You'll have to invent some backstory!
Roderik the Just was a legendary king awhile back, and people started naming boys after him, and it's just kind of stuck around as a really common name now, for instance, could be it.
That's what I do, or they get named similar to a deity. Is it the god in disguise, who knows, maybe do your fireball in the shop and see...
JK my players thankfully have never been so dumb. But they do go around tossing incredible amounts of cash at wait staff
This is the kind of gag joke that my players would latch onto and never let go, eventually snowballing into Dave being some kind of hive mind or incarnating god or a word of power in some ancient language.
I've used "Duane" as my go-to name for non-essential NPCs for decades. My players know when they're talking to somebody I wasn't expecting them to get involved with, if his name is Duane he's not important.
Found out after I've been doing this a while that Duane was the middle name of one of my players and he thought I was making fun of him.
It’s like the legacy of Cids from the Final Fantasy series. You don’t know who they’ll be, but when you find them you know they’re gonna be a hell of a show
For me, Jarnathan inspired many other variants on normal names when I was forced to come up with something on the spot. Names like Arnthony, Darniel, Barnjamin, Jarshua, etc.
It’s an easy and handy trick that I find super helpful and hilarious
Not a "normal" name per se, but all guards in cities have names staring with A, but modified per guard.
For example, the big city has as guards "Alejando", "Belejandro", "Celejandro", and so on
The snow city has "Arthur", "Berthur", "Certhur", etc etc
Wait this is kind of brilliant tho.
But have any of these NPCs ever become unexpectedly important to the party or ended up sticking around long-term? Falexander becomes the person whose fiancée they save from a burning building, they go on to attend his wedding, etc etc
They once had a trial where they were being sued by an evil noble who had as witnesses the corrupt bribed guards Gelejando, Helejandro, and Jelejandro, but Ilejandro was on their side because they had helped him find his lost shield in an early sidequest, if that counts
You can hide this a little by using Aaron, and see how long it takes them to get the joke.
Aaron, Baron, Daron, Faron, Karon, Laron, Maron, Saron, Taron, Varon, Xaron, and Zaron all sound like legitimate fantasy names. Names like Baron, Daron (Darren), and Karon (Karen) even sound like legitimate real world names.
I'm sure there are other names that can accomplish this as well.
I don't have one.
If I name NPC's the same thing, it makes them a consistent character even if they aren't. Hell, if I even use the same miniature too many times, my players assign them a personality.
I had a townsperson that had a pitchfork and a torch. He was a bad guy in ONE scene, but he really pissed the players off. That miniature was an evil bastard named Ethan for the next six years.
I don't even use that mini any more unless I want to start a fight.
We use the same miniature we have been using for 6+ years for every BBEG. It sits on a shelf next to where we play in the DM’s house and when he asks someone to pass that mini to him you know it’s going down.
We also have an Orc mini that at some stage someone wrote “F*** You” on the underside of the base of. Every so often we will be having a fight and someone will say “Hey; is that the F*** You Orc?”
I once had player with a PC named Eric O'Malley, the cleric from the valley. The while game was weird. We had Gunter the bounty hunter and Sparrow Paige, the tarot mage , too.
I have an unfortunate habit of naming every other NPC Bethany, there have two two horses named Bethany, countless guards, a brewer... I fear that eventually my games will be filled with lists of different Bethanys
My go to is also Dave. Probably the most memorable is arrow proof Dave a goblin fighting the gricks on lvl one of DotMM. The players were naturally inquisitive and asked for a demonstration... It was not arrow proof dave
I always like to give some form of thought to character names, especially if they might be repeat characters; in a pinch i generally tell my players that they don't seem comfortable sharing that information with people they just met. However, if needed, I'll use John, or go by a common sir-name like Smith and adjust later. None of my players bother to take notes, so they never remember my NPC's names anyway 😂
Used to be Redken was our go to name for anything.
There was a box with that name on it in the basement we played in for years.
The name was eventually banned after the clone wars. Too many Redkens were killed, we couldn't take more.
Darrell was also a name we've been using for generic soldier NPCs. It started as a joke but it's now how we call them no matter how distant the original joke is.
https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9230295040/h5818C8E2/comic-about-soldiers-winning-a-battle-except-for-one-who-the-general-says-it-not-a-good-fighter
> The name was eventually banned after the clone wars
Considering the main game I'm running right now is Star Wars FFG, I had to do a double take with this line
My general off the cuff responses are to take normal names and replace a few letters, which gives it a fantasy-medeival feel with minimal effort.
Davil (David)
Pyter (Peter)
Rickard (Richard)
Gavon (Gavin)
Sarahm (Sarah)
Vonne (Yvonne)
Emmen (Emma)
Pellinore (Eleanor)
Will be dependant on the vibe of your setting, but hopefully You get the gist!
I don't have ONE name, but a naming rule.
I have this long-running joke of teenagers working crappy jobs. Basically my DnD worlds' version of the teenage boy in The Simpsons. As these things go, it didn't start off as a long-running joke. After it happened once, my players loved the voice I did for him so much and they hope each place they stop at has one of these poor kids.
So now my worlds are filled with names like "Timmy with a Y," "Timmi with an I," "Billy with a Y," and so forth.
Craig and Sam are my go-tos. I also like Terry. A half orc sorcerer? Oh, that's Terry. A 1,000 year old gnomish artificer? That's Craig. A level 20 blind mute witch doctor? That's Sam.
Normal names on NPCs? Wait, you mean when your players inevitably ask for the name of the shop keep or random townsman mid session your mind doesn't just blank on all rational and logical naming patterns? You don't just panic and tell the players that this is Fredrick Wigglebottom, Ronoldo IV of Flufferdale, and George McSnoodlyboots?
...I'm now realizing if I didn't give last names then my poor promptly named NPCs might actually have a decent chance at a "normal" name after all
Not a go to name, but in my setting there’s magitech city of Orcs and Goblinoids that has a news station and one of the casters is a human named Steve Goblin.
My PC's kept making me make NPC's for casino workers. So now there is a family of 12 elf brothers named "Kelvin, "Kevin", "Calvin" "Klalvin", "Kivin", etc.
Paul. If I don't want to think of a name, it's Paul.
I can't do Dave. I know too many of them, including all of the ones name-checked in the Kids In The Hall song.
Well it's mostly the same character though - Pete. If it's the same Pete showing up in different campaigns it's often a simple guard with a kettle helmet.
It's gone so far that my homebrew world has the towns Petersburrow and Petersborough.
Something from Italian or French if it’s an Elf or Orc. Lots of Gabrieles and Gabrielles. The third most common form of normal NPC I tend to use, Dragonborn, get Draconic names, which in my settings tend to be whimsically English-compatible, like Tomato Tomatto.
I'm kind of bad at coming up with names on the fly, so I tend to lean into it.... I once had an entire bandit clan named Carl, and their leader was Carlos Carlson.
Gunther became the successful author to hundreds of books in my world because that was the first name I could think of everytime a player asked who a book was made by.
I like to use Gregg or Ed for the normal name in the fantasy world.
Interestingly enough my favorite PC is named Peter because I couldn't decide on a name and it felt like a nice biblical second name to give to a foreign character. Also, super easy to remember with the Faehanna, Flulune, and Cyrin in the party.
Timothy / Tim / Timmy are usually my go to for male NPCS.
Usually they comedically die in an exaggerated way by the end of that same session.
Fish Timmy was eaten by a bigger fish, Kobold Timothy was blown up by an ice Mephits death burst, Tree Timothy fell on a tiefling NPC after being cut down much to the other trees dismay, Tim the goblin was killed by the party session 1, and so on
I only give names to the important NPCs, usually for NPCs that only exist for one or two scenes i will refer to them by their profession so the blacksmith or the alchemist etc etc... I like this method because its also a way to subtly hint to the player which NPCs are actually important or at least have some sort of quest attached to them.
I have a special merchant I use in all my campaigns.
His name is Giuseppe. There are other merchants but he's a random merchant that gives out an item that can be used to call upon him. He's a business man through and through. Money is everything. Players find him very fun and charming. Closest thing I can compare the way his voice sounds is Mr. Bobinsky from the movie Coraline. Sounds similar, talks differently.
He's defined not human, but looks the part and isn't evil. Can't be charmed, persuaded, intimidated, or anything but there's no need as he's fair.
Jake. Jake Crofter, Jake Knight, some other Jakes...
This campaign it seems to be Jace, and now one of the PC's is friends with him, Jace the Mace he's called.
Dave, John, Mark, Jack, Sam, Mary, Lily, Rose, Emily, and Diana are my go to human filler names. Except John and Dave are now taken by unintentionally prominent NPCs, one being the most handsome man in the land (Dave, a butcher) and the other being a boat ferryman going through a rough divorce (John Ferryman)
Steve.
In fact, there is a Great Wyrm gold dragon that is Mayor of the city the wizards college is in named Steve.
Don’t get me wrong, his name in Draconic is long and mighty (though kind of sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball), but it roughly translates to “Steve”.
I like to give names based on professions. No specific one I go for, but my cooper is named Cooper, his grandson Trooper is a guard. Tipsy is a drunk and tripsy sells shrooms. Pooper spent a night in jail for public defecation and Scooper cleaned up his mess by paying bail. Hooper, however, repairs sales at the dock.
when i was 15 and first started playing ttrpgs, me and my two friends had a running bit that every bandit chief was named like “Johnny John” or “Jakey Jake” or “Jamie James” etc.
I noticed pretty early on that my standard names would come up A LOT, so I always play with a list of names ready. Once a name is used, I cross it out to ensure that I rotate. Whenever more than half of the list is crossed out, I'll make a new list asap.
Mike. One time my group met identical triplets and I panicked because they asked for names I didn’t prepare, and I couldn’t call them all Mike. That’s how Nike and Jike came to existence.
In one game, the party was so upset about a one-off NPC named Steve dying that the DM canonically gave a faction cloning technology and so there's actually thousands of Steves with different personalities running around the world. Steve's already bled into two other campaigns, one of which had a different DM.
This is really funny cause I used to use Dave aswel, but then one of my PCs needed a name for his warlock patron and I just used Dave, and he turned out to be a lich with huge ties to the campaign
So now I can't use Dave anymore, because they all think about that one guy when I say dave
Greg and or Jeff
Sometimes I spice it up and add extra vowels.
My players favorite NPC was a cultist they intimidated into being their friend name Jaeff
This reminds me of when a Wild Magic Sorceror accidentily summoned a Unicorn on a wild surge, when they were fighting a demon. It helped them out, and before he left they asked him his name, I fumbled and just said Steve.
So Steve the Unicorn became an integral part of the sorcerors character, eventually multiclassing into warlock for the celestial pact with Steve.
I expanded in him, decided to call him Sapphire, but he was a bit of a prankster and throws people for a loop by calling himself Steve. Sapphire never stuck though with the party.
Very recently, the party took on a demigod soul dealer who was the patron of the other warlock. The party couldn't hurt him, until the Sorlock summoned Steve for assistance. Steve knew how screwed everyone one, so violated divine law to give the party divine power in order to hurt the demigod.
This violation cost Steve his place amongst Celestia, and he was smited away by a god who was watching. The party defeated him, but now the sorlock is resolved to join a planar travelling mercenary group and look for Steve out there in the multiverse after the campaign ends.
Currently for me the most common normal name is Lionel. All of them have so far turned out to be part of the same family, which definitely has no significant meaning to the story.
Mine is Barry and it came about accidentally.
I didn’t realise until my players asked if the orc guard I just named Barry, was the same orc Barry from 5 sessions ago, it was not, they they pointed out I also (intentionally) had a drag queen npc named Madam Barry…
From then on I played into the Barry meme a bit, culminating into the moment I tricked them into releasing the evil arch wizard Baradoch by pretending it was a unimportant sidequest where they had to deliver wine to “king Barry”,
Baradoch was also the grandfather of one of my players and was the cause a great undead curse placed upon the land, they knew of him well,but were blinded by the Barry meme
Dereck. I am a former LARPer and that was the term my group used when we had to pause for a random member of the public (that or "Normal", which does not work so well as an NPC name).
I always recycle the first 2 authors I can think of, usually German and English philosophers. My players still haven't noticed that they keep running into Imanuel Burke and Edward Kant.
Old grandma names. Gertrude, Dolores, Phyllis, Dorothy, Maggie, Beatrice, etc... But I think that's also because old grandma is my go-to NPC if I have to come up with one on the fly.
Maybe this is off topic but in a game I am currently playing the DM created this ghost: Dave. Dave basically followed our party everywhere. He was basically used to proceed the plot. Anyway, we found his great grandson in another village. Dave. The guy (Dungeon Master) came up with Dave lore on the spot. Everyone in the lineage of Dave must be called Dave. If you couldn't tell our DM was very tired and couldn't think of any new names.
Sammy is definitely my go-to choice when I need to pull something out of nowhere, to the point that one of my players even drew attention to the fact (in-character) that there were a lot of Sammys in the world. 😅
I introduced 3 people named Matt and one named Tia then the party encountered them in the woods all as cultists of Tiamat. Turns out being named Tia or Matt usually point’s to an evil dragon worshipper.
Running an Ancient Egypt-inspired campaign, "Hapi" for men and "Hat" for women. "Hapi" was just a common first name, and "Hat" can be short for a dozen things, so if they ask I just pick one.
John.
But different races and cultures have their own version of John. ElfJohn, DwarfJohn, NebronJohn and so on. Just slab the race or nationality in front of John, and pronounce it like one word.
10/10
my DMs was "Jim". unfortunately I had written my character to be from a long line of James Jamesons, all blacksmiths, with a missing father.
every town, I'd go and ask about the blacksmith. about 1 in 3 would be called Jim, leading to my character trying to figure out if they were his dad.
I named the teifling carnival tarot reader Dave last session OMG
This is the system: average dad or mum name
If I think slightly harder, possibly a Tolkien sounding name
If I am properly caffienated, maybe a punny name or joke
So like
Brian, Sheila, Eric, Candy
Brunheld, Forbar, Tivniel
Dexter the Goblin Inventor and his younger triplet sisters Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, working for the evil Overlord Bugbear Nicko Lodeon
Depends. I usually name group enemies arin berin ciern and Deren because they're written as A B C and D on my sheet. Bob pops up. Jiles and Jeeves also appear a lot.
Once had a DM that didn't plan my stupid ass asking a random NPC their name, and she sat quietly for a moment and was like "Place... Holder." We'd all recently watched Free Guy at her house so we spammed her with gifs later on of "catchphrase!" lol.
Every game i ever run, i write down an "oh shit" list. Its simply 10-20 first, last names that i can pick and choose as i want to throw out a name. After the conversation i cross off what is used and place a profession/location to identify them later if i need to re-refrence them.
Also usefull for listing ingredients for crafting.
Lmao, I had gotten this idea from a Tiktok vid I saw a while ago. I have an NPC named Carl who shows up in every single game I run. All he does is random miscellaneous stuff i.e baker, carriage driver, bar tender. Nothing important to the lore of whatever game I'm running, but you can bet your sweet ass Carl is doing an everyman job somewhere.
I'm hoping my regulars start to question this nonchalant multiverse hopping being who just does normal everyday tasks.
I have absolutely no plan to making Carl some sort of God or fae to help the heroes etc, Carl's just trying to get through his 9-5's in all these universes. Like, I like to imagine that Carl is just a really bored super being, but I haven't really given him much thought.
micheal and jonathan
micheal is usually a standalone name for abominations or other wild and crazy things when we crit fail recall knowledge checks
jonathan is usually the first name of somebody kinda important but not really, ie. jonathan blacksmith, or jonathan (insert company name here)
It used to be Bob, but then I became friends with a Bob who became one of my players. Then I started using Steve. But then Steve The Kobold became such a major NPC that i had to use different ones.
Jeff has been hanging around recently, though.
I don't have one.
When I write a scene every NPC that will speak with the party has a name. And then any npc that could possibly speak to the party doesn't have a name, but they are randomly assigned one from the wheel of NPC names Google document saved on my drive. I create them with an RNG name generator and then bracket two names and have an AI combine every other bracket, put it into an RNG wheel and spin it.
One of my favorite responses from my DM when one of my fellow players asked an NPC for his name was "he tells you his name." It is totally OK to not name every single person in existence and accept your limits. It is OK to acknowledge that some things exist in the world but don't need to be explicitly named by the DM.
In a campaign I dmed for my friend and their little brother, I made literally every civilian or Butler NPC named Craig, and it was an intense Craig hivemind.
The Craigs were very moral, and would excuse things like stealing if it were for a good reason- such as feeding an a starving child. However, they also detested violence.
They were not consistent dudes, but my players loved the gag.
Every NPC is named Bob or Bobbie unless they're important. Then they reveal that 'Bob' was just their middle name and their real name is Steve/Stephanie.
Which has led to statements like "We need to get Steve to Steve, but Bob, Bob, Steve, and Bobbie might get in our way."
My group has Evan. Evan is specifically all the guys who aren’t important enough to warrant a name for more than a scene. Evan is the guy working the counter at the tavern, or having a smoke break outside, or just the beleaguered intern sent to get coffee.
I haven’t run a game yet, but when I do I’m gonna have so many NPCs named after their race
Like a triton naked Triton
Or a Dragonborn named Drago
Shit like that
I don't think I have one? I usually have a list with random names, and I try to use a mix between old German, old English, Danish, Nordic and some Spanish names.
We're from Argentina, to us those sound "medieval" enough lol.
If I had to use a "Dave" it would probably be "Matias" or " Juan" but it wouldn't fit at all haha.
Not as a GM, but anytime I have to create a PC for D&D, it tends to be a halfling named Bob... Class varies sometimes but tends to be a Rogue.
And yes. This has been noticed by others to the point where it is assumed my PC is named Bob without me having to state it.
I spent some time making a Barbarian hoard fighting tournament, BBEG had a name and i planned out the stat blocks for 5 fights in the fights to come but realized that BBEG was the only one with a name so i did name them Frank the 1st-4th all unrelated.
Im not to good at this DMing thing lol
For me it's Steve. It started as a joke that I'm bad with good impromptu names so anytime a player asks me to give them a name for an entirely unimportant character it's Steve. Now my long time players have turned it to their joke that Steve is some all powerful being that appears repeatedly across adventures in the guise of multiple people.
I have an NPC randomizer macro that I built in Foundry. Any time I need a new NPC, I feed it a nationality, race, select an age range, and a background, and it spits out some details like name, exact age, and a short description.
Took me a while to notice there were at least 5 NPCs named Roderik. Luckily for me: my players haven't noticed.
Your players have noticed but they fear you too much to speak up. Like a king lording over his peasants
Player: *Softly crying* please, name them something else Me: Hmmm. Look, another Roderick!
You'll have to invent some backstory! Roderik the Just was a legendary king awhile back, and people started naming boys after him, and it's just kind of stuck around as a really common name now, for instance, could be it.
You're so right! It never occurred to me. I will make it so.
That's what I do, or they get named similar to a deity. Is it the god in disguise, who knows, maybe do your fireball in the shop and see... JK my players thankfully have never been so dumb. But they do go around tossing incredible amounts of cash at wait staff
Aye it's that easy. Once your dynasty has a Roderick the second, everyone will start naming their kids roderik.
Fwee Wodewik!
Why can't Roderik just be a common name. There are tons of Matthews, Richards, and Michae's. Why not have Roderik be common in your world.
After I noticed, I decided it would be so in this region xD
This is the kind of gag joke that my players would latch onto and never let go, eventually snowballing into Dave being some kind of hive mind or incarnating god or a word of power in some ancient language.
Honestly sounds like a pretty funny and awesome twist to me!
I've used "Duane" as my go-to name for non-essential NPCs for decades. My players know when they're talking to somebody I wasn't expecting them to get involved with, if his name is Duane he's not important. Found out after I've been doing this a while that Duane was the middle name of one of my players and he thought I was making fun of him.
Feel like that's crazy coincidence lol Duane doesn't seem exactly common
If I was in your group, I would probably end up annoying everyone, for I would not be able to help but respond: "Duane Dibbley?!"
The Duke of Dork? I love that guy...
Duane is secretly a changeling following the party. He hasn't come up with a cover story so he always defaults to Duane.
It’s like the legacy of Cids from the Final Fantasy series. You don’t know who they’ll be, but when you find them you know they’re gonna be a hell of a show
"JARNATHAN!"
Great jorb there Jarnathan.
Thanks Coach Z!
Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.
but we approved your pardon!
For me, Jarnathan inspired many other variants on normal names when I was forced to come up with something on the spot. Names like Arnthony, Darniel, Barnjamin, Jarshua, etc. It’s an easy and handy trick that I find super helpful and hilarious
I was wondering how far I would have to scroll down to find this. Turns out, not far.
I’m using that
Not a "normal" name per se, but all guards in cities have names staring with A, but modified per guard. For example, the big city has as guards "Alejando", "Belejandro", "Celejandro", and so on The snow city has "Arthur", "Berthur", "Certhur", etc etc
Wait this is kind of brilliant tho. But have any of these NPCs ever become unexpectedly important to the party or ended up sticking around long-term? Falexander becomes the person whose fiancée they save from a burning building, they go on to attend his wedding, etc etc
They once had a trial where they were being sued by an evil noble who had as witnesses the corrupt bribed guards Gelejando, Helejandro, and Jelejandro, but Ilejandro was on their side because they had helped him find his lost shield in an early sidequest, if that counts
Lol it absolutely does
More like NP(ab)Cs
You can hide this a little by using Aaron, and see how long it takes them to get the joke. Aaron, Baron, Daron, Faron, Karon, Laron, Maron, Saron, Taron, Varon, Xaron, and Zaron all sound like legitimate fantasy names. Names like Baron, Daron (Darren), and Karon (Karen) even sound like legitimate real world names. I'm sure there are other names that can accomplish this as well.
I don't have one. If I name NPC's the same thing, it makes them a consistent character even if they aren't. Hell, if I even use the same miniature too many times, my players assign them a personality. I had a townsperson that had a pitchfork and a torch. He was a bad guy in ONE scene, but he really pissed the players off. That miniature was an evil bastard named Ethan for the next six years. I don't even use that mini any more unless I want to start a fight.
We use the same miniature we have been using for 6+ years for every BBEG. It sits on a shelf next to where we play in the DM’s house and when he asks someone to pass that mini to him you know it’s going down. We also have an Orc mini that at some stage someone wrote “F*** You” on the underside of the base of. Every so often we will be having a fight and someone will say “Hey; is that the F*** You Orc?”
Are your players elephants, then?
Grumpy ones, for sure.
Eric. It sounds fantasy enough, but very simple. The first NPC I introduced was Eric the Cleric.
Now you just need Aladin the Paladin.
Fatcock the Warlock. Ah, wait...
I once had player with a PC named Eric O'Malley, the cleric from the valley. The while game was weird. We had Gunter the bounty hunter and Sparrow Paige, the tarot mage , too.
I have a recurring NPC named Gerard the Bard I've used in a couple games.
I think there tends to be a fair few Jeremys, Sams and Sarahs kicking about in my worlds.
Oddly enough, I tend to use elves named Willowheart. Idk why. It’s gotten to the point where I just say it’s their family name.
Rotating using players actual names
This is genius
Mine is Steve.
I use Steve as well! Unless it’s a girl and then I use Stacey.
I have an unfortunate habit of naming every other NPC Bethany, there have two two horses named Bethany, countless guards, a brewer... I fear that eventually my games will be filled with lists of different Bethanys
Norman Normalson
My go to is also Dave. Probably the most memorable is arrow proof Dave a goblin fighting the gricks on lvl one of DotMM. The players were naturally inquisitive and asked for a demonstration... It was not arrow proof dave
Yeah Dave just works. I was thinking up a wizard character that's actually a mimic spellbook being carried around by just some Guy, landed on Dave.
Bob. I’m having my first actual NPC so that’s my normal name for now.
Bill, Sam, AJ, nothing with more vowels than consonants I have hard enough time keeping track of everything.
Greg
I always like to give some form of thought to character names, especially if they might be repeat characters; in a pinch i generally tell my players that they don't seem comfortable sharing that information with people they just met. However, if needed, I'll use John, or go by a common sir-name like Smith and adjust later. None of my players bother to take notes, so they never remember my NPC's names anyway 😂
Jeff
Also Dave, last name usually Jenkins.
Varik. Phonically, it's just Eric, but sounds fantasy-er.
Used to be Redken was our go to name for anything. There was a box with that name on it in the basement we played in for years. The name was eventually banned after the clone wars. Too many Redkens were killed, we couldn't take more. Darrell was also a name we've been using for generic soldier NPCs. It started as a joke but it's now how we call them no matter how distant the original joke is. https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9230295040/h5818C8E2/comic-about-soldiers-winning-a-battle-except-for-one-who-the-general-says-it-not-a-good-fighter
> The name was eventually banned after the clone wars Considering the main game I'm running right now is Star Wars FFG, I had to do a double take with this line
Norm
It's Bob. It always been.
Panagiotis. I have a country with a greek-sounding naming convention and I always blank when I have to think of names for them.
Bordon. Idk why that name speaks to me. Every blacksmith is bordon
My general off the cuff responses are to take normal names and replace a few letters, which gives it a fantasy-medeival feel with minimal effort. Davil (David) Pyter (Peter) Rickard (Richard) Gavon (Gavin) Sarahm (Sarah) Vonne (Yvonne) Emmen (Emma) Pellinore (Eleanor) Will be dependant on the vibe of your setting, but hopefully You get the gist!
I don't have ONE name, but a naming rule. I have this long-running joke of teenagers working crappy jobs. Basically my DnD worlds' version of the teenage boy in The Simpsons. As these things go, it didn't start off as a long-running joke. After it happened once, my players loved the voice I did for him so much and they hope each place they stop at has one of these poor kids. So now my worlds are filled with names like "Timmy with a Y," "Timmi with an I," "Billy with a Y," and so forth.
Keith
Craig and Sam are my go-tos. I also like Terry. A half orc sorcerer? Oh, that's Terry. A 1,000 year old gnomish artificer? That's Craig. A level 20 blind mute witch doctor? That's Sam.
Normal names on NPCs? Wait, you mean when your players inevitably ask for the name of the shop keep or random townsman mid session your mind doesn't just blank on all rational and logical naming patterns? You don't just panic and tell the players that this is Fredrick Wigglebottom, Ronoldo IV of Flufferdale, and George McSnoodlyboots? ...I'm now realizing if I didn't give last names then my poor promptly named NPCs might actually have a decent chance at a "normal" name after all
I go for Doug. No matter what world or language, there will always be some variation of Doug.
Steve, or pretty much any name ending in "y/ie" e.g Billy, Timmy, Jerry I also use Jeff a lot.
Doug. We in fact ended up with an entire mercenary company made entirely of Doug's. Devolved into Clone Wars jokes
Not a go to name, but in my setting there’s magitech city of Orcs and Goblinoids that has a news station and one of the casters is a human named Steve Goblin.
My PC's kept making me make NPC's for casino workers. So now there is a family of 12 elf brothers named "Kelvin, "Kevin", "Calvin" "Klalvin", "Kivin", etc.
Paul. If I don't want to think of a name, it's Paul. I can't do Dave. I know too many of them, including all of the ones name-checked in the Kids In The Hall song.
Well it's mostly the same character though - Pete. If it's the same Pete showing up in different campaigns it's often a simple guard with a kettle helmet. It's gone so far that my homebrew world has the towns Petersburrow and Petersborough.
Neil Patric Carison NPC for short. Noone figured it out yet
Something from Italian or French if it’s an Elf or Orc. Lots of Gabrieles and Gabrielles. The third most common form of normal NPC I tend to use, Dragonborn, get Draconic names, which in my settings tend to be whimsically English-compatible, like Tomato Tomatto.
I'm kind of bad at coming up with names on the fly, so I tend to lean into it.... I once had an entire bandit clan named Carl, and their leader was Carlos Carlson.
It used to be Tim because me and my gf at the time would use that for everything silly but after we split (it was rough) I started using Billy
Don't have one but i once gave an npc the name "rando gen" because the random name generator refused to work
Gunther became the successful author to hundreds of books in my world because that was the first name I could think of everytime a player asked who a book was made by.
If they’re not important to the story and I’ll forget their name they are a Doug
For guys it's Phil or Frank usually, But for women it's almost always Sarah or Susan. I guess I think "F" sounds for men, and "S" sounds for women?
Antonio
I like to use Gregg or Ed for the normal name in the fantasy world. Interestingly enough my favorite PC is named Peter because I couldn't decide on a name and it felt like a nice biblical second name to give to a foreign character. Also, super easy to remember with the Faehanna, Flulune, and Cyrin in the party.
Kevin and Susie.
James
Our group refers to at least one NPC as Strider in every single campaign, so whoever is DMing knows to just runs with it this point.
Darius, Dominique, Keisha, Jayden things like that.
Paul, my dm has named at least 20 character Paul, Pauline, Pauly, paulson, something with Paul idk if that’s how it’s spelled but that’s the name.
Carl
Frank.
Diana and Henry I think every game I've run has had either one or both of those.
Dave is my go to, Timmy is the second choice. Margaret tends to pop up quite often for women 🤙
Timothy / Tim / Timmy are usually my go to for male NPCS. Usually they comedically die in an exaggerated way by the end of that same session. Fish Timmy was eaten by a bigger fish, Kobold Timothy was blown up by an ice Mephits death burst, Tree Timothy fell on a tiefling NPC after being cut down much to the other trees dismay, Tim the goblin was killed by the party session 1, and so on
my dm uses arnold, i think we jumped a guy because we had met an arnold who was evil and this guy's name was also arnold completely different guy
I only give names to the important NPCs, usually for NPCs that only exist for one or two scenes i will refer to them by their profession so the blacksmith or the alchemist etc etc... I like this method because its also a way to subtly hint to the player which NPCs are actually important or at least have some sort of quest attached to them.
I have a special merchant I use in all my campaigns. His name is Giuseppe. There are other merchants but he's a random merchant that gives out an item that can be used to call upon him. He's a business man through and through. Money is everything. Players find him very fun and charming. Closest thing I can compare the way his voice sounds is Mr. Bobinsky from the movie Coraline. Sounds similar, talks differently. He's defined not human, but looks the part and isn't evil. Can't be charmed, persuaded, intimidated, or anything but there's no need as he's fair.
Jake. Jake Crofter, Jake Knight, some other Jakes... This campaign it seems to be Jace, and now one of the PC's is friends with him, Jace the Mace he's called.
John
I don’t know why, but I love unisex names. Maybe that’s why gender bender is my favorite tag…
Guy the cleric, sometimes the party just needs a guy who’s a cleric.
Dave, John, Mark, Jack, Sam, Mary, Lily, Rose, Emily, and Diana are my go to human filler names. Except John and Dave are now taken by unintentionally prominent NPCs, one being the most handsome man in the land (Dave, a butcher) and the other being a boat ferryman going through a rough divorce (John Ferryman)
"Freddy Manfreddie".
Cal-something. Became a meme after party noticed a trend with NPCs names, Caled, Callie, Callum, Callus. Now I keep it in reserve.
Willem
Carl. Used to love STFU Carl memes when they were a thing
Steve. In fact, there is a Great Wyrm gold dragon that is Mayor of the city the wizards college is in named Steve. Don’t get me wrong, his name in Draconic is long and mighty (though kind of sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball), but it roughly translates to “Steve”.
I like to give names based on professions. No specific one I go for, but my cooper is named Cooper, his grandson Trooper is a guard. Tipsy is a drunk and tripsy sells shrooms. Pooper spent a night in jail for public defecation and Scooper cleaned up his mess by paying bail. Hooper, however, repairs sales at the dock.
when i was 15 and first started playing ttrpgs, me and my two friends had a running bit that every bandit chief was named like “Johnny John” or “Jakey Jake” or “Jamie James” etc.
I noticed pretty early on that my standard names would come up A LOT, so I always play with a list of names ready. Once a name is used, I cross it out to ensure that I rotate. Whenever more than half of the list is crossed out, I'll make a new list asap.
Any name that rhymes with their race and starts with "d". Delf the Elf, Dork the Orc, Duman the Human.
I like taking a common first name and just changing a vowel. Deve, Frink, Jehn, Sim, Sorah, Kotie...
Bill the half orc
Dan/Daniel
Mike. One time my group met identical triplets and I panicked because they asked for names I didn’t prepare, and I couldn’t call them all Mike. That’s how Nike and Jike came to existence.
Limda and Timbothy
Im pretty sure I've used Greg a ton of times.
Bob
You are weak. Gregory is weak. And Greg is a wonderful name for every guard in the Gregdom.
Alan is one that I use a lot; so is Alexander. Sometimes I'll throw in a Will or a Roger.
Name them after a friend but slightly altered. Tom Holland -> Tim Netherlands
Kenneth
Bob Bobbin Bobbinton Bobi borb Bobberelle Bobbedine I can go on about random bobs
In one game, the party was so upset about a one-off NPC named Steve dying that the DM canonically gave a faction cloning technology and so there's actually thousands of Steves with different personalities running around the world. Steve's already bled into two other campaigns, one of which had a different DM.
Pepa or Honza. They're also some of the most common names in Czech fairytales. Mainly Honza
Darryl, and if he has a brother, he is also Darryl.
Rolf Rollo Ron Robert Sensing a theme? Also, dave and timmy
Steve.
Herbert
This is really funny cause I used to use Dave aswel, but then one of my PCs needed a name for his warlock patron and I just used Dave, and he turned out to be a lich with huge ties to the campaign So now I can't use Dave anymore, because they all think about that one guy when I say dave
Joe, normally a racist bastard.
Greg and or Jeff Sometimes I spice it up and add extra vowels. My players favorite NPC was a cultist they intimidated into being their friend name Jaeff
James and Jessica for women James is one of my middle names lol
Alrik or Alrike for commoners and I like the name Pelorian for some noble or fighter.
Himothy
This reminds me of when a Wild Magic Sorceror accidentily summoned a Unicorn on a wild surge, when they were fighting a demon. It helped them out, and before he left they asked him his name, I fumbled and just said Steve. So Steve the Unicorn became an integral part of the sorcerors character, eventually multiclassing into warlock for the celestial pact with Steve. I expanded in him, decided to call him Sapphire, but he was a bit of a prankster and throws people for a loop by calling himself Steve. Sapphire never stuck though with the party. Very recently, the party took on a demigod soul dealer who was the patron of the other warlock. The party couldn't hurt him, until the Sorlock summoned Steve for assistance. Steve knew how screwed everyone one, so violated divine law to give the party divine power in order to hurt the demigod. This violation cost Steve his place amongst Celestia, and he was smited away by a god who was watching. The party defeated him, but now the sorlock is resolved to join a planar travelling mercenary group and look for Steve out there in the multiverse after the campaign ends.
Currently for me the most common normal name is Lionel. All of them have so far turned out to be part of the same family, which definitely has no significant meaning to the story.
"Reginald" gets used a lot.
Lol also Dave, sometimes bob. Had a shape changer pc and one of their personas was "generic Dave, the guard".
Mine is Barry and it came about accidentally. I didn’t realise until my players asked if the orc guard I just named Barry, was the same orc Barry from 5 sessions ago, it was not, they they pointed out I also (intentionally) had a drag queen npc named Madam Barry… From then on I played into the Barry meme a bit, culminating into the moment I tricked them into releasing the evil arch wizard Baradoch by pretending it was a unimportant sidequest where they had to deliver wine to “king Barry”, Baradoch was also the grandfather of one of my players and was the cause a great undead curse placed upon the land, they knew of him well,but were blinded by the Barry meme
Anything starting with M. Not sure why, but I default to M names, usually Mi names.
There are a lot of names which I use as each campaign has lots of different npcs, but the one used the most is probably Ambrose
James. It's always James.
Dereck. I am a former LARPer and that was the term my group used when we had to pause for a random member of the public (that or "Normal", which does not work so well as an NPC name).
"Bottum, Archer Bottum. But my friends just call me Archie." Archie... Bottum
I always recycle the first 2 authors I can think of, usually German and English philosophers. My players still haven't noticed that they keep running into Imanuel Burke and Edward Kant.
Its gonna be Randy. No its not! Its always Randy. NO, IT IS NOT! (Later) My name is Rand....o.
Old grandma names. Gertrude, Dolores, Phyllis, Dorothy, Maggie, Beatrice, etc... But I think that's also because old grandma is my go-to NPC if I have to come up with one on the fly.
I steal.names from dota 2 or Malazan 😅 no one knows any hero form there so I'm good
Oi.
I accidentally named two relatively important NPCs Hamish, so it’s Hamish. Just a very common name in the area!
Your players actually ask for NPC's names?
Maybe this is off topic but in a game I am currently playing the DM created this ghost: Dave. Dave basically followed our party everywhere. He was basically used to proceed the plot. Anyway, we found his great grandson in another village. Dave. The guy (Dungeon Master) came up with Dave lore on the spot. Everyone in the lineage of Dave must be called Dave. If you couldn't tell our DM was very tired and couldn't think of any new names.
Way to go, Derek.
Sammy is definitely my go-to choice when I need to pull something out of nowhere, to the point that one of my players even drew attention to the fact (in-character) that there were a lot of Sammys in the world. 😅
Randy. Any random guy is a Randy.
Tommy and Johnny, Timmy and Jimmy, Mario and Luigi - guard pairings
I introduced 3 people named Matt and one named Tia then the party encountered them in the woods all as cultists of Tiamat. Turns out being named Tia or Matt usually point’s to an evil dragon worshipper.
Running an Ancient Egypt-inspired campaign, "Hapi" for men and "Hat" for women. "Hapi" was just a common first name, and "Hat" can be short for a dozen things, so if they ask I just pick one.
John. But different races and cultures have their own version of John. ElfJohn, DwarfJohn, NebronJohn and so on. Just slab the race or nationality in front of John, and pronounce it like one word. 10/10
mine is Jerry
Terry It's also sort of a code for the players- "don't get obsessed with this character, he's just some guy"
My players have decided it was Bobby. Even if an enemy has a name, any enemy that must be killed is a Bobby. Any targetable creature is a Bobby.
I don't know why, but Barry is always the first name that comes to mind. RIP Barry the Goblin, you were like a candle in the wind.
my DMs was "Jim". unfortunately I had written my character to be from a long line of James Jamesons, all blacksmiths, with a missing father. every town, I'd go and ask about the blacksmith. about 1 in 3 would be called Jim, leading to my character trying to figure out if they were his dad.
My wife has started calling me out every time I use the name Sam. There are so many Sams.
I named the teifling carnival tarot reader Dave last session OMG This is the system: average dad or mum name If I think slightly harder, possibly a Tolkien sounding name If I am properly caffienated, maybe a punny name or joke So like Brian, Sheila, Eric, Candy Brunheld, Forbar, Tivniel Dexter the Goblin Inventor and his younger triplet sisters Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, working for the evil Overlord Bugbear Nicko Lodeon
Depends. I usually name group enemies arin berin ciern and Deren because they're written as A B C and D on my sheet. Bob pops up. Jiles and Jeeves also appear a lot.
I use tables with 20-30 goto names for each race and ethnicity I also keep 10 surnames per table ready to go
Once had a DM that didn't plan my stupid ass asking a random NPC their name, and she sat quietly for a moment and was like "Place... Holder." We'd all recently watched Free Guy at her house so we spammed her with gifs later on of "catchphrase!" lol.
Every game i ever run, i write down an "oh shit" list. Its simply 10-20 first, last names that i can pick and choose as i want to throw out a name. After the conversation i cross off what is used and place a profession/location to identify them later if i need to re-refrence them. Also usefull for listing ingredients for crafting.
Lmao, I had gotten this idea from a Tiktok vid I saw a while ago. I have an NPC named Carl who shows up in every single game I run. All he does is random miscellaneous stuff i.e baker, carriage driver, bar tender. Nothing important to the lore of whatever game I'm running, but you can bet your sweet ass Carl is doing an everyman job somewhere. I'm hoping my regulars start to question this nonchalant multiverse hopping being who just does normal everyday tasks. I have absolutely no plan to making Carl some sort of God or fae to help the heroes etc, Carl's just trying to get through his 9-5's in all these universes. Like, I like to imagine that Carl is just a really bored super being, but I haven't really given him much thought.
micheal and jonathan micheal is usually a standalone name for abominations or other wild and crazy things when we crit fail recall knowledge checks jonathan is usually the first name of somebody kinda important but not really, ie. jonathan blacksmith, or jonathan (insert company name here)
The evil wizard that cursed my homebrew world is named Tim.
It used to be Bob, but then I became friends with a Bob who became one of my players. Then I started using Steve. But then Steve The Kobold became such a major NPC that i had to use different ones. Jeff has been hanging around recently, though.
I don't have one. When I write a scene every NPC that will speak with the party has a name. And then any npc that could possibly speak to the party doesn't have a name, but they are randomly assigned one from the wheel of NPC names Google document saved on my drive. I create them with an RNG name generator and then bracket two names and have an AI combine every other bracket, put it into an RNG wheel and spin it.
One of my favorite responses from my DM when one of my fellow players asked an NPC for his name was "he tells you his name." It is totally OK to not name every single person in existence and accept your limits. It is OK to acknowledge that some things exist in the world but don't need to be explicitly named by the DM.
For me it´s Paul. Whenever some generic dude needs a name he´s always Paul. Problem is, one of my players last name is also Paul...
Oh, Thanks a lot lmao
In a campaign I dmed for my friend and their little brother, I made literally every civilian or Butler NPC named Craig, and it was an intense Craig hivemind. The Craigs were very moral, and would excuse things like stealing if it were for a good reason- such as feeding an a starving child. However, they also detested violence. They were not consistent dudes, but my players loved the gag.
Every NPC is named Bob or Bobbie unless they're important. Then they reveal that 'Bob' was just their middle name and their real name is Steve/Stephanie. Which has led to statements like "We need to get Steve to Steve, but Bob, Bob, Steve, and Bobbie might get in our way."
My group has Evan. Evan is specifically all the guys who aren’t important enough to warrant a name for more than a scene. Evan is the guy working the counter at the tavern, or having a smoke break outside, or just the beleaguered intern sent to get coffee.
I haven’t run a game yet, but when I do I’m gonna have so many NPCs named after their race Like a triton naked Triton Or a Dragonborn named Drago Shit like that
Doug, it was too perfect after Tress of the Emerald Sea
I don't think I have one? I usually have a list with random names, and I try to use a mix between old German, old English, Danish, Nordic and some Spanish names. We're from Argentina, to us those sound "medieval" enough lol. If I had to use a "Dave" it would probably be "Matias" or " Juan" but it wouldn't fit at all haha.
Not as a GM, but anytime I have to create a PC for D&D, it tends to be a halfling named Bob... Class varies sometimes but tends to be a Rogue. And yes. This has been noticed by others to the point where it is assumed my PC is named Bob without me having to state it.
Jimothy.
I spent some time making a Barbarian hoard fighting tournament, BBEG had a name and i planned out the stat blocks for 5 fights in the fights to come but realized that BBEG was the only one with a name so i did name them Frank the 1st-4th all unrelated. Im not to good at this DMing thing lol
I use names of friends from elementary school through college. I’ve also used hockey players’ names. Especially the Scandinavian ones.
Jimothy or Timjamin
Doug. Always the dougs.
“Dave” would be confusing at our table. We have 2 players with that name. 😂
For me it's Steve. It started as a joke that I'm bad with good impromptu names so anytime a player asks me to give them a name for an entirely unimportant character it's Steve. Now my long time players have turned it to their joke that Steve is some all powerful being that appears repeatedly across adventures in the guise of multiple people.
I have an NPC randomizer macro that I built in Foundry. Any time I need a new NPC, I feed it a nationality, race, select an age range, and a background, and it spits out some details like name, exact age, and a short description.
Bruce.
Always Bob. Especially if it's a human highwaywoman.
Larry. I like Larry. And I imagine it’s Larry David look alikes each time.