Choosing fantasy words and names

Originally posted by Emeral at RPG Creation Version II on Dec 9 2009

So choosing a fantasy name for a character, world, city, whatever in your game can be important. You may choose to name the lead character the same as your pet or your world the same as your favourite place to live – just an example.

You may just like a word the way it sounds and then decide to make up a name similar.

So what are your views on choosing fantasy names in general? What should game makers take into consideration when choosing a fantasy name for their game’s world, character, item etc?

And what do you think of fantasy names being perceived to real world names? (because it does happen…)
For instance you could name a world Europia and the first place you may think of would be Europe, right? However this shouldn’t be the case unless the creator deliberately wanted players to perceive that (then it wouldn’t be a fictional game, would it?).

So what are your views? Post a reply in the comment box (click on Leave a comment).

p.s. there are many fantasy name generators which could help you out if you do not want to use your imagination for your game.

For example: http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/ – You can generate names there or http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=fantasy+name&meta=&aq=f&oq= – Many more (by Google Search)