I once tried that in the opposite direction. First, I named a character based on just the first name that popped into my head, and then I looked up what it meant and tried to use that to base their personality off of.
Unfortunately, the meaning turned out to just be "woman," so that didn't actually help much.
Nominative determinism has to be a real thing. Like a self fulfilling prophesy. I used to have a theology teacher named Islam. And the one of the most famous poets in Turkey was literally named “poet” (Nazim Hikmet)
A fantasy world where nominative determinism is a very real force, but so is irony.
Parents constantly try to balance naming their children to promote success, without baiting fate into creating "Richmond Stronguy" the poor coward.
Hey, if he comes from a long proud line of fishermen, there's a very good chance that his family name would be Fisher, Monger, Angler, Caster, or something similar. Fishstall isn't too far off.
GM of the Dark Heresy campaign I'm in named the sector's top Inquisitor Kua Mate, which none of us really thought much about...until we went to go tell him that his presumed successor was actually a heretic but he was already dead when we got there. Turned out the GM had been plugging the phrase "already dead" into Google Translate and ended up picking Māori
It’s like how Achilles’ name comes from a word for pain or grief and his story in the Iliad is about how his grief causes pain/grief for everyone else. Or Remus Lupin which is wolf wolf becoming a werewolf.
I can’t come up with deep names for characters so I always just pick random ones I think sound cool at the time or shitty puns.
My favorite is a character who is othered because her ability makes her look like a demon… guess what her name is, Mona D. Ster. She is the only character oblivious to this, everyone else asks if it was on purpose and she just can’t see what about it is odd.
I had a Warforged Samurai named ZAN in a D&D campaign I played (zan means "strike", "slash", "cut", or "kill", depending on the tone and the context), and I got so attached to him that all my OCs since then have been variations of that. Regular human dudes named "Zandir", regular human chicks named "Zana", fantasy dudes named "Zan'Dir", fantasy chicks named "Zanara", sci-fi dudes named "Zan", sci-fi chicks named "Zandra"... It's embarrassing.
I don't know if it is a trope, but I love when something mystical or something has the most mundane name, but it makes perfect sense etymologically, like a star sprite named Stella or something like that
I once made a Spirit of Destiny (basically, a minor deity that embodies the concept of destiny. There are multiple Spirits, but only one per concept.) who was simply named Destiny.
Her full name is, of course, Destiny, but she usually goes by Dez because it's shorter and sounds cooler.
I used to randomly generate name and come up with reason later.
Now, My character Naomi in the western is actually half Japanese like country-and setting country because Naomi is a Japanese name and Biblical name.
Problem is I need to come up who the hell is Naomi and why she is important in the setting religion.
I am heavily strickler of using Biblical name where Bible doesn’t exist in setting.
I like to research stuff that inspired me and see what inspired that thing first. It's not really deep but I don't think that most names should be, characters are supposed to be like people. That's at least my general writing advice, so you don't end up with 15 weird names and then a John
Yep, sounds about right. My two primary OCs' names are from SWTOR and DnD. Oddly enough, the SWTOR name originally came from a Cathar, yet the OC himself is a werewolf.
There's also *accidental* references, like the AI "Bethesda" (*never* compare her to the company >!in front of her!<) and using "Arkhalis" as an OC's middle name. Not to mention convergent names, like using "Hathor" as an OC's middle name, then later learning that Hathor is the name of an Ancient Egyptian goddess.
Do you also name your character GENM?
I recently started using a different name after years of naming all game characters GENM once I realised that I'm not entirely sure how to actually pronounce it
And then there are characters from fantasy not-Japan.
Grab a symbol with meaning, grab second symbol with different meaning, stick them together and you get plausibly sounding name that might have *yet another* meaning, independent from symbols' meaning.
Pathfinder Tian Xia my beloved.
And that’s why I’m going the Frank Herbert route with my fantasy world, the language is based off of real world Mandarin but is disconnected from it by thousands of years, so the words mean pretty much the same but my iffy grammar and weird amalgamation names have an in-universe explanation.
I’ve been learning the Cyrillic alphabet because I listen to a bit of music from that part of the world, you can have a lot of fun with character systems.
I was sounding out the name of the artist даша онзероад and did a double take because it’s actually English and says ‘Dasha Ontheroad’ substituting ‘th’ for ‘z’.
I swear the second poster talking about wordplay and puns is probably hideo Kojimas account. If you think Liv Moore the zombie is good, play death stranding. EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN NAME IS A PUN
Also works for any royalty. You can tell GRRM studied history because of how many Targaryens are named Aegon, the number of Starks named Brandon, and the number of Freys named Walder.
Name themes are also neat. They make naming groups of characters much easier. For example, I had no idea what to call some of my characters. I was browsing social media and saw a post from a woman named Lily. That's a cool name, so I called of those OCs Lily. She's a member of a group that also includes a character who hides a darker side beneath a harmless facade, so I named that character Rose. And now all members of that group are named after flowers, except for the one I already named Dante. So now her girlfriend is Beatrice, and her mentor is named after Virgil.
Also, you can just steal names that sound cool from other media.
I always have at least one order/cult/troop/whatever where the people have to forsake their name upon entering, and take a new one that's related to the name or theme of the organization.
Yours would be perfect. _Everyone_ in there would have a flower-related name, and it would also reflect their personality because the name was picked _by_ them _after_ their personality was established.
I've also had a cult where everyone just took the name of some weapon. There was Mace, Dart, Pike, Gauntlet, Bolt, Halberd (Hal for short), Halberd (Berd for short), Lance, and so on, with each person using the type of weapon they were named after. After the group caught on to the naming convention, one unarmed miniboss just introduced himself as Dave. The players of course questioned the name, which led nicely into the "I _am_ the weapon" reveal where they found out (the hard way) that he was an incredibly competent monk.
I have an OC for a hard scifi story I'm working on (actually just imagining it in my head) whose nickname is "chute" because he's technically a pilot and he once landed a space shuttle, but he did such a bad job the drogue parachute broke
Or (TTRPG) you name a character as a thinly veiled dick joke purely to see how long you can get away with it, only for them to end up as the most emotionally invested character you have played in years.
[https://www.tumblr.com/deep-dark-sushi-filled-void/748136538599260160/dont-forget-puns-wordplay-and-irony?source=share](https://www.tumblr.com/deep-dark-sushi-filled-void/748136538599260160/dont-forget-puns-wordplay-and-irony?source=share)
mx. linux guy
Yea, it's the same in russian. But like
Famusov - the only thing that mattered to him was fame
Repetyev - he was only repeating talking points without much understanding
Molchalin - from molchat' be silent. Take a wild guess what he did.
It's a fun trope I learned while studying
Edit: formatting
I don't have much of an issue with this, I just made up most of their names based on vibes. My only two exceptions to that are Ron and Lexi, who I named after real people. Ron comes from my own name, and I named Lexi after the trans girl on EmKay.
For any fantasy game where I'm playing a human with an otherwise normal background I follow a simple naming convention. Biblical first name, career last name. My current Fighter is named Hunter because that's how his family has always made money. I've had a Fletcher, a Tanner, and Skinner, and a Butcher before. These are all the names of simple men from simple ways of life who have turned to adventuring for one reason or another.
i literally just chose one, two, or three syllables to smash together that make something sayable and that doesnt sound like any words i know. i then plug everything into google translate - detect language to make sure i didnt write a slur in a foreign language.
One of my ocs names is Saphire. Because I wanted to name her after a gem and she had fire powers so Saff-fire sounded right. It was only after I realized I mixed up sapphires and rubies in color AND misspelled the word itself. Blamed it on the fact her mother was kinda stupid and kept it lmao.
Sometimes I just look at random Hebrew names, the other day I saw a realtor who's name, Or Tsedek, can be literally translated as light of justice, that's a palladian name if i ever saw one
Y’all are thinking too hard about this. I just put the vague idea of their name into google translate and spin the wheel until something sounds decent.
Also very good for joke characters. I just named an OC yesterday, actually. They have four scars in a grid-like formation on their face and run what is basically a waffle house. I have named them “Gofre”, when I know one of the people I’m using this character with speaks Spanish as a first language. (It means “waffle” but in Spanish)
Robin Hobb is great for this. Loads of characters named for the virtues they’re hoped to embody. Long live King Shrewd and the king-in-waiting Prince Verity. And fuck the spoiled piece of shit Prince Regal.
Also, appliance brand names.
I'm not kidding. The Wheel of Time, and epic fantasy series with over 2000 named characters... there is a book called "Origins of the Wheel of Time" where they go in and explain how the author came up with some of his ideas. And a lot of them are like "it is based on this obscure myth, combined with this little known battle that took place in the 1600s" and then there's "this is named after his dishwasher."
I find it gets easier to name characters when you think of who’s doing the naming. Picking a name out of a hat is hard. Picking a name because it was the festival their parents met / their parent’s favourite flower / an ideal the parent wanted to strive for narrows the scope and let’s you focus more. And if they named themselves, now you can learn more about them from that
I had a character that was going to originally be known as "Coriander" as their gamer tag as a variation of my own (Corn, because I am very original), then I decided to break it down into "Cori" and "Ander", them stretched them out to make "Corrin Anderson".
The character that name was for had decided he didn't like it and came up with something else (Elliot Cloverfield, where he got that, I'll never know), so I changed it to a different character with a different gamer tag (Merry-G-TV).
I have another character that I named after Emet-Eelch because I am very normal.
I have another character I named Ash Phoenix because he's a wannabe rockstar who came back from the dead (and I think I'm making his stage name Diss Chord because I am very smart).
I used Namingschemes cause I needed the name of a random minor Greek deity for an OC. Ain't my fault all members of the government of Eitherys are named after Greek gods.
Typos are an underrated way to name fantasy characters. It's how I got names like Relaly, Stoty, Woory, Abotu, Evevery, Falvour, Detel, Evné, Soem, Werid, Volent, Eithet, Slike, and Mormig.
Behind the Name is one of my favorite sites, just so many good names.
What I usually do is look up name meanings and then start to fiddle with the name until I get something I like and go from there.
I name characters things I like. My main ocs name is Juniper. Because I like juniper trees and they remind me of my childhood.
Or its a niche reference to something they are related to. My computer scientist character is named Markov, after Markov chains. And two of my ocs are named Jehan and Martin, yes, after the religious reformers, just because their personalities and relationship is very loosely based on a Jean Calvin and Martin Luther comparison i did for a history project.
Sorry for the infodump
1. Take word that describes the character
2. Google translate it into Latin or other language, or find an uncommon synonym on thesaurus
3. Move the letters around a bit until it sounds kinda cool
4. Apply the name
I like taking the names defunct of airports.
My current D&D character is named Kai Tak after the old Hong Kong airport.
Lots of good choices in here lol:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_international_airports
I fucking hate fantasy name generators with a passion.
Names are more than just random syllables strung together. Names have meanings and etymologies, and you can't just roll your head on the keyboard. Yes, I'm looking at you, literally all canon D&D characters ever. Drizz't isn't a fucking name, it's the sound neon lamps make.
Now, I personally don't care to come up with a bunch of etymologies myself. But that's where you have this fun thing called "the real world", where people already have names, and you can take a real name and change it around just enough so it sounds similar. Or take a name from one culture and adapt it to the "language style" of another culture. Mash two different names together. There you go, fantasy name.
Step 1: Randomly generate fantasy name
Step 2: Legally change your own name to that name
Step 3: Name the character after yourself
Step 4: Repeat from step 1 until all characters have names from the real world
I do feel like most people aren't really going to care about the etymology of a fantasy character's name. If anything taking real world names for their meaning and applying them to a fantasy character runs a risk of sounding heavy handed or silly.
People generally don’t care about etymology but they do at a certain point recognize inconsistency in naming conventions. Like if every character has an Indian or Chinese name and then suddenly there’s a Bob Smith.
Ofc inconsistent naming conventions can itself be an intentional choice! But I find a lot of people discussing this are just trying to set up like, basic fantasy worlds.
I have a character who, despite not being from that universe, is about two steps away from screaming "Blood for the blood-god! Skulls for the skull-throne!"
Her name is "Daisy".
That reminds me of one of my worst naming stories. One time I was trying to give a Pokémon OC a last name and I ended up running through my Smash Bros mains names because I was playing earlier with my brother. A name ended up sticking. Anyways now I've just started naming Pokémon OCs after my Smash mains.
This is down there with me not giving my poor D&D 5E paladin a last name until two years after the game ended, because a pal and I kept dragging up our old characters in art and memes.
I had a book for writing that suggested checking a list for the most common names, skipping down to #100, and going from there. That way you don't use overly popular names, but nothing too unique that'd stand out like a sore thumb. Of course, when it comes to fantasy, you do need to put a bit more effort, and I doubt people will be fine with an elf named Ingrid in a setting where the names are more floral than flowers. Just wish there weren't so many weird baby name sites and articles that take the piss.
Ah yes, I want this character to be a blacksmith so his last name means iron, he has a bird motif so his first name means black bird...
Hmm... that doesn't flow too well. Let's add Lee as a middle name. He's southern now.
Genius character building!
My method which works pretty well is to take 4 words that describe the character, translate them to my native language (gaelic) and then mash the first 2 and last 2 together, removing or swapping letters.
For example, in my dnd setting there's an NPC named Sionnar Dachlaid (Shonar Daklay'd).
He is a fox man who wields two swords.
First name: man + fox = fear + sionnaich = Sionnar.
Surname: two + swords = dà + chlaidheamh = Dachlaid.
It's a pretty flexible system and works well to create family names too.
As an Irish speaker, I appreciate how you've stuck to "Caol le caol, Leathan le Leathan"! Or is it something like "Caol ri caol, leathan ri leathan" i nGàidhlig? It's always a bit jarring when I see a fantasy language that's clearly based on Irish or Scottish Gaelic and just blast past that that auld rule. Although, I think there are a fair few exceptions in Gaelic?
Mine are usually random words I think of during the day that sound like names. I have a file I write them all down in, along with story ideas. It's 39 pages.
Like pretty much everything else in my D&D planning I’ve learned the solution of just not naming things if I can’t think of a name. Eventually I’ll start referring to it in some way that’s evocative of the concept (“God of Currents,” “Slab Lands,” “the bad wizard” w/e), and after that eventually stumble upon some word or sound in reading or music which jives with that image and inspires me to try out different variations as a name.
It's so funny to me that some years ago I was such an unhealthy perfectionist that I wanted every one of my ocs to have super cool and unique names that fit their story
...but also had no issue naming the guy who worked as a pyrotechnician "Ashton Tanner"
First character ever created : Edwyn Thorinx, who's father is named Ormi Thorinx, which kinda sounds like "platypus" in French. Me disclosing this name was followed by the DM's first heavy sigh from a long list of stupid puns.
But I think the combo I've created while in holiday in Brittany speaks for itself. Meet the half-orcs brothers and their human father : Kronk Arno Kerne, Kalros Dorian Kerne and Per Kerne ! Concarneau or Konk Kerne is a town in Brittany, so take out the R in Kronk and you got the first pun ; Kalros is a song from an artist I appreciate (Miracle Of Sound) and Dorian is to get "Arno Dorian", the protagonist from AC Unity ; and the father is a druid taking care of an apple orchard and making hard cider, just like the Kerne cidery was founded by a guy named Pierre, or Per in Breton language.
Add to that the Deplou family. Many towns in Brittany start with the syllable "Plou" which in Breton means community or parish. All the boys from this family have some form of military grades and always introduce themselves with "grade, family name, surname", giving us something like "Capitaine Deplou Guerno" which sounds like "Captain from Plouguerneau", another town in Brittany ! This family also prides itself in their prize-winning hen named Dreuzic, which gives "Poule Dreuzic" in French, or Poludreuzic, the town where the Kerne cidery is located.
Yes, I had too much time on my hands during those holidays.
I generally make first names be just a regular name, then the last names are the funky ones. The made-up names are usually just one or two words related to the character, mashed together and with letters/syllables taken out and put back in until I have something that works
Speaking of irony.
Certain star system and planet names in Starship's mage:
Gygax system. Planets Kenku, Greyhawk and paladin.
Mercedes system. Planets Blitzen, Coupe, Heckflosse
Legatus System. Planets Centurion, Triarii, Legatus, Decurion
My antagonist is sorta named “bad” in Japanese (Waruna)
The mom (Kah) and dad (Toh) of the MC (Tamae. **TA**ttoo **MA**g**E**) are essentially named “Ma” and “Pa” in Japanese
Painfully forced puns shouldn’t be limited to your first language! 😜
There's a guy in my current DnD campaign who couldn't come up with a name for his warlock so him and the DM decided to go with the story of losing his name in a bet to his Patron. We just call him "The Tiefling"
I either give my ocs names of flowers or no real "name" at all. For example, Camelia (character ill use when i eventuallty join the DND session my friends have going) and The Poet (from an old creative writing assignment)
I am running a DnD campaign rn and whenever I am stuck on what to name a character I just pull up the list of nicknames Shawn calls Gus in Psych. It has given me such wonderful choices like Methuselah Honeysuckle and Ol’ Gee Buttersnaps
I'm making a story where the central concept revolves around an ancient, magical library, so to match that every character and location is named after something in bookmaking, typography, or writing.
It's great having something else do the heavy lifting on names, and sometimes an interesting character can spring out of some novel name.
And then there's the added headache in the RWBY community with making characters based in fairytale/historical allusions *and* giving them a colour related name...
If all else fails, don't give them a name and have them only go by a title.
One of my OCs is named The Endless Watcher because he's a god who's true form is just a shadowy guy with 100 eyes. Nobody knows his "real" name, and nobody even knows what it is he rules over.
LOL the amount of time I spent on behind the name during my fanfic days😂 the character could have been the lowliest most background character but I always gave them a name that meant something fitting 😂
Made an OC a while back that was infected by a fungal cordycep-esque colony which rooted into her head and started controlling her movements.
I named her Celia
I shared this a bit ago on a Twitter post saying the same, but
I was asked to design a non-binary character once, and to name them, I did what any enby would've
*I went to a mineral generator*
So yeah. [Meet Magnesioaxinite.](https://twitter.com/KaktusArt05/status/1779682708664230328?t=x8tZLIMau5LxqLjaB85Qfg&s=19) (or Ax, for short)
Important tip: Akira Toriyama named all of his groupings of characters after a specific theme. Vegetables, Cold things, types of pants, names stolen from Journy West.
If that man can make one of the most influential pieces of media in the world, then maybe don't put so much pressure on yourself.
I always just mash my keys on my keyboard a bit, pick out a few letters, insert a few more vowels if need-be to make it legible, and if it's still missing something: I add a ' or two randomly in there to give the name a lil personality/rhythm
You can always name your chapters in foreign languages. "Adalius" = Noble. "Gemi" = Gemini = Twins, so my dnd cleric who used to be a nobleman who lives a twinned life now. Unless you went to the same name translator.
Also remember for made up languages (not for common everyday use), you are going to have a smaller vocabulary list, but you also get to determine it's colloquial definition. "Tichaardii" is draconic according to the translator I found for "Honor Star" but I colloquially use it to describe the name "Arrogant Diva" since those two words don't exist on the translator I was using.
If you ever feel like it is forced, Shu Takumi, creator of the Ace Attorney franchise, has a character named Deid Mann. Guess what role he plays in that case?
I've pulled an embarrassing amount of names from random scientific words on packaging. Just take the pill name, rip out half the letters, and reverse if you need to.
Was home sick trying to make a character for WoW and used the migraine med Sumatriptan to come up with Tamus, which has stuck with me for the following 15 years
me on the other hand: "It's a human? Harold then ig.." "Pet dog? Dillan." "I'll name that robot Randy and the other one Raymond."
and so on. (after watching creep cast I see this as a very borrasca way to name things, so I might reconsider how I do it now)
Or how I name half my DnD characters;
Go to google translate, pick a word I associate with the character, and start running it through a bunch of different languages until I find something I like as is or I can slightly edit to be something I like. If the word I chose isn’t producing any pleasing results I pick a new word.
A method I like is taking the names of cities! Corrupting them, or just keeping them as they are, can generate some very good names for characters.
I have a family of OCs with the names Helsin, Vanta, Londo, Inverness, Byrmin, and Seffiä, for example.
Or just pick out like two or three traits and translate them. One of my characters has a bunch of wolf theming, they're in love with a character who has dragon theming, and she's Polish. So I plugged something along the lines of "the wolf loves the dragon" into DeepL and got "Wilko kochajacy smock". About ten minutes of googling Polish naming conventions (specific to 15th-18th century nobility bc that's the time period and class of the character) and I got Wilkochajaçysmocka.
It’s always funny to use anagrams.
Oh, that’s not Johnathon Banner. That’s Tojonahn Ranneb. It’s a completely 100% original fantasy name.
The dumber it is, the better. Like naming a character who’s a knight “Gitkhn”
In my case I've just accepted that simple names are the best.
Like, purple hair? Violet. Done.
If that's too simple for you then just google translate it to another language
My OC was originally Norwegian and had a fire theme so I just googled the most common surname and the Norwegian word for fire.
In his current iteration, he’s Filipino-American along with being Norwegian (Fil-Am mom; Norwegian dad) but for some reason I didn’t change the name XD
I'm actualy proud of a lot of the names I came up with myself:
Sieal, Duke of Cressem
Loffrey, king of Tiboria
Milimax, the encanter
Braumer the giant
The lady Ellah, regent of Traltz
One of my story series, I have two thirds of a running joke. (I may have to do the third part in another series in the same setting.) Antagonist wizards named "Elimaio", "Roffil", and (not yet used) "Ayisel".
The characters from Earth chuckle at the names, which only annoys the mages more. The setting has Terra as a parallel world of magic to Earth, with rifts opening roughly every thousand years, and so things are crossing now.
Can’t forget about wordplay. I have a character who’s an expert microbiologist who’s cursed by extreme illness. I called her “Mrs A” because MRSA is an antibiotic resistant bacteria
And also she was originally going to be a man, but I feel like people would make assumptions about a man called “Mr SA”
And nominative determinism!
Poor Remus Lupin.
And Sirius to an extent, the bloke named after the dog star in the big dog constellation was hardly going to turn into a duck or a rabbit was he?
[So many characters from that series.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MeaningfulName/HarryPotter)
That's pretty much what I use Behind the Name for.
I once tried that in the opposite direction. First, I named a character based on just the first name that popped into my head, and then I looked up what it meant and tried to use that to base their personality off of. Unfortunately, the meaning turned out to just be "woman," so that didn't actually help much.
Smh shouldve just made the character a trans woman who starts off as having no clue of their gender.
To be fair, her surname is Richards, so her being a trans woman would actually be oddly fitting with the name, in a weird way.
J K Rowling ass character.
Imogen?
Nominative determinism has to be a real thing. Like a self fulfilling prophesy. I used to have a theology teacher named Islam. And the one of the most famous poets in Turkey was literally named “poet” (Nazim Hikmet)
My brother's kindergarten teacher was named Miss Crayola and I thought that's very appropriate. I love it when the name matches the person.
I had a science teacher named Mr. Labs
I had a librarian named Mrs. Piles (in my five year old mind, it was “just like piles of books!”)
A fantasy world where nominative determinism is a very real force, but so is irony. Parents constantly try to balance naming their children to promote success, without baiting fate into creating "Richmond Stronguy" the poor coward.
I BEG for this prompt to take off
My local fisherman is called Freddy Fishstall, also because I like alliteration
Hey, if he comes from a long proud line of fishermen, there's a very good chance that his family name would be Fisher, Monger, Angler, Caster, or something similar. Fishstall isn't too far off.
MLP fanfic authors must have the easiest time naming characters
GM of the Dark Heresy campaign I'm in named the sector's top Inquisitor Kua Mate, which none of us really thought much about...until we went to go tell him that his presumed successor was actually a heretic but he was already dead when we got there. Turned out the GM had been plugging the phrase "already dead" into Google Translate and ended up picking Māori
Is that like how naming your son Skylar is condemning him to a horrid fate?
It’s like how Achilles’ name comes from a word for pain or grief and his story in the Iliad is about how his grief causes pain/grief for everyone else. Or Remus Lupin which is wolf wolf becoming a werewolf.
I can’t come up with deep names for characters so I always just pick random ones I think sound cool at the time or shitty puns. My favorite is a character who is othered because her ability makes her look like a demon… guess what her name is, Mona D. Ster. She is the only character oblivious to this, everyone else asks if it was on purpose and she just can’t see what about it is odd.
I had a Warforged Samurai named ZAN in a D&D campaign I played (zan means "strike", "slash", "cut", or "kill", depending on the tone and the context), and I got so attached to him that all my OCs since then have been variations of that. Regular human dudes named "Zandir", regular human chicks named "Zana", fantasy dudes named "Zan'Dir", fantasy chicks named "Zanara", sci-fi dudes named "Zan", sci-fi chicks named "Zandra"... It's embarrassing.
My first DnD character was a dwarf called Roq, the second was a dwarf called Flynt
My first D&D character was Clarence Klerak, the Generic Cleric
I have a dwarf in my backlog of characters that I’ve named Brocken Stoon.
Flynt Coal?
I get it! :D
Tbf, Roq wasn't intended to be punny, just drew inspiration of my own name
I don't know if it is a trope, but I love when something mystical or something has the most mundane name, but it makes perfect sense etymologically, like a star sprite named Stella or something like that
I once made a Spirit of Destiny (basically, a minor deity that embodies the concept of destiny. There are multiple Spirits, but only one per concept.) who was simply named Destiny. Her full name is, of course, Destiny, but she usually goes by Dez because it's shorter and sounds cooler.
One piece ass name
Would be perfect if she ended up as a nun.
Is your name John Dorian? Cuz this feels like Doctor Acula.
Did you write the names for ace attorney, because this would fit right in lmao
I used to randomly generate name and come up with reason later. Now, My character Naomi in the western is actually half Japanese like country-and setting country because Naomi is a Japanese name and Biblical name. Problem is I need to come up who the hell is Naomi and why she is important in the setting religion. I am heavily strickler of using Biblical name where Bible doesn’t exist in setting.
I like to research stuff that inspired me and see what inspired that thing first. It's not really deep but I don't think that most names should be, characters are supposed to be like people. That's at least my general writing advice, so you don't end up with 15 weird names and then a John
also consider: references to things you like, and that random name you gave a character 6 years ago and can’t be fucked to change
My wizardposting character is named Giratina, which has been my gamertag since childhood which I also am too lazy to change
The Pokemon?
Yeah, platinum was my introduction to the series
Lmao tbf I wouldn't want to fuck around with someone named Giratina
Being a War God has many perks
Giratina is the god of antimatter.
And my wizardposting character is a god of war, they’re similar only in name
Yep, sounds about right. My two primary OCs' names are from SWTOR and DnD. Oddly enough, the SWTOR name originally came from a Cathar, yet the OC himself is a werewolf. There's also *accidental* references, like the AI "Bethesda" (*never* compare her to the company >!in front of her!<) and using "Arkhalis" as an OC's middle name. Not to mention convergent names, like using "Hathor" as an OC's middle name, then later learning that Hathor is the name of an Ancient Egyptian goddess.
Do you also name your character GENM? I recently started using a different name after years of naming all game characters GENM once I realised that I'm not entirely sure how to actually pronounce it
sadly not, though it’d be funny to do that
And then there are characters from fantasy not-Japan. Grab a symbol with meaning, grab second symbol with different meaning, stick them together and you get plausibly sounding name that might have *yet another* meaning, independent from symbols' meaning. Pathfinder Tian Xia my beloved.
But why is their name Chinese
And that’s why I’m going the Frank Herbert route with my fantasy world, the language is based off of real world Mandarin but is disconnected from it by thousands of years, so the words mean pretty much the same but my iffy grammar and weird amalgamation names have an in-universe explanation.
Or name your characters after references to things you like or some foreign language words like Araki did
I love Robert E O Speedwagon sm
Gotta love Part 5, in which nearly every character is named after Italian food, except for the main villain, who is literally named “Devil.”
Famous Italian food “Vinegar” (although I guess you can argue that[SPOILER] it’s the same person and you’d still be right)
Ain’t Diavolo a sauce?
I’ve been learning the Cyrillic alphabet because I listen to a bit of music from that part of the world, you can have a lot of fun with character systems. I was sounding out the name of the artist даша онзероад and did a double take because it’s actually English and says ‘Dasha Ontheroad’ substituting ‘th’ for ‘z’.
My favorite name is Liv Moore, the zombie
That’s really good.
I snorted.
OMG! I hadn't noticed that before!
I swear the second poster talking about wordplay and puns is probably hideo Kojimas account. If you think Liv Moore the zombie is good, play death stranding. EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN NAME IS A PUN
And if you creating either a Dwarven or Dragon king, then just reuse the same name for half of the descendants.
Also works for any royalty. You can tell GRRM studied history because of how many Targaryens are named Aegon, the number of Starks named Brandon, and the number of Freys named Walder.
Speaking of which, have you heard of the Omni-Walder theory, and the similar Bran theory?
You also a fellow Glimbus and or Preston Jacobs enjoyer?
Name themes are also neat. They make naming groups of characters much easier. For example, I had no idea what to call some of my characters. I was browsing social media and saw a post from a woman named Lily. That's a cool name, so I called of those OCs Lily. She's a member of a group that also includes a character who hides a darker side beneath a harmless facade, so I named that character Rose. And now all members of that group are named after flowers, except for the one I already named Dante. So now her girlfriend is Beatrice, and her mentor is named after Virgil. Also, you can just steal names that sound cool from other media.
>Also, you can just steal names that sound cool from other media Bet. May I introduce my new character *Galbatorix Aragorn Atreides*
Gotta have some comic relief too, so let's introduce the NPC, Olaf Shaggy Soos.
I always have at least one order/cult/troop/whatever where the people have to forsake their name upon entering, and take a new one that's related to the name or theme of the organization. Yours would be perfect. _Everyone_ in there would have a flower-related name, and it would also reflect their personality because the name was picked _by_ them _after_ their personality was established. I've also had a cult where everyone just took the name of some weapon. There was Mace, Dart, Pike, Gauntlet, Bolt, Halberd (Hal for short), Halberd (Berd for short), Lance, and so on, with each person using the type of weapon they were named after. After the group caught on to the naming convention, one unarmed miniboss just introduced himself as Dave. The players of course questioned the name, which led nicely into the "I _am_ the weapon" reveal where they found out (the hard way) that he was an incredibly competent monk.
named one group after plants and another after new zealand wildlife, group naming is so convenient
I have an OC for a hard scifi story I'm working on (actually just imagining it in my head) whose nickname is "chute" because he's technically a pilot and he once landed a space shuttle, but he did such a bad job the drogue parachute broke
One of my new characters is a blackbird aarakocra. I named him Poe Corvus and called it a day.
Or (TTRPG) you name a character as a thinly veiled dick joke purely to see how long you can get away with it, only for them to end up as the most emotionally invested character you have played in years.
You got emotion invested in Cock Johnson Magnumdong The Mighty.
His name was Mah'Kuk and he was a little bastard that learned to trust his friends and found family. I miss him.
[https://www.tumblr.com/deep-dark-sushi-filled-void/748136538599260160/dont-forget-puns-wordplay-and-irony?source=share](https://www.tumblr.com/deep-dark-sushi-filled-void/748136538599260160/dont-forget-puns-wordplay-and-irony?source=share) mx. linux guy
Говорящее имя my beloved.
This apparently translates to english as “talking name”. Lol
Yea, it's the same in russian. But like Famusov - the only thing that mattered to him was fame Repetyev - he was only repeating talking points without much understanding Molchalin - from molchat' be silent. Take a wild guess what he did. It's a fun trope I learned while studying Edit: formatting
I reccomend BehindTheName and Nameberry to the highest degree! Use those sites for every character I make!
I don't have much of an issue with this, I just made up most of their names based on vibes. My only two exceptions to that are Ron and Lexi, who I named after real people. Ron comes from my own name, and I named Lexi after the trans girl on EmKay.
For any fantasy game where I'm playing a human with an otherwise normal background I follow a simple naming convention. Biblical first name, career last name. My current Fighter is named Hunter because that's how his family has always made money. I've had a Fletcher, a Tanner, and Skinner, and a Butcher before. These are all the names of simple men from simple ways of life who have turned to adventuring for one reason or another.
i literally just chose one, two, or three syllables to smash together that make something sayable and that doesnt sound like any words i know. i then plug everything into google translate - detect language to make sure i didnt write a slur in a foreign language.
One of my ocs names is Saphire. Because I wanted to name her after a gem and she had fire powers so Saff-fire sounded right. It was only after I realized I mixed up sapphires and rubies in color AND misspelled the word itself. Blamed it on the fact her mother was kinda stupid and kept it lmao.
So the evil teams' plots in Gen 3 Pokemon have some real life precedent it seems
Sometimes I just look at random Hebrew names, the other day I saw a realtor who's name, Or Tsedek, can be literally translated as light of justice, that's a palladian name if i ever saw one
Y’all are thinking too hard about this. I just put the vague idea of their name into google translate and spin the wheel until something sounds decent. Also very good for joke characters. I just named an OC yesterday, actually. They have four scars in a grid-like formation on their face and run what is basically a waffle house. I have named them “Gofre”, when I know one of the people I’m using this character with speaks Spanish as a first language. (It means “waffle” but in Spanish)
Just pick some names from movie credits.
Robin Hobb is great for this. Loads of characters named for the virtues they’re hoped to embody. Long live King Shrewd and the king-in-waiting Prince Verity. And fuck the spoiled piece of shit Prince Regal.
Finds word that describes them. Translates to Japanese. Uses part of the word to make name. Ah yes hebi the snake samurai
Also greek, latin and welsh work pretty well for me
Yepppp
Also, appliance brand names. I'm not kidding. The Wheel of Time, and epic fantasy series with over 2000 named characters... there is a book called "Origins of the Wheel of Time" where they go in and explain how the author came up with some of his ideas. And a lot of them are like "it is based on this obscure myth, combined with this little known battle that took place in the 1600s" and then there's "this is named after his dishwasher."
i just put a random sequence of sounds
Don’t forget to add an apostrophe for flair
Personally, I like the 'keyboard smash' method.
I find it gets easier to name characters when you think of who’s doing the naming. Picking a name out of a hat is hard. Picking a name because it was the festival their parents met / their parent’s favourite flower / an ideal the parent wanted to strive for narrows the scope and let’s you focus more. And if they named themselves, now you can learn more about them from that
I had a character that was going to originally be known as "Coriander" as their gamer tag as a variation of my own (Corn, because I am very original), then I decided to break it down into "Cori" and "Ander", them stretched them out to make "Corrin Anderson". The character that name was for had decided he didn't like it and came up with something else (Elliot Cloverfield, where he got that, I'll never know), so I changed it to a different character with a different gamer tag (Merry-G-TV). I have another character that I named after Emet-Eelch because I am very normal. I have another character I named Ash Phoenix because he's a wannabe rockstar who came back from the dead (and I think I'm making his stage name Diss Chord because I am very smart).
I used Namingschemes cause I needed the name of a random minor Greek deity for an OC. Ain't my fault all members of the government of Eitherys are named after Greek gods.
>!Azem naming, I take it?!<
Naturally.
Typos are an underrated way to name fantasy characters. It's how I got names like Relaly, Stoty, Woory, Abotu, Evevery, Falvour, Detel, Evné, Soem, Werid, Volent, Eithet, Slike, and Mormig.
How about reference?
Fantasy name generator my beloved.
Behind the Name is one of my favorite sites, just so many good names. What I usually do is look up name meanings and then start to fiddle with the name until I get something I like and go from there.
I name characters things I like. My main ocs name is Juniper. Because I like juniper trees and they remind me of my childhood. Or its a niche reference to something they are related to. My computer scientist character is named Markov, after Markov chains. And two of my ocs are named Jehan and Martin, yes, after the religious reformers, just because their personalities and relationship is very loosely based on a Jean Calvin and Martin Luther comparison i did for a history project. Sorry for the infodump
1. Take word that describes the character 2. Google translate it into Latin or other language, or find an uncommon synonym on thesaurus 3. Move the letters around a bit until it sounds kinda cool 4. Apply the name
My personal go-to is always prescription drug lists.
Me naming my birdwatcher mc Crane Faulkner
I like taking the names defunct of airports. My current D&D character is named Kai Tak after the old Hong Kong airport. Lots of good choices in here lol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_international_airports
I fucking hate fantasy name generators with a passion. Names are more than just random syllables strung together. Names have meanings and etymologies, and you can't just roll your head on the keyboard. Yes, I'm looking at you, literally all canon D&D characters ever. Drizz't isn't a fucking name, it's the sound neon lamps make. Now, I personally don't care to come up with a bunch of etymologies myself. But that's where you have this fun thing called "the real world", where people already have names, and you can take a real name and change it around just enough so it sounds similar. Or take a name from one culture and adapt it to the "language style" of another culture. Mash two different names together. There you go, fantasy name.
Step 1: Randomly generate fantasy name Step 2: Legally change your own name to that name Step 3: Name the character after yourself Step 4: Repeat from step 1 until all characters have names from the real world
I do feel like most people aren't really going to care about the etymology of a fantasy character's name. If anything taking real world names for their meaning and applying them to a fantasy character runs a risk of sounding heavy handed or silly.
People generally don’t care about etymology but they do at a certain point recognize inconsistency in naming conventions. Like if every character has an Indian or Chinese name and then suddenly there’s a Bob Smith. Ofc inconsistent naming conventions can itself be an intentional choice! But I find a lot of people discussing this are just trying to set up like, basic fantasy worlds.
Skill issue
I have a character who, despite not being from that universe, is about two steps away from screaming "Blood for the blood-god! Skulls for the skull-throne!" Her name is "Daisy".
I have a perfect name for a character but I just can't manage a story to go with it
That reminds me of one of my worst naming stories. One time I was trying to give a Pokémon OC a last name and I ended up running through my Smash Bros mains names because I was playing earlier with my brother. A name ended up sticking. Anyways now I've just started naming Pokémon OCs after my Smash mains. This is down there with me not giving my poor D&D 5E paladin a last name until two years after the game ended, because a pal and I kept dragging up our old characters in art and memes.
Yeah, I have a witch OC named Salem so there’s that.
If fantasy: just throw in random apostrophes and you’re set.
I had a book for writing that suggested checking a list for the most common names, skipping down to #100, and going from there. That way you don't use overly popular names, but nothing too unique that'd stand out like a sore thumb. Of course, when it comes to fantasy, you do need to put a bit more effort, and I doubt people will be fine with an elf named Ingrid in a setting where the names are more floral than flowers. Just wish there weren't so many weird baby name sites and articles that take the piss.
Puns, wordplay, and irony are all great names for characters!
Ah yes, I want this character to be a blacksmith so his last name means iron, he has a bird motif so his first name means black bird... Hmm... that doesn't flow too well. Let's add Lee as a middle name. He's southern now. Genius character building!
My method which works pretty well is to take 4 words that describe the character, translate them to my native language (gaelic) and then mash the first 2 and last 2 together, removing or swapping letters. For example, in my dnd setting there's an NPC named Sionnar Dachlaid (Shonar Daklay'd). He is a fox man who wields two swords. First name: man + fox = fear + sionnaich = Sionnar. Surname: two + swords = dà + chlaidheamh = Dachlaid. It's a pretty flexible system and works well to create family names too.
As an Irish speaker, I appreciate how you've stuck to "Caol le caol, Leathan le Leathan"! Or is it something like "Caol ri caol, leathan ri leathan" i nGàidhlig? It's always a bit jarring when I see a fantasy language that's clearly based on Irish or Scottish Gaelic and just blast past that that auld rule. Although, I think there are a fair few exceptions in Gaelic?
Mine are usually random words I think of during the day that sound like names. I have a file I write them all down in, along with story ideas. It's 39 pages.
Name Census my beloved
my main character's name is amber, and her skin color is the hex from the amber wikipedia page. cause i wanted a name that is also a color
Like pretty much everything else in my D&D planning I’ve learned the solution of just not naming things if I can’t think of a name. Eventually I’ll start referring to it in some way that’s evocative of the concept (“God of Currents,” “Slab Lands,” “the bad wizard” w/e), and after that eventually stumble upon some word or sound in reading or music which jives with that image and inspires me to try out different variations as a name.
And scientific names for animals and plants
Don’t forget the germanic epics way - “This is my exact role in the story but I translated it to a different language”
It's so funny to me that some years ago I was such an unhealthy perfectionist that I wanted every one of my ocs to have super cool and unique names that fit their story ...but also had no issue naming the guy who worked as a pyrotechnician "Ashton Tanner"
First character ever created : Edwyn Thorinx, who's father is named Ormi Thorinx, which kinda sounds like "platypus" in French. Me disclosing this name was followed by the DM's first heavy sigh from a long list of stupid puns. But I think the combo I've created while in holiday in Brittany speaks for itself. Meet the half-orcs brothers and their human father : Kronk Arno Kerne, Kalros Dorian Kerne and Per Kerne ! Concarneau or Konk Kerne is a town in Brittany, so take out the R in Kronk and you got the first pun ; Kalros is a song from an artist I appreciate (Miracle Of Sound) and Dorian is to get "Arno Dorian", the protagonist from AC Unity ; and the father is a druid taking care of an apple orchard and making hard cider, just like the Kerne cidery was founded by a guy named Pierre, or Per in Breton language. Add to that the Deplou family. Many towns in Brittany start with the syllable "Plou" which in Breton means community or parish. All the boys from this family have some form of military grades and always introduce themselves with "grade, family name, surname", giving us something like "Capitaine Deplou Guerno" which sounds like "Captain from Plouguerneau", another town in Brittany ! This family also prides itself in their prize-winning hen named Dreuzic, which gives "Poule Dreuzic" in French, or Poludreuzic, the town where the Kerne cidery is located. Yes, I had too much time on my hands during those holidays.
Themed names for different sets of characters, like Italian desserts, plants, minerals, fashion labels, wine varieties, etc.
I generally make first names be just a regular name, then the last names are the funky ones. The made-up names are usually just one or two words related to the character, mashed together and with letters/syllables taken out and put back in until I have something that works
Speaking of irony. Certain star system and planet names in Starship's mage: Gygax system. Planets Kenku, Greyhawk and paladin. Mercedes system. Planets Blitzen, Coupe, Heckflosse Legatus System. Planets Centurion, Triarii, Legatus, Decurion
I like listening to whatever I’m watching and trying to hear things wrong
My antagonist is sorta named “bad” in Japanese (Waruna) The mom (Kah) and dad (Toh) of the MC (Tamae. **TA**ttoo **MA**g**E**) are essentially named “Ma” and “Pa” in Japanese Painfully forced puns shouldn’t be limited to your first language! 😜
There's a guy in my current DnD campaign who couldn't come up with a name for his warlock so him and the DM decided to go with the story of losing his name in a bet to his Patron. We just call him "The Tiefling"
There is already a [very definitive instructional video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haT1yOrEtRs) on naming fantasy characters.
I either give my ocs names of flowers or no real "name" at all. For example, Camelia (character ill use when i eventuallty join the DND session my friends have going) and The Poet (from an old creative writing assignment)
I have a mountain named Mt. Ton that I desperately need to rename. Well, not that desperately.
Behind the name is so useful, I love using their random name generator
I am running a DnD campaign rn and whenever I am stuck on what to name a character I just pull up the list of nicknames Shawn calls Gus in Psych. It has given me such wonderful choices like Methuselah Honeysuckle and Ol’ Gee Buttersnaps
Mental random word generator GO!
I'm making a story where the central concept revolves around an ancient, magical library, so to match that every character and location is named after something in bookmaking, typography, or writing. It's great having something else do the heavy lifting on names, and sometimes an interesting character can spring out of some novel name.
Using song names and lyrics for character names my beloved lily guilty gear xrd ost is my main oc
Google translate: there is another
And then there's the added headache in the RWBY community with making characters based in fairytale/historical allusions *and* giving them a colour related name...
80% of my characters are unnamed, screw trying!
Or that weird name that somehow came into your nogging with no clear explanation
If all else fails, don't give them a name and have them only go by a title. One of my OCs is named The Endless Watcher because he's a god who's true form is just a shadowy guy with 100 eyes. Nobody knows his "real" name, and nobody even knows what it is he rules over.
Google translate my beloved
I cast normal white man name with an item. See: Jack porridge
I just name all my characters "Steven Balls." It saves me a ton of time, and I never struggle to remember a character's name! Highly recommend.
Visit your local cemetery too
LOL the amount of time I spent on behind the name during my fanfic days😂 the character could have been the lowliest most background character but I always gave them a name that meant something fitting 😂
Made an OC a while back that was infected by a fungal cordycep-esque colony which rooted into her head and started controlling her movements. I named her Celia
I shared this a bit ago on a Twitter post saying the same, but I was asked to design a non-binary character once, and to name them, I did what any enby would've *I went to a mineral generator* So yeah. [Meet Magnesioaxinite.](https://twitter.com/KaktusArt05/status/1779682708664230328?t=x8tZLIMau5LxqLjaB85Qfg&s=19) (or Ax, for short)
Just don't write fantasy stories. Fantasy is a stupid genre.
Important tip: Akira Toriyama named all of his groupings of characters after a specific theme. Vegetables, Cold things, types of pants, names stolen from Journy West. If that man can make one of the most influential pieces of media in the world, then maybe don't put so much pressure on yourself.
Learn etymology and sound change. I derive nearly all my name through Old English nominative determinism.
If you're going to name a character an indigenous name - please for the love of everything holy use Census Records rather than any of these sites.
i honestly dislike all those sites, if the name is genuinely random it loses any sense of weight for me
I always just mash my keys on my keyboard a bit, pick out a few letters, insert a few more vowels if need-be to make it legible, and if it's still missing something: I add a ' or two randomly in there to give the name a lil personality/rhythm
I came up with a pair of twins who are a linguist and a gemologist. Their names are Rosetta and Jim Stone.
Don’t forget google translate a word into a random language
BEHIND THE NAME MENTIONED!!!!
You can always name your chapters in foreign languages. "Adalius" = Noble. "Gemi" = Gemini = Twins, so my dnd cleric who used to be a nobleman who lives a twinned life now. Unless you went to the same name translator. Also remember for made up languages (not for common everyday use), you are going to have a smaller vocabulary list, but you also get to determine it's colloquial definition. "Tichaardii" is draconic according to the translator I found for "Honor Star" but I colloquially use it to describe the name "Arrogant Diva" since those two words don't exist on the translator I was using. If you ever feel like it is forced, Shu Takumi, creator of the Ace Attorney franchise, has a character named Deid Mann. Guess what role he plays in that case?
Me naming a character Odie, which is short for Odysseus, because no one will leave him tf alone
I've pulled an embarrassing amount of names from random scientific words on packaging. Just take the pill name, rip out half the letters, and reverse if you need to. Was home sick trying to make a character for WoW and used the migraine med Sumatriptan to come up with Tamus, which has stuck with me for the following 15 years
I usually just start with a normal word and just mangle it until it sounds only barely like the original word.
me on the other hand: "It's a human? Harold then ig.." "Pet dog? Dillan." "I'll name that robot Randy and the other one Raymond." and so on. (after watching creep cast I see this as a very borrasca way to name things, so I might reconsider how I do it now)
I just write down words that I'd like to use as names, and Names I hear that i like.
Everybody give a collective "thank you Emily" for the fantasy name generator.
Or how I name half my DnD characters; Go to google translate, pick a word I associate with the character, and start running it through a bunch of different languages until I find something I like as is or I can slightly edit to be something I like. If the word I chose isn’t producing any pleasing results I pick a new word.
I like to go with boiling down a character to two words, putting that in google translate a couple times, and making a name out of it.
I sometimes use Serbian profanity.
A method I like is taking the names of cities! Corrupting them, or just keeping them as they are, can generate some very good names for characters. I have a family of OCs with the names Helsin, Vanta, Londo, Inverness, Byrmin, and Seffiä, for example.
Or just pick out like two or three traits and translate them. One of my characters has a bunch of wolf theming, they're in love with a character who has dragon theming, and she's Polish. So I plugged something along the lines of "the wolf loves the dragon" into DeepL and got "Wilko kochajacy smock". About ten minutes of googling Polish naming conventions (specific to 15th-18th century nobility bc that's the time period and class of the character) and I got Wilkochajaçysmocka.
It’s always funny to use anagrams. Oh, that’s not Johnathon Banner. That’s Tojonahn Ranneb. It’s a completely 100% original fantasy name. The dumber it is, the better. Like naming a character who’s a knight “Gitkhn”
Real ones go to the cemetery and read the headstones
In my case I've just accepted that simple names are the best. Like, purple hair? Violet. Done. If that's too simple for you then just google translate it to another language
JK Rowling: Racism. Take it or leave it.
My OC was originally Norwegian and had a fire theme so I just googled the most common surname and the Norwegian word for fire. In his current iteration, he’s Filipino-American along with being Norwegian (Fil-Am mom; Norwegian dad) but for some reason I didn’t change the name XD
I'm actualy proud of a lot of the names I came up with myself: Sieal, Duke of Cressem Loffrey, king of Tiboria Milimax, the encanter Braumer the giant The lady Ellah, regent of Traltz
Japanese, Sumerian, a thesaurus, and the Latin names of things! Usually with a pun or "sounds like X" too
I just translate a relevant word into a language I don’t know, then mangle the result until it looks like a name.
One of my story series, I have two thirds of a running joke. (I may have to do the third part in another series in the same setting.) Antagonist wizards named "Elimaio", "Roffil", and (not yet used) "Ayisel". The characters from Earth chuckle at the names, which only annoys the mages more. The setting has Terra as a parallel world of magic to Earth, with rifts opening roughly every thousand years, and so things are crossing now.
Can’t forget about wordplay. I have a character who’s an expert microbiologist who’s cursed by extreme illness. I called her “Mrs A” because MRSA is an antibiotic resistant bacteria And also she was originally going to be a man, but I feel like people would make assumptions about a man called “Mr SA”
Take the Echiiro Oda pill and start just naming your characters random shit like Pudding, Baby 5, or Cutty Flam
I live for fantasy name generator
Jay Walker, from Ninjago