This is something I’ve been putting off. My world is post-apocalyptic. Originally, it was set so long after the apocalypse that the languages had changed to something completely different, but I’ve sinced changed it to <1000 years after the apocalypse, so I now have to come up with variations of modern names that are still somewhat recognisable but changed in some way.
I have no idea how to go about this, so I just… haven’t named any of the people in my world. I really should get around to this.
My D&D/PF2e world has at least one naming convention that is a bit unusual. I came up with this before I ever ran a game there, and have used it for the last couple campaigns I’ve run.
Halfings in my setting use a very specific naming convention. Their first name is always some diminutive form of a common name and their last name is always a compound word which combines an animal and an object.
Some examples are:
- Jimmy Horseapple (and his never-seen but often-mentioned cousin Robby Horseapple)
- Petey Duckwheel
- Vicky Fishwhistle
They’re named after trees, flowers, animals, some other objects like mountain, river, seasons, etc. Rarer are names after virtues, such as generous, brave, wise, sympathetic, etc.
(Though I often make up the names before the meanings)
Some peoples have family name/given name system, while others only have given names, with optionally patryonyms/matryonyms.
I take two to three real world languages that help reinforce the impression of that culture and mush them together. From that I take either similar sounding names or similar meaning names and see what feels right.
I had a game centered on a culture with a (generic) slavic feel that during the last century or so been heavily influenced by the “fancy” “high class” totally not french. So I took slavic names and then either frenchified them or just added french parts (or whole names). Especially true for aristocrats and cosmopolitan folks. The poorer and the more rural the less the french influence was felt which created a nice social dynamic.
In that same game there came a need to name characters from the neighbouring fading empire. And what empire is more empire than the english so that became the base. But we wanted a more tonal shift from just english. As we looked at the culture of that empire we wanted it to be a bit in opposition so one of their defining traits became meritocratic. And somehow we felt adding an east asian melody to the english names would fit. So triple- and quadruple- names it became such as Jane-Ellen-Nicole. And no surnames, only titles.
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