Names >_<

[Johnny Wraith]

I think this a problem many people have when trying to create regions, races, classes, characters, etc... It's a big problem for me because I can never come up with cool-sounding names that are pronounceable, lol.. I was wondering if you have any techniques or tricks when it comes to naming... I usually look for words in other languages and try to scramble them a bit... Oh and one last thing... if anyone wants to help me out naming some stuff, let me know, I'd appreciate it :P

[CYMRO]

Bergman's Concise Dictionary of 26 Languages is always a good place to start.  And I back that up with a Latin dictionary, a Welsh dictionary, and a Japanese dictionary, plus any thesaurus at least fifty years old.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Download the Everchanging Book of Names - it will allow you to come up with names that even fit distinct cultures.

Just generate lists of names from specific cultures and pick any you like the sound of, altering minor details as appropriate. That's what I'm doing for Urbis, and it has worked fairly well...

[geekling]

I do it similarly to what has already been mentioned, but generally using the behind the name website.

Pull up a list and quickly scan through it until something catches my eye. for instance the breton version of Katherine - Katell, with a random 'r' added becomes the Katrell province.

[Hibou]

As Jurgen said, EBoN is a useful tool. I use it often, though different chapters have different uses in my settings (I almost always name my angels and demons by use of the Biblical and Hebrew chapters).

[Túrin]

Besides the name-generating tools already mentioned, the How-To: Name Stuff thread on the WotC boards has some good pointers for creating your own names (as well as a few more name-generators). I personally prefer to create my own names, and I have submitted a short list of random names for the first issue of the CBG Newsletter. If you want, I can create a few to your specific needs. A warning though: in my experience names created by others for your world have a tendency to feel ever so slightly off, and I highly recommend creating them yourself.

Túrin

[beejazz]

Biblical Lore
Prophecies
Dead Religions

I do better with character names than place names under this system, though. *shrugs*

[Wix of Bel-Air]

Duud...  Squid.Org... I've put it on the boards alot. You can even download this version.

[Johnny Wraith]

Yeah, I had seen that Squid.Org one in that thread from WoTC... Thanks a lot to everyone for your input, this should really prevent me from blocking every time I need to come up with a name for something :D

[beejazz]

Download the Everchanging Book of Names - it will allow you to come up with names that even fit distinct cultures.

Just generate lists of names from specific cultures and pick any you like the sound of, altering minor details as appropriate. That's what I'm doing for Urbis, and it has worked fairly well...

Ragh! Looks... so... cool... but... can't... create... LANGUAGE!

[CYMRO]

Download the Everchanging Book of Names - it will allow you to come up with names that even fit distinct cultures.

Just generate lists of names from specific cultures and pick any you like the sound of, altering minor details as appropriate. That's what I'm doing for Urbis, and it has worked fairly well...

Ragh! Looks... so... cool... but... can't... create... LANGUAGE!

Why do you need to create a language?

[beejazz]

nah... that "chapter/book" feature. it looks so awexome... besides, i don't want *all* my generated names sounding like something out of LoTR!

[CYMRO]

nah... that "chapter/book" feature. it looks so awexome... besides, i don't want *all* my generated names sounding like something out of LoTR!

Thus, the problem with such programs.  RL languages adjusted to fit your need, that is the way to go.

I noticed a long while ago on the wotcee board that quite a few settings never got off the ground because the creator was bogged down in an attempt to create a language that would be, in all reality, probably the most overlooked part of the setting.

I use a phonetically spelled Patio Spanish whenever I need to write or speak Orcish in my Altvogge games, and it works just as well as any other method.
Ditto for Elvish, though I use Welsh as the base, or Russian for Dwarvish, or Japanese for Draconic.
Hundreds of diverse cultures have spent years doing the heavy lifting where language creation is concerned.  Take advantage of it.

[beejazz]

nah... that "chapter/book" feature. it looks so awexome... besides, i don't want *all* my generated names sounding like something out of LoTR!

Thus, the problem with such programs.  RL languages adjusted to fit your need, that is the way to go.

I noticed a long while ago on the wotcee board that quite a few settings never got off the ground because the creator was bogged down in an attempt to create a language that would be, in all reality, probably the most overlooked part of the setting.

I use a phonetically spelled Patio Spanish whenever I need to write or speak Orcish in my Altvogge games, and it works just as well as any other method.
Ditto for Elvish, though I use Welsh as the base, or Russian for Dwarvish, or Japanese for Draconic.
Hundreds of diverse cultures have spent years doing the heavy lifting where language creation is concerned.  Take advantage of it.

I'm not nearly that well versed in language... but having discovered that Nostradamus spoke in a polyglot riddled with made up words, the translation guides have given me some pretty good ideas (see poll). The reason I was interested in that particular name generator to begin with was the premise that I could plug in some inputs. A set of untranslatable words from nostradamus... some untranslatable aramaic out of the original Bible... placenames for cataclysmically destroyed Quoranic cities (Aad, Thamoud)... etc. Now THAT would generate some interesting names!

[snakefing]

At rpginspiration.com, they have an online generator. The languages supported are limited, but you can download (free) Inspiration Pad Pro.

The format of the Inspiration Pad tables is just plain text, so you can use theirs as patterns to develop your own tables. It can be some work... I've created tables for ancient Greek and Egyptian style names.

I have an older version of their product that included tables for lots of languages: Albanian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Elvish, English, ..., Swedish, Turkish, Welsh. Unfortunately the table format is not the same, but it isn't that hard to convert it if people are interested.

If people are interested I could try zipping some of them up and putting them on my website...although it might kill my bandwidth. (I'm running my webserver on my home computer, so my upstream bandwidth is a little limited.)