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Whenever I try to pull something out of thin air I tend to inevitably get a fairly small pool of results revolving around the words ‘black’ ‘star’ ‘storm’ ‘gold’ ‘fist’ ‘jaw’ ‘hand’ etc., and I figured that some kind of table or chart with a much larger word pool would be of great assistance. Gile Ravenplume takes a break from gladiator training…Īnyway, having decided I liked these kind of compound names, I started jotting down words that might make up one half of a good surname. Lavinia Brightswan was a powerful mage I created for my adventure the Gleaming Cloud Citadel. It can be spectacularly unsubtle like ‘Bloodfist’ or ‘Skullbasher’, or just a name that resonates with the right ring for that person, hinting at their personal qualities, without going so far as literally describing them. I like these types names for several reasons:ġ) When you find a good combination it usually sounds convincing!Ģ) As these compound surnames consist of familiar words, they are easy for you, and perhaps more importantly for your players, to remember – and pronounce.ģ) You can hint at the character’s physical appearance, attributes or personality, by dint of giving them an aptronymic moniker. This post was first published in Nov 2020, and updated in Jan 2023.Īs any Dungeon Master will attest, but particularly any who write and publish their own adventures, coming up with vaguely credible names you don’t hate for all your NPCs is a major pain in the I’ve found myself leaning into recently is the classic ‘epithet + noun’ formula for NPC surnames.