Name Generation in TTRPGs

Photographer: Simon Harmer

There's a good reason why player's asking for a name is such a prevalent meme in the role playing zeitgeist. Names carry a weight of personality that is expected to translate, either through correlation or juxtaposition, into the character themselves. We see this expectation played out culturally as well, see Wikipedia's entry on nominative determinism for a better understanding of how that plays out, but needless to say, names have a kind of magnetism that can draw us in or repel us from a character. I find this especially true when reading. I don't know the number of characters whose names I've changed in my head to better suit my view of them, but it's easily in the three digit range.

I think that's why the unsung hero of my GMing experience is a baby name book, specifically Bruce Lansky's 100,000+ Baby Names: The Most Helpful, Complete, & Up-to-Date Name Book. This wasn't something that was on my radar until it was gifted to me almost a decade ago. I didn’t realize how incredibly useful it would be for me until it was in my hands. It allowed me to circumvent a pet peeve I personally have in the naming conventions of the fantasy genre, which I'll just call silly name syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, I love a PC going full honey-baked-ham with their naming, and the occasional NPC having a humorous epithet is true to life: I grew up with a young man named Richard Cunt, surname pronounced (koont), not that the pronunciation made it particularly better for him. What really makes the book useful to me is how it effortlessly brought with it a baked-in thoughtfulness towards region, culture, politics, history, gender and many more considerations without any additional effort on my part.

WHY I LIKE THE BOOK OVER THE INTERNET, AI, AND MY OWN LIMITED MIND

Layout. The first 60 or so pages are basic name tables, ranging from "Classic Names around the World" to "The Impressions Names Make", which has categories like: athletic, friendly, nerdy, old-fashioned, southern, rich/wealthy, etc. It really is a stupendous resource because, more often than not as a GM, I'm looking to evoke a particular feeling or idea when choosing a name. I think that's why it's so frustrating when the players ask for a name and we're not prepared; we wanted the name to mean something and now we have to come up with that meaning on the fly, which can be good, even excellent, but very often ends up with a lot of guards named Jack, Mary, Dave, and Sue (my former defaults that I still drop in for a laugh now and then).

The book is then broken up alphabetically into two sections, boys and girls, but the great thing about this book is that many of the names have a few things next to them that offer deeper context on the names themselves: culture of origin, a star = ★ (it's in the top 100), a BG (used equally between genders), GB (used more by girls), and BG (used more by boys).

Depth. Worlds, settings, and especially characters are most interesting for me when they have a sense of depth. A single name might not have this upon initial encounter, but when the next NPC has a name that sounds familiar, the next river or region matches seeming conventions of language, a rhythm immerges of a connected history. I would say that a consideration of what and how things are named are what make some of the best adventures and settings in the lore of D&D, and any lore for that matter. Two fabulous examples of this are Curse of Strahd, which might be cheating as it is an adventure module and setting in my opinion, and Eberron: Rising from the Last War, a setting book that pays attention to what names mean in a world fraught by recent cataclysmic tragedy. Pick either of them up next time you have a chance and you'll find the names themselves are telling a story.

Accessibility. This seems obvious, but I've found myself a few times without the convenience of an internet connected device. A book doesn't run out of batteries. It doesn't ask me to "log in". It certainly doesn't say that there are currently too many users on the system. If you have it, it just works!

Tactility. If you prefer the click-clack of real dice, you already understand better than words could describe. There is simply nothing that beats the tangibility of a real book.

CONCLUSION

Go get yourself a baby name book! It's become an essential piece of my GMing kit and isn't something I see talked about enough as a discrete, specific solution to the ever-present job of manifesting meaningful and engaging NPCs out of the ether of "What's your name?"