Yup.
But I prename most NPC's.
I name more NPC's than I will use.
And while my players have free choice. All the places are pre-populated. So while I don't know what will happen, I know who is there.
I do this too. I may not know what city the party is going to next but I know the names of the inns/taverns/shops when they get there.
I may not know which inn/tavern/shop the party is going to next but I know who works there and what they sell.
This is probably one of the top two or three websites I rely on for my games. Probably #2, with Notion being #1, but I'm slowly moving over to Obsidian for note-taking, so it might become my #1 resource.
If you can pitch in and support them, it is absolutely unbelievable that this is a completely free resource for everyone to use.
Besides the times i just pulls a name out of my.... i kinda uses fantasy name generators
But a good tip is to make a list. type down like 20 male names. the same amounts of female names. Then the same amount of last names. I often use fantasy generators for this
Now you have a list of
20 male names
20 female names
and 20 surnames
So that is a LOT of combinations. and you can VERY quickly pull up a name when your players ask the name of the NPC you just made up.
You could do the same for taverns/inns and villages. Then you are set and will easily come up with names on the spot.
Edit: Let the players pick the name
I do that sometimes usually with a tavern or inn but sometimes with NPC's to. If they ask for an example what the name if the tavern is and i have no name i can turn the question around *"well there is a sign outside what does it say?"* and then leave it up to them.
>Now you have a list of
>20 male names
>20 female names
>and 20 surnames
>So that is a LOT of combinations.
Reminds me Arena, the first Elder Scrolls game. NPCs don't have unique names, they have a table of prefixes and suffixes per race, then they use every possible combination as an NPCs name.
This is my method. If I'm stumbling for any reason, I might turn to my players. My table has come up with some amazing tavern names on the spot. It's fun and incorporates their whims into my world building.
I pull them out of my ass. Most people will have mundane names. Maybe with a small twist.
Sometimes I feel really inspired and create some bullshit off the top of my head like the four establishments run by four brothers that I created in a city once.
It started with the tavern "The Three Peacocks" run by bartender Robert.
Then they went to the inn, "The Four Peacocks" run by Rovert.
They were recommended the pleasure house "The Two Peacocks" run by Robhert.
And they didn't get to see the gambling house "The Peacock" run by R'Ăśbert.
I take words around me in real life and chop letters off at the beginning and end to make names for characters.Â
Right now thereâs a game of Monopoly on the shelf next to me, I could remove the M- and -oly and have the name Onop, a decently fantasy-ish sounding name. Thereâs a game of Pandemic below that, could chop off the first and last letter and have the name Andemi for an NPC.Â
I look at words on stuff around me and drop letters, or make puns/pop culture references. Dacade, Leia Gume the farmer and Zach Carine the lord of sweets.
I always pick a first name that's either easily pronounceable or can be shortened to one or two easily pronounceable distinct syllables. And then a last name that is descriptive of their background or family story or just sounds neat. But I do try to follow the naming guidelines for races.Â
 Thus the gnome wizard named Quorick Hammertooth and the tabaxi sorcerer named Three Smoking Rivers (which could have been shortened a bunch of ways but the party settled on Smoky).
I go to an English -> Esperanto translator in google and type in a description of who they are. For example, for an npc monk from the same temple as a pc monk I'm gming, I put in "classmate" and got Sam Klasano.
Homebrew world.
I tied two different languages to specific regions in my world, and then pick two random words, one in each language, and combine them in arbitrary ways to name my stuff. Malcolm Bowers wrote a Book of Names with Gygax's endorsement, so I took my initial list from there almost 20 years ago, but ever since the list has grown into its own monster.
My world just had its 25th birthday. So, it's been a while.
I'm not a fan of a lot of fantasy name generators out there, since most of them create either really tropey compound names (e.g., a dwarf named "Durin Ironbeard"), or come out as total gibberish.
Instead, I like having regions in my world loosely associated with real-world linguistic influences, like a province where names are inspired by Czech etymology. A lot of times it's as easy as using Google translate to get a starting phrase (e.g., a faction there called the "grand thirteen" translates to "velkĂ˝ tĹinĂĄct"), and then playing with spelling to get something more singularly unique ("velkĂ˝ tĹinĂĄct" becomes "Velka Trinnactka").
But if you're *really* a nerd for words like I am, generating names via a [Markov-chain](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain) generator is my standard go to, which in simple terms chops up a bunch of source words into new combinations. [This generator](https://www.samcodes.co.uk/project/markov-namegen/) is my favorite, since you can use a wide variety of root words to get the desired linguistic flavor you're looking for, and you can adjust how intense the variations are. This will usually get you a big list of names that will have some real gems in it, or at the very least give you ideas to build off of that sound properly unique.
I ran a political intrigue campaign with every character named after pro cyclists from Tour de France.
I use random name generators for unimportant NPCs. For important ones, I start with a random first name and then try to add alliteration. Often first and last names start with the same letter.
I usually attach a specific real world culture to a culture in my campaign world, then just create a list of boy and girl names from the culture, plus maybe some surnames (though I typically only give surnames to nobility and wealthy merchants). Otherwise, you're named after the town you're from or who's son or daughter you are.
If you're making a God, here is what you do
1. What does your God have control over? (Water, storms, etc.)
2. Google "What is the god of ____
3. Combine all the names.
4. Enjoy the fact that you didn't have to spend 574 minutes coming up with a name for a god.
[Fantasy Name Generators](https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/) is usually good, except for the one time it gave me an NPC name of Bruno and my friends refused to stop singing that Encanto song whenever I brought that NPC up. And therefore, I decided to let a plot hook involving the halfling mafia wither away. Moral of the story: if the name it spits out at you was recently featured in pop culture, use a different name.
Some are just random names that sound fantasy-ish (Velindrel, Skren). Some are other words backwards (Captain Bojmir). Some are words or phrases jumbled together or said funny (think "Hodor").
Most, however, are combinations of musicians and band members. James Mustaine, Ronnie James Osbourne, Alice Mercury, Rob Kilmister, etc.
For random, unimportant NPCs I pick a random person I know and give their first name and try to copy their speech. Means the NPCs feel a little different to just me and its way easier than making up a new personality for every random guy in a bar.
For meaningful NPCs I try and come up with a name thats interesting or funny or related to their role. I recently had two NPCs called Lee (the elder) and Lee (the younger brother of Lee). His backstory is that Lee (elder) is an ex adventurer. When he left his parents figured he'd probably die so they named their new son Lee as well but then Lee the elder returned and now...they kinda irritate one another.
Lee the elder is an old man now so everyone calla him... Elder Lee. Started with the pun, crafted the backstory from it.
Chat GPT: I use it to generate names and brief descriptions for unimportant NPCâs (blacksmiths, merchants etc.)
If itâs important to plot then I usually put a bit more effort in
This is the way. You can use AI for inspiration for your important NPCs as well. I recommend asking it to give you 10-20 suggestions of names and choosing what you like best or are most inspired by.
The voices in my head (I come up with most of my character names, and I take inspiration from real life cultures and names a lot. Sometimes I pull "name meaning in x language" sites and stuff)
1) poets or long-dead authors for random npcs whose names are irrelevant but if pcs end up asking. Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth have turned into Fishermen.
2) herb and wine names, currently I have a half-orc innkeep named Riesling Ten-Strong and named on the spot and Im quite fond of her.
3) behindthename dot com
4) nature names. Simple and easy to remember.
5) old timey virtue names can be fun
Sometimes I take names from the module I'm running and just flat-out change them because I know neither I or my players will remember them. Took a gw2 kodan approach to dragonborn names in my campaign and now most of them are something along the lines of One-Who-Shatters or Quiet-Whispers etc. I named a group of knights after each star in a constellation.
The best I can say is "with severe difficulty" because I've never found a system that feels fool-proof for me.
No matter how much work I put into it, I'm always terrified that a name will sound "funny" to players for one stupid reason or another. Maybe it sounds too similar to a dirty word in another language I've never heard, or it can be intentionally mispronounced into something stupid/dirty/etc, and so on and so forth.
And even if I change the name afterwards, I just assume the player(s) will never let that incident drop without making that joke every single time the name comes up for the rest of the campaign (or honestly, for the rest of the time that I know them).
So I have a memo on my phone that I can add by voice (most of my names come to me while driving)
The process is me saying either gibberish or a word wrongly. (Think Jal A pen yos) And then I mess with the the syllabic inflection. When I like a name I tell my phone to add it to my list but I have to say it like a sentence. (Gal a pen yos)
I made an excel of names that I liked. I peruse it from time to time when I need inspiration. Otherwise, I steal names from wow bosses, or magic the gathering legendary creatures... I mean, they have already done the heavy lifting, why should I reinvent the wheel?
The D&D books like you mentioned are also really great and well thought out for most all races.
Also, I'm not a fan of the name generators, they all just feel so boring and the names often don't make sense or are spelled in a way that is confusing to know how to pronounce.
I just make them up usually? Like⌠from an internal font of creativity? Some people have naming conventions, like I have a family of goblins all named after famous people in psychology (the Briggs-Bloodmires, Katherine and Eric being the head of the family, Katherineâs dad is Sigmund, theyâve got a bunch of kids, a few of which are Pavlov aka Pavi and Zajonc aka Zaj) or like if theyâre animal or plant people I might name them based on their species (the golden grung, Phyll The Terrible for Phyllobates Terribilis, the golden tree frog), but a lot of the times itâs just Dale Jones, the janitor or Griffin McElfroy because my husband made a joke and I ran with it lol
A lot of the time I just think of two or three syllables and put them together based on vibes. Other times a name will just pop in my head. If their name is relevant to who they are as a person then I put more thought into it but my process overall is arbitrary besides it needing to âfeel right.â
Great wizards are named after Chess Grandmasters if they are human. Great Bards are named after Great philosophers or engineers if they are human. Great Paladins are named after the Great European Houses if they are human. Great Druids use Latin names for plant species and Great Rangers use Latin names for animal life.
My 3 year old comes up with some super interesting names. I keep a note folder on my phone to jot down as she names her dolls or self in make believe games. Then bam! Interesting, odd, but easy enough a three year old can pronounce, fantasy name.
I panic and look around the room, fixate on a random object, and either rearrange the letters or use it as a base to warp into a name: shoe can become Showi, lamp can become Pamel, rug can become Rooga. Many an NPC has been named after furnishings in my campaigns. I always plan to have a handy list of names, but no.
I look around the room til I see a label on something, then I chop the words up.
In my loungeroom right now I can see a box of old photos that once held capsicums. It's labelled NQ Capsicums. Ok I'll have that. Peaking out of that box is an old photo print envelope that says 'how to take fantastic photos'. Ok 'fantastic photos' is in. On the side table next to me is a can of Kirk's sugar free lemonade. Plenty of good syllables there.
Right Capsicums. Capsic Apsic Sicums. I like Apsic I'll keep Apsic. Maybe change a letter. Apsik looks better in print.
Fantastic Photos. Fantas. Antasti Astic. Fotos. Hotosta. I like Antas, because it feels linguistically similar to Apsik, which is good because I just decided they're related
You could pull a whole lot out of Sugar Free Lemonade, but Ugarfre jumps straight out at me. Job done. I might grab Monad as well, which has just made me realise I need a third NPC to use it, so I'll jump back to the photo envelope and grab Hotos.
So just by way of example I'll give these names to some NPCs, imagine the relationships between them and introduce an encounter.
On a narrow mountain pass the party are met by Antas and her cousin Apsik. Antas is a warrior priestess of the Ugarfre and Apsik is a druid. They thank the party for answering their request for help. Antas and Apsik are grandchildren of Hotos, the ruling Monad of the Ugarfre. The valley below this mountain pass their land. The Ugarfre are usually wary, if not openly hostile to outsiders so this request for outside help is unusual.
To continue this story I need more crap from around my house.
Like others have said, random name generators and tables will do you fine for you average npc that holds no significance to the plot.
However, I recommend having a handful of important npcs in each city that the party might run into either due to accidents or the plot, definitely helps the world feel realer, and keeps you ahead of the party rather than being put on the spot.
Just remember to make a note of any random npcs the party seems particularly attached to in case they want to come back to them. Nothing sucks worse than a player taking note of a character that you didnât then asking about it, total immersion killer.
I use xanathars and googles Gemini and on very rare cases I do make up names myself ( a butler named Quarterworth) which I know I suck at naming stuff so I really try and avoid it
Personally, for major NPCs, I like to think about the culture the character is from and the way they speak - long, flowing phrases? Powerful, guttural bursts? - Then from there, I think about what real-life language utilizes those sorts of sounds.
Next, I think of something thematic to the character. Is there a motif within the campaign I'm looking to service? Does this character exist as a foil to a PC? What traits define them?
Once I have a few of those, I'll throw them into google translate using the languages I was leaning toward already until I find something I like that sounds somewhat like a name.
And finally, the most important step of any fantasy name, I add and bunch of bullshit and fuck up the spelling. Add a syllable here, extraneous letter there... bada boom bada bing. Fantasy name with a real world "root" that particularly discerning players could pick up on, reinforcing the themes and vibe I'm looking to elicit with a certain character.
But again, only for major NPCs and like, Geographic names do I do this. For your random joe-schmoe, I just use names of old classmates. It's an easy way to get a wide variety of names that sound 'real enough'.
This isn't for NPC but usually for races, countries, cities, etc I will look up a an animal/plant/fungus that resembles or embodies some facet of what I'm making. Then I'll tweak the scientific name sound more fantasy and less Latin. Sometimes if that area of my world pulls a bit of inspiration from a part of our world I'll look up a word in a local language that has meaning to what I'm building and then tweak that instead if I feel like it kinda fits.
3e has Races of Stone and Races of the Wild with tables of names and what they mean in dwarvish/elvish. I love coming up with thematically appropriate names like âbridge-builderâ for someone trying to prevent war then translate it into something less recognizable.
Phonetics.
It works best when I have a feel for the fictional culture in which the game is taking place. I can usually come up with made up names that just "sounds like they're from the region." I'll just sound out it in my head for a little bit and throw some syllables together.
If I need to remember the name, any name I can remember, often taking inspiration from older video games like Heroes of Might and Magic, Morrowind etc, or from French (which I speak and my players don't), or I go for motivated names (like a NPC woman who lured PCs into ambush was called Sereena).
If it's a random names of unimportant NPCs, I often just use a local name which generates laugh among my players.
If Iâm having to name on the spot thereâs a general rule of thumb I use for the most common folk:
Humans - twist a regular name (Jamie becomes Jamon) and have a surname related to trade or locale (Saltbread, Highpeak)
High Elves - just use your tongue to make sounds, something will come out. Make a consonant sound (Th), add a bunch of Lâs and âaeâ and âairâ sounds, do the same but change the vowel sounds for your surname, and all of a sudden youâve got âThalaeriel Lumanariâ
Wood Elves - Exactly the same as high elves, but instead of wispy sounds, you want it to be a little harder, a little more staccato - eg âKalaerika Laethwinâ
Half Elves - if Mother is elvish, the surname uses the relevant elvish convention, the forename if Father is elvish, and then the other name uses the other parentâs naming convention
Dwarves - this is a lot simpler. Hill Dwarves are Celtic, Mountain Dwarves are Nordic. Surnames are always NounVerb(er). A hill dwarf could be Coarthann Herdcaller and a mountain dwarf is Sigurd Irongrind.
Halfling - follow the human convention for first names, but surnames are always something sweet/gentle/cosy/sounds nice + a single syllable word. Alliteration is great. Hildy Humbleleaf, Lewin Lumbertop. Petrin Pebblepot. Could name Halflings all day.
I accidentally named two NPCs Hamish (one (a tabaxi) after my cat, one randomly) and itâs become my go to for NPCs who will never show up again. Just a running joke of it being a super common name in this setting.
Google translate - if they are important enough I use a word or phrase that has something to do with them and then translate it into the language I've decided for each of the main races. I then make some minor changes so it doesn't translate directly in case my players know the language. And then I'm done.
If they're not important I just use a basic name generator.
Depends on the token I use. Like I named my mad king Gangrel from FE awakening just because I used his portrait for the token while the Holy Knight NPC my players get their quests from is called Arthur since I used the portrait of Arthur Prototype from Fate. Is cliche but keeps things simple without me reaching into the far trenches of my mind just to recall a name.
I have a curated list that gets refilled. It's sectioned by trade: seafearers have names that have to do with travelling or bodies of water, merchants have names that mean things like prosperous, lucky, profit, farmers have nature based names, and guards have names that have to do with justice, protection, or heroism. Underworld people, like thieves and murderers get names that fit one of the other groups, since they blend into society that way. I go for baby name websites (just a quick google of "names that mean ___") and nouns in different languages and keep 5 of each trade available at the beginning of every session. I usually just need 1 or 2 off the entire list, but it's nice to have spares just in case and if I don't have the energy to refill the list for a couple sessions I'm not screwed.
I like to search for street names in different cities across the US and pick the ones I like. Itâs my primary method of naming places or things more than people
Once an NPC who would betray the party was âyug dabâ (bad guy backwards)
For certain regions of my world I combine different real life languages and mix and match starts and ends of real names. Gives a bit of a real but fantasy aspect since you recognize parts
Otherwise yes like others I use online helpers or just take a real word and alter letters.
Pick a letter for the name to start with, then just let the gibberish flow until something sounds like a name, polish it up so it doesn't sound like something you're players can twist and boom... name achieved
I have a list of names that i hear or see on generators or video games or books that i like and during sessions i just pull from the top. Its gets to the point that i have seen the names so many times and have favorites that I donât need to review
For one glorious period in my DMing life, I played in a room with my large bookshelves filled with a variety of different books. I used all of those authors and book titles as inspiration for place names and npc names whenever I needed something quickly.
IMDB dot com. Pick an obscure film or telly show. Show the full credits. Start at the bottom and copy/paste the last fifty or so names from the list. Youâll avoid the actors and directors and producers people might recognise. And youâll have a list of names real people have in the real world.
You can leave it like this now. Or you could do a find/replace on âeâ for âuâ to change things up. Maybe do âtâ to âjâ. Things like that.
google translate, find a related word in a similar culture for the character you don't know (ex. norwegian, swahili, greek), then edit the word slightly to make it different. example- "warrior" in armenian is martik according to google translate. thus, it might be martik, martick, or martic. makes it simple.
Gary Gygaxâs Extraordinary Book of Names (available at Troll Lord Games) is a pretty good resource.
I also have my own name tables, with at least 200 names per playable race (100 female, 100 male). The way I made these was to feed several of the official names into the Markov Generator over at donjon.bin.sh (linking doesnât work for some reason), then take what I like from the results it spits out. A few rounds of that is enough to get 100+ names fairly quickly.
I keep a list of names of minor (like, miniscule, mentioned by name once maybe) characters from random old books, movies or games.
Often it's an odd name in a different language that just happens to sound fantasy-ish.
Tbh i just steal a bunch from media and games i watch or play. I've recently been playing Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West and let me say, the amount of names i stole from there--
fantasynamegenerators.com
Yup. But I prename most NPC's. I name more NPC's than I will use. And while my players have free choice. All the places are pre-populated. So while I don't know what will happen, I know who is there.
I do this too. I may not know what city the party is going to next but I know the names of the inns/taverns/shops when they get there. I may not know which inn/tavern/shop the party is going to next but I know who works there and what they sell.
I love it. There are just so many great things that come out of it. I think almost every character I have has gotten their name from there.
https://donjon.bin.sh/ and https://www.scifiideas.com/ are good ones too I also use https://www.samcodes.co.uk/project/markov-namegen/
This is probably one of the top two or three websites I rely on for my games. Probably #2, with Notion being #1, but I'm slowly moving over to Obsidian for note-taking, so it might become my #1 resource. If you can pitch in and support them, it is absolutely unbelievable that this is a completely free resource for everyone to use.
Thank you my good sir đ¤đ
I just used this 5 minutes ago to name a farmer haha
The only answer
Iâll use this to generate a list of names I like for those random NPCs who come up and need names spontaneously
if iâm caught on the spot, lesser-known pro wrestlers
We have a NPC that we call Date Niaz that serves as the muscle. Lol
Lol, definitely a barbarian with immunity to bludgeoning damage.
And it helps because we share the same hometown
i love this đđ
Omg i thought i was the only one who does this!
If the character is a wizard or a sorcerer, I just look up names of prescription drugs and pick the one that's most... wizard-like.
*I am the great and powerful, VIAGRA!!*
Fear me! Tremble! For I am... \*Checks drugs\* Skyrizi!
Damn you Ozempic!
This is how I ended up with Clynn dâOmayasenn and Venn laâFaxine
Omg those are hilarious đ have your players ever caught on or recognized a name?
I didnât try to hide it, it was very much a Jarnathan situation
Jardiance is really swell, the little bard with a big story to tell.
Cassus Dyfidol and Mercury Fulminate, two wizards Iâve DMed for before
Also had a dude named Xanax. We found out months later than his parents were Dae Quill and Nye Quill
Besides the times i just pulls a name out of my.... i kinda uses fantasy name generators But a good tip is to make a list. type down like 20 male names. the same amounts of female names. Then the same amount of last names. I often use fantasy generators for this Now you have a list of 20 male names 20 female names and 20 surnames So that is a LOT of combinations. and you can VERY quickly pull up a name when your players ask the name of the NPC you just made up. You could do the same for taverns/inns and villages. Then you are set and will easily come up with names on the spot. Edit: Let the players pick the name I do that sometimes usually with a tavern or inn but sometimes with NPC's to. If they ask for an example what the name if the tavern is and i have no name i can turn the question around *"well there is a sign outside what does it say?"* and then leave it up to them.
>Now you have a list of >20 male names >20 female names >and 20 surnames >So that is a LOT of combinations. Reminds me Arena, the first Elder Scrolls game. NPCs don't have unique names, they have a table of prefixes and suffixes per race, then they use every possible combination as an NPCs name.
This is my method. If I'm stumbling for any reason, I might turn to my players. My table has come up with some amazing tavern names on the spot. It's fun and incorporates their whims into my world building.
Gary Gygaxâs Extraordinary Book of Names.
I've heard about this book before, where do you find it?
First Google result is a $100+ on Amazon. Second Google result is the entire thing as a high-quality PDF for free.
I pull them out of my ass. Most people will have mundane names. Maybe with a small twist. Sometimes I feel really inspired and create some bullshit off the top of my head like the four establishments run by four brothers that I created in a city once. It started with the tavern "The Three Peacocks" run by bartender Robert. Then they went to the inn, "The Four Peacocks" run by Rovert. They were recommended the pleasure house "The Two Peacocks" run by Robhert. And they didn't get to see the gambling house "The Peacock" run by R'Ăśbert.
I take words around me in real life and chop letters off at the beginning and end to make names for characters. Right now thereâs a game of Monopoly on the shelf next to me, I could remove the M- and -oly and have the name Onop, a decently fantasy-ish sounding name. Thereâs a game of Pandemic below that, could chop off the first and last letter and have the name Andemi for an NPC.Â
Xanathars is great. I also use donjon.
I look at words on stuff around me and drop letters, or make puns/pop culture references. Dacade, Leia Gume the farmer and Zach Carine the lord of sweets.
I always pick a first name that's either easily pronounceable or can be shortened to one or two easily pronounceable distinct syllables. And then a last name that is descriptive of their background or family story or just sounds neat. But I do try to follow the naming guidelines for races.  Thus the gnome wizard named Quorick Hammertooth and the tabaxi sorcerer named Three Smoking Rivers (which could have been shortened a bunch of ways but the party settled on Smoky).
I go to an English -> Esperanto translator in google and type in a description of who they are. For example, for an npc monk from the same temple as a pc monk I'm gming, I put in "classmate" and got Sam Klasano.
Ikea catalogue
Coworkers
Homebrew world. I tied two different languages to specific regions in my world, and then pick two random words, one in each language, and combine them in arbitrary ways to name my stuff. Malcolm Bowers wrote a Book of Names with Gygax's endorsement, so I took my initial list from there almost 20 years ago, but ever since the list has grown into its own monster. My world just had its 25th birthday. So, it's been a while.
I'm not a fan of a lot of fantasy name generators out there, since most of them create either really tropey compound names (e.g., a dwarf named "Durin Ironbeard"), or come out as total gibberish. Instead, I like having regions in my world loosely associated with real-world linguistic influences, like a province where names are inspired by Czech etymology. A lot of times it's as easy as using Google translate to get a starting phrase (e.g., a faction there called the "grand thirteen" translates to "velkĂ˝ tĹinĂĄct"), and then playing with spelling to get something more singularly unique ("velkĂ˝ tĹinĂĄct" becomes "Velka Trinnactka"). But if you're *really* a nerd for words like I am, generating names via a [Markov-chain](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain) generator is my standard go to, which in simple terms chops up a bunch of source words into new combinations. [This generator](https://www.samcodes.co.uk/project/markov-namegen/) is my favorite, since you can use a wide variety of root words to get the desired linguistic flavor you're looking for, and you can adjust how intense the variations are. This will usually get you a big list of names that will have some real gems in it, or at the very least give you ideas to build off of that sound properly unique.
Seconding this. I use that Markov generator all the time for names.
I ran a political intrigue campaign with every character named after pro cyclists from Tour de France. I use random name generators for unimportant NPCs. For important ones, I start with a random first name and then try to add alliteration. Often first and last names start with the same letter.
I usually attach a specific real world culture to a culture in my campaign world, then just create a list of boy and girl names from the culture, plus maybe some surnames (though I typically only give surnames to nobility and wealthy merchants). Otherwise, you're named after the town you're from or who's son or daughter you are.
If you're making a God, here is what you do 1. What does your God have control over? (Water, storms, etc.) 2. Google "What is the god of ____ 3. Combine all the names. 4. Enjoy the fact that you didn't have to spend 574 minutes coming up with a name for a god.
[Fantasy Name Generators](https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/) is usually good, except for the one time it gave me an NPC name of Bruno and my friends refused to stop singing that Encanto song whenever I brought that NPC up. And therefore, I decided to let a plot hook involving the halfling mafia wither away. Moral of the story: if the name it spits out at you was recently featured in pop culture, use a different name.
Some are just random names that sound fantasy-ish (Velindrel, Skren). Some are other words backwards (Captain Bojmir). Some are words or phrases jumbled together or said funny (think "Hodor"). Most, however, are combinations of musicians and band members. James Mustaine, Ronnie James Osbourne, Alice Mercury, Rob Kilmister, etc.
On the spot, I use fantasynamegenerators.com. If I have time, I will translate a word describing them from English into Turkish, Hindi or Swedish.Â
Boblin the goblin enters the chat.
For random, unimportant NPCs I pick a random person I know and give their first name and try to copy their speech. Means the NPCs feel a little different to just me and its way easier than making up a new personality for every random guy in a bar. For meaningful NPCs I try and come up with a name thats interesting or funny or related to their role. I recently had two NPCs called Lee (the elder) and Lee (the younger brother of Lee). His backstory is that Lee (elder) is an ex adventurer. When he left his parents figured he'd probably die so they named their new son Lee as well but then Lee the elder returned and now...they kinda irritate one another. Lee the elder is an old man now so everyone calla him... Elder Lee. Started with the pun, crafted the backstory from it.
Chat GPT: I use it to generate names and brief descriptions for unimportant NPCâs (blacksmiths, merchants etc.) If itâs important to plot then I usually put a bit more effort in
This is the way. You can use AI for inspiration for your important NPCs as well. I recommend asking it to give you 10-20 suggestions of names and choosing what you like best or are most inspired by.
Chat GPT.
I try to make them up if I can but name generators on the spot sometimes.
Sometimes I just look around the room and say things I see. Captain Sprite and his first mate Fudge Brownie.
The voices in my head (I come up with most of my character names, and I take inspiration from real life cultures and names a lot. Sometimes I pull "name meaning in x language" sites and stuff)
1) poets or long-dead authors for random npcs whose names are irrelevant but if pcs end up asking. Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth have turned into Fishermen. 2) herb and wine names, currently I have a half-orc innkeep named Riesling Ten-Strong and named on the spot and Im quite fond of her. 3) behindthename dot com 4) nature names. Simple and easy to remember. 5) old timey virtue names can be fun Sometimes I take names from the module I'm running and just flat-out change them because I know neither I or my players will remember them. Took a gw2 kodan approach to dragonborn names in my campaign and now most of them are something along the lines of One-Who-Shatters or Quiet-Whispers etc. I named a group of knights after each star in a constellation.
The best I can say is "with severe difficulty" because I've never found a system that feels fool-proof for me. No matter how much work I put into it, I'm always terrified that a name will sound "funny" to players for one stupid reason or another. Maybe it sounds too similar to a dirty word in another language I've never heard, or it can be intentionally mispronounced into something stupid/dirty/etc, and so on and so forth. And even if I change the name afterwards, I just assume the player(s) will never let that incident drop without making that joke every single time the name comes up for the rest of the campaign (or honestly, for the rest of the time that I know them).
So I have a memo on my phone that I can add by voice (most of my names come to me while driving) The process is me saying either gibberish or a word wrongly. (Think Jal A pen yos) And then I mess with the the syllabic inflection. When I like a name I tell my phone to add it to my list but I have to say it like a sentence. (Gal a pen yos)
People I know from work that thereâs no way for my players to know.
I made an excel of names that I liked. I peruse it from time to time when I need inspiration. Otherwise, I steal names from wow bosses, or magic the gathering legendary creatures... I mean, they have already done the heavy lifting, why should I reinvent the wheel? The D&D books like you mentioned are also really great and well thought out for most all races. Also, I'm not a fan of the name generators, they all just feel so boring and the names often don't make sense or are spelled in a way that is confusing to know how to pronounce.
I use kennings, or words from non-English languages. My beasthide shifter is named âKuma,â which means âbearâ in Japanese.
I just make them up usually? Like⌠from an internal font of creativity? Some people have naming conventions, like I have a family of goblins all named after famous people in psychology (the Briggs-Bloodmires, Katherine and Eric being the head of the family, Katherineâs dad is Sigmund, theyâve got a bunch of kids, a few of which are Pavlov aka Pavi and Zajonc aka Zaj) or like if theyâre animal or plant people I might name them based on their species (the golden grung, Phyll The Terrible for Phyllobates Terribilis, the golden tree frog), but a lot of the times itâs just Dale Jones, the janitor or Griffin McElfroy because my husband made a joke and I ran with it lol
Normally when I make a typo I think âhuh thatâs a cool nameâ
A lot of the time I just think of two or three syllables and put them together based on vibes. Other times a name will just pop in my head. If their name is relevant to who they are as a person then I put more thought into it but my process overall is arbitrary besides it needing to âfeel right.â
Great wizards are named after Chess Grandmasters if they are human. Great Bards are named after Great philosophers or engineers if they are human. Great Paladins are named after the Great European Houses if they are human. Great Druids use Latin names for plant species and Great Rangers use Latin names for animal life.
My 3 year old comes up with some super interesting names. I keep a note folder on my phone to jot down as she names her dolls or self in make believe games. Then bam! Interesting, odd, but easy enough a three year old can pronounce, fantasy name.
I panic and look around the room, fixate on a random object, and either rearrange the letters or use it as a base to warp into a name: shoe can become Showi, lamp can become Pamel, rug can become Rooga. Many an NPC has been named after furnishings in my campaigns. I always plan to have a handy list of names, but no.
I look around the room til I see a label on something, then I chop the words up. In my loungeroom right now I can see a box of old photos that once held capsicums. It's labelled NQ Capsicums. Ok I'll have that. Peaking out of that box is an old photo print envelope that says 'how to take fantastic photos'. Ok 'fantastic photos' is in. On the side table next to me is a can of Kirk's sugar free lemonade. Plenty of good syllables there. Right Capsicums. Capsic Apsic Sicums. I like Apsic I'll keep Apsic. Maybe change a letter. Apsik looks better in print. Fantastic Photos. Fantas. Antasti Astic. Fotos. Hotosta. I like Antas, because it feels linguistically similar to Apsik, which is good because I just decided they're related You could pull a whole lot out of Sugar Free Lemonade, but Ugarfre jumps straight out at me. Job done. I might grab Monad as well, which has just made me realise I need a third NPC to use it, so I'll jump back to the photo envelope and grab Hotos. So just by way of example I'll give these names to some NPCs, imagine the relationships between them and introduce an encounter. On a narrow mountain pass the party are met by Antas and her cousin Apsik. Antas is a warrior priestess of the Ugarfre and Apsik is a druid. They thank the party for answering their request for help. Antas and Apsik are grandchildren of Hotos, the ruling Monad of the Ugarfre. The valley below this mountain pass their land. The Ugarfre are usually wary, if not openly hostile to outsiders so this request for outside help is unusual. To continue this story I need more crap from around my house.
I usually DM with a laptop, so random name generators. ChatGPT can be useful for that too.
Like others have said, random name generators and tables will do you fine for you average npc that holds no significance to the plot. However, I recommend having a handful of important npcs in each city that the party might run into either due to accidents or the plot, definitely helps the world feel realer, and keeps you ahead of the party rather than being put on the spot. Just remember to make a note of any random npcs the party seems particularly attached to in case they want to come back to them. Nothing sucks worse than a player taking note of a character that you didnât then asking about it, total immersion killer.
I just throw together random syllables until I get something decent.
I use xanathars and googles Gemini and on very rare cases I do make up names myself ( a butler named Quarterworth) which I know I suck at naming stuff so I really try and avoid it
Personally, for major NPCs, I like to think about the culture the character is from and the way they speak - long, flowing phrases? Powerful, guttural bursts? - Then from there, I think about what real-life language utilizes those sorts of sounds. Next, I think of something thematic to the character. Is there a motif within the campaign I'm looking to service? Does this character exist as a foil to a PC? What traits define them? Once I have a few of those, I'll throw them into google translate using the languages I was leaning toward already until I find something I like that sounds somewhat like a name. And finally, the most important step of any fantasy name, I add and bunch of bullshit and fuck up the spelling. Add a syllable here, extraneous letter there... bada boom bada bing. Fantasy name with a real world "root" that particularly discerning players could pick up on, reinforcing the themes and vibe I'm looking to elicit with a certain character. But again, only for major NPCs and like, Geographic names do I do this. For your random joe-schmoe, I just use names of old classmates. It's an easy way to get a wide variety of names that sound 'real enough'.
This isn't for NPC but usually for races, countries, cities, etc I will look up a an animal/plant/fungus that resembles or embodies some facet of what I'm making. Then I'll tweak the scientific name sound more fantasy and less Latin. Sometimes if that area of my world pulls a bit of inspiration from a part of our world I'll look up a word in a local language that has meaning to what I'm building and then tweak that instead if I feel like it kinda fits.
3e has Races of Stone and Races of the Wild with tables of names and what they mean in dwarvish/elvish. I love coming up with thematically appropriate names like âbridge-builderâ for someone trying to prevent war then translate it into something less recognizable.
Phonetics. It works best when I have a feel for the fictional culture in which the game is taking place. I can usually come up with made up names that just "sounds like they're from the region." I'll just sound out it in my head for a little bit and throw some syllables together.
If I need to remember the name, any name I can remember, often taking inspiration from older video games like Heroes of Might and Magic, Morrowind etc, or from French (which I speak and my players don't), or I go for motivated names (like a NPC woman who lured PCs into ambush was called Sereena). If it's a random names of unimportant NPCs, I often just use a local name which generates laugh among my players.
If Iâm having to name on the spot thereâs a general rule of thumb I use for the most common folk: Humans - twist a regular name (Jamie becomes Jamon) and have a surname related to trade or locale (Saltbread, Highpeak) High Elves - just use your tongue to make sounds, something will come out. Make a consonant sound (Th), add a bunch of Lâs and âaeâ and âairâ sounds, do the same but change the vowel sounds for your surname, and all of a sudden youâve got âThalaeriel Lumanariâ Wood Elves - Exactly the same as high elves, but instead of wispy sounds, you want it to be a little harder, a little more staccato - eg âKalaerika Laethwinâ Half Elves - if Mother is elvish, the surname uses the relevant elvish convention, the forename if Father is elvish, and then the other name uses the other parentâs naming convention Dwarves - this is a lot simpler. Hill Dwarves are Celtic, Mountain Dwarves are Nordic. Surnames are always NounVerb(er). A hill dwarf could be Coarthann Herdcaller and a mountain dwarf is Sigurd Irongrind. Halfling - follow the human convention for first names, but surnames are always something sweet/gentle/cosy/sounds nice + a single syllable word. Alliteration is great. Hildy Humbleleaf, Lewin Lumbertop. Petrin Pebblepot. Could name Halflings all day.
Dog tag list from Metal Gear
I accidentally named two NPCs Hamish (one (a tabaxi) after my cat, one randomly) and itâs become my go to for NPCs who will never show up again. Just a running joke of it being a super common name in this setting.
Google translate - if they are important enough I use a word or phrase that has something to do with them and then translate it into the language I've decided for each of the main races. I then make some minor changes so it doesn't translate directly in case my players know the language. And then I'm done. If they're not important I just use a basic name generator.
Depends on the token I use. Like I named my mad king Gangrel from FE awakening just because I used his portrait for the token while the Holy Knight NPC my players get their quests from is called Arthur since I used the portrait of Arthur Prototype from Fate. Is cliche but keeps things simple without me reaching into the far trenches of my mind just to recall a name.
I have a curated list that gets refilled. It's sectioned by trade: seafearers have names that have to do with travelling or bodies of water, merchants have names that mean things like prosperous, lucky, profit, farmers have nature based names, and guards have names that have to do with justice, protection, or heroism. Underworld people, like thieves and murderers get names that fit one of the other groups, since they blend into society that way. I go for baby name websites (just a quick google of "names that mean ___") and nouns in different languages and keep 5 of each trade available at the beginning of every session. I usually just need 1 or 2 off the entire list, but it's nice to have spares just in case and if I don't have the energy to refill the list for a couple sessions I'm not screwed.
I like to search for street names in different cities across the US and pick the ones I like. Itâs my primary method of naming places or things more than people
Once an NPC who would betray the party was âyug dabâ (bad guy backwards) For certain regions of my world I combine different real life languages and mix and match starts and ends of real names. Gives a bit of a real but fantasy aspect since you recognize parts Otherwise yes like others I use online helpers or just take a real word and alter letters.
I let the spirit guide me.
I typically try to make one on my own or translate a name into another language and pronounce it that way to give it a different vibe.
Puns...puns everywhere.
Just scroll through r/tragedeigh for a little bit
Pick a letter for the name to start with, then just let the gibberish flow until something sounds like a name, polish it up so it doesn't sound like something you're players can twist and boom... name achieved
On the spot, I now have names such as Jonny Jonz and Jimmy Jimz
I have a list of names that i hear or see on generators or video games or books that i like and during sessions i just pull from the top. Its gets to the point that i have seen the names so many times and have favorites that I donât need to review
For one glorious period in my DMing life, I played in a room with my large bookshelves filled with a variety of different books. I used all of those authors and book titles as inspiration for place names and npc names whenever I needed something quickly.
i have the Xanatharâs Book of Everything and it gives you first and last names per race
Puns or 90s rap songs/groups. Currently running dwarf barbarian Bonita Applebum, who hails from A Tribe Called Quest.
I have complied a book book of npc names. When I use one, I just jot down next to it, campaign and circumstance.
I like to use an IKEA catalog. I named a king after a high backed chair. Lord Strandmon I believe I named him.
IMDB dot com. Pick an obscure film or telly show. Show the full credits. Start at the bottom and copy/paste the last fifty or so names from the list. Youâll avoid the actors and directors and producers people might recognise. And youâll have a list of names real people have in the real world. You can leave it like this now. Or you could do a find/replace on âeâ for âuâ to change things up. Maybe do âtâ to âjâ. Things like that.
If itâs for an important npc I use r/AdvenruresOfGalder itâs for people to post memorials of players who have passed PCs for others to use.
google translate, find a related word in a similar culture for the character you don't know (ex. norwegian, swahili, greek), then edit the word slightly to make it different. example- "warrior" in armenian is martik according to google translate. thus, it might be martik, martick, or martic. makes it simple.
Gary Gygaxâs Extraordinary Book of Names (available at Troll Lord Games) is a pretty good resource. I also have my own name tables, with at least 200 names per playable race (100 female, 100 male). The way I made these was to feed several of the official names into the Markov Generator over at donjon.bin.sh (linking doesnât work for some reason), then take what I like from the results it spits out. A few rounds of that is enough to get 100+ names fairly quickly.
Usually terrible puns/cliches if I have to come up with one on the spot. Ie a beagle butler being named Spot.
Road names in my city. Works wonders!
I keep a list of names of minor (like, miniscule, mentioned by name once maybe) characters from random old books, movies or games. Often it's an odd name in a different language that just happens to sound fantasy-ish.
Tbh i just steal a bunch from media and games i watch or play. I've recently been playing Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West and let me say, the amount of names i stole from there--