I always wonder how game writers and/or game developers come up with names for places/characters/objects/etc. Like names in Diablo series, Warcraft series, Heretic/Hexen, Outcast, Star Wars universe, etc. Names are weird :) but at the same time somewhat easy to remember/recognize and names in those games are very effective. Like let's say Mammaroth from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Just by hearing that name you can picture huge and vicious monster, almost indefeatable, which Mammaroth is. Any ideas where do they get references for such names or how do they come up with it?

Quote: Original post by motorsep
Like let's say Mammaroth from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Just by hearing that name you can picture huge and vicious monster, almost indefeatable, which Mammaroth is.

Perhaps you mean Mannoroth ? Or is Mammaroth his/her/its mother?

Quote: Any ideas where do they get references for such names or how do they come up with it?

Phonetics: each set of phonems is culturally associated to something.

The "th" is commonly used for naming demons and otherworldy creatures: Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth => Mannoroth.

The semitic termination "el" is commonly used for supernatural beings in the torah and the bible: Azazel, Gabriel, Atarniel => Tyrael.

Japanese separates all consonants by vowels (except N) and uses the distinctive "tsu", "chi", "shi". I could invent, say, "Asashi Tsugumata", and have it instantly sound east-asian to any non-native.

Terminations "os" and "es" are typically greek. Note that Hephastos is an ancient greek god of the forge.

Terminations "us", "um" and "ae" are typically latin.

Tolkien's languages are evolved "naturally" (since Tolkien was a linguist and phonetician). For instance, elvish is heavy on "fi", "eth", "il" and several others. Human languages use the "r" letter in more heavy-duty combinations ("ir", "or") before another vowel or at the end of the word to emphasize its pronunciation. The aggressive "gh" is found in the black tongue of mordor ("ghâsh").

Sorry, my bad :) Mannoroth is the right spelling.
Wow. Sounds pretty complicated :/ Where did you learn all that stuff?

That previous post was mine.

You will also find that alot of games grab names from old stories and groups. They also just use words literally from other languages; latin, greek, arabic and so on... One easy one is to use bible names. (hint: There is this oh so crazy bit at the start with begats and begots) With a mix of all these and some imagination you can create cool names with meaning and not be too cliche.

Just quickly...

GREEK => Nyx, Erebus, Hemera, Aether, Gaia, Pontus, Ourea, Uranus (or Ouranos), Cronus, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Thia, Crius, Mnemosyne, Coeus, Phoebe, Iapetus, Themis, Metis, Maia, Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephaestus, Cetus, Chimaera, Orthrus, Cerberus, Hydra.

NORSE => Ymir, Buri, Bor, Bestla, Odin, Vili, Ve, Frigg, Freya, Freyr, Ran, Surtur, Loki, Olvaldi, Thiazzi, Thrym, Angrboda, Farbauti, Hel, Fenrir, Jormungand.

EGYPTIAN => Ra, Nut, Shu, Tefnut, Osiris, Seth/Setesh, Isis, Nepthys, Anubis, Ammit.

I tend to use either cultural references to associate a person or place with a particular preconceived notion or idea, or I use phonetic representation of the characters personality.

By referencing an existing idea through a name I can give people more to associate with it then what I have actual told them about that person or place. For instance if take this sentence “No ones seen Jackal since he got fried trying to jack into the Emerald City”
I haven’t told anything about Jackal or what the Emerald City is but if you recognize the names you will already have preconceived notions of what they are.

When trying to represent a characters personality phonetically I simply associate sounds with the characters personality then use that as the name. For example if I was to ask you which of the following leaders was the evil one, Trilestia or Archon Kane. You would probably rightly say Archon Kane.

Im finding myself in a similar situation at the moment in an RPG world design.

Normally I use typical phonics to suggest the character's personality, but Ive found myself wondering what other ways there are to do it...

Im finding that phonetic associations work, but tend to end up sounding overly stereotypically when you use it too frequently. Im also realising that the method falls down a little when you have deep and complex characters (I blame David Freeman and his book) and dont want to bind them to a standard stereotype - by definition, the more unique you want you character to be, the less reference you have to base names on.


I guess in the end its just one of those areas that falls under "art". Preperation and understanding the structure of languages and cultures you want to reference is a good start, but the next step is to just jump in with your instincts. (Unless you have the money to research with market focus groups, I guess)

Check out this random name generation utility called "Everchanging Book of Names".

Everchanging Book of Names

It allows you to generate all sorts of names such as Elvish, Tolkien, Forgotten Realms, and heck - even Star Trek names! :) (some of these require downloading extra add-on files that various users have created themselves - called chapter files).

Granted I am newbie with no formal experience, my tactic when naming is to take the central ambition or idea behind the character, identify it within a foreign tongued culture and use the translation, sometimes with a little modification and it usually generates interesting things.

For example I have a really self absorbed Necromancer whose primary ambition is to become the living embodiment of his craft ie. dead. Death is a single word that describes his ambitions / motivations. The world setting is rather passive and culturally similar to medieval Europe so I decided to use the French language as my mystical basis. Death translated into French returns as Avernus, I now have Avernus, lord of the damned.

My system is limited to flat characters for easy returns and probably wouldn't work so well on a cultrally refined audience but then again there are more languages than any single individual can master.

A quicker alternative for people like me who aren't Tolkein and don't have a mastery of linguistics.