NPC Names lists

psychoph

psychoph

Member
I was wondering if anyone had a file or list of NPC names they use, I know in the organization thread it was mentioned but I was wondering if people could put them up for others to see and use.


I think wordman has a name generator for characters I suppose that could be just as easily used for NPC's of the right type.  Has anyone considered developing a desktop application to generate names on the fly for you?


I could see it being a great tool for storytellers if we develop an extensive list in categories to use for NPCs almost like an Exalted baby name book.
 
So areas I woudl subdivide into would me


Sex - Split all of the names into those categories


Birth region or city - Cities aroudn Creation for regular npcs


House - DB houses


Exalted type - to differentiate between Lunars, Abyssals, Fae and so forth.


Spirits
 
I think this would be a great idea, especially since DB names have a specific type of feel to them compared to say a fair folk name. I would be willing to help.
 
Can always check the list of Dragon Blooded names used in the books, compiled in my list ( available in the downloads section on here )


It has some 100 different NPC's or so, and gives good examples of names that WW use.
 
I usually go to www.behindthename.com. Check their links section too. If you chose a linguistic flavour for the region of Creation you play in you can just go to that section of the site and take your pick. I usually change the names a bit to avoid any names to real world. But it works fine with Chinese or Old Norse of Finnish names. Check also the sections on archaic and mythological names.
 
Palladium's Mystic China book has a great Chinese name generator, with a handy translation guide, so that you could then know Bao Xiao Zhong, was "Filial Middle Leopard" and I use it a lot for Dragon Blooded names, at least for translation purposes.
 
Doesn't it say in the DB book that some Dynastic parents just make up a name by going constonant-vowel-constonant-vowel-constonant-vowel(repeat as desired)?
 
All very good suggestions I will look into them.  I guess the best way to do a random generator would be determine a way that names are put together for each of the different regions and social structures in creation.


Does anyone have ideas?


Way i see it you got like I said before, a sex break down, then for humans you got a region breka down, for DB's you got house plus something, for Abyssals it is usually 2-5 word combo which is dark and threatening, Lunars I am not sure probably after animal traits, Fae story related i would imagine, Auto's I have no clue about, Solars are drawn from the populaiton as with Sidereals.


Does anyone know of a peice of software i can use to setup a list that is word editable?  Maybe a wiki woudl work, maybe we coudl even add a names list into the Exalted wiki if one doesn't already exist.
 
After looking at generators breifly and the name list, I am wondering if people see names like Harmonious Jade as somethign a Solar was given at Birth or they changed?


I am not real knowledgeable about the naming conventions of Chinese and Japanese cultures, which I know that Exalted pulls from, but is that a common Chinese naming convention?  I beleive that western naming conventions use words that mean other words.  Like my name is Jason and means healer.  So I could see Harmoinous Jade as being a more direct way of naming someone as compared to Kelefic which means harmonious jade.
 
Some names are given at birth while others are nicknames picked up through life, for example, Yurgan Kaneko, the Bull of the North.  Others, like Harmonious Jade, was given to her from birth.  It totally depends on the region in which the child was born.  


In my current story, there are a number of founding families from the first settlers in that region and whose names are still used today.  Bound by Frost has become Frostbound, Flowing Like Ice is now Iceflow.  And yet there are still description names; Amber Root, Frosted Ash, etc.  Also, there is an orphanage where every lost child is given the name 'Pine' due to the region in which they have grown, for example, Floating Pine, Thick Pine, Walker-on-Pines.


Like most things in Exalted, it all depends on what type of feel you envision for your game.


~FC.
 
My 'list' is a bit impromptu, as it basically consists of my book collection. I pick a title appropriate to the setting I'm going for, flip to a random page, and scan for names I can outright steal or adapt.
 
SID that is a good idea I should probably flip through the exalted novels at the local book store to get ideas.
 
Palladium's Mystic China book...
Click to expand...
Jakk, I never knew :shock:


Actually, are you a fan of their games?  Or have you access to some of the material for source/inspiration material?


I dig the Palladium stuff, especially Nightbane of late.


Anyways, I am not trying to hi-Jakk ( :twisted: ) this thread, so I'll contribute along these lines.


In the D20 Rokugan/Oriental Adventures book for DnD there is a syllabolic name generation guide which I have used in the past.  And of course and L5R game books will have a plethora of Oriental names suitable for dynasts.
 
Kat--I use a lot of other games for inspiration.  I am a big fan of the d20 Eberron setting. I played a lot of Palladium games before I wandered into WW systems.  I am a big fan of FASA.  Warhammer. Dark Conspiracy.  I pick up a lot of games and use what I can. I'm own a lot of Steve Jackson material--I can't stand the system, but SJ Games makes great source books that are great for any game.  You takes what you can get.  And Palladium and Steve Jackson Games do a lot of homework for their material.  I raid them a lot.
 
If, like me, you are vaguely literary, and your players are not, just rip off names from books directly (i.e. an outcase DB in my chronicle named Rickard Stark because I've read George R. R. Martin and they haven't).  If I ever played some of the Sidereal characters I've made, Salman Rushdie would beat my ass for stealing names practically whole-cloth from his books ("'Mooraes Salonkah?'  Don't mix books, boy, you're out of your depth").


Clever allusions work also: I have a Lunar NPC who's named Walks Among Hidden Leaves in honor of Hagakure.


For Abyssals (and, oddly enough, Alchemicals) I find it's best to be grammatically adventurous.  It's easy to fall into the pattern of [modifier] [modifier] [noun], i.e. "Furious Scarlet Avenger," "Falling Crimson Petals," etc.  Not saying they can't be good, but they are a tad typical.  Odd-sounding ones, such as Shards of Basalt To Her Army from E:A, are more compelling.  A name I came up with, for example: Of The Glacial Maw Below.


The other formula I've noticed is [adjective] [noun] of [quality].  An Alchemical I made: Luminous Glyphy of Rectitude.  Or from the book, a similar one: Miraculous Icon of the Talents.[/i]
 
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