Names in settings

arxhon

Member

Posts: 254

« on: February 17, 2003, 02:49:25 PM »

Over the years i've noticed that the hardest thing for players to come up with are names for their characters (for some reason). I've also noticed that the quickest way to set an authentic and believable tone for a game is to use names that make sense within the setting itself.

E.g.: In Oustenreich, would people named Gerhard, Conrad and Maximillian support the setting better than, say, Werfem, Frell and Add'er'Th'julgd? I would say yes.

To that end I compiled a list of German names for my old WFRP campaign. This list works great for Oustenreich (Germany) and Stahl (Prussia).

Additionally, i've just finished compiling a list of hundreds of Anglo-Saxon names (think Beowulf, Aethelred (with that funny AE compound letter) and Cwenthryth) for use in Cyrinthmeir, since that particular country is England Weyrth style. Why Anglo-Saxon? They're a hell of a lot more interesting than John, Bert, Robert and Harold (common middle English names).

If anyone is interested in either of these compilations, feel free to PM me. I'm not putting me email here because it might attract the attention of the dreaded spambots.

Jake, if you want to throw these up in the support section of the TROS site, let me know.


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Mike Holmes

Acts of Evil Playtesters
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Posts: 10459

Names in settings

« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2003, 02:55:44 PM »

Um, you have the Internet dontcha? There are sights like:

http://www.babynamenetwork.com

Select a sex and a language, and you're off to the races. Just pick something that sounds period.

If that's not authentic enough I'm sure someone can find a list of the Anglo-Saxon stuff. Here's one: http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/eng-anci.html

Mike


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arxhon

Member

Posts: 254

Names in settings

« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2003, 03:15:36 PM »

Actually, i checked those sites while i was doing research for my Anglo-Saxon name list. They're...inadequate, for lack of a better word. Babynamenetwork gives you 'Udell' for male names and a half dozen for females. Behindthename has approximately 30 names listed.


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Sneaky Git

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Posts: 169

Names in settings

« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2003, 01:07:08 PM »

If you're looking for a large number of authentic-type names, you should take a look at Kate Monk's Onomastikon (Dictionary of Names). Divided by region and era, it's rather impressive.

Here's a link:

http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/


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Molon labe.
"Come and get them."

- Leonidas of Sparta, in response to Xerxes' demand that the Spartans lay down their arms.

arxhon

Member

Posts: 254

Names in settings

« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2003, 06:22:37 PM »

Holy crap!

That place is good for more than just names. Excellent link.


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Shreyas Sampat

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Posts: 970

Names in settings

« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2003, 09:38:11 AM »

Chris Pound's Name Generation Page (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pound/) has a great big pile of name lists from all over the world, as well as a few very good word generators (perl scripts) that are easily configurable to produce whatever kind of cool output you want. I highly recommend it.


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summerbird

Valamir

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Posts: 5574

Names in settings

« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2003, 10:18:04 AM »

Quote from: arxhon

Holy crap!

That place is good for more than just names. Excellent link.

Had to check to see if she had Valamir listed under the Goths.
She did :-)

Although I will note that she didn't distinguish authentic goth names from Romanized names adopted by goths...although its not to hard to distinguish...the ones that sound latin are romanized...the ones that sound like pigs grunting are authentic ;-)


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Ralph Mazza
Universalis: The Game of Unlimited Stories

Mike Holmes

Acts of Evil Playtesters
Member

Posts: 10459

Names in settings

« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2003, 01:11:26 PM »

Onomasticon, Onomasticon. That's what I was trying to remember. There are a couple others like that as well.

Weren't there some good Harn links for names? Again, these thigs will vary in usefulness depending on how realistic/historical you want to be.

BTW, I was going to mention why I like the Babyname sites. They usually have descriptions of what a person with the name in question is supposed to be like. "Mike is a winner, your best friend..." sorta stuff. ;-)

The point is that when I need NPCs I often go and find a name, and then use the associated text to determine what sort of personality the character has. Fun, fun.

Mike


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Salamander

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Posts: 450

Everchanging Book of Names

« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2003, 02:57:36 PM »

EBoN is the one I use. You download it and away you go...

http://ebon.pyorre.net/

Works great and can be modified with your own ideas if you so wish. Check out his website, you get a lesser version for free and if you like he only asks for a token (US$10.00) to unlock the whole thing.


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Sneaky Git

Member

Posts: 169

Re: Everchanging Book of Names

« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2003, 08:04:05 PM »

Quote from: Salamander

EBoN is the one I use. You download it and away you go...

EBoN is darn cool...

Quote from: Mike Holmes

Weren't there some good Harn links for names? Again, these thigs will vary in usefulness depending on how realistic/historical you want to be.

And you can download lists for Harn that run in EBoN. Very cool.