# "It's a joke name, sir."



## Mark (Apr 14, 2005)

"Like Biggus Dic..."

Every GM winds up dealing with this sooner or later.  Most of the group has decided, formally or otherwise, to tackle the campaign (this time around, anyway) in a "serious" roleplaying manner but one player isn't on board.  Oh, he creates a formidable enough character to pull his own weight but when it finally gets down to naming him he goes with "Phil McKraken" or "Clamidia Underall" or "Lance Pokenprod" or...

Anyway, how do *you* deal with a situation like this?   


Alternately, what names have you heard?* 


*Try to stay within the bounds of board policy, please.


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## Amy Kou'ai (Apr 14, 2005)

I have one player who kept coming up with new and ludicrous names for her character, like, every week -- she's a feline Shifter in Eberron, and would introduce herself as "Fuzzy Cat" or "Deus ex Machina" or "Yours Truly Bast' Stab-a-rat."

So on her first trip out of Sharn, I made her get photo ID.  With an official name.

And when she insisted on something silly, I made her have to bribe the House Sivis representative to stand a chance in Dolurrh for them to accept it.


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## DonAdam (Apr 14, 2005)

In an AU "living" campaign for our university, we ruled that goofy names could only be used for true names. So we ended up with true names like Lion-o for litorians, Logan for Wolverine totems, etc.

In my regular games, it is just totally out of the question. But then, everyone in my gaming circle understands that the GM makes the rules for his game; world building is one of the GM's responsibilities, so he is well within his proper sphere to define the boundaries of appropriateness for names, classes, etc.


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## der_kluge (Apr 14, 2005)

I've never really encountered this, but I have a problem with the exact opposite. It's just a hang-up I have.

By this, I'm referring to overly common, non-fantastical names.  A character in a short campaign I ran several years ago when we took a month-long break, made a character with this story about how he his mother was a gypsy, and cursed, and gave birth to a man/cow, who by all appearances was a minotaur. I found his story interesting, and clever, so I allowed his character. His name?  David?

I totally cringed when I heard that. I think I've gotten a little more tolerant of it since then.  My current priest in a Harn game is named Joseph. And then, ironically, a guy actually named Joseph joined our game. We sometimes get confused. 

I think it depends on the nature of the campaign, maybe. This is low-magic, more gritty game, so more common names seem more appropriate to me.


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## Lazybones (Apr 14, 2005)

In my Asian campaign, I simply made it a rule--no names that are silly plays on words (Wong Wei was the example I used in my Player's Guide), or are profane or insulting. Thus far no one's submitted anything egregious. 

Unfortunately I could not resist the urge myself and set a bad example: one of my shopkeepers is named Lo Pei. But I did a lot of research on Mandarin names and most of them sound pretty cool (and have meaning).


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## ptolemy18 (Apr 14, 2005)

die_kluge said:
			
		

> I've never really encountered this, but I have a problem with the exact opposite. It's just a hang-up I have....By this, I'm referring to overly common, non-fantastical names.




Yeah, I dislike that too. I'd rather have to deal with a silly name than a boring name.

Actually, in my campaign I'm DMing, *I'm* the guilty one for silly names.... the game is set in ancient Egypt but I've taken to introducing characters with the sillier-sounding Egyptian names I could come up with. Names like "Wenis" and "Iubet" (pronounced You-bet).

I just figured that if I tried to pronounce them any other way ("Uhh... it's Wenis pronounced "Wee-nash"), I'd probably slip into the silly pronounciation anyway... and at least this way the players remember their names... :/

Jason


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## Tyler Do'Urden (Apr 14, 2005)

Lazybones said:
			
		

> (Wong Wei was the example I used in my Player's Guide)




Which, amusingly and ironically enough, was the actual name of the Chinese fighter pilot who crashed his jet into an American intelligence plane back in 2001.   Though, if I were in your game, I'd go with Hung Lo, Cao Dung, or Wi Ping. 

Joke names, though?  Not had much of a problem with those in any games in recent memory.  A high school Star Wars campaign had some silly ones... "Suke Lywalker" was the worst offender, but when the rest of the party consisted of Tommy Bobson, Roy D. Slicer, and a wookie named G'Zerghdt (which was pronounced jar-dal)... um... yeah.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Apr 14, 2005)

I had a new player a long time ago (like '89) who was unfamiliar with serious campaigns...  We made up his PC (a 1st level Mage) and I ran him through a short solo adventure (diggers in town had found an old temple with some undead, and he was delegated to check it out with the guard, being the apprentice of the only wizard in town).

He performed just fine, and got the chance to meet the local Marquis.  The major domo is schooling him on what not to do when he enters the throne room, and asks him, "What is your name again?"

"Fast Eddy."

I hesitated for a second.  Then I adopted the snootiest english butler accent I could, looked down my nose at him like an ostentatious major domo would, and introduced him as "Edward," drawing the name out for about five seconds.

He caught on pretty quick.  He even made his official name "Edward Rapide" from that point on.


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## TheAuldGrump (Apr 14, 2005)

die_kluge said:
			
		

> I've never really encountered this, but I have a problem with the exact opposite. It's just a hang-up I have.
> 
> By this, I'm referring to overly common, non-fantastical names.  A character in a short campaign I ran several years ago when we took a month-long break, made a character with this story about how he his mother was a gypsy, and cursed, and gave birth to a man/cow, who by all appearances was a minotaur. I found his story interesting, and clever, so I allowed his character. His name?  David?
> 
> ...




In one of my campaigns one player had a character named Frank. But no one blamed him, his own real life name is Taswell Mumford...

The Auld Grump, I went to school with a girl named Mary Christmas... her sister's name was Holly - I think that the parents should have been shot!


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## Mystery Man (Apr 14, 2005)

I had to put the kibosh on both Dick Fitzwell and Dick Zenormous.


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## kenobi65 (Apr 14, 2005)

Back in the 1E days, had a guy playing a jester (a class from Dragon Magazine) named Beau Zoediclaun.

But, generally speaking, most of my players are pretty good about making appropriate names.


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## kenobi65 (Apr 14, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> I had to put the kibosh on both Dick Fitzwell and Dick Zenormous.




What?  No Phil McCracken?


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## Gentlegamer (Apr 14, 2005)

"He has a wife, you know . . ."


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## Gentlegamer (Apr 14, 2005)

kenobi65 said:
			
		

> What?  No Phil McCracken?



or Pat McGroin?


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## kenobi65 (Apr 14, 2005)

Gentlegamer said:
			
		

> "He has a wife, you know . . ."




"Incontinentia Buttocks..."


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## WayneLigon (Apr 14, 2005)

I just tell the player to choose another name, regardless if it's a silly on or a 'too mundane' one; some mundane ones might fit, some might not.


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## BiggusGeekus (Apr 14, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> "Like Biggus Dic..."




I hate names even resembling that.


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

TheAuldGrump said:
			
		

> I went to school with a girl named Mary Christmas... her sister's name was Holly - I think that the parents should have been shot!



How unfortunate to be either one of them...  after all, Christmas only comes once a year.    

My sister went out a few times with a guy named Gamble Lynn Money.  I've seen sillier names in real life than in any game I've been in, sadly.


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## Cthulhu's Librarian (Apr 14, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> I've seen sillier names in real life than in any game I've been in, sadly.




Me too. A friend of mine dated a guy in college for about a year whose name was Dallas D. Dallas. Guess what the middle D was for? Yep, you got it. Dallas.


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

Cthulhu's Librarian said:
			
		

> Me too. A friend of mine dated a guy in college for about a year whose name was Dallas D. Dallas. Guess what the middle D was for? Yep, you got it. Dallas.



Hopefully he didn't have a sister named Debbie D.  Middle D for Does...

Yeah, I also know a David David and his grown son, David David Jr.   That's just not nice.


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## Wombat (Apr 14, 2005)

Names have to fit the culture milieu of the game, period.  Lots of sample names are given to each player, dependent on race, culture, and heritage.  Variants are certainly allowed, but nothing that breaks genre.


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## GlassJaw (Apr 14, 2005)

> Anyway, how do you deal with a situation like this?




They are usually met with a rather rude shaking of the head and a simple "No".

I have little tolerance for comical names unless that's the point of the campaign.


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## dungeon blaster (Apr 14, 2005)

I had a friend back in elementary school named "Hung Suk".  It took me a while to figure out why my dad laughed at his name.

I guess it's a good thing he moved back to Korea before middle school came around.


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## kenobi65 (Apr 14, 2005)

Growing up, I knew a kid named Brick Wahl.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 14, 2005)

I had a fraternity brother in college whose girlfriend was named Candace Barr. I still think Child Protective Services should have had a talk with her parents.


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## JVisgaitis (Apr 14, 2005)

As a DM I never had those issues, but I can remember playing in groups were people had screwy names. Let's see, there was Grumpnutz Stubyfinger (not too bad for a dwarf), Mike the Magic Man (which still makes me laugh), and my all time favorite: Ramrod the Wandwanger.

I actually enjoy putting screwy names into products I've written or worked on. In a Games Workshop supplement for Mordheim, I had called Lizardman funny names like: Tinciwinci and Whachulukinat. Also, in Where Madness Dwells we have a character named Kraven Morrhead which was a homage to the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skits with Sean Connery. We even named the section in the module "Who is Kraven Morrhead."

Not sure if anyone ever picked up on those. . .


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## JVisgaitis (Apr 14, 2005)

Slightly off topic, but I work for Network Solutions and run into a lot of crazy names of customers: Mary Seaman, John Krap, Yong Suk Dong, Young Nah. But my all time favorite is Nascar driver Dick Trickle.


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## broghammerj (Apr 14, 2005)

*JDyal* 


> I've seen sillier names in real life than in any game I've been in, sadly.




Josh, I'm really disappointed that you didn't throw out the ever lovable character we currently game with.......Rosham Bo.  Of course his negotiating skills and conflict disputes with rock, paper, scissors are astounding.

I always loved my friend's duelist named Xes Laro from Way, Way, Beyondo.  It's not horribly noticable at first but look closely at his name.


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## Patman21967 (Apr 14, 2005)

My ex-girlfriends roommate in college is named Sandy Lane....I used to call her Dirty Alley, Dirt road...etc....

my coolest character name though, and it still lives in infamy was borne about out of a lack of creativity, and a lot of beer....Bolehcim Reeb....I was drinking Michelob Beer...


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## twofalls (Apr 14, 2005)

I've had two players that it was an issue with. One was a nice fellow who always told me I was the greatest GM he'd ever played with. Kinda hard to come down on a guy like that when he brings in his fifth PC (because his play style kept getting his previous PC's gutted like trouts) and names him something inspiring like Bob. He had a Dave, Bill, and the best one was Joe the Figther. It damages the roleplaying when players are addressing him by these utterly mundane names so the other players took to calling him by nicknames and he really appreciated it because the other players were bright enough to appeal to his ego. His final incarnation (before a sick relative forced him to move to a different state) was the half orc fighter named Joe, who everyone called Crunch due to the greatclub he specialized in.

My all time best experience with silly names was a great roleplaying shtick by a player who is still in my games after nearly a decade of gaming. He played a rouge who would adopt a new name for every town he entered. He would keep a list and the other players would just write down what they were supposed to call him in that town. It became so much fun that the other players would help him come up with names to be used in specific locations. Things like Chip when in a forest village (for chipmunk), Dipper (while in a port city), Fleet (once when travelling on a merchant's cog between towns). This character was a riot. Unfortunatly he met his end by being rended into bite sized pieces by a Moss Troll in the Reelio Jungle... poor whositwhatsit.


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## Patman21967 (Apr 14, 2005)

Geez...I totally forgot about a cook I used to work with...His name was Joe Stein. He named his son Frank Nathan Stein..you got it  Frank N. Stein


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## threshel (Apr 14, 2005)

In game, it's not much of a problem.  I'm inappropriately fond of puns (although that's a redundant statement, as any fondness for puns is inappropriate), so if it's clever and within the game context, I'm OK with it.
In RL, I knew a Thomas Thomas.

J


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## Twowolves (Apr 14, 2005)

I have to admit, I was not the best roleplayer when I named my 1st ed druid's companions/grove guardians: "Twiggy" (a treant), "Snowball" (a permenantly Animal Growth'd white tiger), "Sparky" (fire elemental) and "Dusty" (an earth elemental). 

However, I have known some people in real life who's names sound pretty made up, such as Penny Lane, Yua Hue, and Huo Li.

Twowolves Howling


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## Tonguez (Apr 14, 2005)

back when I was teacher training I came across a child whose nam was Mount Wellington Bustop (we called him Wellington), and another named Ocean River Lake. Even my own  uncle named his daughter Peebles, luckily his wife stepped in and made that the cousins second name (but I still love calling her Peebles).

I also remember the episode of Night Court when Bull was laughing at a korean girl named Duk - when chastised for laughing at other peoples languages his reply was

_"No I'm laughing because where I come from Duck is a boys name..." 
(or something - um maybe you had to be there...)_


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## DreadPirateMurphy (Apr 14, 2005)

I woman I used to work with had a client named Richard Head.  He named his son Richard Head, Jr.  (sigh)

In high school we had a Vietnamese student named Phuc -- it sounded sort of like "fawk."

A (pregnant) junior high teacher once told us in dead seriousness that she intended to name her twins Zeke and Zelda (this was circa 1984 or so, not 1884).

EDIT:  Almost forgot -- I used to work with a guy named Fabio.


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## Bran Blackbyrd (Apr 14, 2005)

Cthulhu's Librarian said:
			
		

> Me too. A friend of mine dated a guy in college for about a year whose name was Dallas D. Dallas. Guess what the middle D was for? Yep, you got it. Dallas.




There was a student at my high school named Gilbert Gilbert Gilbert the Third. Yeah, his father and grandfather were Gilberts as well.

I specifically asked for players to use normal sounding names for my current campaign. It didn't have to be a real name, just not a Fantasy Name; so we have Conner Barlow, Jackson Sinclair, etc. Most of the people they run into have "made up real names" as well.

The only people with fancy names are those that earn them through merit and reknown. Heck, in a lot of areas in my world people don't have last names and if they do it's a trade name; like Smith, Tanner or Whore.
Well, not that last one...
Or someone might refer to their place of origin instead of using a surname; ie. Damon of Red Creek.


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## Amal Shukup (Apr 14, 2005)

My games are full of these names. 

Although most of the time I behave myself, I'm occasionally weak: I'm still playing my online namesake and he even has sideburns...

But let's see, from some games over the last few years:

 - Mack Abre (a Barbarian)
 - Tru Bahdor (a Bard, natch)
 - 'Cunning' Mingus
 - Ickyknob Bushtickle (gnome)
 - Bob (new player chose an appropriate but somewhat unpronounceable name, the other players just started calling her 'Bob' instead. It stuck)
 - In'Dyannah Jow-Nez (NPC. Yes, a professor)
 - Bakkat D'Wranch

But that's not the thing that kills me. The player responsible for Tru also DMs, and he has this fabulous town/small city he uses in his world. It's wonderfully developed and detailed (about 20 years worth), BUT he crushes new players with his naming conventions: 
 - Wright, Write, Rright, and Rite Streets (yeah, just try asking for directions)
 - The Green Dragon, Green Lagoon, Green Flagon, and Green Dragoon Inns...
 - Lots more like that...

A'Mal


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## Hand of Evil (Apr 14, 2005)

Once knew a woman named Happy, she made me happy but married a guy with the last name of Nice, so she was Happy Nice but was called Happy spice. 

In game I dislike it, most have been the Dick + X humor but have seen others, Tooth D. Kay being one of the bad ones.


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## Flyspeck23 (Apr 14, 2005)

Characters with funny names have a very short life expectancy IMC. Somehow they end up being the prefered target of attacks and spells...


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## broghammerj (Apr 14, 2005)

Oh, I almost forgot......

While at medical school we had an oncologist who specialized in hospice care and end of life pain management.  His name was Dr. Payne.

It was also most unfortunate that his wife was a general practitioner named Dr. Sharpe.  Needless to say, she kept her maiden name and did not hyphenate it.


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## Darmanicus (Apr 14, 2005)

Phil McCavity.   

I've always wanted to play a priestess called 'Bad Habit'.


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## diaglo (Apr 14, 2005)

Gentlegamer said:
			
		

> "He has a wife, you know . . ."




Ben Dover. i think he writes for BadAxe Games.


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## Mystery Man (Apr 14, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Yeah, I also know a David David and his grown son, David David Jr.   That's just not nice.




There needs to be canings for parents who do this to their children.


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## diaglo (Apr 14, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> There needs to be canings for parents who do this to their children.





one of well respected authors in my field is Peter Small.

if you have the last name Small never name your kid Peter or Richard.

most roll calls start last name first.


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## Dragonhelm (Apr 14, 2005)

Twowolves said:
			
		

> However, I have known some people in real life who's names sound pretty made up, such as Penny Lane, Yua Hue, and Huo Li.




Yeah, well, my name is Trampas.    

Take a look at a baby name book sometime, and you'll see some examples of bad names.  In one case, the surname was Bra.  The parents named their daughters Iona and Ineeta.  Ahem.

I've also heard of people named Lemonjalo and Oranjalo (lemon jello, orange jello). 

Okay, back to gaming names...

I've played in games where we've used silly names off and on, but we haven't had it be too terribly bad - at least in comparison.

From Shadowrun...
Kev Orkian (guess what was in the news at the time)
The Rigger Mortis (had to have "the" in there)
Undertaker (Mortis' brother)

From my friend's homebrew...
Gullible (real name was Gullival, but we had some fun)
Crystar (named after the comic book character, save that my friend pronounced it "Christ-Star")

I'll see if I can think of more when time permits.


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

broghammerj said:
			
		

> While at medical school we had an oncologist who specialized in hospice care and end of life pain management.  His name was Dr. Payne.



My dentist had the same name when I was a kid.  Luckily, it wasn't prophetic...

As for Rosham Bo, I don't mind more subtle "joke" names like that.  Because Rosham Bo is supposedly the Japanese name for rock/paper/scissors and only Troy speaks Japanese (although he's never confirmed nor denied that Kevin got that right anyway) it ironically sounds like an appropriate name rather than a joke one.

Heck, in my Eberron game, my character's name is Ebeneezer "'eezer" Goode, which sounds OK for a noir genre like Eberron.  I think only Kevin and I recognize the song by the Shamen on which it's based.  So, again, it's a joke name, but it's subtle, and it actually works on its own anyway.


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## Kage Tenjin (Apr 14, 2005)

I've seen a couple of bad ones, but the worst one is a subtle one I'm using in my homebrew.  The capital of an empire that controls magically propelled walking armors is called Rastur.

Cookie to the first one who gets it.


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## Henry (Apr 14, 2005)

Character names? I've seen 'em all. I used to play a Bard named "Plaster" years ago, based on a fellow gamer in the group who used to get drunk quickly. In our old gaming group, being a cheap drunk was a far worse stigma than being a drunk. 

I've seen HJ's, BJ's, CB's (after the sex acts), Vantage's (cavaliers named after cigarettes), a bard named Yuyella ("You Yellow?"), Fighters named Dorkus, and Scrujahb the Wizard. And you wouldn't have had ten seconds of straight faces if you said the background of any of your characters was a "Seaman." 

In real life, I've known very few people with "odd names", other than a woman named "Sparkle", and a child who's mother called "Doral" in my wife's preschool once. She pronounced it "Dor-AL" with emphasis on the "AL" and in my mind I can't shake the impression that she named him after a brand of cigarettes whenever I think about it.


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## JoeBlank (Apr 14, 2005)

I usually try to stay away from goofy character names, but my current gnome sorcerer has a fox familiar and I couldn't resist naming the fox . . .

Red.


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## Hand of Evil (Apr 14, 2005)

Why the GENCON Catogory?


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

Henry said:
			
		

> In real life, I've known very few people with "odd names", other than a woman named "Sparkle",



My daughter has been enamored with that name for years.  She's told us that she wants us to call her that in the past, that she wants to change her name legally, and more recently, that when she gets married and has a daughter of her own, she wants to name her that.  It's been a good four years now that she's been going on about it.  I *really* hope she grows out of that...


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## Storm Raven (Apr 14, 2005)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> I had a fraternity brother in college whose girlfriend was named Candace Barr. I still think Child Protective Services should have had a talk with her parents.




My brother in law helped program Virginia's state database for child support enforcement. You don't want to know the insane names that he came across.


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## diaglo (Apr 14, 2005)

Storm Raven said:
			
		

> My brother in law helped program Virginia's state database for child support enforcement. You don't want to know the insane names that he came across.





any large database has the same.

i worked for the State of Maryland.

Baby Boy and Baby Girl out numbered a lot of "normal" names.


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## Xythlord (Apr 14, 2005)

Well many years ago my brother was making his character who was going to be a thief, and still hadn't figured out what his characters name was going to be.  He described his character as a "vagabond, a very free spirit, but shady, kind of a hobo".  Well another player was only partially listening to him and asked him if he said his name was Vagabond?  In short, Vagabond H'bo (pronounced Huh-bo) gamed steadily in a campaign for about 4 years between 84 and 88.

     Later for a Dragonlance game that lasted 6 months, he came up with a very strong and large minitour name Angus the Black who wore a leather kilt.....took me about 10 minutes to figure that one out   

For real life names I had a Sergeant First Class Richard N. Dick (gotta love his parents) and a squad mate named Thomas Wolfe who named his children Timber and Lone....Wow

Xyth


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## CarlZog (Apr 14, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> There needs to be canings for parents who do this to their children.




I wouldn't worry about caning. Paying the psychotherapy bills will be punishment enough.

I knew a Prof. Hardy who named his daughter Laurel Ann.
My dad worked with someone named Bush who named his daughter Ima Rose.

I wish desperately that I was making these up.

Carl


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## iwatt (Apr 14, 2005)

I couldn't resist naming my Dwarf hammer of Moradin a silly name:

Mored ColdHammer

Every time a battle starts, i get to say "Hammer Time"


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

CarlZog said:
			
		

> My dad worked with someone named Bush who named his daughter Ima Rose.
> 
> I wish desperately that I was making these up.



Could be worse.  I can think of a lot of worse joke names with the last name Bush...


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## diaglo (Apr 14, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Could be worse.  I can think of a lot of worse joke names with the last name Bush...





using a character concept similar to Of Mice and Men.


one PC had an int of 3.

his tag line was I wish my brudda George was here. his PC didn't have an actual name. so the others called him George's Brudda.


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## Ralif Redhammer (Apr 14, 2005)

I had one player who was consistently bad with names. Any character in a RPG set in the modern day was named after a football player (except for one character named Arnold Schwartzenstein). His fantasy names were equally bad. There was an elven mystic named Dice Man (Wasn't a gambler, I might add) and a gnome illusionist named Arnie Mann. The last one was his longest-lasting character, and I think he always regretted not making a bruiser instead.


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## Estlor (Apr 14, 2005)

A guy I used to work with told me the story about Ms. King.  See, his wife worked for social services and one of the more memorable people she met was a lady by the name of Ms. King and her son Nosmo.  Of course, like anyone would, she asked Ms. King about the name of her son, because Nosmo is a rather unusual name.  Ms. King simply replied, "I was sitting on the bus one day, looked up, and it came to me."

True story about how Nosmo King got his name.

And believe me, I couldn't have made something that silly up.


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

diaglo said:
			
		

> his tag line was I wish my brudda George was here. his PC didn't have an actual name. so the others called him George's Brudda.



That's not the line of thinking I was taking...

Then again, I walked in while my wife was watching _Sex and the City_ a bit yesterday on TBS, and one of the characters was complaining about how she'd accidentally dyed her bush bright red, so maybe it was just a lingering aftereffect of that idea in my head...


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## Vraille Darkfang (Apr 14, 2005)

I have a simple rule,

You name your character after your manhood (or elf-hood, dwarf-hood, gnome-hood as the case may be), the chances of encountering rabid female halfling ninjas with wounding swords of sharpness named Hanna Bobbit increase ten thousand percent.

Thus, you will soon have the nickname Shorty.


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## Dragonhelm (Apr 14, 2005)

CarlZog said:
			
		

> I knew a Prof. Hardy who named his daughter Laurel Ann.




When I broke my arm the first time, my bone specialist was named Dr. Jelly.  He considered having a daughter named Peanut Butter Ann.  

Other interesting character names..

More from Shadowrun:
Shalom (Jewish mercenary)
Brick Masonry (Troll who kept saying, "There is not enough killing!")
Al E. Gator III (Gator shaman)
Southern Belle
Yellow Rose
Longhorn (Troll with long horns, Texas Ranger)

The last three were in a one-shot I ran where the characters went to Texas.

From my friend's homebrew sci-fi/fantasy game...

R.A.L.P.H. - Robotic Assault Lethal Prototype Hovertread

This is fun!


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## hexgrid (Apr 14, 2005)

Vraille Darkfang said:
			
		

> I have a simple rule,
> 
> You name your character after your manhood (or elf-hood, dwarf-hood, gnome-hood as the case may be), the chances of encountering rabid female halfling ninjas with wounding swords of sharpness named Hanna Bobbit increase ten thousand percent.
> 
> Thus, you will soon have the nickname Shorty.




That reminds me that "Half-Cocked Jack" is one of the main characters in Neal Stephenson's latest books. I guess even respected authors aren't immune.


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## BlackMoria (Apr 14, 2005)

I knew a girl in school called Irene Mary Ann Fink.....  I. M. A. Fink.  Now say it out loud....

I knew a Dan Major.  Not a problem.  Except that both of us were in the military.  Over the space of my career in the military, I've had to call him Sgt Major.... then when he got promoted to Master Warrant Officer,  he was called Sgt Major Major.  He took his commissioning and was Capt Major and got promoted after I left the service, making him Major Major.


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## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

BlackMoria said:
			
		

> I knew a Dan Major.  Not a problem.  Except that both of us were in the military.  Over the space of my career in the military, I've had to call him Sgt Major.... then when he got promoted to Master Warrant Officer,  he was called Sgt Major Major.  He took his commissioning and was Capt Major and got promoted after I left the service, making him Major Major.



That's just one of those unfortunate coincidences.  Sometimes when folks get married that happens too.  Ruth Ricker, a friend of mine in college, married James Carruth and became Ruth Carruth.  My sister-in-law Kim was dating briefly a Korean-American guy with the last name of Kim.  If they had married, she'd be Kim Kim.


----------



## Mark Hope (Apr 14, 2005)

There was a thread about this last summer, iirc.  It was actually what prompted me to join Enworld (albeit under a different sn), just so I could share my pain.  For some reason, all of my games except for the current one are plagued by daft names.  I like to think that I run an intense, serious game and my players like to prove me wrong...

Amongst the PC names of the past are such diverse elements as:

Acid Popper Caligula Caesar
Ustinov the Unthwarted
Sister Vulva Deathmace Salladan Frizbee and her brother...
Tracheotomy Sharpsword Devastator Frizbee "The Duck"
Kiryakov Kalashnikov
Binky Spazz
Ivan Itdropoff the Medalliognome
Melons Stoatpamphlet
McDeath
Mouse the Starr
Capillia Reaction
Reversible Reaction
Lyman Lemon I through III
Gaffaths I through VIII
Ferencvaros Kharkov
King Kong Bundy (who later became plain old GBH)
Cujo the Cavalier
Faro-ut (a far-out name, if there was one)
Ghut
and a dwarf called Noddy.

Oh, the joy...


----------



## billd91 (Apr 14, 2005)

I read in a baby-naming book that in some countries, it is illegal to name your kid embarrassing puns. 
I'm not a fan of blatantly funny names in my games, that's more the place for nicknames that come up out of events during play. I don't mind mundane names, though, as long as they have a resonably long pedigree. Names like John and Joseph are pretty ancient and have stood the test of time. I don't have problems with PCs using them. In fact, I'd rather use them than some of the tortured names that come up in attempts to sound like they come from a fantasy culture. 

As far as real life names I've encountered that are embarrassing, I haven't met too many personally, and only heard of a few more.
Sandy Brooks
Mickey Morse

And, my wife's aunt, who works in a large metro school district, encountered a young girl whose name was very interesting. For those of you who are Seinfeld fans and remember how he was trying to remember the name of a date whose name rhymed with a part of the female body (Dolores), well, this poor girl was the opposite of that. Her name WAS the body part that rhymed with Dolores... because her mother thought it sounded pretty but, apparently, didn't know what it was.
Poor kid.


----------



## Gentlegamer (Apr 14, 2005)

My surname is Peel, and I hope to name a daughter Emma . . .


----------



## diaglo (Apr 14, 2005)

Gentlegamer said:
			
		

> My surname is Peel, and I hope to name a daughter Emma . . .




and dress her in tight fitting ....    


at least you didn't say Banana


----------



## kenobi65 (Apr 14, 2005)

More silly PC names:

- Caramel Phosphor (a cleric, named after the ingredient listing on a can of Pepsi (caramel color, phosphoric acid))
- Dagnabbit Stonehammer (a dwarven cleric)


----------



## WizarDru (Apr 14, 2005)

Real names of People I've known:
Dick Blood
Johnny P. Harder

Favorite Silly Character name comes from a GURPS Martial Arts game, fashioned after the movie Bloodsport.  A Korean martial artist with the name Yu Dai Soon (or alternately: Soon Yu Dai).


----------



## Gentlegamer (Apr 14, 2005)

diaglo said:
			
		

> and dress her in tight fitting ....
> 
> 
> at least you didn't say Banana



My father goes by Bo, and has been called Bo Nana on occasion by more jocular co-workers . . .


----------



## Henry (Apr 14, 2005)

> (or alternately: Soon Yu Dai)




I have GOT to add Sun Yu Dai the Monk to a D&D game!


----------



## VirgilCaine (Apr 14, 2005)

die_kluge said:
			
		

> By this, I'm referring to overly common, non-fantastical names.  A character in a short campaign I ran several years ago when we took a month-long break, made a character with this story about how he his mother was a gypsy, and cursed, and gave birth to a man/cow, who by all appearances was a minotaur. I found his story interesting, and clever, so I allowed his character. His name?  David?




Gee, I'd hand him a Bible and tell him he can do better than _that_. There's MUCH more D&D suitable names than "David" for YHWH's sake.



> And, my wife's aunt, who works in a large metro school district, encountered a young girl whose name was very interesting. For those of you who are Seinfeld fans and remember how he was trying to remember the name of a date whose name rhymed with a part of the female body (Dolores), well, this poor girl was the opposite of that. Her name WAS the body part that rhymed with Dolores... because her mother thought it sounded pretty but, apparently, didn't know what it was.
> Poor kid.




Is Nosmo King worse?


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

Which is sadder, a girl named clitoris, or a mother who doesn't know what one is?


----------



## eris404 (Apr 14, 2005)

Henry said:
			
		

> I have GOT to add Sun Yu Dai the Monk to a D&D game!




Absolutely!

We had the opposite problem for a while. We had a player that refused to come up with an original name. One character was Aragorn, another simply Bob. (sigh) 

I used to work for a visa service and saw the worst legal names on passports. My favorites were a young girl named Miao Miao Kitty and Peter Stiff (I hope that doesn't offend Eric'a grandma - that really was the gentleman's name).


----------



## Barak (Apr 14, 2005)

The most annoying was in Warhammer.  Friend of mine made an archer character named Robin Hood.  Stupid, but whatever.  But then Robin died.  So he made another archer character, named Robin Hood II.  And yes, there was a third as well.  *sigh*


----------



## Mark Hope (Apr 14, 2005)

Hey that reminds me - I had a Warhammer character who was a wood elf bounty hunter.  I named him Clint Elfwood.  He was very cool.  My GM refused to allow him to grow stubble, unfortunately...


----------



## bolie (Apr 14, 2005)

In our games, we generally just ignore the silly names In Character and pretend like our characters don't notice.  Most of our names haven't been silly, though.  We did have a lemangelo and my current character is "The Nameless One" because I couldn't think of a name.  However, the DM and I managed to work that into his background.  Of course, now I am going to be known as "The Master Gee" due to an unfortunate comment I made in the last session.

Silly names are so common in life, especially nicknames, that I find it hard to get to upset about them in the game.  I would prefer the names not be completely anachronistic, but as DM, I would just work around it if the player insisted on the name.

As DM and as player, I've never bought into the concept of the DM has ultimate authority over the game.  We're all playing the game together to have fun.  If one person is a jerk, then we'll all take care of him.  If one person who we like wants to do something odd or whatever, we generally work with it.  The DM gets to make final rule calls in his role as refereee, but the players as a group can outvote the DM.

Bolie IV (my real name)


----------



## Raging Epistaxis (Apr 14, 2005)

No memorable bad names in my games, but I've known a few in RL.

College Professor: Dr. Doctor.  I always wondered if his wife went by Mrs. Dr. Doctor.  Or if she were a doctor of some type as well, Dr. Mrs. Dr. Doctor.

anyway,

My wife says a friend of hers in high school had the last name Case and always said that if he ever had kids he'd name a son Justin and a daughter Charity.  To which I wondered if their cat or dog  would be named Basket...

R E


----------



## kenobi65 (Apr 14, 2005)

When I was going to school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there was an orthopedic surgeon at a local hospital, who was featured prominently in advertising for that hospital:

Dr. Bonebreak.

Ow!


----------



## Nightchilde-2 (Apr 14, 2005)

I've not had too many problems in my games with goofy names, save for Tatiana Nathasha Titswell (aside from that last name, her initials were..yep..TNT), Gizmo the Gnome (in my current Eberron game, but it fits since he's an artificer) and Spam (in an Earthdawn game.  The player's thought process?  Since nobody knew what Spam was in-game, they had to call him Spam with a straight face.  An encounter with a wormskull left him looking rather like his namesake).

In real life, I've seen a couple odd names.  My chemistry teacher, Mr. Head, had a son named Richard.  And the most painful?  An ob/gyn named Dr. Ripper.

NPCs have ended up with wacky names, though.  The less prepared I am, the wackier the name.  I think the worst one was Jennifer Luvhewitt.  My favorite ended up being a voodooist Follower of Set named Papa Dredd.  The name was both appropriate and stood out as one of the baddest baddies the party faced.


----------



## Patman21967 (Apr 14, 2005)

There is a local orthopedic surgeon here in delaware named Dr. Axe....owwwww


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Apr 14, 2005)

I play a half-ogre in a campaign with a halfling sidekick. The half-ogre's name is Gor Gashbasher and the halfling's name is Thistleknot Sureshot.


----------



## Twowolves (Apr 14, 2005)

In undergrad, there were a pair of chemistry professors sharing an office; Drs Duncan and Hienz. And the economics professor named Cashdollar.

Ever get the feeling that whomever is crafting reality is making these names up on the spur of the moment?


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Apr 14, 2005)

Twowolves said:
			
		

> In undergrad, there were a pair of chemistry professors sharing an office; Drs Duncan and Hienz. And the economics professor named Cashdollar.
> 
> Ever get the feeling that whomever is crafting reality is making these names up on the spur of the moment?




LOL He only does that to mess with the stoners


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

Nightchilde-2 said:
			
		

> NPCs have ended up with wacky names, though.  The less prepared I am, the wackier the name.



I have a rather largish list of names written or typed up and with me at every session.  It's a GM's best friend.


----------



## WizarDru (Apr 14, 2005)

Raging Epistaxis said:
			
		

> No memorable bad names in my games, but I've known a few in RL.
> 
> College Professor: Dr. Doctor. I always wondered if his wife went by Mrs. Dr. Doctor. Or if she were a doctor of some type as well, Dr. Mrs. Dr. Doctor.
> R E




My dentist's name IS Dr. Docktor.  Go figure.
Another I remembered: A dentist sign I saw in Germany: _Dr. Wacky_.

Frankly, for some of these names, I can only assume these parents have NO LOVE for their kids.  They'll be explaining some of this stuff to therapists 20 years from now.


----------



## darkelfo (Apr 14, 2005)

Silly names in games really bother me. They really make the whole thing a joke. It destroys the illusion of reality for me. 

Regular names like "John" and the like aren't as bad, but don't really contribute to the fantasy setting. There are lots of really cool fantasy names to use.

As an aside, it also bothers me that WOTC encourages players to choose weapon names for Warforged. It's really cool from an roleplaying perspective that Warforged want to adopt real names. But names like "Blade" are so cliche! Ironically, choosing a weapon name for a Warforged reinforces the fact that they are "not" human because they are essentially named after their function on the battle field. Overall, though, the quest for a real name is a nice cultural touch.


----------



## jrients (Apr 14, 2005)

IIRC there's a PC running around my local Living Greyhawk area who goes by Tig Bitties.

In high school the party cleric was Bud the Wiser.  My own PCs names were never very jokey but often goofy:  Chester of the Pointy Hat (a fledgling maze), Botonomus Bradlebreek, Razzak Gristlyguts (a xvart witch doctor), etc.


----------



## der_kluge (Apr 14, 2005)

A guy I worked with once, mentioned someone he used to work with. He said when he started that job they said, "You're going to work with Jack Frost".  So, he worked with a guy named Jack Frost.

At Wal-Mart (the corporate office) they used to page a couple of people all the time with funky names.  My favorite was Candy Beavers.

And then there was Bud Hogue, which they also pronounced too fast.

I saw a guy working at an amusement park named Hung.  I worked with a guy once named Dong.

Somewhere, there's a Chinese guy named Hu Nguyen (who when), I'm just sure of it.

My wife used to work with some girls who were in foster care with the last name of "Maggot".  They called them the "Maggot sisters".  Awful.

I was at work one day, and a co-worker introduced me to this kid who was doing some sort of shadow program where they could watch people in the "real world" work.  The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hi, I'm Curtis. What's your name?"
boy: "I'm Steven."
Me: "Oh, I have a nephew about your age named Steven."
boy: "I just became an uncle again this past weekend."
Me: "Oh, really (thinking this boy was awful young to be an uncle)?"
boy: "Yea, my sister just had her second baby, a girl."
Me: "Oh, what did she name her?"
boy: "Queen".
Me: "Oh, what an interesting name."
boy: "Yea, the father's last name is Warrior. So the baby's full name is Queen Latifah Warrior."
...

I feel sorry for that kid.

My wife worked with someone as part of her job, and they had a baby, and one of the middle names was Armani.  My wife was like, "Armani?"  And the woman said, "Yea, you know, like the suit!"

Of course.


----------



## VirgilCaine (Apr 14, 2005)

jrients said:
			
		

> Chester of the Pointy Hat* (a fledgling maze)*




Wow! A regressed living spell PC!


----------



## sniffles (Apr 14, 2005)

Somewhere back on the first page someone referred to Cao Dung as a funny name - sorry to spoil your fun, but Cao is pronounced "so".   

I have a pet peeve about using "real world" names in fantasy games.  Destroys part of the sense of immersion in the game world for me.  We're getting ready to start a new FR game and the GM is planning to introduce a NPC named Percy.  He already knows of my distaste for that.  My fiancee was planning to name his PC Alphonse but I talked him out of it.   

Here at work I have a coworker whose email alias is 'aschmuck'.  There's also an 'afagg' somewhere in the office.

A few years ago my fiancee and I decided to play rogues who were brothers.  We weren't really trying to be silly, but we named them Simolean and Geadus Spondulix.  How many of you are old enough to get the joke?  (BTW, the GM played along and named their father Lucre.  We also had a fighter in the party named Tarfu).


----------



## Wystan (Apr 14, 2005)

In one campaign we played my friend named his kender and then proceeded to also name the family as follows:

Character: Hairina Topknot
Mother: Iva Topknot
Father: Gotta Topknot
Sister: Hazza Topknot
Brother: Wearza Topknot

Really Bad


----------



## The_Universe (Apr 14, 2005)

I once had a player who wanted to name a halfling barbarian "Lyle Longwanger."  I told him that he couldn't. So, being a student of ancient greek, he promptly suggested Lyle Macrophallus. 

I was laughing so hard, I let him keep the name. 

Thank goodness it was for a one-shot.


----------



## demiurge1138 (Apr 14, 2005)

Most of the joke names I have to put up with are references, like Poindexter Beeblebrox (Fubar to his enemies) or the halfling twins Perry and Mippen, that sort of thing.

Although I did have one player who tried to introduce every character as Hung Lo Wang. I swear, the guy had a huge list of faux Asian joke names which he whipped out every time he made a character. So annoying...

Demiurge out.


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

Don't forget the classic character Colonel Lingus...


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Apr 14, 2005)

My buddy's boss at my work is named Les Black, swear to god. Of course, he is african-american.


----------



## Mallus (Apr 14, 2005)

I like the funny. Some PC's I'm dying to play:

Jackson Emmanuel Fancy, Esq. (and his ghostly orphan boy sidekick, Guvnor): gentleman, inventor, wide-eyed yet stone-cold killer.

Irate P. tha Pirate G. (aka the High Seas M.C.) "Yo, yo, yo and a forty of rum. Batten down your shorties, 'cause here I come". His "crew" includes Officah Killer, Inspectha Deck, and 'Ol Salty Bastard. ANd he sounds just like Slick Rick. 

Algernon Swinebane, a paladin who killed the Garderene swine in single-combat and was later cursed by the God of Pigs (so he looks like Porco Rosso).

"Scranton" LeVay, a con-man and inadvertant high priest of Satan; from Northeastern, PA.

Quantazuma, the Aztec god of very small things.


----------



## Arnwyn (Apr 14, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Anyway, how do *you* deal with a situation like this?



Tell the git to come up with a new name.

But that's just our group.


----------



## Nightchilde-2 (Apr 14, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Don't forget the classic character Colonel Lingus...




And his sister, Anna...

One of my favorite NPCs was a Feng Shui character named Fat Ho.


----------



## Barendd Nobeard (Apr 14, 2005)

I would simply tell the player that the name must be changed.  Or, to put it another way, all names are subject to DM approval.

My groups latest tactic for names is to use pharmaceutical names for characters.  Our group's rogue is named Paxil (which was really funny when he got hit with some curse which made him depressed  ), and the same player used another drug name for a new Living Greyhawk character but I can't remember what he used.  Our DM's mom is a nurse and there's always pharmaceutical company swag or a "mammoth reference book o' pharmacy meds"  laying around for inspiration.  (All will fear my elven evoker, Levitra!)

We have joked about naming characters "Gynalotramin" or "selective seratonin re-uptake inhibitor" but when one of us actually picks a name we tend to be fairly serious and not take something too silly.  Silly names are funny for about a second, and we plan on playing our characters for a long time (i.e., the joke wears thin very rapidly).


----------



## jrients (Apr 14, 2005)

VirgilCaine said:
			
		

> Wow! A regressed living spell PC!




Would you believe that I have a custom keyboard with the 'g' and 'z' right next to each other?


----------



## Patman21967 (Apr 14, 2005)

I had a Rogue a long time ago named Lingus the Cunning, as I am sure many of us have. I also had an Assassain when we were young named, Joe Momma, and he owned an inn named the Flatulent Warthog, his pet name for his wife.


----------



## WizarDru (Apr 14, 2005)

Mallus said:
			
		

> "Scranton" LeVay, a con-man and inadvertant high priest of Satan; from Northeastern, PA.




Don't make me come over there and hurt you.


----------



## VirgilCaine (Apr 14, 2005)

jrients said:
			
		

> Would you believe that I have a custom keyboard with the 'g' and 'z' right next to each other?




No, sorry, no I wouldn't.


----------



## Kemrain (Apr 14, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Hopefully he didn't have a sister named Debbie D.  Middle D for Does...
> 
> Yeah, I also know a David David and his grown son, David David Jr.   That's just not nice.



I know a David D. Davis, but his middle name isn't David, so it's not as bad.  In my town there's a woman named Ophelia Busom and a man called Holdja Denk (sp).



			
				Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Which is sadder, a girl named clitoris, or a mother who doesn't know what one is?



Yes.

I used to have a Dentist named Dr. Yankowskas.. Is that bad?

- Kemrain the Thankfully Boringly Named.


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 14, 2005)

Barendd Nobeard said:
			
		

> I would simply tell the player that the name must be changed.  Or, to put it another way, all names are subject to DM approval.



Quite right.  In general, I find that the folks who pick silly names often don't know what to do with names in general, or have a very different gaming style than I do.  Here's a cut and paste of some advice Ray Winninger gave in his Dungeoncraft series of articles on naming:


> Believe it or not, one of the most difficult tasks you face as Dungeon Master is dreaming up cool names for all those places, gods, monsters, and NPCs you create. As superficial as this chore might seem, nothing kills interest in an AD&D game faster than goofy
> names. The minute your players are attacked by Gargathrank the Unclean, a great deal of
> the credibility you've carefully fostered flies straight out the window. Don't forget that the
> players' first impressions of your game world are based, in part, on the names you
> ...


----------



## brehobit (Apr 14, 2005)

Real names:

Raymond Gunn
Dr. Doom (He wrote the 3e Birthright conversion)
Dr. White-Doom (his wife)

My daughter is Kira Nerys.  (A character from DS9)  We just liked the name (and the show) and figured so few people would recognize it....


----------



## Mark Hope (Apr 15, 2005)

Hmm, found another one from my campaign hall of name-shame.  Had to go digging in an old binder for this guy as, for obvious reasons, I couldn't remember it off the top of my head...

The Soulkicker Drakmar Kranmar Kalanyin, Lord of Glantri, Hero of Haven, Balrog Deceiver, Slayer of Gorgimera, Defeater of Death, Blessed by Dragons, Hero of Northending, Vampire Killer, Carrier of the Egg of the Phoenix, Slayer of Shadow Dragons, Slicer of Hezrou, Lich Bane, Eradicator of the Wormplague, Walker through the Arches of the Infiniverse, Seducer of Succubi, Deceiver of Blackwing, Walker of Worlds.

We just used to call him Soulkicker.


----------



## domino (Apr 15, 2005)

I had a Son of Ether whose name I stole, which was Dr. Clark Savage IV, Man of Iridium!

Grandson of Clark Savage Jr, Man of Bronze.
Son of Clark Kent Savage III, intrepid war journalist, Man of Steel.


----------



## ElvishBard (Apr 15, 2005)

I know two girls with weird names: Secret and Destiny.  Their last names don't add to the humor, but they get mad when you ask why they got named that lol.

My Uncle knew a guy named Peter Eitor (yes, pronounced eater).  He felt bad for him, but made fun of him anyways.

In my games, my players have a hard time coming up with good names, and even when I reject their name the other players still call them that and it is all they respond to so it continues being their name.  Some examples include: Sunny D, Mister Bate who demanded to be called Master instead of Mister, Cookie, Vash (from trigun, which isn't that bad a name), and platapus.


----------



## babomb (Apr 15, 2005)

Rad the Bard
a halfling thief named Lupin
Mathias L. Jackson
He-Shang Shadowlord (generated by the Character Builder program from included with the PHB), which might not have seemed out of place if he weren't a NG cleric of Heironius. At some point, he retroactively named the character to Bill-Shang, but we called him He-Shang anyway. 

Carak Killian, but that sounded too much like "Carrot Killin'" and we laughed so hard he had to change it (to what, I don't recall). 

a gnome wizard with about 10 names, though I only remember the last three: Hallop Ensu Nabin. We called him Ensu.

In a games I DMed, one player named his character's arch-enemy after me.
I refused to let a player name his character Charlton Heston, so he put in his backstory that he had been bullied by two kids named Charlton and Heston (which I allowed).

A trans-campaign running joke in my high school group was the Verbing Orc chain. At one point, the group went to a character's hometown, and the player decided that the tavern was called The Singing Orc. As I recall, there really was a (badly) singing orc in the tavern, and for that reason the thieves guild made its hideout there, because nobody else in his right mind would subject himself to that awful singing. Anyway, from then on, the first inn or tavern visited in every town was called The (verb)-ing Orc. There was a Dancing Orc, a Fighting Orc, etc. There was also a Jumping Orc, owned by a half-orc, who half-jumped. There was even a Chandelier-Swinging Orc.

There was also an outt in one town. It's like an inn...well, you get the idea.


----------



## Mark (Apr 15, 2005)

I remember a druid named Justin Thyme


----------



## RichGreen (Apr 15, 2005)

Hi,

Fun thread! Here's my list of dodgy names - a few were one player who currently plays a sorceror with a toad familiar called Rover. Only one of them was mine.

Bathplug
Willy Nickit
Debbie Harry
Sir Maudlin de Liberal
Ribena
Nogbad the Nog
Kurt Waldheim von Bastard
The Elf, elf rogue
Divet, elf rogue
Rivet, replacement for Divet

Cheers


Richard


----------



## Bront (Apr 15, 2005)

I've seen several interesting names.

The Framage family from Montaign.  Including Bree, Montery Jack, Colby, Liberge, Romono, and a few others I'm missing.
Fut O'Der
Notanelf Butadwarf (I can't belive this one was even allowed)
Wesley Roberts (Mine actualy, a Pirate in a Star Wars game)
Vaqq the Seeker (A Barbarian Cleric, who wasn't going to have an austrian accent till my GM suggested the name with the letters I had left from the random letter dice I used, so I could announce that "I'll be Vaqq")
R.H. Smith (Elf Ranger)

Now, I've also encounted some real names.
People with the first names Dicks***z and Nimrod come to mind.
I had a Biology teacher named Mr. Lay who named his daughter Anita
I know someone who helped deliver a lemonjello.


----------



## Raging Epistaxis (Apr 15, 2005)

Oh, almost forgot a character of mine from the same online game that my screen name comes from:

Anna Phylaxis

Yeah, so I tended to choose medical names during vet school...

R E


----------



## diaglo (Apr 15, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Don't forget the classic character Colonel Lingus...





a bard with many languages as class skills.

the ultimate Cunning Linguist.


----------



## Mark (Apr 16, 2005)

Nightchilde-2 said:
			
		

> In real life, I've seen a couple odd names.  My chemistry teacher, Mr. Head, had a son named Richard.




I knew a Richard Holder.


----------



## Mark (Apr 16, 2005)

Good advice, this...



			
				Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Quite right.  In general, I find that the folks who pick silly names often don't know what to do with names in general, or have a very different gaming style than I do.  Here's a cut and paste of some advice Ray Winninger gave in his Dungeoncraft series of articles on naming:
> 
> "Believe it or not, one of the most difficult tasks you face as Dungeon Master is dreaming up cool names for all those places, gods, monsters, and NPCs you create. As superficial as this chore might seem, nothing kills interest in an AD&D game faster than goofy
> names. The minute your players are attacked by Gargathrank the Unclean, a great deal of
> ...


----------



## Super Girl (Apr 16, 2005)

My all time favorite goofy names come from Anime, and I can never seem to work up the guts to use them, but one of these days...

Haru Glory
Heero Yuy
Quatre Winner
Milardo Peacecraft
Jibbidy Crocket
Char (the heavily scarred)
Hiro Protagonist

I think any of those would work pretty well.


----------



## Aris Dragonborn (Apr 16, 2005)

Not a lot of humorous names in our games (none printable, anyway), but I do recall that one of the guys that used to play every so often had a grippli thief that he named Thween the Hogslayer.

Oh, and I went to school with a girl named 'Windy'.


----------



## Viktyr Gehrig (Apr 16, 2005)

Joke names enrage me. Nothing sucks the joy and life out of my DMing style more than having to deal with those names.

I've *tried* talking them out of them, too-- and it comes down to either allowing them to do it or not playing.

My last couple of D&D games have featured a Githyanki Soulknife named "Linus", and a Mechanist who wanted to call herself "Kitty Pryde"-- right down to having "Shadowcat" as a military code name.

It's not so bad that they do this... it's that they try to convince me that they're being perfectly reasonable and balk when I insist they rename their characters.


----------



## Mark Hope (Apr 16, 2005)

Super Girl said:
			
		

> My all time favorite goofy names come from Anime, and I can never seem to work up the guts to use them, but one of these days...
> 
> >snip<
> Hiro Protagonist




Hey!  One of my players called himself that too!  And here's me thinking it was just him being daft and all along he stole it from anime?  Good job he got killed in such an embarrassing fashion then, I say.


----------



## reanjr (Apr 16, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Anyway, how do *you* deal with a situation like this?
> 
> 
> Alternately, what names have you heard?*




I tell them no.  And if I recognize the name of the character from some movie or book, I also say no.  I usually will suggest something to replace it in case they are having difficulty naming their character.


----------



## demiurge1138 (Apr 16, 2005)

Hiro Protagonist wasn't from an anime; he was the main character in _Snow Crash_, a pretty good quasi-cyberpunk novel.

Demiurge out.


----------



## NewJeffCTHome (Apr 16, 2005)

sniffles said:
			
		

> Somewhere back on the first page someone referred to Cao Dung as a funny name - sorry to spoil your fun, but Cao is pronounced "so".




Actually, I believe Cao is pronounced "sow", rhyming with cow... Or, more accurately, "tsow" with a very soft "t"... the literal translation is actually the F--- word in Chinese.  But, if you put it Cao Cao together, it is one of the great villains of Chinese literature from "3 Kingdoms"

But, back on topic - in my old group we had a couple of guys that tried to join the group & they'd come up with joke names to start - one was something like "Gno buddy" or 'nobody'... another guy wanted to be "Godfrey Goodguy" and, since he had a Batman obsession, ended up with Godfrey Bwayne (as in Bruce Wayne, B.Wayne.)

And, years ago when I was a young teen in 1E days in the early 80s, we had a guy that played a thief who wanted to call his PC "Lightning", but he spelled it wrong on his character sheet "Lighting" - so, we called him that all the time, both in and out of game.


----------



## PatrickLawinger (Apr 16, 2005)

Okay, I'll add a nasty one.

My neighbor introduced me to his friend, Dick Agent. Yup, this guy's parent's named their son Richard with a last name like "Agent." Later my neighbor was telling me, "Yeah, but of his three kids (who were there playing when I met him), he named his son 'Special' and one of his daughters is named 'Secret'." The remaining child, a daughter, is named Emily. Can you imagine how much Special and Secret are going to HATE baby sister Emily? I mean the oldest kid is 6 and both the ones with "bad" names are usually called by their middle name (Richard and Amy), but those kids are going to hate their parents for this in high school.

My wife knows a colo-rectal surgeon named Dr. Butts and a urologist named Dr. Foley (bit more inside humor there though).


----------



## Eli-kun (Apr 17, 2005)

I have a character named *Fluffy* . He's a half orc barbarian. He has that name because an elf decided to keep him as a pet.

Other names I've seen,
Lixer (Gnome Illusionist)
Jutsu(for a samurai. Jutsu means technique)


----------



## Raging Epistaxis (Apr 17, 2005)

PatrickLawinger said:
			
		

> ...a urologist named Dr. Foley (bit more inside humor there though).



Not that odd, when you consider that the Foley catheter was most likely named for the guy who invented it, most likely a urologist as well...

R E


----------



## Olgar Shiverstone (Apr 17, 2005)

I've served with a Sergeant Sergeant, a Sergeant Major, and a Chaplain Blessing over the course of my career.

Luckily, in my game the joke names only stick to familiars and animal companions ... Red the Fox, Pony the Riding Lizard, etc.


----------



## Viktyr Gehrig (Apr 17, 2005)

Eli-kun said:
			
		

> I have a character named *Fluffy* . He's a half orc barbarian. He has that name because an elf decided to keep him as a pet.




 I actually played a Shadowrun character by this name; he was a troll who'd had extensive "exotic" biomods. The name-- and the biomods-- were part of his background and explained a good deal of both his training and his personality.

 Just because a name is silly doesn't mean it's a joke name; it just has to be justified in-game, and recognized as being a silly name.


----------



## Trevalon Moonleirion (Apr 17, 2005)

My friend made a character for a one shot who was named Pendulum. She threw burning cats at people.

I just noticed in my choir's program yesterday that a fellow choirmate and author of said program slipped "Michael Okkizbig" into the Bass I section...

I used Jack Daniels as the name of a merchant in one of my games.


----------



## pogre (Apr 17, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Anyway, how do *you* deal with a situation like this?
> 
> 
> Alternately, what names have you heard?*




I bong the name. Unless it is a silly themed campaign, I have no problem telling a player to forget a name for a character.

In looser campaigns I don't mind at all. Example: Wulf Ratbane played the infamous Shubba Goatboy through one of my adventures.


----------



## Mad Mac (Apr 17, 2005)

For real life examples, I only have one. Somewhere in Illinois, there is a practicing male gynecologist named Dr. Grabener.


----------



## Raging Epistaxis (Apr 20, 2005)

Thought of a couple more real life examples:

Dunno if he's still there, but there was an Anesthesiologist at UICVM when I was going through school named Dr. Tranquilli.

A classmate of ours last name was Payne.  Haven't seen her lately to ask if she gets much grief for being Dr. Payne.

And my wife says a friend of hers had a therapist named Dr. Brain.

I wonder if his assistant's last name was Pinky?

R E


----------



## Emperor Valerian (Apr 20, 2005)

Well, it seems that in many of the games I DM, I am the one guilty of coming up with bad names, mostly for NPCs.

Last campaign:
 - Sir Santac Lawes (he appeared the session before Christmas... big jolly bearded soldier who was missing most of his teeth)

This campaign:
 - Won Wei (NPC wizard, semi-advisor when PCs need help)


My players have also gotten into the mix as well.  Last campaign we had a rogue named Shaun Dice (who constantly asked to be called Mr. Dice as he was a betting man).  This session we have a rogue named Felonca... which often has the emphasis put on the first syllable...


----------



## vulcan_idic (Apr 20, 2005)

I like puns, so no big problem there, but I prefer things that are tastefuly, silly or not.

I have a character in the game I'm currently running (we were short in players and they didn't mind) - a changeling character named Delta Morphous.  It actually took me about a week and a half to realize his initials were DM due to the fact that I kept thinking of his name as a kind of scientific notation with the delta being the the greek letter (similar to the whole acceleration = delta velocity / delta time).  I still think of him as delta sub M.

My mother knew a person when she was in school whose full name was Misty Morning Woods.  I think she sounds like a druid or a ranger myself.


----------



## sniffles (Apr 20, 2005)

*"3. Don't be afraid to use English names.

*For some reason, many people presume that AD&D character and place names should
consist of random, nonsensical syllables. What's wrong with good, old-fashioned English
names? What sounds better to you-The Knights of Gligathrax, or the Knights of the
Blood Throne? Similarly, Jason, Elaine, and Thomas are all perfectly good character
names."


I *hate* that!!  It's one of my pet peeves.  If I'm adventuring on Oerth or Toril I expect the names to sound Baklunish or Thayan or whatever, not American!

My group is starting a new Forgotten Realms campaign, and one of my fellow players has decided to name his character Roland.  I've even given him lists of names, but it doesn't help.

Sigh.


----------



## Dagger75 (Apr 20, 2005)

I had a guy who wanted to play and Archmage, the wizards name  Zippy.  As in Zippo Lighter, he was a fire mage.  I said no.

 I admit I had a gnome named Feldspar Balderdash.

 Common names don't really bother me for human characters in fantasy seetings.  I can see a David the human fighter before I would let a David the Elf fighter in.


----------



## Mogwaimon (Apr 21, 2005)

*Hmm*

My friend recently rented Champions of Norrath for PS2 and my Human Barbarian is Pisspot McGuinness and his lizard (Don't remember the exact racial name) shaman is Smokey McPot.

Other than that, I don't have many other joke names readily available


----------



## apesamongus (Apr 21, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Every GM winds up dealing with this sooner or later.  Most of the group has decided, formally or otherwise, to tackle the campaign (this time around, anyway) in a "serious" roleplaying manner



Nope, never dealt with a situation like that, and hopefully never will.

As for names, I liked "Willie Cherkmiov".


----------



## WizarDru (Apr 21, 2005)

sniffles said:
			
		

> I *hate* that!! It's one of my pet peeves. If I'm adventuring on Oerth or Toril I expect the names to sound Baklunish or Thayan or whatever, not American!
> 
> My group is starting a new Forgotten Realms campaign, and one of my fellow players has decided to name his character Roland. I've even given him lists of names, but it doesn't help.
> 
> Sigh.



American?  I think you'd be suprised how many names you _think_ are 'American' are actually very old...some far older than the medieval period, by a long, long margin.  Roland, for example is from old German....and more than just the hero bore the name, just like King Arthur wasn't the only man to bear his name.


----------



## Bront (Apr 21, 2005)

Dagger75 said:
			
		

> I admit I had a gnome named Feldspar Balderdash.




Gnomes are supposed to have weird names.  In fact, they are often supposed to have a multitude of names, so having a few "Joke" names fits a gnome well.  However, they should be somewhat relivent to the setting, not pop culture references.


----------



## Turanil (Apr 21, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Anyway, how do *you* deal with a situation like this?



My players generally don't care about their PCs' names and adopt the first idiocy that cross their mind. In the last game I ran, a one shot, one of the players immediately came up with a japanese name with an India surname (for a traditional heroic fantasy setting with elves and druids). I SAID NO!!! Next campaign, I am coming up with lists of names for each race. It's a long and tedious work but a necessary one.


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Apr 21, 2005)

Turanil said:
			
		

> My players generally don't care about their PCs' names and adopt the first idiocy that cross their mind. In the last game I ran, a one shot, one of the players immediately came up with a japanese name with an India surname (for a traditional heroic fantasy setting with elves and druids). I SAID NO!!! Next campaign, I am coming up with lists of names for each race. It's a long and tedious work but a necessary one.




Good idea. I believe if a DM is going to be anal-retentive about player names, he may as well spend some time & effort coming up with a catalog of viable names.


----------



## carrot (Apr 21, 2005)

I once had a teacher with the unfortunate name of Wayne Kerr. His parents must have hated him...


----------



## sniffles (Apr 21, 2005)

WizarDru said:
			
		

> American? I think you'd be suprised how many names you _think_ are 'American' are actually very old...some far older than the medieval period, by a long, long margin. Roland, for example is from old German....and more than just the hero bore the name, just like King Arthur wasn't the only man to bear his name.




No, I know where Roland comes from.  I guess I should have said Earth instead of American.  I suppose it could be worse - at least he didn't name his character Bob or Charlie or something really recognizable.  I just object to using common real-world names.  OTOH, when two players played Baklunish characters in a Greyhawk game and chose Hindi names, I didn't object to that.

The guy who's playing Roland also has a gnome druid in another game named Thyrothorus Ludovicianus.  It's the Latin name for the Carolina wren, which is appropriate as he's gone into the bird lord prestige class.


----------



## Elemental (Apr 21, 2005)

When coming up with NPC's for an upcoming game, I went with the names Garamond, Lucida, Tahoma and Verdana. Which sounded pretty good, until I realised I'd been naming them after MS Word fonts.

I kept them anyway.

The closest I can come up with is a _Buffy_ character, a Watcher called Galadriel Eowyn Bancroft--but that was intentionally a terrible name, that she desperately tried to keep from becoming common knowledge, going simply by 'Gala'.


----------



## Raging Epistaxis (Apr 22, 2005)

sniffles said:
			
		

> The guy who's playing Roland also has a gnome druid in another game named _Thyrothorus Ludovicianus._  It's the Latin name for the Carolina wren, which is appropriate as he's gone into the bird lord prestige class.




Oh, speaking of scientific names, I had forgotten a 1Ed char of mine: _Procyon lotor. _ 

Guess what class?


----------



## Patryn of Elvenshae (Apr 22, 2005)

Hmmm... I'd go with a Level 10 Trashcan Burglar!


----------



## Bran Blackbyrd (Apr 22, 2005)

Elemental said:
			
		

> When coming up with NPC's for an upcoming game, I went with the names Garamond, Lucida, Tahoma and Verdana. Which sounded pretty good, until I realised I'd been naming them after MS Word fonts.
> 
> I kept them anyway.




Good for you. I really wanted to name an NPC (an herbalist one of the PCs was apprenticed to) Helvetica, but wimped out and changed it. In retrospect, my players probably wouldn't have recognized it as a font name.


----------



## Scarbonac (Apr 22, 2005)

I don't give a wet slap about names that my players come up with, generally; I've had a "Winky the Elf", "Everest", "Alexandrite", "Vassal" and "Velcro Rayon" IMC, and it hasn't detracted from the game in the slightest.  

As a player and a DM, I use a mix of real-world and made-up names without a care in the world.

Speaking of real-world names, I had a dentist named Dr. Richard Dick. And he named his son (who took over the practice) Richard, as well.


----------



## WampusCat43 (Apr 22, 2005)

My players hate to name their _own _ characters.  In desperation, I named one archer-elf type "Dextrous", and now Dex is our longest-running character.  I whipped up a 9th-level character from scratch for a noob and called him "Boflex", thinking he'd surely rename it to something more 'realistic'.  Nope.

Who cares?  It's a lot easier for me to remember in the heat of battle and that's more important.


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 22, 2005)

WampusCat43 said:
			
		

> Who cares?  It's a lot easier for me to remember in the heat of battle and that's more important.



Some games actually go deeper than the heat of battle.


----------



## Frostmarrow (Apr 22, 2005)

Olgar Shiverstone said:
			
		

> I've served with a Sergeant Sergeant, a Sergeant Major, and a Chaplain Blessing over the course of my career.
> 
> Luckily, in my game the joke names only stick to familiars and animal companions ... Red the Fox, Pony the Riding Lizard, etc.





This reminds me of Major Major Major in Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Major Major was named by a father who didn't particulary like having a son. When Major Major enlisted to fight in WWII a computer made a mistake promoting Major Major to Major immediately. Major Major's superiors refused to either promote or demote him as that would ruin the joke.


----------



## JimAde (Apr 22, 2005)

Silly names I've run into or been responsible for:

Flavius Pertussus
Frito Dingleballs
Jeremy Tinglespit
Paul Maul the Midnight Blue Knight
Nummybang Getsomesize (long story)

But in my current games, nobody has silly names and in fact I go to a lot of work to make the names sound right for the culture/language they come from.  Some are real-world names and some are made up.

Fortunately, I've never been afflicted with players who insist on silly names in serious campaigns.


----------



## kenobi65 (Apr 22, 2005)

Some of the goofy names from the Verbobonc Living Greyhawk PC Registry... 

(Keep in mind we have a lot of gnomes in Verbobonc)

- Captain Prostate
- Pinky Bottomtoes
- Bambi La Bomba
- Don Bardo (undoubtely based on Don Pardo, the old Saturday Night Live announcer)
- Guck the Mushroom King
- Leofa the Bunny
- Little Miss Underfoot
- Orphius Tinglehop Beefcake Mcfly Esquire
- Princess Poo Poo Moo Moo Spinesplitter
- Seeminglysilentswanstalkingavelvetnight
- Seeyaseeyawoodnotwannabeeya Onamonapeia (same player as the previous one)
- Smushy Love
- Stabby Quickfingers
- Swanny Swan-Swan
- Tig O'Bitties


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 22, 2005)

kenobi65 said:
			
		

> Some of the goofy names from the Verbobonc Living Greyhawk PC Registry...



Of course some people would include Verbobonc itself on that list as a pretty silly name.    

It does sound vaguely like a euphemism for "doing it."


----------



## kenobi65 (Apr 22, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Of course some people would include Verbobonc itself on that list as a pretty silly name.
> 
> It does sound vaguely like a euphemism for "doing it."




True.  I think "Verbobonc" is a Sniglet for "doing it with a linguist."


----------



## sniffles (Apr 22, 2005)

Okay, so I'm a horrible nitpicker when it comes to certain types of names in serious games, but I can go with a silly name or two under the right circumstances.

We're getting ready to run a nautical-themed one-shot this weekend.  I was considering calling my halfling swashbuckler Fletcher or Ishmael, but after viewing a website on how to talk like a pirate, I've settled on Jolyon Rodgers.


----------



## Vargo (Apr 22, 2005)

I'm running a female human druid named Liu Xie, who has kaledascope eyes - oddly enough, the character started off during development as a male with kaledascope eyes, WITH the name Liu Xie, but when I noticed the pun I'd made inadvertantly, I pretty much instantly switched over to female.

GM knows, and is fine with it.  It's clever, and it's not overt.


----------



## Cyronax (Apr 22, 2005)

I'm still reading through this entertaining thread, but I thought I'd relate two genuine embarrassing names that I've encountered over my life. 

Mai Yung Ho (a poor Filipino who went to my college) 

and

Mrs. Woodcock - I encountered this name yesterday actually, and I never caught her firstname. 

C.I.D.


----------



## Mogwaimon (Apr 22, 2005)

Vargo - I'm curious. How do you pronounce Liu Xie? The most Chinese I can pronounce is a spattering of names from RoTK, like Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and others.


----------



## Orryn Emrys (Apr 23, 2005)

It's been about fifteen years since I allowed silly names to make their way into my games, but I remember a few from back then.  Most notably, a sage named Professor Noeital... and I had a girlfriend who named a character Adolf Oliver Nippel... say it out loud... it's awful....


----------



## Vargo (Apr 23, 2005)

Mogwaimon said:
			
		

> Vargo - I'm curious. How do you pronounce Liu Xie? The most Chinese I can pronounce is a spattering of names from RoTK, like Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and others.




I pronounce it Leeoo-Shee, because of the inherent pun.  I know that 'X' in Chinese is more of a cross between 'x' and 'sh'.  I don't know much more about Chinese than that.  Now, if you start me on Japanese, I'm all over that...


----------



## Nuclear Platypus (Apr 23, 2005)

Well I know of a guy named John John and I hope his parents weren't cruel to give him the middle name of John.

There was a threat of naming my grandniece either Mercedes Lexus or even worse Summer Eve. What's worse, it was my sister trying to convince them! If you can find it, there's a song by Shirley Q. Licker called "Who is My Baby's Daddy?" to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

When I first entertained the thought of running an OA game, one friend wanted a character named Ped Xing. He's also the creator of Joelarryndave, a pc run by him and his brother (one always worked so the personality changed as did the character's tattoo) tho I can't remember others offhand. Another member of our group had all of his characters, regardless of race, have the family name Farrell while the first name was from a basketball player. IIRC, his favorite was Hakeem Farrell.

I had: 
Opec Johnson, whipwielding tombraider
Klaatu B. Nikto (kender)
Akuna Atata (yeah, it was a passing phase so no worries)
the short lived Rupert Ignacious Pendleton III (also a kender)
Humperdink H(umperdink) Humperdink III, a high elven lineman from my Blood Bowl team
Mozzell Toff (I think), wood elf lineman
the wood elf brothers, Lawrence, Darrell and Darryl Kowalski (My name's Larry. This is my brother Darrell and this is my other brother Darryl)
my Chaos team had beastmen named after diseases and warriors named after antibiotics I think
one Skaven team was named after cheeses while another was named after the Draconians 
Oh, I had to give my rat ogre a name to strike fear into my opponents so the most fearsome name I could think of was... Buttons!


----------



## William Ronald (Apr 23, 2005)

I have seen some bad names, such as Typewriterus Ringerus and worse.

I think that the advice that Joshua Dyal gave from Ray Wenninger's Dungeoncraft articles was quite good.

Additonally, consider the Internet as a resource.  I have a few naming related links in the Maps and Other Campaign Resources in my thread.  In particular, I would like to recommend a very good linguistic web site: MyDictionary.com.  The site has links to many foreign languages from around the world.  Also, there are links for such artificial languages as Sindarin and Klingon. 

Perhaps one consideration about names is one that applies to many elements of a good game: Does the name (or description, event) contribute or at least not interfere with the flow of a game.  Some bad names will probably disrupt the feel of a given game.  I realize there is a long tradition of bad names and puns in gaming products.  (See the World of Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms for a few examples. )  Yet I like to think that it is up to a GM and the players to give a campaign a feel of fun and perhaps some internal consistency.  So, having a party of Baklunish adventurers in Greyhawk with such names as Adnan, Turhan, and Vashti might give an air of the exotic.  However, having a character with the name Hardli Ben Sober, Upchuk the Barbarian or Princess Oolala tends to distract from the adventure.  (The first name is from an old Three Stooges short, and the last two are from an old Dragon article on names that I remember reading ages ago.  Some problems in gaming seem to be chronic.)


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Apr 23, 2005)

I'd be much happier with a "Hardli Ben Sober" in my campaign than some nigh-unpronounceable Klingon name. _Klingon?_ I mean, I like Star Trek, don't get me wrong....


----------



## William Ronald (Apr 23, 2005)

Lasher Dragon said:
			
		

> I'd be much happier with a "Hardli Ben Sober" in my campaign than some nigh-unpronounceable Klingon name. _Klingon?_ I mean, I like Star Trek, don't get me wrong....





As I recall, there is still a Star Trek RPG.  Some Klingon names that were used in the various series, such as Kahless, Martok, and Kor are fairly easy to work with.  I think one additional guideline for names is to make sure you can say it.

There was a wonderful skit in an old Doctor Who episode that explained why names need to be pronouncable -- and quick to pronounce in an emergency.  It went something like this.

The Doctor:  What is your name? (This was in the first episode of the Key to Time series, when the Doctor learns that the White Guardian has decided he will have a female Time Lord as a companion.)

Female Time Lord:  Romanadvoratrelundar.

The Doctor.  That won't do at all.  I'll call you Romana.

Female Time Lord:  Why?

The Doctor:  Because by the time I say "Romanadvoratrelundar, behind you!", something horrible could sneak up behind you.  So, I will call you Romana.  Or Fred.

Female Time Lord:  I like Fred.

The Doctor:  Come along, _Romana_!


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Apr 23, 2005)

LMAO Good point


----------



## Particle_Man (Apr 23, 2005)

1) Catch-22  The name was Major Major Major before he joined the army.  Then he gained his rank and become Major Major Major Major.

2) I nearly named an elf Keebler but wimped out.

3) My DM wanted a paladin name that meant swift of foot.  Pedo- means foot, right?  So, without him knowing what it meant, the campaign had an NPC paladin named Sir Pederast.

4) My sister Sarah has a boyfriend whose last name is Lee.  She will not be taking his name.  

5) My one and only Everquest character (the computer game -- found out I get "carsick" so stopped) was a Barbarian named "Duncan Donuts".

6) I has a cleric named Boing.  I was 10.  It was my first character that did not die in one session.


----------



## VirgilCaine (Apr 23, 2005)

Nuclear Platypus said:
			
		

> Mozzell Toff (I think), wood elf lineman




Of course, don't forget his half-brother, the half-orc Mollo Toff, a well-known drunkard [hard liquor only, though].


----------



## Mark CMG (Oct 21, 2005)

Any new ones?  I could use a laugh or two...


----------



## Agback (Oct 21, 2005)

DreadPirateMurphy said:
			
		

> I woman I used to work with had a client named Richard Head.  He named his son Richard Head, Jr.




The head prefect in my year at high school was named Richard Head. He was also captain of the First XV and the First XI, and no-one _ever_ called him 'Dick'.


----------



## Bront (Oct 21, 2005)

Agback said:
			
		

> The head prefect in my year at high school was named Richard Head. He was also captain of the First XV and the First XI, and no-one _ever_ called him 'Dick'.



Ok, what is the First XV and First XI?


----------



## shilsen (Oct 21, 2005)

Since Agback's from Australia, I'm guessing the First XI is for cricket. First XV I'm not sure of. Rugby? Australian Rules Football?


----------



## Aris Dragonborn (Oct 21, 2005)

The last time I ran Star Wars, one of my players wanted to play a Jawa Dark Jedi, dressed as Darth Vader, and name him 'Mini-Me'.


----------



## Tarangil (Oct 21, 2005)

Lazybones said:
			
		

> In my Asian campaign, I simply made it a rule--no names that are silly plays on words (Wong Wei was the example I used in my Player's Guide), or are profane or insulting. Thus far no one's submitted anything egregious.




I had a Buddy of mine in an Asian Campaign (back in the 1E 2E days) play a monk in which he aptly named: _Yamanakesamanakechowmein_.  As silly as the name was he was a pretty kick ass monk.

The Bard in our group was: _Fugi_ The Wonderful


----------



## Templetroll (Oct 21, 2005)

I once told my GM I was going against type and would play a 'serious gnome'.  He said "Right."  I created the character and he asked what it's name was.

"Jedediah Bumblebutt, and this is his mule Amarylis.  He's  a prospector and has Spit Tobacco Juice as a ranged attack."  

I never tried that again.  The character died, but the mule survived which was really unusual.


----------



## Gutboy Barrelhouse (Oct 21, 2005)

Heh, a guy in my gaming group (who knows nothing about NASCAR) accidentally bumped into Dick Trickle in a bar in Florida, made Dick spill his drink. My buddy apologized got Dick another drink and introduces himself. Dick told him his name and my friend, who was a bit buzzed, started laughing hysterically - "Good one! C'mon, what's your REAL name?". Dick was not amused and my buddy got out of there quick!

In the gaming group we've had the usual silliness with names, and it's never been a problem.
- Craven Moorehead
- Emerson Bigguns
- Hoo Flung Pu
- Supar Kup Adubi
- A campaign where all the characters were named after members of the Eagles! I played "Timby". i.e., Timothy B. Schmitt.


----------



## StupidSmurf (Oct 21, 2005)

In my campaign, I had to enforce the Dumb Name Syndrome (or DNS for short), in which I decided that if anyone was going to give their target...er..PC a dumb name, that it was a sign that the player wasn't taking the campaign seriously, and thus would be marked for an early death. That may sound horrifyingly stifling to some, but the bulk of my players were grateful for it.   Kept things focused...

Anyways....when it came to "off-kilter" names, they were divided into three groups. The first was the people who named their characters after already established fictional characters, or people from the Bible. In my campaign, I've had...

Aragorn
Isildur
Strider
Samwise
Gollum
Rohan
Galadriel
Covenant
Menion
Balinor
Galahad
Tristram
Brother Maynard
Asterix
Panoramix
Melchizidek

Then there were the inept names
Sneeky the Thief
Ripoff the Thief
Revela the Bard
Temptra (!?!?!) the Paladin
Snivel and Sneeze (a pair of fighters)
Arogwen (a female Aragorn)
Ellechim (spell it backwards)
Lemrac (spell it backwards)
We had a player named Tim, who named his cleric...Tim
And some guy named his high fantasy AD&D thief...Frank
Wench
Lazer

Then there were the out and out dumb names
Pleighwood the Druid
Logan Ford (followed by a Roman numeral) (He was brave as Logan from Logan's Run, and as clumsy as Gerald Ford).
Nerd
Bogus
Tonka the Barbarian  (he was built Tonka tough...although I guess I shouldn't complain...the guy went off to write some episodes of X-Files and Angel)

Then there were the just...odd names...not necessarily bad ones...just...odd
For instance, my daughter named one of her early characters Calista Froststar...I kept calling her Calista Flockheart, and wanted to throw some food at her.
Two players in my campaign, both of them guys named John, each created a Wizard named Marcus, ten years apart real time. When both guys eventually played in the same session, it was a riot for me to DM them.

ME: OK, Marcus gets hit for 12 hit points
John and John: Which one?
ME: Marcus the Wizard.
John and John: Which one?
ME: Yours, John...
John and John: Which one?

As a DM, the only time I give my NPCs ridiculous names is if they're either a) insane, b) using a nickname, or c) a gnome.

My favorite gnome NPC:

Chuckoblottotarquinwimbimlimberstopftangftangolebiscuitbarrel Assclown IV. Chucko for short.

My favorite gnome PC names that others used:

Berfy Germaine Zurubbabel
Isabella Leatherlungs Dragonbooger Knucklebone


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## KRT (Oct 21, 2005)

TheAuldGrump said:
			
		

> I went to school with a girl named Mary Christmas... her sister's name was Holly - I think that the parents should have been shot!




My mothers maiden name is Christmas, fortunatley her parents were neither cruel nor stupid.

In campaigns I have played there have been some weird ones'
(Sir) Endor Ordye
Hans Upsucker
Canon Phodder
(Sir) Tain Doom
Anon Imus
Black N. Decker
Isabel (Isa) Tope
Gaye Asso


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## Tarangil (Oct 21, 2005)

I believe a rogue in another party of mine had the name of _Slick 50_


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## bluemoonfalc (Oct 21, 2005)

Back in the days of the Ultima I-IV computer games, my older brother would name his characters after floppy disk brands.  So, Opus wasn't that bad a name, and Maxell was pretty cool.  But he just went too far when he named a character 3M


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## vulcan_idic (Oct 21, 2005)

The more I read these wierd names, the more I think having a joke name wouldn't really be a problem, for me at least.  At first it might be a little wierd, funny or whatever, but by the third week when the name is repeated 50 times in game, it would cease to be funny and just be part of the game.  All jokes have the humor wear off after telling it too many times and at the rate character names are used in game I would think that would happen in fairly short order.  But that's just me.


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## Aidan mac Culloch (Oct 21, 2005)

In keeping with what was just said, you can get used to weird PC names.

I just started a campagin in FR where the PCs are started as street-urchin/thug types.  The names?

Teeth (a druid with poor dental hygiene, no last name)
Filthy (a rogue who refuses to bathe, also no last name)
Xorn Beoland (a swashbuckler who desparately wants to act above his station in life, often with comical effect)

After adjusting to the names for a short time, they seem natural now.  Helps that they fit well with the character concepts.


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## Chiaroscuro23 (Oct 21, 2005)

der_kluge said:
			
		

> I've never really encountered this, but I have a problem with the exact opposite. It's just a hang-up I have.
> 
> By this, I'm referring to overly common, non-fantastical names.  A character in a short campaign I ran several years ago when we took a month-long break, made a character with this story about how he his mother was a gypsy, and cursed, and gave birth to a man/cow, who by all appearances was a minotaur. I found his story interesting, and clever, so I allowed his character. His name?  David?




Well, David is the name of a hero with semi-magical abilities in Jewish myth, so the name isn't too terribly unrelated. It's probably no worse than naming him Hercules, Roland, or Gilgamesh.


That said, it does seem a little odd because it's also a name in current use. Similarly, I had a friend name his fighter "Alfred" because he was studying Alfred the Great in history at college. But everyone at the table didn't get that, and when the PC was first introduced said "Why the **** are you named after Batman's butler?" So it didn't have quite the effect he was looking for.

Other than that, we've had nary a "Feelius Uppicus" since high school, other than in X-Crawl, which is meant to be silly. I named my dwarven cleric Evander Hackenslash. But Hackenslash is just his stage name. His real surname is "axebeard".

-C.


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## jdrakeh (Oct 21, 2005)

I had this happen a lot, inevitably in a campaign that was supposed to be serious. I'd always have one or two 'grief players' bent on turning an otherwise serious game into a running series of dick and fart jokes. I kicked them out of the play group. Problem solved!


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## Mark CMG (Oct 21, 2005)

jdrakeh said:
			
		

> I had this happen a lot, inevitably in a campaign that was supposed to be serious. I'd always have one or two 'grief players' bent on turning an otherwise serious game into a running series of dick and fart jokes.





_Such as...?_


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## jdrakeh (Oct 21, 2005)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> _Such as...?_





I recall...

Mr. Nuckinfutz as a Shadowrunner's name. Ooooooooooh yeah... lots of street cred there. I responded to that name just as I assumed a fixer would "Mr... yeeeeeeah. Get out of my office." Eventually the player chose a name that was credible fror somebody who wanted to be taken seriously. 

Guido Wop. Not only really unfunny, but also uncharacteristically racist. A character in a Vampire: Dark Ages chronicle, IIRC. Giovanni. The player was warned about their choice of name. The Prince (also Givoanni) was a little insulted. It didn't help when the player decided to 'ham it up' by introducing a pair of Ghoul retainers named 'Whoosa Wop' and 'Ura Wop' respectively. Kack! Kack! Kack!

Homer Segsual, the flaming gay, Greek swordsman (portrayed, oddly enough, by a flaming gay man of Grecian descent). Would have actually been a cool character if not played like a _complete_ stereotype - it ended up being the player's 'everything is a gay joke waiting to happen' attitude that got him ejected from the game, rather than Homer's actual name or sexual orientation (which could have been overlooked). 

Dick Master. From beyond the mists of time, I summon thee. A Doctor Strange rip-off in a supposedly serious Marvel Superheroes campaign. The property of the very mysterious, pagan grief player, who 'put a hex on me' when he was ejected from the game for repeatedly attempting to summon 'peenar demons'. But nary a drop in the pan compared to...

CAPTAIN ! This wasn't actually a character in one of my games, but in a game that friend ran. The good Captain was intentionlly designed to cause a female player grief in a Hero system (Champions) campaign. 4d Spooge Entagle Attack! 'Nuff said.


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## Sabathius42 (Oct 22, 2005)

My current characters name is....

Randalf the Grey (cloistered cleric/wizard)

I am a pun namer...and I am proud of it.

Some other names I have used/seen used

Jonathan (Necromancer.  Stolen from Xanth)

Metamucil (cleric)

Paddlewoddle Bing of Dutwuff Manor (gnome)

Death II (who would always get people to ask him what happened to Death I so he could say "I killed him!")

Uziwielding Ninja Duck (TMNT....ninja duck)

Beefeater Ninja of Windsor (named after the palace guard beefeaters, not eaters of beef)

The Inept Mystical Eskimo Ninja (Try coming up with a name for a Marvel character that randomly had the ultimate fighting unarmed and the ice generation power that only worked half the time)

Grarg Goresplatter (Torg character that gave himself a voluntary lobotomy and only took combat skills)

Six (A generic Star Wars NPC grunt that somehow lived to the end of the adventure.  He was given character points and became a pretty handy guy.  One, Two, Three, Four, and Five all perished.)

Splard the Lardy Bard (who played steel drums and had dreadlocks)

DS


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## amazingshafeman (Oct 22, 2005)

I have a friend named Anya Couch.  The same school we attended also had a Star Dust and Moon Dust twins.  My younger brother was *almost* named Justin Thyme DeRyke.  hehe.

Character wise, I had a gnome with so many names the party introduced him as G-Leaf rather than letting him babble.  There's another gnome in the campaign I'm DMing named Zeke Boodlecock.

Same campaign, there's a Fog Bog nearby, and the PCs first near death experience came in the metropolitan city called Croakus.  They made me change the spelling to Crocus after that.


----------



## Aaron L (Oct 22, 2005)

and I thought my monk/fighter dual weilding swordsman who drank too much coffee and was named Java Ginsu was bad.  (no, he was cool!)


Other than that weve been pretty darn good with names.  Actually, I guess I was the worst offender.  This one guy would run game severy so often, and they were just so utterly DULL and pointless, that I couldnt bring myself to even waste the mental effort to make an actual name for teh characters.  Thus, while stopping at the store right before the game, Skoal Longcut recieved his name (from a family of lumberjacks.)  And later, i thought i would play a short fat wizard in plaid in his next game, and so I drew a quick picture and labelled it "Chester"  I showed it to everyone, and the consesus was that his name was "Chester Hymen" or "Chester the Molester"  He looked like Newman from Seinfeld.    


No, this wasnt usual behavior or me, and I am truly full of shame over it.  But damn those games sucked.  I had to at least get a laugh out of it.


But Java Ginsu is a cool name!




Now, my aunt Diana married a man whos last name is Diana, and so her name is Diana Diana.
Thats teh weirdest real name I know.


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## Mark CMG (Nov 26, 2006)

Any new additions for the list?  Comments to add about the frequency or use of joke names by PCs or as NPCs?  Any new rules regarding their use?


----------



## rgard (Nov 26, 2006)

Mark said:
			
		

> "Like Biggus Dic..."
> 
> Every GM winds up dealing with this sooner or later.  Most of the group has decided, formally or otherwise, to tackle the campaign (this time around, anyway) in a "serious" roleplaying manner but one player isn't on board.  Oh, he creates a formidable enough character to pull his own weight but when it finally gets down to naming him he goes with "Phil McKraken" or "Clamidia Underall" or "Lance Pokenprod" or...
> 
> ...




In 3e I'm guilty of a slew of characters named 'Robert'...pronounced 'Roe Bear' a la francaise.  There is Robert the Jedi Guardian, Robert the Battlesorcerer, Robert the Spellcaster, and Robert the other Battlesorcerer.

In 1e, my MU had several orc henchmen named after Elliot Ness' agents (from the Untouchables TV series with Robert Stack...hmmm Robert?)  I remember 'Chico' and 'Youngblood' being two of the orc names.

Thanks,
Rich


----------



## rgard (Nov 26, 2006)

Chiaroscuro23 said:
			
		

> Well, David is the name of a hero with semi-magical abilities in Jewish myth, so the name isn't too terribly unrelated. It's probably no worse than naming him Hercules, Roland, or Gilgamesh.
> 
> 
> That said, it does seem a little odd because it's also a name in current use. Similarly, I had a friend name his fighter "Alfred" because he was studying Alfred the Great in history at college. But everyone at the table didn't get that, and when the PC was first introduced said "Why the **** are you named after Batman's butler?" So it didn't have quite the effect he was looking for.
> ...




Possibly not myth:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/9/King David and Jerusalem- Myth and Reality

You should probably refrain from the 'myth' comments given how emotive religious discussions can be and that we are not supposed to discuss that here.

Thanks,
Rich


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## Set (Nov 26, 2006)

> While at medical school we had an oncologist who specialized in hospice care and end of life pain management. His name was Dr. Payne.




We had a pair of ob/gyns working downtown named Dr. Hacker and Dr. Payne.

Yikes.



> a squad mate named Thomas Wolfe who named his children Timber and Lone....Wow




I kinda like those ones, but the rest of the ones in this thread are just scary.

Worst real-name I've heard was a nice young girl named Auralee (pronounced 'orally').

In-game, my worst offenses were naming a mage after reading some Lovecraft book about a place named Celephais, and trying to mix it up by switching the 'l' and the 'ph' around.

So yes, he was from then on known as Syphilis the Elf...

I had a GURPS knight named Sir Justin Perchance, and everyone insisted on putting a pause inbetween Justin and Perchance, and ending it with a question mark.  Sir Justin, perchance?

I grouped with a Brujah pro-wrestler in an otherwise serious Vampire game named Crunch Ironjock (inspired by MST3K).

I named my Thri-Kreen in Dark Sun Tkl'ti Ch'ktla (pronounced tik-lur-ti chik-t-lah).

Some extra-dimensional V&V character had the name Shiv Yrtul Ban-Mak Erehaven.  He explained that only part of that was personal name, and his people had to include an 'address' in their name so that they could find each other in their extra-dimensional travels.


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## Cedric (Nov 26, 2006)

Just two days ago I told the Swashbuckler in my upcoming game that the character was fine, but the name Innigo Montoya had to go.


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## Mark CMG (Nov 26, 2006)

Cedric said:
			
		

> Just two days ago I told the Swashbuckler in my upcoming game that the character was fine, but the name Innigo Montoya had to go.




I think sometimes people take on names and character personas without quite realizing that even they will grow quickly tired of keeping up the schtick.


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## Cedric (Nov 26, 2006)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> I think sometimes people take on names and character personas without quite realizing that even they will grow quickly tired of keeping up the schtick.




If I'm running a humorous game, I actually don't mind at all. But since I planned a semi-serious game, I'm shooting down silly names and concepts.


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## ^Graff (Nov 26, 2006)

The only time that I've ever had a DM complain about a name was in a Swashbuckling Adventures campaign.  Since my character was from Avalon, I decided to mix and match the names of two famous English people, Oliver Twist and Lord Cromwell.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that Lord Cromwell was Lord Oliver Cromwell, and my DM, who has a degree in Military History, forbade it.  I ended up settling for John Eric: Adventurer, and he didn't get the pun (probably because he'd never read Al Bruno III's stories).


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## llamatron2000 (Nov 26, 2006)

....This is hilarious.  Yesterday, a friend of mine created a monk for a friend's game, freaking named his monk Barack Obama.


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## Nerfwright (Nov 26, 2006)

I once named a dwarf fighter Norman Conquest.

Waaay back in 1st ed, the brother of a regular player joined us for a single evening, and named his character 'Bob the Elf'. He was quite snooty about his elf-ness and insisted he be referred to as 'Bob the Elf' whenever spoken of in the third person. It was a howl, and he was a great player, but I don't think he ever gamed again.


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## Brimshack (Nov 26, 2006)

I've never had any problems with a joke name. Produced my fair share of them myself. When the joke gets old, people just igore it after awhile and functions just like any other name. Eventually, the established players often forget the joke of a name, and we remember when a new player shows up and starts laughing at one.

But then again, I don't know that I have ever made a conscious choice to run a SERIOUS campaign, so to speak. Oh, the games have their serious moments, but they also have quite a few moments of levity. I can't imagine trying to minimize the humorous content. If a joke gets old we just stop laughing and move one.


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## Andor (Nov 26, 2006)

I find it interesting that half this thread is people relating the horrid names that have been given to real children (a cousin of mine knew a Richard Head, frex.) And yet there is a large complement of people who find bad names ruin their in game verisimilitude.

How is it that you can believe in a dark high priestess who will torment sacrifiices, consort with demons, release undead to plauge the living, and cast great rituals to end the world, but naming their kid Ima Victem is going too far?


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## mattcolville (Nov 26, 2006)

I ran a game at work for a bunch of cow orkers, many of whom had never played D&D before.

One of them named his character Rocky Rhode. When he told me that I said "Ok, I'm just going to call you smegma."

After a few of these, and the rest of the group laughing, he changed his name.


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## Cedric (Nov 26, 2006)

mattcolville said:
			
		

> I ran a game at work for a bunch of cow orkers




Freudian typo? Or do you really just not think much of your coworkers? Hehe..


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## Rika (Nov 26, 2006)

I once met a woman named Barbara Doll. Poor woman was in her 40s at the time. 

Our worst in-game name was just weird. A fairly new player to our group once named his druid "Frog" his first spoken words to any of the characters were croaks.


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## Mark CMG (Nov 26, 2006)

I didn't know the Orkin Man was into cows . . .   










This thread just gets better and better!


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## Cedric (Nov 26, 2006)

Rika said:
			
		

> I once met a woman named Barbara Doll. Poor woman was in her 40s at the time.
> 
> Our worst in-game name was just weird. A fairly new player to our group once named his druid "Frog" his first spoken words to any of the characters were croaks.




As to real names...I knew a bank teller named Debbie Dallas. It was everything I could do to not smirk while standing in line waiting for her. 

I also knew a girl named April May June, however (and I'm not making this up), everyone called her Spring.


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## Maggan (Nov 26, 2006)

I have a group playing WFRP, a bounty hunter team. They made the characters at the start of the first session.

The first guy chose the name Wilhelm. A good name in WFRP.

The second guy chose the name Wilhelm. Hmmmm ... well, whatever.

Then the third named his guy Wilhelm, so the logical thing was to call the fourth guy Wilhelm as well.

I briefly considered vetoing the four Wilhelms, but then I figured it all fit together in my semi serious WFRP game of dark humour and absurd situations.

It worked out well.  

A bit like the Ramones, when I come to think of it.

/M


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## MonkeyDragon (Nov 26, 2006)

My mom's a nurse, and has seen such gems as Chewbacca Digs, Tequilla, and a boy whose name was pronounced shi-THEED.  It was spelled, however, in a manner that Eric's grandma would not approve of here.

As for characters, I've seen and used several silly names and mundane names.  I had a fraal sorceror named Pip (after the pips on the dice) because I had to use him faster than I thought, and blanked.  I had an elf rogue named Jack.  Ohg the half orc fighter ("Not Og, OHG!!") turned out one of my best characters ever.  I've also had plenty of random NPC Bobs and such.

I've seen NPCs with all kinds of silly or common modern names.  Sometimes they break the mood, sometimes they don't.  I've seen a player name a character Verlander (after the baseball player), and the same player inadvertantly named a character after a feminine personal device.  Another player had heard of the device in question (go internet!) and teased him mercilessly until he changed it.  The teaser has, in my most recent campaign, named his character Blackleaf, and his goal is to hunt down Jack Chick, who is either a bad guy from his past, or some sort of mysterious monster (I forget which).

I don't freak out over odd names.  I don't find it worth it.  Sure I might sigh and try to talk a player out of something truly obnoxious (though I've never had to), but I'm not going to wig out because someone chooses a name with a different feel than the naming conventions of the area they're in/from.  

I also don't have a problem with names used in modern english, especially those that were in use a long time ago.  In fact, I would rather see people with names like Maggie, Jack, Elizabeth and David than have everyone named with long, fancy, fantastical names.  Sometimes it just sounds overdramatic to me.  A few old mercanaries named Bob never hurt anyone.  

And every village in my world has an old man named Plah Took.  Every one.


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## Paradigm (Nov 26, 2006)

Vagisil Monostat

And the natural progression of bad Pendragon names:

Kumfrance
Osis
Kull
Kumsyzed
Pent
Ten
Kumspect


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## Paradigm (Nov 26, 2006)

MonkeyDragon said:
			
		

> My mom's a nurse, and has seen such gems as Chewbacca Digs, Tequilla, and a boy whose name was pronounced shi-THEED.  It was spelled, however, in a manner that Eric's grandma would not approve of here.




Same name for a customer at my store.


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## jeffh (Nov 26, 2006)

The Winnipegers will no doubt appreciate my axe-wielding Bard, Bachman Turner.

One player ran two consecutive characters based on famous historical figures, Niko and Spall. (Machiavelli and St. Paul respectively; never seen one person run two such completely opposite characters with a reasonable amount of panache. They even met once, and took an instant disliking to one another.)


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## Mean Eyed Cat (Nov 26, 2006)

I tend to be the King of Bad Names in our gaming group.  I run a FR game and I introduced a hadozee jester NPC by the name of Sal Ami.  Needless to say, he annoyed the group.  Eventually, he was roasted by a fireball.

I run a mojh runethane in a friend's Arcana Evolved game.  Seeing the mojh's similarity to the Simpson's Mr. Burns, I nicknamed him "Monty"


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## Dannyalcatraz (Nov 26, 2006)

I use them on both sides of the screen, but in moderation.

Perhaps one PC in a few dozen will have a name like Sir Loin (a minotaur warrior), and only one NPC in scores will have a name like Sensei Millia (a spaced-out martial artist).

However, if someone finds a name offensive, I'd be willing to ask someone to change the PC name.

In the real world, my Mother (a music teacher) once taught a kid named Pslm Civ...that's an abbreviation of Psalm 104.

My Dad (an MD) has encountered people named Asthma, Infant, and Syphillis.

But if you really want to have fun, check out a book called "...Names" (the whole title is really long) by Paul Dickson.  In it, you'll find gems like Cookie Fortune, Mrs. Beaver Luckey, Esterline McKnuckles, and Reverend Vicesimus Lush.  Yes, those are all REAL names.


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## Nadaka (Nov 26, 2006)

I once had a backup character named Justin Case.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Nov 26, 2006)

I have a dwarf rogue named Crom Trews...but I haven't had a chance to use him on any missions, impossible or not.


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## Brimshack (Nov 26, 2006)

My brother in law is named Waites. He named his child Livio, so my sister filled in the middle name, Brian.

HWith the initials of L.B., my nephew is a 1 pound weight.


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## Philotomy Jurament (Nov 27, 2006)

I had a PC create a private investigator for Call of Cthulhu.  Dick Longfellow (yeah, not terribly original, even as a joke name).  He even had a tagline, of sorts: "Don't worry, sweetheart, when you need your own private dick, just ask for Mr. Longfellow..."

I actually let him use Dick Longfellow for a while before he was horribly mangled.


----------



## Olgar Shiverstone (Nov 27, 2006)

Sadly, no one seemed to find Tem Ashlied, human barbarian, to be particularly amusing.


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## Eela6 (Nov 27, 2006)

Baba Smith.

Baba, of course, being Grandma -

"Granny Smith."

He just shortens it to bob.


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## pawsplay (Nov 27, 2006)

kenobi65 said:
			
		

> What?  No Phil McCracken?




Raven McCracken


----------



## brehobit (Nov 27, 2006)

Rika said:
			
		

> I once met a woman named Barbara Doll. Poor woman was in her 40s at the time.
> 
> Our worst in-game name was just weird. A fairly new player to our group once named his druid "Frog" his first spoken words to any of the characters were croaks.



In a "variant earth" game we had a Frenchman who was called "The Frog"...


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## megamania (Nov 27, 2006)

Recently I had a player insist on naming his Thri-kreen "Bob".


The poor guy-   as a Thri-kreen he couldn't even pronounce his own name.


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## Andor (Nov 27, 2006)

megamania said:
			
		

> Recently I had a player insist on naming his Thri-kreen "Bob".
> 
> 
> The poor guy-   as a Thri-kreen he couldn't even pronounce his own name.




That reminds me of the Wookie with a speech impediment.


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## atomn (Nov 27, 2006)

Mark said:
			
		

> "...he goes with "Phil McKraken"...




I actually went to high school with a Phil McKracken!

I agree with the people who say that goofy names ruin what would otherwise be a serious game.  But I was unintentionally guilty of it once.  My friends and I were at a convention and stopped by the games hall to watch over a Star Wars game that was going on.  The players invited us to join them so we did and were given some pre-made NPC soldiers to play.  The game itself had a long history (being played every year at that convention for the past several years) so the regular players were doing all of the roleplaying while my friends and I were sitting around waiting for our NPC's scene to start.  So to goof around with my friends I made up a silly name, thinking it'd be a joke just between us.  Eventually the climatic battle happened and it turned out that I was the only Imperial able to survive and limb back to the home base.  There I got to roleplay getting dressed down by our very in-character Imperial general.

"You retreated??  You're a sorry excuse for an Imperial!  What's your name, soldier?"

"Greedo Calrissian, sir!"

It was priceless to see the player break character.  And then promptly have me executed for desertion.  Good times, good times...


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## Robert Ranting (Nov 27, 2006)

A few I've seen in games:

Mine:

Mitchifer Boozehound - My first D&D character, a drunken cleric of the Church of Hard Liquor and Loose Women. 

Jackrow Bezling Stymquvf Ph.D. (Druid of Philosophy)- An illiterate Gnome Druid who signed his name with an X, the only letter not actually in his name.   

Zardozan- A woodwrack dragon named for the movie Zardoz.  

My players:

Guro- A samurai-ish Litorian Warmain.  No one in the group knew what it was japanese slang for until after he'd already played the character for a couple sessions.

People I've played with:

Anubis the Scythe-a Sibeccai (jackal-anthro) fighter, who wielded said weapon. 

NPCs:

Zelaf Flowercrusher- a Spryte Warmain (fighter) with Arnold Schwartzenegger's voice.

Pierre Lemonjello- a Paladin from a previous campaign who was mentioned as an NPC.  One of over a half dozen -onjello characters from the same player, most of them currently cannon PCs of that DM's Ravenloft campaigns.

***

Regarding the advice on naming conventions, I think it's interesting that it advocates not using "The Adjective" surnames for the very reason that it is the standard naming convention for the entire Sibeccai race in Arcana Evolved...arrogance.  Since Sibeccai essentially abandon their children to communal daycare at birth, and their society is based on merit, having a self-chosen adjective is really the only way for them to distinguish themselves.  If it seems arrogant or self-aggrandizing, that's because it *is* and the whole culture is intended to come off that way.

***

As for real life, there was a 5th grade teacher at my old elementary school named Justin Case, and in my highschool graduating class there was a girl named Jade Green.  

Robert "No My Real Name's Not..." Ranting


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## Nightchilde-2 (Nov 27, 2006)

For me, it depends heavily on the game we're playing.  For instance "Fat Ho" is fine for Feng Shui or "Long Noodles Phac" for Deadlands.

In my group, I'm the GM and I'm responsible for most of the bad pun names, quite honestly.  They tend to crop up when I need to come up with an NPC name on the fly..for instance...

Fat Ho (Feng Shui)
Jennifer Love-Ewitt (D&D)
El Perro Muerte (Rifts; more a bar name than a person's name, though)
Skids (nWoD..a character the PCs knew in high school, "Skids" was his nickname due to..ah..shall we say hygeine issues)
Spooky Cajun Man (Murphy's World)
Richard Tete (I forget which game, but nobody ever caught on)
And how could I forget our stagecoach driver in the Deadlands Reloaded game..."Driver."


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## Wystan (Nov 27, 2006)

I have a friend named 'Richard Seiman', My mother is 'Dorothy Gail' and her friend was 'Alby Zalezzi' (Picture his poor wife and daughters)...

I tend to shy away from joke names, but I did name my most recent pets in WOW...
AteMyShoes and PeesOnDaFloor


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## Chaldfont (Nov 27, 2006)

I've seen the following names in my games:

Hassan Bin Sobar (thank you Three Stooges!)
Bastert (a warforged named by his fellow soldiers)
Phineas County Jr. (Deadlands character)
Jefferson Davis Payne (another Deadlands character)
Filch (an AD&D thief)
Cabin Boy (actually an NPC henchmen)
Chan Jet Li (D&D half-orc monk)
La Choy and Bok Choy (D&D Oriental Adventures; brothers)
Phat Wang (halfling monk)


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## Lanefan (Nov 27, 2006)

Whatever people want to name their PC's is fine by me.

Some good ones I've seen, in my own games and others:

Revelations (played by a born-again, and not for long)
Loser (a low-stat character, quickly slain in the field)
Knottwoor Thmutch  (another one, ditto, and one of my all-time favourite character names)
Weir (when combined with its family name, not repeatable here)
Boris the Spider (a Thief, good at climbing)
Purity (a Monk, currently active)
Pearl Jam (a spectacularly successful Gnome wizard, still active)
Alain-x (player's name was Alain, character died ("x") before meeting party and before getting a name)
Uuhn (character was mute, "uuhn" was the only sound it could make, hence the name)
X (its real name went on forever, so it just went by its middle initial: X)

Some stolen ones from past and present:

Gandalf (very successful early-days wizard; most blatant of a number of LotR names used)
Hans and Franz (pair of brothers; fighter Franz died quickly; wizard Hans went on to a huge career)
Gino (barbarian named after 90's hockey goon Gino Odjick; in fact one DM named many of his NPC's after hockey players)

And, some variously unpronounceable names:

Aeliynelaure Turyavie (I don't know how to put all the accents etc. in)
Pnyum (currently active)
Afm Hec
Galadhremin Tarsilamende (doing this by memory; I think this is missing a few syllables, it seems short)
Que'flnrnl (I forget the last name but it was just as bad; a Dryad)
Y'Qaqestul (a short-lived Dwarf)

Lane-"I hope you can pronounce this"-fan


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## pawsplay (Nov 27, 2006)

I myself have perpetrated Allo Lanolin, elf archer; Mister Mittens, abjurer; the Unstoppable Cat Basket in a Marvel supes game (we were intructed to play ourselves- woo, boy, I don't think he meant it); and Shasta Kovich, shadowrunner. 

I've GM'd for a Byr (evil kobold shaman; Rick the Shugenja; Astin Martin (Malkavian vampire); Bob the Bunny (superhero); Nek Kravat (githyanki fighter); and Torg (elven palladin in a Palladium fantasy game, source of eternal confusion following our Torg campaign).


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## Gnome Quixote (Nov 28, 2006)

My current PC, a gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold, is named Ebuferpaly Whitethatch Malpractice Bearscave Fancypants Potentloins. I suspect my DM let me get away with this because

a) I actually had a rational in-story explanation for the name (e.g. if you have a familly of gnomes who reproduce faster than drunken jackrabbits, what do you _think_ society's going to name them?);

b) from prior experience, it was pretty well an unspoken understanding among the group that I was going to serve as the party's smartass comic relief, no matter what class or race I played, or what the character was named, as I personally come from the Xander Harris/Peter Parker school of adventuring and heroism;

c) also from prior experience, it was fairly well understood by the group that my PC would invariably possess an underlying emotional complexity that belied his 'surface persona' as a wisecracking misfit, as I personally come from the Xander Harris/Peter Parker school of adventuring and heroism;

d) I established pretty early on that the gnome in question actually had a secret name--a kobold name, in matter of fact--that he only revealed to those he trusted (only one other PC so far, although he's warming up to a second); and

e) when you get right down to it, it really isn't _that_ funny to begin with.


----------



## Knightfall (Nov 28, 2006)

The strangest PC name, that has become a canonized character, was for a paladin/skyrider that one of my players created. The name...

Sir Mojo Rising.

I didn't realize the reference until after he'd been playing the character for some time. It wasn't too overt, to me, so I've left the character as part of my game.

And for those looking for good websites that will help you create "good" character names, I suggest the following...

*Behind the Name*
http://www.behindthename.com/

*Thousands of Names* *
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names.htm

*This site has A LOT more names but its interface is kind of clunky, IMO.

Another useful site, if you want to learn the Etymology of names (and other words) is the...

*Online Etymology Dictionary*
http://www.etymonline.com/

Cheers!

KF72


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## Rogue765 (Nov 29, 2006)

twofalls said:
			
		

> My all time best experience with silly names was a great roleplaying shtick by a player who is still in my games after nearly a decade of gaming. He played a rouge who would adopt a new name for every town he entered. He would keep a list and the other players would just write down what they were supposed to call him in that town. It became so much fun that the other players would help him come up with names to be used in specific locations. Things like Chip when in a forest village (for chipmunk), Dipper (while in a port city), Fleet (once when travelling on a merchant's cog between towns). This character was a riot. Unfortunatly he met his end by being rended into bite sized pieces by a Moss Troll in the Reelio Jungle... poor whositwhatsit.




"From then on, we just referred to him as Chewie."


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## interwyrm (Nov 29, 2006)

I have a t.a. named Hung Wang.

Nuff said.


----------



## Mustrum_Ridcully (Nov 29, 2006)

I remember the tales of a character that was played in my group before I was a member - He was called "Van Wirsing", and was a vampire slayer (Torg). I think the player had a few other fun names to offer, unfortunately I can't remember any of them.


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## Mark CMG (Nov 29, 2006)

Gnome Quixote said:
			
		

> My current PC, a gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold, is named Ebuferpaly Whitethatch Malpractice Bearscave Fancypants Potentloins.
> 
> (. . .)
> 
> when you get right down to it, it really isn't _that_ funny to begin with.





I think it is.


----------



## Bubbalicious (Nov 29, 2006)

Paradigm said:
			
		

> Vagisil Monostat
> 
> And the natural progression of bad Pendragon names:
> 
> ...




What about:  

Prize
                   Render
                   Reptitious
                   Vicible
                   Vitude
                   Mountable
                   Tifiable
                   Vyvor (He's got the eye of the tiger)
                   Jury
                   Jickal (He makes the best steel)
and finally...   Vaysez

As for our campaigns, I have played a Bard named Sam Goody, a Barbarian - Conar Barbarino (DM disallowed Conan, so changed the "n" to an "r", but named his father Vinnie), a Ranger - Rick and another Ranger - Will Robinson.

Looking forward to talking someone into my next concept of two Bards who are best friends, travelling companions, and are always looking for a free meal - Yogi Bard and Boo-Boo Bard.

Our DM is not entirely innocent, 90% of NPC's are named Bob, but he named a town Reeve Chris (Chris the Reeve).  Granted it was before Christopher Reeve died, but he still deserves no mercy.


----------



## Nightchilde-2 (Nov 29, 2006)

I thought of a "joke name" that got into our campaign..or, rather, a series of them.

It was a Deadlands (Classic) game.  One of my players made a Mexican gunslinger named Gordo.

Gordo died.

Then came Ijo de Gordo.

Ijo de Gordo died.

Next?  Ijo de Ijo de Gordo

And so on for a couple of more iterations.

Until one of his characters he made was Scottish.  I thought the curse had been broken..nope...Shamus MacGordo, of the Scottish branch of the family.

Then his wife (then girlfriend, I think) made an alchemist...Anya MacGordo.

Nobody complained about it, however.  It was Deadlands, after all.


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## lukelightning (Nov 29, 2006)

My current character is a gnome mage called Orly Yarly. Frequenters of FARK.com will get the joke.


----------



## Mallus (Nov 29, 2006)

Can't resist posting to funny-name threads... need new meds!

*Current PC's 'o mine.*

Captain Plundarr, the barbarian/airship pirate. His standard "uniform": a loincloth, boots, and tricorne hat.

Joseirus, the Egyptian God of Mexican Wrestlers.

*Current NPC's 'o mine.*

Onan Testeros, aka the Selfish Man. A priest of the Narsisco, the Saint of Self.

Dr. Mephisophocles, a Professor of Ineffable Inquiry and Un-Natural Philosophy.

Absolom Gottirdammerung Gelt, the Dean of Darkness at the University of Narayan.

*Ideas for future PC's.*

"Scranton" LeVay.
Adolphus "Wissahickon" Schist, aka The Mennonite in Black.
"The Original Tiger Schulmann", master of the "Five Points Exploding Bris Technique".


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## Griffith Dragonlake (Nov 29, 2006)

When I played in High School, joke names was quite common.  In college it was all about cool sounding fantasy names.  Post college I mandated historical names and provided several lists.  But there is one historical name that still cracks me up.  The name of a Central Asian general from the Middle Ages:

Bugechiew ("booger chew")


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## Fishbone (Nov 30, 2006)

Everybody has played with a monk named Thelonius, right? And the perfect thing is that even though its a joke name few people even know who Thelonius Monk was anymore, the people who do aren't for the most part high schoolers and twenty nothings and even if you do get called on it Thelonius is a fantasy sounding name.
The only cruddy thing about it is you have to play a monk and stuck in just straight core they're not the strongest things around.
Obligatory 4th Edition fix mongering: Please, please, please, I beg of you WOTC, drop Flurry of Blows and give them a 1/1 BAB progression. Pretty please with sprinkles on top.


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## Allandaros (Nov 30, 2006)

I will of course disregard PARANOIA names, because that's kinda the point in the game, iznit?

The worst I had in that case was a ranger with a randomly generated name, "Denero." Just add a space and change the second "e" to an "i"...


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## Andor (Nov 30, 2006)

Mallus said:
			
		

> "The Original Tiger Schulmann", master of the "Five Points Exploding Bris Technique".




Ow.


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## VirgilCaine (Nov 30, 2006)

Allandaros said:
			
		

> I will of course disregard PARANOIA names, because that's kinda the point in the game, iznit?
> 
> The worst I had in that case was a ranger with a randomly generated name, "Denero." Just add a space and change the second "e" to an "i"...




Ferries the townsfolk around the city, does he?


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## Wereserpent (Dec 1, 2006)

Faa Q.

I have always wanted to name a character that.


----------



## ladlestein (Dec 25, 2008)

I bet this player went on to have a glorious campaign, possibly the finest in your long career as a gamemaster.  Something just tells me this.



Kid Charlemagne said:


> I had a new player a long time ago (like '89) who was unfamiliar with serious campaigns...  We made up his PC (a 1st level Mage) and I ran him through a short solo adventure (diggers in town had found an old temple with some undead, and he was delegated to check it out with the guard, being the apprentice of the only wizard in town).
> 
> He performed just fine, and got the chance to meet the local Marquis.  The major domo is schooling him on what not to do when he enters the throne room, and asks him, "What is your name again?"
> 
> ...


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## Lord Zack (Dec 25, 2008)

Leeroy Jenkins the Drow Fighter. Surprisingly survived despite imitating his namesake a coupe of times before learning his lesson.


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## Ahglock (Dec 25, 2008)

diaglo said:


> one of well respected authors in my field is Peter Small.
> 
> if you have the last name Small never name your kid Peter or Richard.
> 
> most roll calls start last name first.




  A guy I went to high school with had a last name of Head.  He named his kid Richard.  
    It both awesome and awful at the same time.  Its Awsul!!!(TM)


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## Ahglock (Dec 25, 2008)

In our current camapign a player who picked a Tiefling as a race noticed one of there normal names was Baracas.  So he is BA Baracas.  I think its totally cool.

In real life, I've met people with these names, 3, Littlebirdwithbrokenwingshallflyagain, Zee McPhail, Thomas Thomas, Big Cannon, Rock, Butch(last two are brothers, the mom wanted manly names).  nd I'm sure I am forgetting a bunch of other ones.  Bad in games don't phase me I have the populace react to them about how people seem to react to bad real names.


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## Remathilis (Dec 25, 2008)

I can a 2e cleric named Gene Ericson.

More importantly, there was the elven pirate Solothus Falconrider. 

We also had a Sir Robert the Fighter. That's right, Bob the Fighter!

What, else... Well, there was First Mate Bluud (First Mate was his first name), Glove (My Dove) (a Beatles fan), and Maize MacLuvin (dwarf favored soul).

Oh, and a bard named Old Thomas (based off Tom Waits)

Good times.


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## MacMathan (Dec 25, 2008)

IMC we have a fire-breathing Dragonborn fighter named Trogdor right now.

He loves to burninate and of course took the enlarged breath-weapon feat


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## Don Ventresca (Dec 26, 2008)

I have a problem with this my self, in a D&D game my science teacher was running, *over for now* I was a Lizardfolk, who had almost died of a heart disease when he was younger, and I named him Cardio. *like Cardio Vascular* Later the last name Nosculos was added after he stabbed out his own eye. Then in another game I named a *very *rich doctor named Sir Charles Winchester IV.  *like Sir Charles Emerson Winchester III from MASH* Anyway, my problem is tryong to be funny with reason, then when I finnaly have something, no one understands. HELP!


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## Zustiur (Dec 26, 2008)

My brother isn't much into the background of characters, and has never been good with thinking of names...
So I had to deal with ROLFF.
Yes, capitalized.
Religious Officer for Logistics and Fact Finding.
R.O.L.F.F.

It became a running joke, as he was a cleric... We decided that he had a real name, but he'd been stripped of his real name after accidentally poisoning the high priest. Still, he was one step up the holy ladder from ROSS...
Religious Officer for **** Shovelling. (ie the stablehand).


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## The Green Adam (Dec 26, 2008)

*I find this subject fascinating...*

I've been gaming for 30+ years and only first encountered this problem about 5 or 6 years ago and never with my regular group. Its always when I sit down to run with groups I'm not as familiar with. The new/current group I'm going to be gaming with seems to create silly or common names to a fault...as a sort of badge of honor.

Now we're not talking totally silly like Pinky for a Barbarian or Scott the Wizard but not too far off either. Being named after a popular magaine or alchoholic beverage is not out the question.

I am about to run for this group and I'm really not sure what to do. I'm kind of against telling them they can't do this but names like that really throw off the atmosphere I'm trying to build in a 'serious' game universe.

Also, though this maybe a different question altogether, why do people have so much trouble generating names? When I was 8 and played my very first D&D red box game ever my Halfling was named Gobo Pepperthorn (TM). I can pop out 20 names right now if I need to and if I'm playing a known universe I've played before its even easier. Just make up naming conventions and run with them. 

Let's say all the Wood Elves in the northern part of the continent are named for the local weather/climate and so on (maybe their Snow or Winter Elves). First names sound like...let's see...breathy, lots of 'H's and 'Th's and 'F's. Ok, how's this...

Hathroh IceFeather
Theteleth ChillingBlade
Fothirith ColdHollow
Hafreph NorthWind

Naming is like the most fun and easy part of making up a PC or NPC(though as I GM I'm biased. I don't really like to play as a player so one of the few parts I do really enjoy is coming up with a name).

Never understood it and probably never will.

AD


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## The Green Adam (Dec 26, 2008)

I should make a point that I'm addressing character names in 'serious' games. I run a lot of comedic games where funny names are not so out of the place. At the same time, most of the names in our Ghostbusters, Galaxy Quest and even Teenagers from Outer Space games were largely normal or relatively serious. Your name wasn't the joke, the situation was. To put it another way, if you look at the names of characters in a lot of situation comedies they're not overly funny by themselves. Some are but for the most part the humor comes from a ridiculous circumstance or character dynamic.

AD


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## Jeff Wilder (Dec 26, 2008)

We don't currently have any "silly names" players, but one of our core players -- going back many years -- is apparently incapable of creating an _original_ name.  He rips off pop culture, fantasy/SF, whatever.  The names themselves are fine, except that it's jarring to recognize them.

(I take that back, to some extent: his spellthief in our Age of Worms game was named "Alf."  Pretty silly.)

As DM, I flat out don't allow silly names, and I look hard at deliberately derivative names.  If a player doesn't care enough to choose an appropriate name for the setting and tone of my game, he doesn't care enough to play in my game.


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## SlyFlourish (Dec 26, 2008)

I just go with it. It's the players' game as much as mine. If they want a funny name, they get one. I think WoW showed that you can have a good mix of humor and drama without breaking the overall story. WoW can still have scenes like the Fall of the Wrath Gate with NPCs named Haris Pilton.


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## Mallus (Dec 26, 2008)

I find the notion of a completely serious D&D game kinda, well, silly. But that's just me.


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## Cryptos (Dec 26, 2008)

Lately I've been tempted to make a halfling named Emmanuel of the Plains.

I'm sure it'll pass eventually.

Generally I don't play characters with joke names.


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## Mercule (Dec 26, 2008)

I don't have a problem with a character saddled with an unfortunate name, when that name in unfortunate in character.  But, when someone creates a character with a goofy name, it sometimes comes off like the player who brings their needlepoint or DS to the table, and I deal with it the same way.

The archer named "Bodewhin" was fine, but when it became apparent the the long name was just a way to name an archer "Bo", I shuddered some (though I allowed it).  I did nix the psychologist named "Luna Sai", though.  I knew one player who had a dwarf with the first name of "Shith" and the last name of "Ead", and I would have banned that name from my game.


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## Mallus (Dec 26, 2008)

Mercule said:


> I did nix the psychologist named "Luna Sai", though.



That's the perfect name for a psychologist who moonlights as a ninja.


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## The Green Adam (Dec 26, 2008)

Mallus said:


> That's the perfect name for a psychologist who moonlights as a ninja.




I was thinking the same thing - especially in a Superhero game. See it all depends on the game you're running. Somehow names that would be silly in a grim and gritty story can be natural in another genre. 

Case in point...I ran a SciFi/Action game that became almost a superhero or at least Superspy game. Set in the far future, maybe the 25th Century, the characters were special agents of the interstellar government who all had some special abilities/powers that helped them thwart the government's rivals and enemies. I can remember 4 out of the 6 of them...

Hailing from one a planet orbiting the star that forms Capricorn's eye in the constellation, one was a stealth and espionage specialist with psionics, possessing impressive telepathic and esper abilities. He was the best friend of...

A young man who suffered terribly debilitating side effects from his father's attempt to duplicate a long lost super soldier serum. Most of his body was replaced by highly advanced cybernetics. He was the team tank. His hero was...

A 21st century marine who had been a successful receipient of the aforementioned super soldier formula. He was found in the 25th century in a suspended animation chamber (imagine a cross between Capt. American and the Movie/TV version of Buck Rogers). Master of weapons and tactics, he became the team leader. His best friend was man's best friend...

Genetically uplifted by a secret military program, this scout had the hearing, sense of smell and animal instincts of a dog...which he was! A hyper-intelligent German Shephard.

Now their names...Capricorn, Counterfeit, Battle Royale (Real Name Roy Allen  and Shephard (aka Max).

Silly? Maybe...did it fit the over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek scifi/space adventure we were running? Definitely.

AD


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## Mercule (Dec 26, 2008)

Mallus said:


> That's the perfect name for a psychologist who moonlights as a ninja.



It depends on the genre.  In a Champions game, I'd let it fly.  In a gritty Mage: the Ascension game, not so much.


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## Mercule (Dec 26, 2008)

The Green Adam said:


> Silly? Maybe...did it fit the over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek scifi/space adventure we were running? Definitely.



Those sound like military call-signs or superhero names (practically the same thing, now that I think about it).  If they were played as such, I'd allow it, even if the birth names were never actually declared.


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## timbannock (Dec 26, 2008)

My players occasionally have bad names, but they never mean them to be that bad.  Sometimes they are unintentionally silly because of this, but that's okay.  We move on.

My favorite was a character that was a gnoll.

Errol Flind.

Pretty sweet.


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## thedungeondelver (Dec 26, 2008)

The two times I've run into this problem in *D&D* was a guy who insisted on calling his elf "Doktor Slingshot", and another slightly weird incident when a guy was champing at the bit to get into my original *D&D* game when I ran it at the FLGS; I had him roll up a character and asked him what his character's name would be and he sort of balked and said "Wow...you, uh, give them names?  I'm not that 'into it', that's sort of weird to me."


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## Squizzle (Dec 26, 2008)

I walk into a game with an attitude that the story isn't what I plan, it's what we retell afterward. The player decisions, including names, inform the shape the world takes around my general idea for the campaign. As long as the names aren't absolutely asinine (and I currently have a Crong, an Alabaster Tweed, and an Abbot Costello [cleric of Kord] in my game), I'm fine.


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## DracoSuave (Dec 26, 2008)

I had a friend who would name all her kender and halflings of the same clan, and generally with some wierd anime name or similiar thing beforehand.

So we had:

Monomo Hunter Hempweaver
All Cultural Nuku Nuku Hempweaver
Disco Inferno Hempweaver

Among the notables.

Of course, when I played Tiny Adventures I couldn't resist adding:

Fiscal Responsibility Hempweaver

to the clan.


Actually, I named one of those as well after the first character I ever played.  Now, I didn't make the name of this guy up; he came -straight out- of a D&D 'Learn to play' game as a pre-fab.

Bjorn Tofyte.


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## DragonBelow (Dec 26, 2008)

A few years ago, our regular game was canceled due to lack of quorum.

So I suggested a one shot in the world of Midnight, after describing the grim nature of the world, the players created the characters, their names: Bert and Ernie


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## Richards (Dec 26, 2008)

I usually just roll with whatever names the players come up with.  For instance, in my current campaign, one of my players came up with a cleric of Kord named "Cal Trop."  So, when an adventure took place in a small village where sheep and goats were raised, I decided that Cal's brother, a goatherd named "Trip Trop," lived there, and he became my plot hook for that session.  I've also decided that they have a sister, "Yvonne Trop," a singing bard who looks suspiciously like Julie Andrews.

They give me silly, I give them silly right back.

Johnathan


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 26, 2008)

The only time I have a problem with joke names is when they:

1) Are offensive- especially to someone else at the table

2) Are incredibly anachronistic- unless there is a good reason for it, I'm not going to tolerate something like a Halfling named Bilbo Laserfinger.

Other than that, I really don't care what people name their PCs.  Just as often, other players will come up with nicknames for PCs with names they don't want to deal with...like a PC who recently got rechristened "Scooter."

Besides, I know (or know of) enough _RW _people with names/nicknames that are at least unusual if not bizzare- Homey, Lurko, Pslm Civ-  that it just doesn't faze me anymore.


----------



## Tequila Sunrise (Dec 26, 2008)

I don't have much experience with silly names, but I do have a habit of poaching names from books and movies which puts some people off. My most recent character is named Bartleby the Scrivener, which my DM isn't too fond of.

TS


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## The Green Adam (Dec 27, 2008)

Mercule said:


> Those sound like military call-signs or superhero names (practically the same thing, now that I think about it). If they were played as such, I'd allow it, even if the birth names were never actually declared.




Exactly as intended Mercule (and yeah, they were combination code name/call-signs). Capricorns real name was long and elaborate (the son of a nobleman), Counterfeits was really basic, human-normal, Battle Royale was, as stated, Roy Allen and the dog was Max. There were two other characters but I forget them. There was a female and an alien.

AD


----------



## Orius (Dec 27, 2008)

Tequila Sunrise said:


> My most recent character is named Bartleby the Scrivener, which my DM isn't too fond of.




I wouldn't bat an eye at that myself, since it doesn't look out of place in D&D, or I'm missing a reference.

Some players just don't have the skill to come up with creative names that fit in.  I'm decent at cranking out names that have the right kind of flavor though.


----------



## RichGreen (Dec 27, 2008)

Hi,

There's a player in our group who doesn't deliberately create joke names - it's just the names he does come up with are, well, a joke. 

For example, he called his paladin Moralias' mount Morning Ferry because it ferries him about. He has played rogues called Divot, Rivet and Strippet and his most recent PC was called Sawgrim the Stiff before he met an (un)timely death in last week's session. 

Tragic.


Richard


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## awayfarer (Dec 27, 2008)

Someone mentioned earlier that they knew a Vietnames guy named Phuc. I went to high school with a kid by that name. His last name? Dinh. At our 10th anniversary (this year) I was told that he's since changed his first name.

A friend in the insurance racket told me about a claim that nearly got denied because they thought the name was a joke. Apparently someone claimed to have been rear-ended by a man named "Banghi Butt." (sp) Turned out that the man who caused the accident was from India.

I don't think I've seen too many terrible names in gaming. In my online Eberron campaign, a player from Ohio made a Shifter Warblade by the name of Thane Gash. I recently discovered (by playing Tecmo Super Bowl) that there was a Thane Gash playing free safety for the Cleveland Browns in '91. 

Probably the worst one I've done was "Thugdar Smashgud". He was an orc barbarian with 6's in all mental stats. I created this character in about 30 minutes after a really intricate and well thought out PC I made died in one session. Thugdar survived through to the end of the campaign.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Dec 27, 2008)

ladlestein said:


> I bet this player went on to have a glorious campaign, possibly the finest in your long career as a gamemaster.  Something just tells me this.





Heya, Fast Eddie!



Welcome to ENWorld!


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## Kid Charlemagne (Dec 27, 2008)

Incidentally, Edward Rapide had another thing that makes him reknowned in that campaign - in his very first (full) session, the party got ambushed and Edward got ready to cast his first ever spell - only to get knocked down to negative HP by the archers hiding in the trees who had been instructed to take down the first spellcaster they saw casting a spell (they knew a little about the party, and were actually supposed to be targeting someone else).  He was knocked out before taking a single action in his very first session - at 2nd level.

He didn't take damage again from a physical attack - ANY damage - until he hit 9th level.


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## Asmo (Dec 27, 2008)

awayfarer said:


> Someone mentioned earlier that they knew a Vietnames guy named Phuc. I went to high school with a kid by that name. His last name? Dinh. At our 10th anniversary (this year) I was told that he's since changed his first name.




That´s brilliant!

Asmo


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## Halivar (Dec 27, 2008)

I'm currently writing up a level 8 swordmage for tonight's game named Mannos D'Honzophate. He's going to wear big black robes with red hands on them. I'm watching the relevant MST3K right now for quotes.


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## Bohemian Ear-Spork (Dec 27, 2008)

awayfarer said:


> Someone mentioned earlier that they knew a Vietnames guy named Phuc. I went to high school with a kid by that name. His last name? Dinh. At our 10th anniversary (this year) I was told that he's since changed his first name.




I knew a grad student named "Phuc The Boi", which struck me as the most unfortunate name EVER.  Except, perhaps, for the local contractor named "Randy Beaver".

My own first PC was named Regnar.  Because it was "Ranger" spelled backwards.  So creative, I was!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 27, 2008)

Halivar said:


> I'm currently writing up a level 8 swordmage for tonight's game named Mannos D'Honzophate. He's going to wear big black robes with red hands on them. I'm watching the relevant MST3K right now for quotes.




Does he have a familiar named Torgo?


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## Squizzle (Dec 27, 2008)

Orius said:


> I wouldn't bat an eye at that myself, since it doesn't look out of place in D&D, or I'm missing a reference.




I would prefer not to explain it.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 27, 2008)

Squizzle said:


> I would prefer not to explain it.



LOL!

Here you go, though:Bartleby, the Scrivener - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Mark (Dec 27, 2008)

Richards said:


> They give me silly, I give them silly right back.
> 
> Johnathan





There's very little choice.


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## Shroomy (Dec 27, 2008)

I'm generally one for "serious" names, more or less, when it comes to D&D, but my last 3.5e character was a bongo-playing halfing druid-bard named Peta (pronounced PEY-ta) Earthlover.  He started out as a way for me to tease my DM over lunch, since I described my character using any tree-hugging, hippie cliche that I could think of.  By the end of lunch, I had basically constructed an entire personality and backstory, so I decided to use almost all of it, much to my DM's chagrin.


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## Mercule (Dec 28, 2008)

I suppose it's worth mentioning, since I've said I prefer serious names, that if a character gives himself a goofy name, I'm fine with that.  But, they are going to get an appropriate reaction when they introduce themselves to NPCs.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 28, 2008)

Mercule said:


> I suppose it's worth mentioning, since I've said I prefer serious names, that if a character gives himself a goofy name, I'm fine with that.  But, they are going to get an appropriate reaction when they introduce themselves to NPCs.





I'm just wondering...what is "an appropriate reaction" to a joke name in a world when people might be walking around with names like Brundir Bloodyaxe and Starsinger Nightbow?


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## Orius (Dec 28, 2008)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> LOL!
> 
> Here you go, though:Bartleby, the Scrivener - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Interesting.  I feel a mark of shame being unable to recognize any Melville that doesn't come from _Moby Dick_.

Still, it's not as bad as something that would come from current pop culture.


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## Mark Chance (Dec 28, 2008)

I thought Chudd Whatziznutz would be a good name for a dwarf. Perhaps I had a bit too much to drink that session. My current character is Mack the Knife, a fighter/rogue/invisible blade who's recently had a conversion experience and is now working his way through two levels of bard so that he become an evangelist of Pelor.

My first 3E character was Spakk Bonewrencher, a half-orc barbarian. A friend once played Ranger Dan the Fighting Man.

Good times.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 28, 2008)

Mark Chance said:


> My first 3E character was Spakk Bonewrencher, a half-orc barbarian. A friend once played Ranger Dan the Fighting Man.




I can see the former as an Orc's given name quite easily.

The latter sounds like a nickname that kids would give a local hero...especially if his last name was difficult.


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## Mercule (Dec 28, 2008)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I'm just wondering...what is "an appropriate reaction" to a joke name in a world when people might be walking around with names like Brundir Bloodyaxe and Starsinger Nightbow?



I'm thinking if Brundir decided to start calling himself "Lord Goater".  The appropriate reaction would be avoidance, marginalizing, and generally treating him like the villiage idiot.

Now, if Lord Goater decides to cut a swath through the NPCs who are "treating him unreasonably", there are consequences for that, too.

Edit:  Apparently that word is censored.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 28, 2008)

Mercule said:


> I'm thinking if Brundir decided to start calling himself "Lord Goater".  The appropriate reaction would be avoidance, marginalizing, and generally treating him like the villiage idiot.




OTOH, some people actually have bizzare and offensive names in real life.

Pslm Civ was one of my mom's students.  His first and middle names are how Psalm 104 is written in Roman numerals and posted on boards behind the choirs in Christian Churches.

I actually have a friend whose uncle- a Native American- is named "Whitekiller."  Yes, its an old family name.

Ditto Bobby Joe Raper who ran for mayor of Irving, Tx...and won.  (He served 1981-87 and 1993-95.)

Moonunit?  Dweezil?

Sure, some will look askance, but true ostracization would be rare...like the case you put forth or these poor kids:

Child named Adolf Hitler refused a birthday cake - Central PA Local News | Midstate Pennsylvania– PennLive.com


> Adolf Hitler Campbell is cute, cuddly and, for now, blissfully unaware of the shock value conveyed by his first and middle names. _<snip>_
> The Campbells' other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.




But someone who's name is just silly?



> Edit:  Apparently that word is censored.




Do tell!


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## Kralin Thornberry (Dec 28, 2008)

We have had Jeneric (Jen-er-ic) Naamay (Generic Name), and my favorite is Aaron Highcolor, which came out of my friend getting tongue tied asking for hair and eye color of my 1/2 elf bard, who ended being named Aaron Highcolor.


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## megamania (Dec 28, 2008)

Thri-kreen named Bob..... the poor guy couldn't even pronounce his own name.


In a one-shot Champions we all took on "Bob" as a theme (Titan AE had just been released) so there was Superbob, FastBob, Invisiblebob, Firebob etc....



But that's about it from my experience.


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## pawsplay (Dec 29, 2008)

As a GM I regularly annoy my players. I named a lich Valencia after a bag of oranges in my dining room. 

On another occasion, my players demanded to know the names of their dwarven bodyguard, hoping that giving them names would upgrade them from NPC mooks to heroic characters. I responded by giving them the names of early English kings, including Aethelred. One of my players proceeded to use every possible opportunity to ask if Aethelred was "ready yet." I countered by having Aethelred walk around without a weapon drawn at all times, forcing him to spend his first action readying. When he was eventually slain, the players decided to burn the corpses, lest they end up facing Aethelred the Undeady.


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## ShaggySpellsword (Dec 29, 2008)

I once played an Ogre named Dropstone Hurtfoot.  But that was on EQ where I didn't really care about character names.

I mostly get names from legends, holy texts, and derivations of the above.

Example: I've played a Gaheris and his grandson Galeth.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 29, 2008)

Kralin Thornberry said:


> We have had Jeneric (Jen-er-ic) Naamay (Generic Name)<snip>




We have a player in our current game who showed up at the start with a PC without a name.  He had "writer's block."

This continued for several sessions.

Eventually, we started calling him Jean-Erich.

He soon came up with a suitable name...but on occasion, the PC still gets called Jean-Erich.


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## The Green Adam (Dec 29, 2008)

IN my homebew Galaxy Quest campaign, one of my players has a character named He-Who-Glistens-In-The-Autumn-Twilight-Beneath-The-Third-and-Seventh-Moons. We tried to come up with various nicknames for the insectoid alien Science Officer but the only one that stuck was Moonbug.

My best name story comes from about 20 years back and its one Storn Cook (yes, that Storn Cook) may remember. For a brief time, I gamed with Storn and a small group of guys in NY. One of them was a fellow named Grey Bowman. 

When trying to come up with a new campaign, we decided to play Superheroes. I had what I thought was a great idea...

Me: "Grey, you should create a character called 'The Grey Bowman'! Then come up with a secret identity...you know, a real name."

Grey: "That it my real name. I don't get it."

Me: "What I'm saying is 'The Grey Bowman' sounds like an awesome Superhero name."

Grey: "Really? What would my powers be?"

Me: (Stunned) "Seriously? An Archer. You know, 'Green Arrow' - 'Grey Bowman.'

Grey: "I don't know...seems kind of silly..."

So Storn nudges my arm and takes me aside. He says, "Give it up...its a cool idea but he _can't_ see it. It sounds cool to us but to him its like saying you should create a character named John Smith or Adam Dickstein for that matter. Introduce the character in a few weeks as an NPC, totally remove the context and I bet he'll get it."

Sure enough I did just that and not only was he an NPC bad*ss I still use today but I remember Grey saying "Wow. I never thought about that. I've got a damn cool name."

AD


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## Mallus (Dec 29, 2008)

pawsplay said:


> As a GM I regularly annoy my players. I named a lich Valencia after a bag of oranges in my dining room.



Heh... a friend of mine named a paladin NPC Sir Bottle, after an empty bottle of beer and a fencing master Coyse Jarol, after a collection of Joyce Carol Oates short stories, which was on the floor next to the bottle. Ah college... 

My current 4e PC is Yatagan Fracas, named for two perfumes my wife has been known to wear at the same time.

Found names can rock!


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## Wootz (Dec 30, 2008)

Umm...one annoying one was NastyC The Dark Prince. I wish it could be some sexual joke, but no, it's just long and annoying.


*sigh*


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## Richards (Dec 30, 2008)

I did throw an enemy at my PCs once named "Big Irv the Ogre Perv."  It turns out that he liked to cross-dress, and had a thing for dwarves in particular.

Johnathan


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## Orius (Dec 30, 2008)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Sure, some will look askance, but true ostracization would be rare...like the case you put forth or these poor kids:
> 
> Child named Adolf Hitler refused a birthday cake - Central PA Local News | Midstate Pennsylvania– PennLive.com
> 
> ...




I read about that recently too.  I think names like the ones mentioned back in post #9 are bad enough, or something hypothectical like a Chinese-American guy named Richard Wang. Parents are stupid for doing that to a kid.  But these parents are completely pathological.  Either they're a bunch of hate-mongers who will raise this kid to be a monster, or they're really stupid hicks, and the kid's likely to have his name changed when he turns 18 so he an actually get somewhere in life.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 30, 2008)

Orius said:


> But these parents are completely pathological.  Either they're a bunch of hate-mongers who will raise this kid to be a monster, or they're really stupid hicks, and the kid's likely to have his name changed when he turns 18 so he an actually get somewhere in life.




Oh, there's no question as to their attitudes.  I just hope the kid's life isn't so difficult because of his name that he actually buys into his parents' poisonous politics.

OTOH, wouldn't it be great if Adolf Hitler Campbell, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell formed the greatest white rap trio since the Beastie Boys?

_*sigh*_

I can dream, right?


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## Zustiur (Dec 30, 2008)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> OTOH, wouldn't it be great if Adolf Hitler Campbell, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell formed the greatest white rap trio since the Beastie Boys?



Or started some world wide peace movement.


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## Dausuul (Dec 30, 2008)

Mark said:


> "Like Biggus Dic..."
> 
> Every GM winds up dealing with this sooner or later.  Most of the group has decided, formally or otherwise, to tackle the campaign (this time around, anyway) in a "serious" roleplaying manner but one player isn't on board.  Oh, he creates a formidable enough character to pull his own weight but when it finally gets down to naming him he goes with "Phil McKraken" or "Clamidia Underall" or "Lance Pokenprod" or...
> 
> Anyway, how do *you* deal with a situation like this?




I chuckle (after all, the player's goal was to get a laugh; if I provide one, s/he may be more amenable to reason), then say, "Yeah, right.  Try again."

Repeat until a sensible name is put forward.


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## howandwhy99 (Dec 30, 2008)

I love names and usually try and make really interesting ones.  But as they have no impact on roleplaying I let any name fly.  

I mean, there is the bounds of good taste.  But it really is up to what the group wants, isn't it?  A 13-year old is going to make up names a 43-year old won't.  .........generally speaking.

I still recall a PC named Fiddle.  By his behavior you'd think his last name was Inmapants.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 31, 2008)

Dausuul said:


> I chuckle (after all, the player's goal was to get a laugh; if I provide one, s/he may be more amenable to reason), then say, "Yeah, right.  Try again."
> 
> Repeat until a sensible name is put forward.




Like *Michael Fitzpatrick* and *Patrick Fitzmichael*?


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## Ahglock (Dec 31, 2008)

At work I bumped into a name again that always makes me giggle.

Ed Gurr

I think the parents are frickin awesome on this one.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 31, 2008)

Funny you should mention that...

I've been watching a series called "Most Evil."  Its about serial killers and other violent criminals.

They also get into the studies researching the science of violence in human beings.

One of the scientists: a guy researching aggression, named Dr. Gurr.

How perfect is _THAT?_


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## Jeff Wilder (Dec 31, 2008)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> One of the scientists: a guy researching aggression, named Dr. Gurr.



Anthony Nelson Gurr?  I know that guy.  God, does he piss me off.


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## Orius (Dec 31, 2008)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> OTOH, wouldn't it be great if Adolf Hitler Campbell, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell formed the greatest white rap trio since the Beastie Boys?




I think that's even scarier than seeing him turn into some kind of white-supremacist messiah.


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## MortalPlague (Dec 31, 2008)

I enjoy a good joke name from time to time.  In my current game, 4 of the 5 are new to the game.  Following the death of his character against Irontooth, one of them rolled up a halfling rogue.  He called him 'Coitus Smallback'.

My brother made a fighter named Eugnot once... (tongue backwards)

The same brother also fielded a gnome cleric named Berthatrice Fnipper (just a funny-sounding name), and later, he played his character's own mother, Mardnabin Fnipper.

A friend of mine played a half-orc named Sawtooth.  He would proposition whores (and other women) with 'Sawtooth has gold'.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 31, 2008)

Jeff Wilder said:


> Anthony Nelson Gurr?  I know that guy.  God, does he piss me off.




Subtle!


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## The Shaman (Jan 1, 2009)

My worst character name was a halfling thief called Lotto Rumblebottom. Mercifully he was killed by an orc or something early in the adventure.

Another character was a gnome illusionist/thief named Snorri Agatefinder. The last name elicited some snickers.

For some games I actually encourage quirky, half-serious names. For my _Boot Hill_ game way back when, the campaign featured such characters as Jasper and Ruby Garnet, Sandy and Clay Lomes, Iron Hat (an Indian who wore an old Spanish morion), Peyote Pete, and Ignatius William Lynch, Justice of the Peace ("Judge I. Will Lynch"). The campaign was inspired by Pete Dexter's _Deadwood_ and Larry McMurtry's _Anything for Billy_, so the whole thing was pretty tongue-in-cheek.


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## AdmundfortGeographer (Jan 1, 2009)

megamania said:


> Thri-kreen named Bob..... the poor guy couldn't even pronounce his own name.



I ran a Dark Sun campaign and one player named his Thri-kreen "Chatkcha Cha'_mm_a'ari". . . 

Say it fast, a.k.a. "Jack the Samurai".

I didn't catch it at first when he said it. Some of the other players caught it right away and grinned and groaned. They finally let me in on the gag, but I let him keep the name. It was just too dang creative.


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## CPT PLAYDOH (Jan 3, 2009)

*Cheezy Super Hero Name*

I am not a big super hero game afficianado, but I was convinced to roll up a character for Marvel SH. I ended up as a robot with great armor, good shadow force mainpulation, and poor body chemistry manipulation (with a few other powers). That character became "Gutterball, the Cosmic Bowler".  The rest of my party was filled with tough guy Wolverine and Executioner clones. I really made an impact when I met the rest of the party,  5'8" tall, receding hairline, greasy hair slicked over to the side, white bowling shirt with green and white checkered sleeves, lime green polyester pants and white patent leather shoes. Gutterball had a pot belly and generally all the class of Carl on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I relished playing Guttrerball and yellling out stuff like- another strike for justice- as I whipped out a ball of shadow force against the enemy. Or on round three- take that turkey! Ahhh the puns were delicious


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