Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

A reasonably common question on the ASK channel of late entails how to come up with a good name for one's character. It's not easy, since a great many of the names that will first spring to mind have been taken by someone else at some point in the past!

So the purpose of this post is to help you find or come up with a cool (and acceptable) name for your new PC!

First, review the general rules via the online help system, at
http://www.gallwey.com/fk/help.php?keyw ... earch=true

Second, before you put in a name for authorization, conduct a web search for it, ideally with several "D&D words" added to it: something like Azoun dragon, then Azoun cast, then Azoun Faerun - if it comes back with significant hits, it is more likely to be denied.

I have found inspiration by going to baby naming sites, like
http://www.babynameguide.com/

In subsequent replies, myself and others will make suggestions applicable to specific races. (If someone with the power to do so could combine these from time to time, that would be grand! I can do the ones I wrote.)

If you are creating a Wemic, please see
http://www.gallwey.com/fk/board/viewtop ... emic+names

There is an in-game helpfile on dwarven names:
http://www.gallwey.com/fk/help.php?keyw ... earch=true

which points to this dwarven name generator:
http://www.delving.com/namemain.html

Nordic names also seem generally appropos for dwarves - you can get a mighty long list of those from
http://www.babynameguide.com/categorysc ... andinavian
(Note that you can narrow the list to male or female names only without too much trouble, by clicking the appropriate button near the top of the page.)

The Forgotten Realms Campaign setting offers a whole page of names for humans from different nations as well as a few name suggestions for other races.

Candlekeep has a nice tablet of elven names

http://www.candlekeep.com/library/artic ... _names.htm

When I want a name that might be relative to my character's interests, I like to go to this website.

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/

It's just swell. Trust me.

http://www.babynames.com

Blingbling, chicken wing.

This is urgent. This random name generator designed for Elves should be avoided. It does not generate random elven names but rather uses tolkien-specific names randomly. If you use these on a character chances are you will be asked to select another name. Though, you can always check through the internet to make sure the names have no match in popular (or unpopular) fiction.

The link is:

http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/

please do your best not to use it for the mud.

I don't play FK anymore, but I still hop over and read the forums on occasion. Thought I would get this website out. I use it for pen and paper D&D when creating Elf names.

http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/vortexshadow/names.html

I found the "phonetic" search on the babynameguide site really useful:
http://www.babynameguide.com/database_soundex.asp

Put in two names you like (I used my own and my girlfriend's) and it comes up with a list that are phonetically similar combinations. I prefer that to scrolling through a looooong alphabetical list. As I looked down it I came across the name "Peverell," which I'd never heard before, and I thought - Perfect!

I'm sure I'll use that for any future characters I make

Something I have always found interesting is when you go to a movie, don't get up and leave immediately, but sit there and watch the credits, all sorts of names appear for you to peruse.

Lou

One source that has helped me quite a bit was science fiction/fantasy novels. What I look for are the obscure names of pesants. I take these often overlooked names and change a prefix or suffix or a letter or two. In this manner you can create a large number of possible names. Just remember this will work better with the names of the NON main characters.

Somewhere out there in the vast library of the Wheel of Time is a pesant or soldier named Kirklund if memory serves me well... he's mine!

Stumbled across this randomly, and thought it might come in useful for people picking names... It's a list of names from *real* medieval sources, but ones that are fairly rare/unknown.

http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/Ka ... rities.htm

I have one here I have used and it offers a very wide range of name generators, from evil sounding, to heroic, from Tolkien-ian sounding, to Lovecraftian. Simply a must visit site, I think
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

Another link here, with a great generator on the site.

http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/

Another cool site, though not a nam generator, but a common to elven translator is

http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/aerena ... lator.html

http://grey-starr.ca/Tools/random-male-dwarf-name.htm

A good one for dwarves.

When looking for a name, I go to baby name websites, and look up names from other countries.

In the case of Tiyari, I made it up based on a name a friend had for another character. I rearranged it a bit, and added a couple letters.

I often worry if my names sound "human" enough, or "elven" enough. Too many vowels, not enough simplicity. I'm not good at pegging race with name, i.e. dwarf, elf, human.

I don't always look at a certain ethnic group of names--I try to vary which one has my interest, and pick one I've not heard before. Celtic/Gaelic (have to be careful because some of the phonetic spellings are complex as compared with English), Arabic, Russian, Nordic, Slovic, Nahuatl, to name a few.

This whole naming thing is tough for me, made harder still because I don't know the names of the characters who have come before me, or who still actively play but I haven't seen or met.

There was once a name I really, really wanted, and it was denied because there was a former char with a similar name that I had no idea about.


The courtesy shown other players is something I respect tremendously, however, so I commend admin for doing such an awesome job with might be a daunting task.

I want to thank you guys for this compilation of websites. I'm going to put these all in one place and peruse to collect names!

You can get away with naming your elf, dwarf or goblin whatever you like really, if it turns out that bob the elf ranger really doesn't fit as an elf name later on, you could always say its a nickname.

Yemin wrote:You can get away with naming your elf, dwarf or goblin whatever you like really, if it turns out that bob the elf ranger really doesn't fit as an elf name later on, you could always say its a nickname.

I hope I'm misunderstanding this, but for anyone else who understands this the way I do - No, you cannot get away with naming your goblin, elf or dwarf whatever you like. That's why the auth system exists. So Bob the elf and Joe the dwarf are not running around, as we are roleplay enforced.

This is a fantastic resource I've found recently. If you go to the bottom of the page, there's links to actual medieval names, and there's tons that I've never heard of or seen before. I've used it for a name already

http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/

Thought I'd contribute. Some of those other sites are hard for me as a blindie to navigate but this form was rather simple and some of the names it generates are epically cheesy if thats your thing:

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article5 ... 0010202b,0