Zarban

One area of fantasy role-playing games that some people have trouble with is inventing names. I once had a friend who was not a regular DM, and his adventures featured an inordinate number of NPCs named “William”. But there are easy ways to avoid such mistakes.

Be Prepared

The most obvious way is to not try to think of a name on the fly. Instead, have several names written down ahead of time and annotate them as you use them. “Barger” becomes “Barger the merchant” once you’ve assigned the name to a merchant, for example. Ideally, you should also have several NPCs without names available, so you can pair a name with a character when you need to, and they’ll fit. If you need a wily and slightly sinister merchant but the only merchant you’ve prepared is already named “Toopsie”, you may stumble.

Now when you’re doing the preparation, you’ll want a variety of names that seem appropriate for humans, elves, dwarves, and such, and in both male and female varieties. You’ll need to decide for yourself what “sounds” like an elven or dwarven name. And of course you’ll want both more familiar “local” names and foreign-sounding names. And you may have to consider infernal or explicitly evil names as well. Deciding on this sort of thing ahead of time will help your names sound like different parts of the pattern of one great fabric. If you name one local human knight “Hazlardio” and another “George”, it will sound like you’re making things up as you go along.

Tweaked Familiar Names

An easy way to get started and to provide familiar-sounding names appropriate to local humans is to start with a real-life, old-fashioned English or Norman name and tweak it. It’s best to not use particularly common names–especially biblical names–because they’ll seem too familiar.

Real Name	Fantasy Name
Kevin	Cavin, Kovin, Carvin
Elena	Eliana, Eleta, Enela
Walter	Balter, Walfer, Walet
Henry	Venri, Henrir, Henerick
Megan	Medan, Legan, Megasta
Andrew	Andrin, Anduin, Ankru
Roderick	Boderick, Rodward, Ronerick
Bridget	Brigha, Lidget, Brigita

You might lean toward Saxon (Eadweard, Beornrad, Hilda, Twyla) or Celtic (Cian, Finn, Fiona, Aislinn) names for neighboring cultures. Or you might decide that local humans have actual normal English (John, Emily, Thomas, Mary) names and that it is nobles or elves or people from the neighboring realm that have the tweaked versions.

This sort of thing depends largely on the history of your realm. Did one people invade and make their foreign names (and many words from their language for legal and noble matters) the upper-class style? That’s what happened in Norman England. (And that’s why we think of John, Emily, Thomas, and Mary as normal English names when they’re actually French names, many of them adapted from the Bible.)

Tolkienian Names

The next obvious step is to fabricate names in the grand tradition of those in the works of JRR Tolkien. Tolkien was an ancient linguist at heart, and names were of particular interest. Elves got longer names ending -on, -ar, -el, and such.

Elves	Noble Humans
Fenrond	Ilburn
Cavernir	Tanathorn
Andinar	Algrenor
Enwin	Leova
Luvien	Demor
Alaniel	Andinal
Huthas	Roharra
Dathenar	Garavon

Dwarves got shorter, punchier names that often sounded comical. (Remember, he needed a bunch of them for The Hobbit, which was aimed at children.) Most people feel the dwarves got shorted on the deal and instead lean toward Saxon and Scandinavian names. Of course, you may want to tweak those as well.

Scandinavian	Dwarves
Hrothgar	Rathgard
Hengest	Hargest
Helga	Elga
Ivar	Yvir
Ingrid	Ingra
Sigurd	Sigor
Freya	Streya
Ragnar	Rugnar

Foreign Names

For foreign names, you may want to make up specific rules, such as the Italian “rule” that male names end in -o or -e and female names end in -a or -i.

Names tend to be adapted for each country, with some more popular in one place than another. For our example, you might say that the top names are more common (boldface) in Itasca, the middle in Ferincia, and the bottom in Gormanland.

Male Itascan/Ferincian/Gormanic	Female Itascan/Ferincian/Gormanic
Adrino/Adrinne/Adron	Adrina/Adrinna/Adroni
Lemeno/Lemenne/Lemo	Lemena/Lemenna/Lemoni
Torario/Torarre/Torig	Toraria/Torarra/Torighia (Ghia)
Felapo/Felappe/Felap	Felapi/Felappia/Felapina
Giavaro/Geovarre/Govar	Giavara/Geovarria/Govina
Frastemano/Framanne/Frasseman	Frastemani/Framina/Frassemina (Mina)
Tintalo/Tinalle/Tintol	Tintala/Tinallia/Tintolina (Lina)
Iarupo/Aruppe/Harlup	Iarupa/Aruppi/Harlupi (Lupi)
Osco/Osse/Oscor	Osca/Ossia/Oscorina (Rina)

Last Names

You may or may not want to use surnames, but they can come in a few variations, so you can choose one type for humans and another for dwarves, for example.

• A family name (Barger Dumfrey, son of Glave Dumfrey)
• A lineage name (Barger Glavesen, son of Glave Yoricksen, son of Yorick Henelsen)
• A trade or descriptor (Barger the Merchant or Celbran the Wise)
• A trade/descriptor turned into a name (Barger Mercanis or Celbran Sagacious)

In one of my foreign realms, I chose to give people four-part lineage names, such as Micalo Principo Cultivo Vintero, son of Principo Cultivo Vintero Murato. But since nobles name their first-born sons after themselves, they can have names like Micalo Micalo Micalo Micalo, who is known as Micalo Quarto (Mikal Fourfold).

Evil

And of course you’ll need evil-sounding names for foreign enemies or cultists of an evil god. Since V, Z, X, Q, and K are uncommon in English, these make good sources of stranger-sounding names. The phoneme “mal-” means “bad” in Latin, and “verm-” evokes the word “vermin”. Things like that can suggest evil.

Male Evil	Female Evil
Zozeron	Zozeras
Qinatus	Qinati
Malobraxis	Malobraxa
Vermitor	Vermitrix
Pakinar	Pakinia
Gaquin	Gaquinil
Vipnaris	Vipnari
Athokestrim	Athokestra

And weird monster names can be about anything. Glonk, Ugbar, Zhegisha, Puglum, Graviglagnor, Gygaxeg–the weirder the better. You can’t call a beholder “Brian”. I like giving ogres natural language names: Greedygut, Hogleg, Beefbone, Stoneskull, Alebarrel, Lumphead….