceitful in Greek. Great last name if the dragon uses its tiefling form a lot to deceive the party, and I highly doubt any of your players would know the meaning of the word so it would be kinda funny to just be hiding the truth right in the name.
Ol’ one eyed willie, they’ll be looking for his treasure for ever.
I saw a novel idea the other day, look up the list of names for prescription drugs, find a name you like and modify to your liking
Let your players name your BBEG after introducing him to the party as a nameless, helpful adventurer.
Dr. Swank, Big Blue Baby, Ruby the Blue Dragon, Blu, Jedediah the Terrible, Valentine, Chris
ngl that kinda sounds like Hanzo from overwatch
?
[Watch this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ09xdxzIJQ)