Where did your character name come from?
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I was wondering how you guys came up with some of your character names. Any interesting stories?
Mine isn't very interesting. I'm a huge MtG nerd, although I don't get to play that often. I was playing a deck that used a card called "Jhessian Balmgiver". So I took the initials JB, I originally wanted her to be Jhessia, but then I added the "l". So there we have Jhlessia.
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My current char is named Anjela, which was the name of my mother who passed away dec. 17th.
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Most of the time I just sit and string random sounds together in my head until they sound like a name vaguely appropriate for the chars homeland.
In the case of Maeve Lasair, well they are old celtic names. I like to dip into a book of old celtic names I have on occasion.
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Apep means crocodile in egyptian (according to some Yahoo answers post…)
Cipactli means crocodile in an ancient language i cant remember the name of.
I normally use latin.
generally i use whatever language has a good sounding word relevant to the concept.
Or I find some olde english version of a name of some historical figure.
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Aurixvrak, Son of Aunelulth the Gold, was derived using the Draconic Translator I found based upon D&D draconic.
"Aunelulth" quite literally means "Artist," and Aurixvrak is a corruption of the language meaning "Golden Son," though it literally translates into "Goldson." It should also be noted that these are nicknames for the Common tongue, and that their actual names are likely thrice as long, as are all true draconic names.
Sir Morden Haar was derived two different sources. I generously borrowed "Morden" from the character in the most excellent mid-90's TV show Babylon 5, and Haar was the name of a Wyvern Rider from the Fire Emblem tactical console games.
Volonte, funnily enough, is the name of a criminal. I used to work for this cute little bureau that would compile records of various documents such as warranty deeds, trusts, and criminal records from the different counties in Tennessee. When putting the criminal records into the database, I noticed the name "Volonte" and it stuck to me.
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Usually, I spend about three names throwing together a name. It's one of those aspects of a character I care little about.
Gwarn was just a pile of letters. "Fireblood" seemed like it could attract attention and was vaguely draconic-sounding for no real reason whatsoever.
Akmin Iras-Elmith was just syllables cobbled together into a semi-pronouncable mess.
Burt the Digger was the result of a long and fruitful discussion with Abby about what name would best represent the character.
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Most of my characters, I make out of famous anime characters that I like, then mix&Match first names
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hence the pink hair.
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don't forget the Deep purple my seer had….not going to have such exotic hair colors for abit
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I never use any references or generators for serious characters. Usually. I just try to come up with something suitable. Often I have a name that sticks and then try to find a last name that can work with it.
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i use the random name generator and transpose surnames usually.
Fyananamoac was actually a typo and should have been Fyananamoca which is Butterfly in the in game elven translator.
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For my Mulhorandian, her real name was 'Nane', which was a real name that supposedly meant 'Nice' in ancient egyptian. They didn't really bother too much with the order of the letters in their words, and usually didn't write all the vowels either, so her name would just be written as one or two wavy lines (water) "NN" with maybe a bird to indicate the 'A' and another 'A' bird to indicate a Female name. When she came west, she just transposed the letters to read Anne/Anna (reading the female name indicator by its letter value).
The letter N is a wavy line (water), you can write A N N A as /\ // // /, then push these together and get a wavy line again ////, which would then be her name in both scripts at the same time. Her father was a wagon smith, so that became 'cartwright' in the west.Adella is just something that sounded like a valid name and came before Anna in the alphabet so she'd sort to the top of my vault.
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Tomas is a variation of my real name.
Bhast was an old EfU NPC I think, I loved the name so I stole it.
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I tend to go onto Baby Names and take a look at what grabs my attention. I often use Celtic names, because I love the feel of them on my tongue. I'll also look for other country names that reflect the character background I'm looking for.
Surnames, I often look for approriate tradenames as these are very traditional in a medaevial culture for commoners.
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Tong is a meeting hall in Cantonese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_%28organization%29Jool is part of the name of a martial art:
http://www.stpaulksw.com/blog/79/3-tips ... jool-bong/This makes Tong Jool, the Kara Tur merchant
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Most of my names are just whatever I feel like. I didn't start picking names til Elizu Visu.
Visu I got from this song ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mscUtqYHv8 ) and I sorta just paired Elizu with it for the sound.
Switchalbarbin Machintubble I just picked something that sounded very Gnome like and had a fun meaning to it because I came up with a little back story as to how he earned the name.
Micha Smithson: I wanted it to be Michael but then I realized many people would shorten it to Mike so I shortened it to Micha. Smithson is because his father was a Blacksmith, so I went sorta generic with it.
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@The:
I tend to go onto Baby Names and take a look at what grabs my attention. I often use Celtic names, because I love the feel of them on my tongue. I'll also look for other country names that reflect the character background I'm looking for.
Pretty much same story here. I sometimes like the name's meaning to link in with the character slightly. I think Dorn my helmite fighters name meant fortress or something similar.
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I generaly pick them at random Jac was just somthing simple and Sorn is from drow of the underdark book it's a drow fore name.
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I thought you guys had intentionally made variations on Jack and John.
