I like naming characters things. I like constructing a set of phonemes into something remotely plausible as a fantasy name and using the sense of it to say something about the region. At the same time, I am given to understand that for some people this is a source of great stress, so maybe a blog post of nothing but names would be useful or at least fun. Dimming the usefulness somewhat for those of you not running games in my Aurikesh setting, these names are organized by the peoples of Aurikesh.
(For me, the only stress is not letting this post get drawn into the imaginative gravity well that is Luka Rejec, as I’m editing Our Golden Age in another window right now.)
Beruch Names
Abekkal
Akkralies (contributed by my 11yo)
Aliadoss
Anaikkov
Doliano
Evekki
Halikkos
Isfeolli
Jiakkal
Korousi
Laskko
Maiuten
Naon
Oandein
Pekkenddo
Siolleni
Surikka
Teinikko
Udukkar
Venuotta
Yenaon
Double letters, especially double k’s, have particular significance in beruch culture. There’s a significant trend (not a rule) toward three syllables. That tends to make some of them look vaguely Finnish (I am not Finnish and do not speak Finnish). There’s a separate rule for surnames that I’m not getting into right now.
Goblin Names
Ardy
Brogga
Chely
Dealer
Ebble
Frogchaser
Graybit
Haskorthin
Ickle
Jant
Kaiflet
Lappat
Misk
Namethrift
Origole
Preel
Quickly
Rampish
Sallow
Troek
Ullack
Veetle
Wastrel
Xeal
Yelper
Ziphe
The Team Goblin PCs of Aurikesh all went different directions for their name aesthetics, and I didn’t argue with any of them. So you get this jumble of ideas, which… I hope you enjoy.
Veytikka Names
Abraz
Bekel
Cajivad (probably written Kajivad in transliterated Veyti)
Deshna
Ezten
Farish
Grunuc
Hezjek
Indoro
Jevral
Kyarn
Leishen
Minot
Nicav
Obigar
Priokem
Qarga
Rivsh
S’kalat
Tunog
Unzayat
Vishutr
Wirund (probably written Dvirund in transliterated Veyti)
Xinsu
Ychfaral
Zajid
Veytikka names are short, with harsher sounds. Some veytikka use a common word from the dominant local language as a name, so as to keep their birth name private from non-veytikka. To be clear, when I talk about transliterated Veyti, I mean to say that Kainenchen has done days and days of conlang work on this and we have developed an enjoyable-to-us canon around written, spoken, and transliterated Veyti.
There’s a lot to be said for marrying someone you love creating things with. I recommend it highly.
I’m leaving out human and kagandi names, which draw very heavily on real-world cultures. I don’t know their parent languages (mainly Spanish) well enough to offer fantasy variants without running into embarrassing mistakes. I learned this lesson by making an embarrassing mistake, of course.
In conclusion, abolish and prosecute ICE.
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I love a good name list for a setting. I was in the faction of players that thought the name lists in Xanathar’s were an excellent use of page space.
I am always trying to come up with guidelines for cultural group names. Typically I grab a list of names from a real world culture that I am not super familiar with and then change all of them in some specific way, like switching out all of one letter for a different one or something. You end up with something that sounds coherent but not real-world.
The living airships in my setting all have names that have double letters in the middle syllable.