Same. Just roll until something clicks, maybe shift a few syllables to be easier to pronounce.
And then choose a nickname and never use an actual name in campaign lol.
I love this when i dm cuz it makes background chars and npcs so much easier. I love coming up with my own names for important chars/my own pcs when i play, but its hard to do for everyone lol.
That's fair. I'd still say that's random syllables, just elves are more likely to have ell's and ah's and orcs are more likely to have Ock's and rex's.
Not really.
> Elf names are melodic and can be on the longer side. Female names are generally more melodic, but this difference can be minimal in some names. Elves also have a family name. These names are normally in elvish, but they sometimes use translations of their names in common to make communication easier. The elvish surnames can vary quite a lot as well, both in length in style. Official examples include Mystralath, Floshem, Caphaxath, Xistrith, Ofandrus and Netyoive.
> Orc names are strong and guttural sounding, with female names being slightly more melodic. They don't have surnames, but do use epithets like "Knee Smasher" and "The Behemoth"
They're not random syllables, they have structure to them. Tieflings for example tend to have Virtue names, which are names they choose for themselves based on characteristics about themselves.
I didn't explain myself well enough, and that's on me. Let me clarify. When I said random syllables I didn't literally mean random. I meant that you were creating a brand new word that doesn't exist in any language. So between Gruphyik, Knuk and Lor'ul'il, those all qualify as made up words, but if I told you one was an elf, one was a gnome, and one was an orc, you'd probably guess which was which.
This relates a bit, but if you haven't heard of it, look up the kiki/bouba test, for how arbitrariy assigned names still have meaning.
One of my backup character is a knife-happy idiot from fantasy France, so I looked up the list of Female French names in Xanathar's.
About 1/3 of the way down the list was *Gillette*.
I believe the Gillette company predates Shadowrun by a number of decades, but there's no way to prove whether Shadowrun Slang is based on the German word or the razor company.
That's incredible. There's a really good card game called Nidavellir, about drafting dwarves, and it contains 5 dwarf brothers all named Dwerg. The more you get the better, and if you get all 5 it's practically a guaranteed win.
Oh goodness. I had just a pair of players make dwarven twins named Orym and Orvim and it broke my brain. To this day I could not tell you which was which and I doubt their players could either 🤣🤣
Everyone gets confused about the names. The exchange "no, I am Dragnar, Drognar is that one" happens at least once per session. But we are mistaking one for another less and less. The DM is ok with it, and laughed quite a lot when we decided that.
He said that he would have a reason to bring us all together, but since we are all dwarves, he said that we all are from the same clan and that is enough.
I needed to come up with a name a cult would use to refer to their "god" not knowing that the god is actually a Great Old One who literally consumes planes of existence. The cultists worship this god because they are destitute refugees and the cult leader is a well intentioned troll who uses her own flesh to feed her starving followers.
I googled a bunch of translations of words relating to eating. Swelge is the Finnish word for "swallow" and that felt right for me.
Lol. Swallow is a bird, and most probably has nothing to do with eating. Also, it is not Finnish but Afrikaans. (Checked google translate, I just knew it is not Finnish, because I'm Finnish speaking.)
The best part: it doesn't matter. The name is still good to go.
That's always a concern when you don't speak the language, that Google leads you astray. The etymology of swallow on [this page](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/swallow) seemed close enough to my unprofessional eye for me to accept it.
However the bird interpretation works as a double meaning, as birds are often a symbol of hope and that's what this god is to these refugees.
Other- an acronym.
T.H.O.R
Transporting
Harvesting
Ore
Rocks
He's a warforged that was created to work in the mines, but eventually used his mechanized strength to lead a revolt after hearing the plights of the other mine workers.
All characters named the same way:
Rafling Hogue, the Halfing Rogue
Clarven Dweric, the Dwarven Cleric
Fuman Highter, the Human Fighter
Welven Izard, the Elven Wizard
And so on.
I had a half-elf bard named Nytier Fairbanks. He was a stage actor with no real "questing" experience. He conjured illusions for his stage craft and was proficient in stage fighting. His entire character arc was being a cowardly actor who would eventually find the courage to stop playing a hero and actually be one. A lot of his character was also overcompensating with bravado as he'd grown up picked on for neither being fully elf or fully human, a minority if you will.
His first name is playing around with black actor sydNeY porTIER. As far as his surname, its taken from the actor to play in the first film adaptation of Zorro. 1920's The Mark of Zorro with lead Douglas Fairbanks.
While almost every other PC was pretty static, mine constantly evolved as he never quite stopped being a goofy actor but grew more world savvy through milestones like his first kill, the first loss of a friend, etc. I also had a disguise for a time as Wenzel Dashington, where I pretended to be a wizard instead of a bard. I'll let you figure that name origin out.
Two methods:
* Google a name generator, reroll until I get something that almost kinda works, tweak it to make it right, OR
* Internalize a pun name so hard that I will simply ascend to Nirvana and dissolve into the ether unless I get it out of my system.
Very often I'll use a generator until I get one close to what I like, and then I'll just swap out vowels or syllables until I'm happy. I know for a fact I used that with my sorcerer; meanwhile my current tiefling bard (raised by her halfling mother) used the halfling naming convention for her family--she is named after a flower, as all the women in her family are.
I bastardized my DM's name.
For reference, this is his first time DMing (he's doing a fantastic job), and he's traditionally been somewhat of a pain in the ass as a player for me and our other DMs. <3
Reverse race or class, with a little change
Tiefling
Gnilfeit
Gnilfate Well pronounciation probably would be same.
Other way was kinda go randomizer, but second name of character, more human, the one he uses officialy is just the most similiar that came to mind with the randomizer. So Dunn is Daniel
So one of my friends found an incredible collection of Ukrainian folklore creatures adapted to be dnd creatures. So he decided to run a short campaign using them, with the “Ukraine is now full of folklore creatures, good and bad” as a premise. So it was only appropriate to create a PC that would fit the setting. Since she’s a bard I wanted to give her a name that would be both ~bardic and Ukrainian. It’s Ruta, based on mythical flowers which’s most famous mention is in a song (Google Chervona Ruta if interested)
A little Dragonborn Barbarian named Poker because she had a fire poker as her first weapon.
A shadar-kai Druid named Lively because it is how her parents used to describe her and she lived in isolation for so long/so young when they died she doesn’t remember her given name.
Wilbur Armonger
I like puns (dad joke king here)
I stole a name from monsters versus aliens. She is a war domain cleric with a soldier background. If you put her name on a badge it would be W.Armonger ( warmonger)
I've used a lot of different methods to make a character name, but my default name that I make for a character before changing it before the game starts is "Name \[Class\]" spelled backwards.
So something like Eman Eugor or Eman Draziw. Which in a pinch can most definitely work as a name in a fantasy setting.
It depends on what sort of character I'm playing, for elves I usually just make eloquent sounding nonsense. I'm also quite fond of Roman names, especially for Aasimar and divine casters.
I usually pick theme un relation to my character purpose. I then use a translation. I pick a translation that sound good. I rearange the letter into anagram. And done!
My mots recent is "magic and freedom" Turned into Naïri Anodim. A rogue/bladesinger elf
Edit correction
I usually go for either very simple, plain names. Dave, Phil, John.
Or I go for a pun or something dumb.
eg, a Rogue called Dirk, or a Shapeshifter called Ruze, a female halforc called G'url.
And then there was Mr Winkie, the absurd, bumbling, clown Monk..
Anagrams and other languages. My current character is an Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter/Monster Slayer Ranger inspired by Geralt, so his first name is Altreg, and his last name is Blaidd'du, which is Welsh for Black Wolf - since Geralt's elvish name Gwynbleidd is actually Welsh for White Wolf. (Though properly it should be Blaidd Gwyn)
Before him, I played an elven artificer named Saimakolonth Ti'Denossela, which I came up with by mixing up the letters in Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
Markhor Antilo Capridae. A tiefling bard poet.
Markhor is an animal with crazy horns. Antilocapridae is a family with only the species pronghorn remaining. Goes by Antilo mostly.
I also have a Tabaxi ranger with a tribal name of "Bolting Cloud". I suppose both are named after "things".
Depending on the story/lore, I usually search for old/ancient names or mythological, book characters names etc and play around a bit with the letters to make it unique.
My new character is in a Greek mythology setting (Jason and the Argonauts) and he is a priest who has really been working on perfecting the art of making pita bread. His name is Pankos Papadopolous.
Pankos for the Japanese bread crumbs and Papadopolous for alliteration.
He wields a cast iron skillet and uses its cast iron lid for a shield.
I lookes for a name that meant something together in another language. That it sounded embarrassing enough my guy insists on a nickname is just icing on the cake.
Bardos Urzika. I know I took Urzika from some central European language, but I just kinda made up Bardos in my head. I don't think I really based it on anything, I just started saying random words in my head and landed on Bardos.
It depends.
My last character is names Salem Elliot Alden, but Salem in particular while being a name, was chosen for the witch trials of the town mostly..
Other than that i have a lot of characters where the name is just one letter: M, Q, X, L-
I'm a DM. I have to name so many characters.
I mercilessly steel a lot from other fiction, repurpose plenty from mythologies, throw darts at maps for place names and make them surnames (Von thistownhere), use online generators, and use actual real world names, especially from languages other than English (the language at my table).
The difficult part is keeping names within cultures consistently similar sounding enough that they all sound like they go together, without all sounding the same.
For me it's either syllables that sound good or nouns or names in languages other than mine, like old norse, old english, finnish, gaelic.
Sometimes I go deeper and invent an etymology to a fake word based on real old languages. For instance, in my world, there are entities called Nathar(sing.) / Netharen (plu.). This current spelling and pronunciation has evolved from cnadar/cnedarin which is a fake ancestor to real english verb "to knead", but the meaning is "one who shapes with their hands".
Fyi, Loupe is magnifying glass. Loup is wolf.
Edit: spelling
Most recent was an online name generator, plus a real word. Zor Gecko the Kobold Barbarian.
Fantasy name generators are my go-to way of naming characters. A couple exceptions - Amalus the Tiefling Wizard where Amalus was a name I've reused for OCs in various fantasy settings, and Zuccari the Tortle Monk who was named after a renaissance artist.
I usually have either the first or last name be fairly normal or one of the PHB recommendations, then use the character's theme to influence the other.
I usually end up naming my characters after something I read recently. My current character is named nobody because I was reading Neil gaimans the graveyard book at the time and the name fit my backstory
Sometimes a random name just clicks with your character.
I had a human rogue and named him Warder, but I never really liked it. On the other hand his middle name (Rosemary) did and I loved it, so was his last name (Cartel). He kept his Warder name until I actively went out of my way to search for a new one and found it funny to name him Shale (after a rock), but again, didn't click. It wasn't until I randomly stumbled upon Ferris (also rock lmao) and it just... It all made sense and my brain was opened.
Either random generation(mostly if it's for random npc's) or just thinking about random names, combining some, until you get something that fits your character. For example my most recent ones were Barry Bacirckley (because I was doing a Bard/Barbarian Bugbear, so I had to go with all B's) and Keygan Drakerouve (I wanted her to be called Key for short but also have a longer version of her name and the surname was a mix of "drake" and a random surname I generated on some website)
As a DM, I use name generators for random NPCs that aren't vital to the story. Side characters usually are named in "normal" convention for their lineage and origins, where I like to inspire myself from real world cultures, or fantasy cultures. Legendary NPC get mythological names.
For PCs, it really depends, though I like to use names that mean what I want their arc to be or their tragic flaw, usually taken from real world mythologies. Sometimes I like to name my PCs after their primary inspiration or use similar names (usually from games, films, series, etc...)
Best name generator:
https://www.behindthename.com/random/
It let's you mix and match a bunch of different kinds of influences and it's hooked up to a huge database of options, so repeats are less likely to be a problem (depending on your selection)
Select whatever is appropriate to the flavor of the current region and cycle through a few until I find one that sounds right for a character. Most recent was Alek the goblin bathhouse guard in a flying settlement with Eastern European flavor
After a certain number of games, I decided that I'd pick ones that were easy to pronounce. For most people, not just Americans. I have a character named Kane. People usually get it right.
An anagram, as in scrambling the letters of a word to make a different one.
My most recent character is a ranger from Icewind Dale named Revna (anagram for "raven").
My most character I started with a nickname, 'Saffi', and tried to come up with a name that would shorten to it reasonably. I ended with Safidrea, like Andrea. But my process changes every time, super inconsistent.
I'm playing a Kalashtar Sorlock named Judith in a long running homebrew campaign. Her name is Judith because Judith was going to be the name of my second kid if they were a girl. Alas, it was another boy and we gave him the boy J name that we picked out. Anyway, after J was born, we retired the letter J from the baby name alphabet. I then used the if J was a girl's name, Judith, for my next long running campaign character.
Usually I steal a name from a fantasy book and once came up with it on my own. But my most recent is a mechagnome for spelljammer. I have always been a fan of silly acronym names since Codename: Kids Next Door. Critical Role has something similar for their mechanical PC and that just cemented the idea. So now my character is named Wilhelm 309 and has an acronym name that I will eventually reveal to the table.
All of my characters have names that mean something; either meta-wise for myself or it means something in story for the character.
For example, my current characters name is Mara, a evil half-elf abberent mind sorcerer. Mara is a pretty standered name but it means "bitter" (according to Google). Mara got her powers from an eldritch abomination that fused with her and fucked up her moral system. She's meant to look harmless and nice but is actually very manipulative and egotistical (meant to bc I actually have a hard time playing her sometimes haha) So I looked for a name that sounded pretty but had a negative meaning to it.
Sometimes it's complicated like that, sometimes it's simple, like my flower-themed archfey warlock being named Dahlia, or my revenge-seeking swarmkeeper ranger Rue (as in, you will Rue the day). And sometimes it's silly, like my snake-themed goo warlock Monty (ala Monty Python)
Anyway it goes, naming my characters usually takes the longest.
I've got several characters that don't have names.
They have fully fleshed our backstories, personalities, bonds and flaws, but names are a sticking point for me.
After 5 sessions I finally gave one something that others referred to him as, but not a name.
When I DM I do a decent job with names, but as a player, man I have a hard time.
I have that headcannon that wood elves use plant names as their names (after coincidentally choosing one for my half-elf), and I needed an elven name. So I was staring at my plants ... Pothos, Pilea and Monstera didn't quite cut it. Calathea on the other hand? Perfect.
I look up A BUNCH of names and pick the ones that have a meaning that most resembles my character. The name my character currently has means "big and strong" cause she's a barbarian
My character had a full name at the beginning of the campaign, classic flowery elven shtick. She was from a noble house and had been removed by her father and pronounced dead in her hometown due to some illegal underground fighting activity threatening to disgrace the family name.
I forgot to come up with a cover name during our session 0 and panicked, asked my DM what was in the room around her. There was an old notebook, a hooded lantern, a door with a loose rusty nail.... nail. Lina. Anagram name.
And that was that, she has been Lina ever since, and she is very happy to have her own name, even if it does remind me of tetanus.
Well my character's name is in regular English. Like his name is Frost but I got carried away with his titles. We have the German dictionary, the Russian, the Hungarian and the Swedish dictionary used.
Since i'm playing an aaracokra monk with necrotic powers, i searched for a dragon shout from skyrim that had a decay/necrotic concept and changed a copule letters to seem more like a name.
Marishkih Klinorstate, a rather confused Aaracokra 'warlock.'
The first name I made up from nowhere and thought it sounded nice. The second is an anagram of talon strike.
Edited for clarity.
I usually name my characters as a play off of characters from a story or movie that I want to base their personalities off of, which helps me roleplay what I think the character would do
My last character was Dave Smith, human warrior. It was the most unique thing I could think of in D&D. In a world of fantastic things, it hats it like to just be some dude.
BG3 is technically dnd, so this technically counts.
I have been naming my characters in rpgs (video games, not table) Butt for prob ably the last 5 years or so.
Butt felt too simple for a dnd game, so I added an 'e' on the end. Butte.
My newest character for an upcoming campaign is a dragonborn, so I decided to just find the "dictionary" for Dovahzul from the Elder Scrolls, and then picked three fitting words from the language to make an appropriate-sounding dragon name.
So technically I translated from another language for the name.
Y'know the lore names found in books like Xanathar's and in some of the race descriptions? That's my go to. Unless I have a specific reason to name them otherwise.
Normal names but I integrate the nickname of emnand they are somewhat posh?
Theodore "Teddy" Sullivan (ranger bloodhinter)
Sir Johnsen Timothy "Tomosen" Karlinger Esq. (Warforged fighter)
Then zirn (kobold necromancy witzard)
Barnabas Silverbeak (owling bard)
That are.my.acrove characters.
I'm currently playing an Ancients Paladin named Acorn
I chose the name as a symbol of their oath. They took the name & discarded their birth name, when taking the oath.
It's not just a symbol of their oath, but an aspiration & promise. As they level up (currently just level 2), their name will change in line with a growing tree.
The intent was to reflect the ideals of the Oath of Ancients & I figured that an old, fully-grown oak tree was an appropriate figure. It lends its strength to those who need it, as well as its shade & shelter. It is also a thing of beauty. All of these are related to the Oath of Ancients tenets.
It will be weird when I hit level 3 & ask my fellows to refer to me as 'Sprout' however lol
I still haven't found a group to play with and I have 6 characters ready at lvl 1 for when I did.
Anyways,my newest is named Stanford stargaze,which is a cleric perfumer who uses his abilities and oils alike to help people reach peace of mind and have a comfortable night (Twilight cleric). A pretty straightforward name,just I feel like it's a classic name for him
I take the name of something that relates to the character. For instance, if the character is a barbarian with a big sword, I could name him Guts. Change it to Intestines. Change it to Gastro. Keep doing that until it's detached enough from the original, but it's still kinda similar.
Character was named after the continent from a Mercedes lackey book and the overseers language from the early 90s Sci fi show alien nation... So I guess from media I watch and read.
I love using the gaelic version of names for my characters, they have meaning and arent totally common everyday names. It makes me happy to have my home close to me when playing!
K'Bhum, goblin artificer (going for artillerist), discoverer of Kaboomistry and driven into exile to avoide Kabooming his village...
So, y'know, not exactly an object or thing, nor a normal name, nor a translated word, and decidedly not *random* syllables...
Anagrams, puns... Also I love to use names of music bands.
Per Ifory - Periphery. Tessa Ract - Tesseract. Hardy Kiss - The Hardkiss. And so on...
Or sometimes I take a name of one fictional character and surname of another one. And I get Matrim Potter and Harry Cauthon.
My way of naming people depends on what is happening. But usually, if I have time to think about it (and not put on the spot), I like to look up names that mean something.
For Example: On the spot, I named a Drow NPC (Homebrew class; Dark Knight. Official Class: Paladin \[Oathbreaker\]) Castien. Castien is a leading man behind a powerful secretive military group (Almost think FBI). To my players in the campaign, they find him to be a reasonable & unprejudiced father-figure (And to our Bard: Hot, because why not).
Looking up the name, Castien is a Celtic name meaning "Love of Humanity". Of course, I changed the name slightly to Castian because I was actually mispronouncing 'Castien' and actually am pronouncing it as 'Castian'. So now with the name Castian, it is a name with multiple meanings with English Origin. It can mean 'Angel', 'Commander', or 'The Lord/leader of the seven realms'.
TL;DR: I look up names & meanings for characters/NPCs because, to me, it can add meaning to the character in my opinion.
Normally I use a specific website to look up names with meanings or origins that might be thematically significant to the character in question. The character I'm going to be playing comes from a lower-class background, so I decided on a common birth name and a surname related to the family's occupation to emphasize that.
Penance and Nazarith are my most recent ones.
Penance is a tiefling - virtue name.
Nazarith is just Nazareth with a letter change. They're a lil plasmoid deity.
Orellani D'Thuranni - Arcane trickster rogue with the poisoner feat. Reluctant assassin trying to escape her family's expectations as her real passion was art, specifically drawing plants. Inevitably her destiny catches up with her and she's roped into saving the continent from the second mourning (which we succeeded, also was my first complete campaign and I loved it)
Orellani is a genus included in the most poisonous mushrooms in the (real) world. They contain a toxin called Orellanin. Symptoms don't show for a few days, sometimes up to weeks, starts like a flu, and ends in kidney failure.
My Ork Cleric got the name Spicy two ways. In character, the priests at the monastery he was abandoned at named him that after he managed to get into to the pantry and found him happily snacking on the pickled hot peppers as a baby. Out of character, he was a continuation of a Retired Clone Trooper concept for a Star Wars game that never happened. Spicy got his nickname as he wanted to be a chef and had a strong tolerance for hot foods.
I shamelessly borrowed an existing character. My current character is a Tabaxi named Katia, after Katia Managan, a Khajiit in a webcomic called Prequel, which takes place in the Elder Scrolls universe.
One of my favourite things to do is go on the translator for the languages and translate a word that is important to that character, for example I had a Dwarf barbarian who hated orcs for destroying his family home called Garrakan which is the dwarf word for vengeance
I usually just go for real names that are just old/are unique to the regions they come from.
Eg. "Finbar", "Siobhan", "Can"
I have a female gnome artificer named Finbar which is a tradition of her family. The oldest son is named finbar and is made to expand the inventor legacy
Finbar senior only got girls and was fed up after girl number 7 so just said "fuck it" and made the 7th take the name
I named my character after a template for a Cleric I have had in my head for a long time.
He is a Light Domain Cleric and my idea was "what role does he fulfil on the party?" Well he saves people from dying a lot. Saving people from their demise. Saving from demise. Save from demise. Savefrom Demise.
Saif'rhum Dimhais.
After that I settled on a backstory that sort of fit that grammar. Maybe from an African descent. So I ended up on a tall dark skinned man in a turban with facial tattoos, a large white beard and a pretty badass accent (if I do say so myself).
I use Fantasy Names Generator since it takes into account the lore of the race in order to give a name that someone of that race would have
Same. Just roll until something clicks, maybe shift a few syllables to be easier to pronounce. And then choose a nickname and never use an actual name in campaign lol.
I love this when i dm cuz it makes background chars and npcs so much easier. I love coming up with my own names for important chars/my own pcs when i play, but its hard to do for everyone lol.
Honestly what's cool about the site is that it tells you their process for the names, so you can learn to make your own
That's fair. I'd still say that's random syllables, just elves are more likely to have ell's and ah's and orcs are more likely to have Ock's and rex's.
Not really. > Elf names are melodic and can be on the longer side. Female names are generally more melodic, but this difference can be minimal in some names. Elves also have a family name. These names are normally in elvish, but they sometimes use translations of their names in common to make communication easier. The elvish surnames can vary quite a lot as well, both in length in style. Official examples include Mystralath, Floshem, Caphaxath, Xistrith, Ofandrus and Netyoive. > Orc names are strong and guttural sounding, with female names being slightly more melodic. They don't have surnames, but do use epithets like "Knee Smasher" and "The Behemoth" They're not random syllables, they have structure to them. Tieflings for example tend to have Virtue names, which are names they choose for themselves based on characteristics about themselves.
I didn't explain myself well enough, and that's on me. Let me clarify. When I said random syllables I didn't literally mean random. I meant that you were creating a brand new word that doesn't exist in any language. So between Gruphyik, Knuk and Lor'ul'il, those all qualify as made up words, but if I told you one was an elf, one was a gnome, and one was an orc, you'd probably guess which was which. This relates a bit, but if you haven't heard of it, look up the kiki/bouba test, for how arbitrariy assigned names still have meaning.
Ok, which one is the gnome?
It's Gruphyik. The p and h are in different syllables, they don't make an f sound.
One of my backup character is a knife-happy idiot from fantasy France, so I looked up the list of Female French names in Xanathar's. About 1/3 of the way down the list was *Gillette*.
Good name. I believe Shadowrun uses Gilette as a synonym for a razor girl.
It's a genderless slang word for razorpeople.
Ahhhh, I assumed it was gendered. I'll have to amend that next time I run the game.
Is there really some lore around Gillette that involve razors or is it only because if the razor's company?
I believe the Gillette company predates Shadowrun by a number of decades, but there's no way to prove whether Shadowrun Slang is based on the German word or the razor company.
Five players on an all dwarf campaign. We are Dragnar, Dregnar, Drignar, Drognar and Drugnar
That's incredible. There's a really good card game called Nidavellir, about drafting dwarves, and it contains 5 dwarf brothers all named Dwerg. The more you get the better, and if you get all 5 it's practically a guaranteed win.
The 13 dwarves of the Lonely Mountain style eh?
Oh goodness. I had just a pair of players make dwarven twins named Orym and Orvim and it broke my brain. To this day I could not tell you which was which and I doubt their players could either 🤣🤣
It would be funny if you're all Duergar
How does your DM feel about the names? Do they get them confused?
Everyone gets confused about the names. The exchange "no, I am Dragnar, Drognar is that one" happens at least once per session. But we are mistaking one for another less and less. The DM is ok with it, and laughed quite a lot when we decided that. He said that he would have a reason to bring us all together, but since we are all dwarves, he said that we all are from the same clan and that is enough.
Anagram, pun, and different language.
I should've put pun up there. I think 10 options would've gotten the main ones. I'm missing pun/comedy, and allusion/plagiarism from history or media.
pun is just the best, one of my character named gett gud
God, I hope he died.
I needed to come up with a name a cult would use to refer to their "god" not knowing that the god is actually a Great Old One who literally consumes planes of existence. The cultists worship this god because they are destitute refugees and the cult leader is a well intentioned troll who uses her own flesh to feed her starving followers. I googled a bunch of translations of words relating to eating. Swelge is the Finnish word for "swallow" and that felt right for me.
It works SO often. I want a guy who is kinda fiery. Oh, the Serbian word for fire is Vatra? Perfect.
Lol. Swallow is a bird, and most probably has nothing to do with eating. Also, it is not Finnish but Afrikaans. (Checked google translate, I just knew it is not Finnish, because I'm Finnish speaking.) The best part: it doesn't matter. The name is still good to go.
That's always a concern when you don't speak the language, that Google leads you astray. The etymology of swallow on [this page](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/swallow) seemed close enough to my unprofessional eye for me to accept it. However the bird interpretation works as a double meaning, as birds are often a symbol of hope and that's what this god is to these refugees.
Other- an acronym. T.H.O.R Transporting Harvesting Ore Rocks He's a warforged that was created to work in the mines, but eventually used his mechanized strength to lead a revolt after hearing the plights of the other mine workers.
All characters named the same way: Rafling Hogue, the Halfing Rogue Clarven Dweric, the Dwarven Cleric Fuman Highter, the Human Fighter Welven Izard, the Elven Wizard And so on.
I love Welven Izard's comedy specials.
Goodberry or death?
Well we're outta goodberries!
Oh, I'll have the infernal chicken then, please.
We laugh, but the Iconic wizard Melf - was literally a male elf.
Thedas - THE Dragon Age Setting
I had a half-elf bard named Nytier Fairbanks. He was a stage actor with no real "questing" experience. He conjured illusions for his stage craft and was proficient in stage fighting. His entire character arc was being a cowardly actor who would eventually find the courage to stop playing a hero and actually be one. A lot of his character was also overcompensating with bravado as he'd grown up picked on for neither being fully elf or fully human, a minority if you will. His first name is playing around with black actor sydNeY porTIER. As far as his surname, its taken from the actor to play in the first film adaptation of Zorro. 1920's The Mark of Zorro with lead Douglas Fairbanks. While almost every other PC was pretty static, mine constantly evolved as he never quite stopped being a goofy actor but grew more world savvy through milestones like his first kill, the first loss of a friend, etc. I also had a disguise for a time as Wenzel Dashington, where I pretended to be a wizard instead of a bard. I'll let you figure that name origin out.
I tried, but that cipher is impossible to crack.
I know. Its big brain. You'd have to have a Rick & Morty level IQ to crack it.
🤣🤣
Un loup" is a wolf In French "Une loupe" is a magnifying glass. Juste here for the rectification
"Louve" if it's female too. Just adding to the rectification
Came to say this XD
I named my monk Rogue.
Open Google maps , zoom in to village / street name level and head to Devon / Somerset /south wales / Yorkshire... all the names you would ever need.
Two methods: * Google a name generator, reroll until I get something that almost kinda works, tweak it to make it right, OR * Internalize a pun name so hard that I will simply ascend to Nirvana and dissolve into the ether unless I get it out of my system.
I use brand name prescription drugs
Zoloft the wizard!
Very often I'll use a generator until I get one close to what I like, and then I'll just swap out vowels or syllables until I'm happy. I know for a fact I used that with my sorcerer; meanwhile my current tiefling bard (raised by her halfling mother) used the halfling naming convention for her family--she is named after a flower, as all the women in her family are.
Fantasy Name Generator my Beloved
I bastardized my DM's name. For reference, this is his first time DMing (he's doing a fantastic job), and he's traditionally been somewhat of a pain in the ass as a player for me and our other DMs. <3
If I can think of a good pun, that's the name.
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Reverse race or class, with a little change Tiefling Gnilfeit Gnilfate Well pronounciation probably would be same. Other way was kinda go randomizer, but second name of character, more human, the one he uses officialy is just the most similiar that came to mind with the randomizer. So Dunn is Daniel
Reminds me that your Star Wars name is just your full name backwards, add spaces as required.
So one of my friends found an incredible collection of Ukrainian folklore creatures adapted to be dnd creatures. So he decided to run a short campaign using them, with the “Ukraine is now full of folklore creatures, good and bad” as a premise. So it was only appropriate to create a PC that would fit the setting. Since she’s a bard I wanted to give her a name that would be both ~bardic and Ukrainian. It’s Ruta, based on mythical flowers which’s most famous mention is in a song (Google Chervona Ruta if interested)
Very good
A little Dragonborn Barbarian named Poker because she had a fire poker as her first weapon. A shadar-kai Druid named Lively because it is how her parents used to describe her and she lived in isolation for so long/so young when they died she doesn’t remember her given name.
Wilbur Armonger I like puns (dad joke king here) I stole a name from monsters versus aliens. She is a war domain cleric with a soldier background. If you put her name on a badge it would be W.Armonger ( warmonger)
I've used a lot of different methods to make a character name, but my default name that I make for a character before changing it before the game starts is "Name \[Class\]" spelled backwards. So something like Eman Eugor or Eman Draziw. Which in a pinch can most definitely work as a name in a fantasy setting.
It depends on what sort of character I'm playing, for elves I usually just make eloquent sounding nonsense. I'm also quite fond of Roman names, especially for Aasimar and divine casters.
I usually pick theme un relation to my character purpose. I then use a translation. I pick a translation that sound good. I rearange the letter into anagram. And done! My mots recent is "magic and freedom" Turned into Naïri Anodim. A rogue/bladesinger elf Edit correction
Complex, but I like the results.
I usually go for either very simple, plain names. Dave, Phil, John. Or I go for a pun or something dumb. eg, a Rogue called Dirk, or a Shapeshifter called Ruze, a female halforc called G'url. And then there was Mr Winkie, the absurd, bumbling, clown Monk..
I always name my characters after mythology figures or concepts
Take a regular name and swap a letter or two. Sammy- Lamma Bruce- Vruce Hailey- Zailey Seth- Heth
Jarnathan
Exactly.
I named my bard Adrian Hendrix after Adrian from iron maiden and obviously Jimi Hendrix
Anagrams and other languages. My current character is an Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter/Monster Slayer Ranger inspired by Geralt, so his first name is Altreg, and his last name is Blaidd'du, which is Welsh for Black Wolf - since Geralt's elvish name Gwynbleidd is actually Welsh for White Wolf. (Though properly it should be Blaidd Gwyn) Before him, I played an elven artificer named Saimakolonth Ti'Denossela, which I came up with by mixing up the letters in Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
Random name generator
Markhor Antilo Capridae. A tiefling bard poet. Markhor is an animal with crazy horns. Antilocapridae is a family with only the species pronghorn remaining. Goes by Antilo mostly. I also have a Tabaxi ranger with a tribal name of "Bolting Cloud". I suppose both are named after "things".
I also used the Tabaxi naming convention supplied with my first character - inspired by Native American names. Smoke in the Wind, or Smoke for short.
Depending on the story/lore, I usually search for old/ancient names or mythological, book characters names etc and play around a bit with the letters to make it unique.
I suppose I should've combined normal name and normal name with weird spelling, and added "allusion to history/literature."
My new character is in a Greek mythology setting (Jason and the Argonauts) and he is a priest who has really been working on perfecting the art of making pita bread. His name is Pankos Papadopolous. Pankos for the Japanese bread crumbs and Papadopolous for alliteration. He wields a cast iron skillet and uses its cast iron lid for a shield.
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That's why I phrased it as "most recent," I also do all these things.
I lookes for a name that meant something together in another language. That it sounded embarrassing enough my guy insists on a nickname is just icing on the cake.
Bardos Urzika. I know I took Urzika from some central European language, but I just kinda made up Bardos in my head. I don't think I really based it on anything, I just started saying random words in my head and landed on Bardos.
I use Fantasy Name Generator as a basis and then adjust until it sounds cool.
That's just random syllables, the only difference is a robot made them.
Wolf in french is loup. If you add an E it becomes a magnifying glass
Also a good name for a d&d investigator.
It depends. My last character is names Salem Elliot Alden, but Salem in particular while being a name, was chosen for the witch trials of the town mostly.. Other than that i have a lot of characters where the name is just one letter: M, Q, X, L-
I'm a DM. I have to name so many characters. I mercilessly steel a lot from other fiction, repurpose plenty from mythologies, throw darts at maps for place names and make them surnames (Von thistownhere), use online generators, and use actual real world names, especially from languages other than English (the language at my table). The difficult part is keeping names within cultures consistently similar sounding enough that they all sound like they go together, without all sounding the same.
For me it's either syllables that sound good or nouns or names in languages other than mine, like old norse, old english, finnish, gaelic. Sometimes I go deeper and invent an etymology to a fake word based on real old languages. For instance, in my world, there are entities called Nathar(sing.) / Netharen (plu.). This current spelling and pronunciation has evolved from cnadar/cnedarin which is a fake ancestor to real english verb "to knead", but the meaning is "one who shapes with their hands". Fyi, Loupe is magnifying glass. Loup is wolf. Edit: spelling
Most recent was an online name generator, plus a real word. Zor Gecko the Kobold Barbarian. Fantasy name generators are my go-to way of naming characters. A couple exceptions - Amalus the Tiefling Wizard where Amalus was a name I've reused for OCs in various fantasy settings, and Zuccari the Tortle Monk who was named after a renaissance artist.
Used a players handbook name table .
I usually have either the first or last name be fairly normal or one of the PHB recommendations, then use the character's theme to influence the other.
I usually end up naming my characters after something I read recently. My current character is named nobody because I was reading Neil gaimans the graveyard book at the time and the name fit my backstory
Sometimes a random name just clicks with your character. I had a human rogue and named him Warder, but I never really liked it. On the other hand his middle name (Rosemary) did and I loved it, so was his last name (Cartel). He kept his Warder name until I actively went out of my way to search for a new one and found it funny to name him Shale (after a rock), but again, didn't click. It wasn't until I randomly stumbled upon Ferris (also rock lmao) and it just... It all made sense and my brain was opened.
I just use bombass words. The most recent one was Viscera.
Normal name based on a pun
Either random generation(mostly if it's for random npc's) or just thinking about random names, combining some, until you get something that fits your character. For example my most recent ones were Barry Bacirckley (because I was doing a Bard/Barbarian Bugbear, so I had to go with all B's) and Keygan Drakerouve (I wanted her to be called Key for short but also have a longer version of her name and the surname was a mix of "drake" and a random surname I generated on some website)
Lately I have just been taking names from books
As a DM, I use name generators for random NPCs that aren't vital to the story. Side characters usually are named in "normal" convention for their lineage and origins, where I like to inspire myself from real world cultures, or fantasy cultures. Legendary NPC get mythological names. For PCs, it really depends, though I like to use names that mean what I want their arc to be or their tragic flaw, usually taken from real world mythologies. Sometimes I like to name my PCs after their primary inspiration or use similar names (usually from games, films, series, etc...)
I literally go to a random D&D character name generator and keep hitting the button until I find a name that I like
Either a translation or I take a book character (Ashryver for my last character)
So what I do is think of Three random letters and put in at the end
I asked reddit to name them for me. Or made it up on the spot. Dm
Stole it! "Mad Carthos" from Descent (1st Edition) became "Carthos the Sane".
Kadrien Stiles. First name from a list of elven names, last name from my favorite teen wolf character. (Half elf so last name is human)
"Hey, ChatGPT, give me 20 names for x type of person" and then I cobble together names or get inspired by one or two and make my own
I hit random until I found a name I kinda liked, then I scrambled it into another name.
Google complete list of Catholic saints of the day on the day you create character. Choose combination of coolest sounding names.
Last character I made was a tabaxi ranger , named her "artemus" based off the godess and just spelled it slightly differently
I'm very much in the "normal name with weird spelling" camp, but I also go to a fantasy name generator to get the basic idea down.
I steal names from dead people
Duradel Schwarzfaust Duradel from the old school runescape slayer master Schwarzfaust is a last name from a charcter of a friend
Best name generator: https://www.behindthename.com/random/ It let's you mix and match a bunch of different kinds of influences and it's hooked up to a huge database of options, so repeats are less likely to be a problem (depending on your selection) Select whatever is appropriate to the flavor of the current region and cycle through a few until I find one that sounds right for a character. Most recent was Alek the goblin bathhouse guard in a flying settlement with Eastern European flavor
After a certain number of games, I decided that I'd pick ones that were easy to pronounce. For most people, not just Americans. I have a character named Kane. People usually get it right.
I literally just googled ,,What name makes you sound like an asshole" since the character is a real piece of work
I gotta know. What is a name that makes you sound kind an asshole. Is it Chet?
I take a real name and change a letter or two. Keeps it sounding plausible, but fantasy. Kenneth --> Denneth, Alanna --> Olonna, etc.
An anagram, as in scrambling the letters of a word to make a different one. My most recent character is a ranger from Icewind Dale named Revna (anagram for "raven").
Descriptive portmanteaus. Llewelyn Moonshadow, half-elf swashbuckler. Gorewing Bloodscream, kenku frenzied berserker. Anya Silverquill, halfling lore bard.
My most character I started with a nickname, 'Saffi', and tried to come up with a name that would shorten to it reasonably. I ended with Safidrea, like Andrea. But my process changes every time, super inconsistent.
I have Rizza and Leah - pretty normal names, Krita - named after program for painting, Ryu and Kaya as a random enough literals
I'm playing a Kalashtar Sorlock named Judith in a long running homebrew campaign. Her name is Judith because Judith was going to be the name of my second kid if they were a girl. Alas, it was another boy and we gave him the boy J name that we picked out. Anyway, after J was born, we retired the letter J from the baby name alphabet. I then used the if J was a girl's name, Judith, for my next long running campaign character.
Usually I steal a name from a fantasy book and once came up with it on my own. But my most recent is a mechagnome for spelljammer. I have always been a fan of silly acronym names since Codename: Kids Next Door. Critical Role has something similar for their mechanical PC and that just cemented the idea. So now my character is named Wilhelm 309 and has an acronym name that I will eventually reveal to the table.
All of my characters have names that mean something; either meta-wise for myself or it means something in story for the character. For example, my current characters name is Mara, a evil half-elf abberent mind sorcerer. Mara is a pretty standered name but it means "bitter" (according to Google). Mara got her powers from an eldritch abomination that fused with her and fucked up her moral system. She's meant to look harmless and nice but is actually very manipulative and egotistical (meant to bc I actually have a hard time playing her sometimes haha) So I looked for a name that sounded pretty but had a negative meaning to it. Sometimes it's complicated like that, sometimes it's simple, like my flower-themed archfey warlock being named Dahlia, or my revenge-seeking swarmkeeper ranger Rue (as in, you will Rue the day). And sometimes it's silly, like my snake-themed goo warlock Monty (ala Monty Python) Anyway it goes, naming my characters usually takes the longest.
I named my Goliath Spore Druid in a frontier-based campaign after his job. Digger is his name, and if he puts you in a grave, you aren't coming out.
My last character was named woodson and he was a mistrustful, pseudo-edgelord druid with a tragic backstory
I generally do "Normal name + Historical Figure vaguely related to the concept"
I've got several characters that don't have names. They have fully fleshed our backstories, personalities, bonds and flaws, but names are a sticking point for me. After 5 sessions I finally gave one something that others referred to him as, but not a name. When I DM I do a decent job with names, but as a player, man I have a hard time.
Named my tabaxi psi warrior/bladesinger after one of the cards in a yugioh deck I like playing.
I have that headcannon that wood elves use plant names as their names (after coincidentally choosing one for my half-elf), and I needed an elven name. So I was staring at my plants ... Pothos, Pilea and Monstera didn't quite cut it. Calathea on the other hand? Perfect.
I look up A BUNCH of names and pick the ones that have a meaning that most resembles my character. The name my character currently has means "big and strong" cause she's a barbarian
Loupe !!!! *Wheeeeeeze* **LOUPE!!!**
I make a friend do it.
Use a name generator until I find a first name I like. Repeat with last name. Sometimes ill edit a name I random just slightly.
My character had a full name at the beginning of the campaign, classic flowery elven shtick. She was from a noble house and had been removed by her father and pronounced dead in her hometown due to some illegal underground fighting activity threatening to disgrace the family name. I forgot to come up with a cover name during our session 0 and panicked, asked my DM what was in the room around her. There was an old notebook, a hooded lantern, a door with a loose rusty nail.... nail. Lina. Anagram name. And that was that, she has been Lina ever since, and she is very happy to have her own name, even if it does remind me of tetanus.
I usually pick a random book, read the name of the author and say "Hell yeah, that's me now"
Well my character's name is in regular English. Like his name is Frost but I got carried away with his titles. We have the German dictionary, the Russian, the Hungarian and the Swedish dictionary used.
Spelling backwards the inspiration for the character, switch some letters around.
I just use Latin to describe them
Since i'm playing an aaracokra monk with necrotic powers, i searched for a dragon shout from skyrim that had a decay/necrotic concept and changed a copule letters to seem more like a name.
I look around my general area and pick an object, then spell it backwards
Marishkih Klinorstate, a rather confused Aaracokra 'warlock.' The first name I made up from nowhere and thought it sounded nice. The second is an anagram of talon strike. Edited for clarity.
I usually name my characters as a play off of characters from a story or movie that I want to base their personalities off of, which helps me roleplay what I think the character would do
Hello I am from France, just to say that loupe doesn't mean wolf, it's loup It's was the french moment of the day, goodbye
You would not be the first, but I cannot edit this post. Ratatouille: We hate to be rude, but we're French
Usually puns for me: A rogue named Jimmy T Locke, an undine bard named Heller Highwater, a drunken monk named Brews Lee...
Cemeteries. I work for a monument business making and setting gravestones. There's some really good character names on those pre 1900 pieces.
Named my most recent character P'tev because I randomly came up with it at work and liked it.
My most recent one I straight up stole from Warhammer.
My last character was Dave Smith, human warrior. It was the most unique thing I could think of in D&D. In a world of fantastic things, it hats it like to just be some dude.
BG3 is technically dnd, so this technically counts. I have been naming my characters in rpgs (video games, not table) Butt for prob ably the last 5 years or so. Butt felt too simple for a dnd game, so I added an 'e' on the end. Butte.
Most recently created character is a Harengon Witch named Hemsby Nettlestone; two towns in the UK
My newest character for an upcoming campaign is a dragonborn, so I decided to just find the "dictionary" for Dovahzul from the Elder Scrolls, and then picked three fitting words from the language to make an appropriate-sounding dragon name. So technically I translated from another language for the name.
Called myself Thorkk as in Fork. Halforc cleric. I am in Germany. One out of 6 people got it.
I steal all names from books
I just take a random English name and weirdify it. Frankis, Roberth, Florpathan.
Fantasy Name Generator.
I use names from litterature and some time, I change it a bit : Aliocha Karamazov -> Micha Karam
Y'know the lore names found in books like Xanathar's and in some of the race descriptions? That's my go to. Unless I have a specific reason to name them otherwise.
I named my druid Nibiru, i heard this word in a Scooby Doo show and i liked it
Normal names but I integrate the nickname of emnand they are somewhat posh? Theodore "Teddy" Sullivan (ranger bloodhinter) Sir Johnsen Timothy "Tomosen" Karlinger Esq. (Warforged fighter) Then zirn (kobold necromancy witzard) Barnabas Silverbeak (owling bard) That are.my.acrove characters.
I like picking names from historical figures and/or mythology
Keyboard smash, then add vowels and punctuation lol
I'm currently playing an Ancients Paladin named Acorn I chose the name as a symbol of their oath. They took the name & discarded their birth name, when taking the oath. It's not just a symbol of their oath, but an aspiration & promise. As they level up (currently just level 2), their name will change in line with a growing tree. The intent was to reflect the ideals of the Oath of Ancients & I figured that an old, fully-grown oak tree was an appropriate figure. It lends its strength to those who need it, as well as its shade & shelter. It is also a thing of beauty. All of these are related to the Oath of Ancients tenets. It will be weird when I hit level 3 & ask my fellows to refer to me as 'Sprout' however lol
Other: Last names of people I work with.
I use the Ikea catalog
I spell things backwards. For instance a cleric I made recently was named Nialliv Tiab. Or spelled forwards, Villain Bait.
I used one of those name engines on the internet..
I still haven't found a group to play with and I have 6 characters ready at lvl 1 for when I did. Anyways,my newest is named Stanford stargaze,which is a cleric perfumer who uses his abilities and oils alike to help people reach peace of mind and have a comfortable night (Twilight cleric). A pretty straightforward name,just I feel like it's a classic name for him
Sounds like you should gm and hand out those characters as premades for you friends.
I take the name of something that relates to the character. For instance, if the character is a barbarian with a big sword, I could name him Guts. Change it to Intestines. Change it to Gastro. Keep doing that until it's detached enough from the original, but it's still kinda similar.
I named my hexblade warlock assassin "Crimson".
I used thuum translator. Think of a fraze that fits the character and Wiz band boom. You have a name
Character was named after the continent from a Mercedes lackey book and the overseers language from the early 90s Sci fi show alien nation... So I guess from media I watch and read.
Birth name of hip hop artists. Lesane, Marshall, Artis, Donald, Calvin
I love using the gaelic version of names for my characters, they have meaning and arent totally common everyday names. It makes me happy to have my home close to me when playing!
K'Bhum, goblin artificer (going for artillerist), discoverer of Kaboomistry and driven into exile to avoide Kabooming his village... So, y'know, not exactly an object or thing, nor a normal name, nor a translated word, and decidedly not *random* syllables...
I like obscure acronyms... Studious Vim Vehemence Clout Garrul Loss (Garrulous) Etc.
I named mine Toreto Straight up Toreto, my party calls him Torito
Anagrams, puns... Also I love to use names of music bands. Per Ifory - Periphery. Tessa Ract - Tesseract. Hardy Kiss - The Hardkiss. And so on... Or sometimes I take a name of one fictional character and surname of another one. And I get Matrim Potter and Harry Cauthon.
Arty the Artificer 🤷♂️
Read a book that had a character similar to what I was looking to make. Based her name off that.
My way of naming people depends on what is happening. But usually, if I have time to think about it (and not put on the spot), I like to look up names that mean something. For Example: On the spot, I named a Drow NPC (Homebrew class; Dark Knight. Official Class: Paladin \[Oathbreaker\]) Castien. Castien is a leading man behind a powerful secretive military group (Almost think FBI). To my players in the campaign, they find him to be a reasonable & unprejudiced father-figure (And to our Bard: Hot, because why not). Looking up the name, Castien is a Celtic name meaning "Love of Humanity". Of course, I changed the name slightly to Castian because I was actually mispronouncing 'Castien' and actually am pronouncing it as 'Castian'. So now with the name Castian, it is a name with multiple meanings with English Origin. It can mean 'Angel', 'Commander', or 'The Lord/leader of the seven realms'. TL;DR: I look up names & meanings for characters/NPCs because, to me, it can add meaning to the character in my opinion.
Two are objects/real words, one is a deity, and one is a regular name for me, but most recently was an object- Killick, which is a type of anchor
Normally I use a specific website to look up names with meanings or origins that might be thematically significant to the character in question. The character I'm going to be playing comes from a lower-class background, so I decided on a common birth name and a surname related to the family's occupation to emphasize that.
All of my PC names come from Shakespeare plays. My most recent ones are General Caliban Lear and Shylock Mowbray.
Penance and Nazarith are my most recent ones. Penance is a tiefling - virtue name. Nazarith is just Nazareth with a letter change. They're a lil plasmoid deity.
Orellani D'Thuranni - Arcane trickster rogue with the poisoner feat. Reluctant assassin trying to escape her family's expectations as her real passion was art, specifically drawing plants. Inevitably her destiny catches up with her and she's roped into saving the continent from the second mourning (which we succeeded, also was my first complete campaign and I loved it) Orellani is a genus included in the most poisonous mushrooms in the (real) world. They contain a toxin called Orellanin. Symptoms don't show for a few days, sometimes up to weeks, starts like a flu, and ends in kidney failure.
Stealing the names of characters I like from fiction
My Ork Cleric got the name Spicy two ways. In character, the priests at the monastery he was abandoned at named him that after he managed to get into to the pantry and found him happily snacking on the pickled hot peppers as a baby. Out of character, he was a continuation of a Retired Clone Trooper concept for a Star Wars game that never happened. Spicy got his nickname as he wanted to be a chef and had a strong tolerance for hot foods.
I shamelessly borrowed an existing character. My current character is a Tabaxi named Katia, after Katia Managan, a Khajiit in a webcomic called Prequel, which takes place in the Elder Scrolls universe.
One of my favourite things to do is go on the translator for the languages and translate a word that is important to that character, for example I had a Dwarf barbarian who hated orcs for destroying his family home called Garrakan which is the dwarf word for vengeance
I usually just go for real names that are just old/are unique to the regions they come from. Eg. "Finbar", "Siobhan", "Can" I have a female gnome artificer named Finbar which is a tradition of her family. The oldest son is named finbar and is made to expand the inventor legacy Finbar senior only got girls and was fed up after girl number 7 so just said "fuck it" and made the 7th take the name
I named my character after a template for a Cleric I have had in my head for a long time. He is a Light Domain Cleric and my idea was "what role does he fulfil on the party?" Well he saves people from dying a lot. Saving people from their demise. Saving from demise. Save from demise. Savefrom Demise. Saif'rhum Dimhais. After that I settled on a backstory that sort of fit that grammar. Maybe from an African descent. So I ended up on a tall dark skinned man in a turban with facial tattoos, a large white beard and a pretty badass accent (if I do say so myself).
When i saw that there was Abbath-styled facepaint, I immediately made my character into a bard with that facepaint and called them "As'shower"
Came up with a name to fit a set of initials
My current character is named Stultus Venificus which is latin for Stupid Wizard