Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours ?

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marilynliddell
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Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours ?

Post by marilynliddell »

My wife is sick, so I’m staying home from work, and the girls are getting ready for school, so I have a few seconds before the day goes sideways, and I had a thought I don’t want to let slip away …

Character names, where do you all get your inspiration for them ?

Normally, mine is taking a characteristic or idea about them or how I picture them, and looking it up in another language – Lupa my current swashbuckler in Rigon’s game is Latin/Italian for wolf – he is a fast dex based fighter and a team based fighter so wolf tactics fits him

Other times, I take a real life person(s) name that has a history or tie to the character or how I picture them – Roger Mosby – my current super hero spy in Tree’s Victorious game comes form – Roger ( Robert Roger - the French and Indian War Ranger) and John S Mosby (the Civil War Calvary leader of ‘Mosby’s rangers’) booth of them were leaders, scouts and used hit and run tactics instead of simple stand up and fight tactics. Perfect for an aristocratic British spy.

Now, what lead to this, last night while listening to a lecture – philosophy ‘Meaning of Value’ – the lecturer made an offhand comment about Hume’s “is and ought principle" … Is and ought ... a derivative of that Iz-ibn-oght or something like it would be a great name for a wizard or cleric … This has to be one of my most odd inspirations for a name

So where do you all get your character names &/or where is the oddest place you have gotten inspiration for a name from ?

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Go0gleplex
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Go0gleplex »

Books such as the Silmarillion...the Extraordinary Book of Names...or words that I've heard that sound cool.
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Treebore
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Treebore »

I've used characters from books, from video games, used my first name backwards, added a couple of more e's to get Treebore from Robert and simply made up most, such as Valrune, Grimaryl, Callis, and Jalhar, which are probably words in some language.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
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serleran
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by serleran »

Everything.

I look around me and if I see something I like, I might use it as a name. Its what allowed me to create my illusionist Orange Xerox.

I pronounced the initial X like a Z and the ending X as an S.

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maximus
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by maximus »

When I first started playing, all my characters were Tolkienesque. Lately, I've been taking historical names, but not "famous" ones. My current character, a Ranger, is named after a Barbarian chieftain that was allied with the Byzantines in the 6th century.

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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by serleran »

I suppose some of the more unusual names I've used have come from taking half a word from here and mixing it with half a word from there, usually of different languages like a 'soft' (vowel heavy) and a 'hard' (consonants matter!)... or, just selecting letters at random until I got something I liked.

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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Lurker »

marilynliddell wrote:My wife is sick, so I’m staying home from work, and the girls are getting ready for school, so I have a few seconds before the day goes sideways, and I had a thought I don’t want to let slip away …

Character names, where do you all get your inspiration for them ?

Normally, mine is taking a characteristic or idea about them or how I picture them, and looking it up in another language – Lupa my current swashbuckler in Rigon’s game is Latin/Italian for wolf – he is a fast dex based fighter and a team based fighter so wolf tactics fits him

Other times, I take a real life person(s) name that has a history or tie to the character or how I picture them – Roger Mosby – my current super hero spy in Tree’s Victorious game comes form – Roger ( Robert Roger - the French and Indian War Ranger) and John S Mosby (the Civil War Calvary leader of ‘Mosby’s rangers’) booth of them were leaders, scouts and used hit and run tactics instead of simple stand up and fight tactics. Perfect for an aristocratic British spy.

Now, what lead to this, last night while listening to a lecture – philosophy ‘Meaning of Value’ – the lecturer made an offhand comment about Hume’s “is and ought principle" … Is and ought ... a derivative of that Iz-ibn-oght or something like it would be a great name for a wizard or cleric … This has to be one of my most odd inspirations for a name

So where do you all get your character names &/or where is the oddest place you have gotten inspiration for a name from ?
:shock: :shock: :shock:

That is a post I made ... word for word ...
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Forgive all spelling errors.

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Captain_K
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Captain_K »

Any place I find it. scraps of paper are everywhere in my note books for names.

Here's a riddle, here are names you tell me the inspiration:

Owksen

Zyglo

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RhiannonMM
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by RhiannonMM »

Sometimes I have them be pop culture references, sometimes I make them obscure, sometimes direct. Other times I think of the values I want the character to hold precious to them and make anagrams or elaborations on the words for a name. Sometimes I look up the word in a different language and then use it. Depending on the language I can sometimes use a single name to express a concept or come up with a concept that will define the characters growth arc. Like an Egyptian themed Paladin named Osahar- which meant “God hears me/him”. Which I thought was appropriate for a very devout paladin, and also seemed to shape the future of the character- whenever I needed a good roll or did something really risky but morally neccesary in the name of my god I would always get a crit when I envoked the diety’s Name. I have found that my characters names often end up shaping their story arcs, so they are very important component to me.

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Go0gleplex
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Go0gleplex »

My name backwards is good for a couple Egyptian sounding names. lol

Puns are good too. I had my favorite halfling thief (1st ed 10th lvl) named Bachnu Bluefoot (a story there) with an alias of Moe Zart (when posing as the leader of the local Thieves' Guild) and Bay Toven (A roving trader). He was always careful about going out Chopin too. :P (true story)
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Rigon »

Lurker wrote:
marilynliddell wrote:My wife is sick, so I’m staying home from work, and the girls are getting ready for school, so I have a few seconds before the day goes sideways, and I had a thought I don’t want to let slip away …

Character names, where do you all get your inspiration for them ?

Normally, mine is taking a characteristic or idea about them or how I picture them, and looking it up in another language – Lupa my current swashbuckler in Rigon’s game is Latin/Italian for wolf – he is a fast dex based fighter and a team based fighter so wolf tactics fits him

Other times, I take a real life person(s) name that has a history or tie to the character or how I picture them – Roger Mosby – my current super hero spy in Tree’s Victorious game comes form – Roger ( Robert Roger - the French and Indian War Ranger) and John S Mosby (the Civil War Calvary leader of ‘Mosby’s rangers’) booth of them were leaders, scouts and used hit and run tactics instead of simple stand up and fight tactics. Perfect for an aristocratic British spy.

Now, what lead to this, last night while listening to a lecture – philosophy ‘Meaning of Value’ – the lecturer made an offhand comment about Hume’s “is and ought principle" … Is and ought ... a derivative of that Iz-ibn-oght or something like it would be a great name for a wizard or cleric … This has to be one of my most odd inspirations for a name

So where do you all get your character names &/or where is the oddest place you have gotten inspiration for a name from ?
:shock: :shock: :shock:

That is a post I made ... word for word ...
That happened to Mike Stewart a couple of months ago. The bot used 2 of his posts from a few years ago. I nuked the posts. But this one seems to have gotten a few responses. I'll nuke it too if you want.

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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by finarvyn »

Just in case, I nuked the poster as well so he or she shouldn't be back. I agree that it's a neat topic. :)

1) I grab many of my character names from favorite books. Often Appendix N stuff, which it would appear that nobody that I know has actually read. :(

2) My sister likes pun names or some form of a play on words. (Breeze Lee for a monk instead of Bruce Lee, Caman Piece instead of "come in peace")
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by Lurker »

finarvyn wrote:Just in case, I nuked the poster as well so he or she shouldn't be back. I agree that it's a neat topic. :)

1) I grab many of my character names from favorite books. Often Appendix N stuff, which it would appear that nobody that I know has actually read. :(

2) My sister likes pun names or some form of a play on words. (Breeze Lee for a monk instead of Bruce Lee, Caman Piece instead of "come in peace")
Glad I brought it up (back in the day)

Rgr on the appendix N stuff. I love using or modifying tertiary characters or individuals. It was a blast back when I ran for a group of guys when I was stationed on Guam when one of the guys (well his wife if I remember correctly) put 2 and 2 and 2 together on who the big bad guy was based off clueing in on as you said 'appendix N' information.

As for puns & play on words, like your sister and Serl use, I will admit it is beyond me ... I can never do a name that way. Not because it is a lesser or incorrect way, but because my mind just isn't wired that way ... I am way to literal and don't think around corners well enough for that. I've tried and they never come out as a usable name for me. Not unless I borrow directly form a pun rich book like the 'Myth Inc' books.
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Forgive all spelling errors.

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serleran
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Re: Inspiration for character names , Where do you get yours

Post by serleran »

I will admit I have a more difficult time with female names as I am very tired of the "traditional" a, o, i at the end. For these, I sometimes just look up random languages and pick a word from it. Shorten by removing some letters.

For example, I'll find Finnish:

Näkemiin -- means "goodbye." I like that and it sounds fun for an assassin. So, I'll drop the e and an i and it becomes Nak Min which then makes me think this character is from a different society altogether... maybe an elf assassin or the name is more an epithet.

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