Oblivion was my first game in the Elder Scrolls series, so I'm not sure about the naming conventions for some races.

What are good names for Khajits, Argonians, Redguards, Elves and Orcs?

I made an Argonian once called Owns-Your-Hide (master in hand to hand), but he got deleted. I felt the name was a bit silly.

The Prima Strategy guide has a bunch of names listed for each race. Almost all Orcs you encounter in the game have a name thats like bla-Gro-bla or bla-Gra-bla.

There are a couple of name generators out there, but I usually go to the wiki. From http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Names you can find pages of the names the names used for all the races, in all the games. When I need names for my fan fic I usually go here, and either take a name from one of the older games, or combine two, etc...

Argonians often have descriptive names (Hides-His-Eyes, City-Swimmer, Owns-Your-Hide works too ) or just names that just have this Argonian-like ring to it (I really can't explain it any better. For example Dar-Ma, Hul, Huleeya).

Khajiits have these... cat-like names, I guess you could call them (M'raaj-Dar, S'razirr, S'Krivva). They consist of lots of consonants (especially R, S, Z, etc) with some hyphens and apostrophes.

Orcs have last names beginning with gra- (female) or gro- (male). gro-Gorzag, gra-Bura. Usually their first names are short and compact, like Snak and Burz.

Elven names just sound elven. I can't really explain, but looking at lists of names might give you a general idea. Depending on the race of the elf, names vary in style. For example, Telaendril (Bosmer), Fathis Aren (Dunmer), Gilgondorin (Altmer)...

Redguards usually have namey-sounding names (... wow, I can really explain things, can't I?), sometimes with a descriptive name thrown in (ie. Azani Blackheart). Armand Christophe, Baurus, Cyrus, Tamika.

There are some characters(either Imperial, Breton or Redguard) who have actual names: Martin, Edgar Vautrine,Antoinetta Marie, Ida Vlinorrman, Luther Broad, Samuel Bantien, Curtis, Ernest, Shady Sam, Neville, Cyrus. I'm sure theres more that I can't think of.

You could use a name generator to make names for each race.

http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/ngen. I hope it serves you well.

Edit:

Troyatz covered Argonians, Khajiits, Elves, and Redguards pretty well, but Incase you need a better feel for other races;

Imperials: Usually ancient Roman sounding names. Maximus, Cassius, Toutius, etc..

Nords: Based off Norse mythology, so they names according to it's culture. Orgnolf, Olfgar, Heinrich.. They usually have titles too, like [insert name here] The Weary or [insert name here] The Mighty. But that's with other races too.

Bretons: Mostly human names, usually of French heritage. Vicente, Louis, etc..

Bretons usually get names that are more or less Gallic, like Jeanne Fresoric, Guilbert/Reynald Jemane. Imperials have Latin-ized names, Nords are sort of Scandinavian. Redguards have only first names, like Cyrus or Baurus or Phintias.

Khajiits get a letter in front of their names, like M'Bari or J'Basha or K' -- these have meanings, but I've forgotten what they are.

Orc males get gro- in front of the family name, gra- for females.

Argonians may have Argpnian names, like Amusei or Dar Ma or Seed Neeus.

Dark elves have first and family names. High elves and wood elves have just one name. Wood elf male names tend to end in -ir. High elves tend to have three syllable names.

Mara

For complete lists of all the characters of a certain race, you can check out the UESPWiki. This should give you a general idea of what lore-friendly names look like within a certain race.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Argonian, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Breton, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Redguard, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Nord, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Bosmer, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Dunmer, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Altmer, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Imperial, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Orc, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Oblivion-Khajiit

Yes, use the links provided above by SubRosa and Troyatz for wiki and that provided by Holy Assassin for Tamriel Rebuilt's name generator. Great resources.

Rounding out things, here is the other popular name generator at http://www.silgrad.com/oblivion/rangen/.

curious, apparently most people try to apply names according to oblivionness.

i remember few ppl who do other wise : haydée, buffy, count chocolate....

The OP specifically asked for lore-friendliness, so I gave it to them. I personally think it's fine to name your characters with un-lore-friendly names, as long as you have a reason for it. "I just like the name a lot" is a good enough reason.

For example, I have an elf named Ezra. Not really Elven, but I really like the name. And I had an elf (a male elf, might I add...) named Lady Gingerbeer, but I think it's best if we don't get in to that too much. Lady Gingerbeer was... an interesting character in more ways than one.

yes, i just found it really curious, i never thought ppl would try to find what names matched races.

its actually a good sign, imo, like trying to get really 'into' the game.

Heh. In Buffy's game there are a whole slew of imaginary supporting characters. And loads of named generic NPCs. For example, all four of the Black Horse Courier riders have Breton names in our game. Buffy is the only one in our game who has a name that is not TES. There is a whole story and reasons behind her name, but it is not TES. Lol.

I usually use Lore friendly names, except in some cases, It just makes some of my characters stand out, whilst still fitting in(If that made sense)

I just use roughly appropriate names. As long as you are willing for people to call you by that name it doesn't matter as they don't even do that.

Since Tolkien pretty much pioneered the fantasy races, I will recommend http://ebon.pyorre.net/. The core chapters are free, and the generator algorithm is filterable.

Core chapters:

Ad?naic
Aurthurian
Black Speech
Finnish
Khuzd?l
Latin
Midnight
Quenya
Sindarin
Valarin
Viking
Westron

[edit] Typo corrected.

Yay, kudos to me for being fluent in Finnish already! I know it's one of the base languages for many of Tolkien's created languages, but still... it seems so weird to see FINNISH on that list along with languages like Sindarin and Quenya... Like, Finnish? Seriously.

(Completely off topic, sorry... :bolt: )

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions! I usually play Breton characters because French names are easy for me (French Canadian). I'm having trouble with the the beast races mostly. Their names can be so weird.

*Snicker* You should just use "Ma'[whatever you want]", that's how all the manly Khajiit are recognized. *Snicker*

Naming your character: You can name your character anything you like, but the NPCs have diferent name styles for each race. Ive included these next to the Races for those who value roleplay devices. Also check this out: http://www.silgrad.com/oblivion/rangen/

Warrior Races:
Imperial-Social Warrior (First and Last Name typically ancient Roman origin {Zakarius Svedlin})
Nord-Heavy Warrior (Single Name of Norse origin {Hrothgar} and optional descriptive {Hrothgar the Brutal})
Orc-Blunt oriented Warrior (First Name, gender Prefix, Family Name {Malog gro-Balog (gra- if female orc}, one NPC is called Mezoga the Orc)
Redguard-Versatile Warrior (Single name of African-American Nature {Dion} one NPC is called Trayvon the Redguard)

Thief Races:
Argonian-Balanced Thief (Hist Language Name {Webaum-Na} or descriptive phrase {Hides His Heart} )
Bosmer-Pure Archery Thief (Single Name of Tolkien Nature {Gilgondragon})
Khajiit-Acrobatic Thief with infinite ability to see in the dark (Arabic Styled Names {S'krivva} one is called Mai'q the Liar)

Mage Races:
Altmer-Fragile Mage (25% Weakness to all Elemental Magic) with huge Magicka Boost (200) (Generally a fairly long single name {Camalda})
Breton-Conservative Mage with Magicka Boost (100) and Resistance to Magicka (50) (Single or First and Last Name of French Origin {Francious Mortierre})

The Most Balanced Race:
Dunmer-They have rounded bonuses and can be converted to almost anything. (Dunmer have a deep naming system that has to do with houses they came from and you should consult the lore section for naming suggestions)

-FROM MY OWN GUIDE ON OBLIVION-

If you like it, the whole thing is in my sig. Peace-

As it turns out, one of my character names is finnish.
I was on an online game and one of my characters was called Kiva.
Then someone told me that the name was finnish.
So I look it up on a translator and:
'cute, ripping, funny, great, nice'
I didn't know, I'd just made the name up
Now I use Kiva for all my female character names.

That gives me an awesome idea for naming now.
Translate a few keywords that describes the character, into another language using Google. Sure it might not be Accurate, but if it sounds good, Thats all that matters

Most of the namey sounding names belong to Bretons.

Imperials have names that seem to be Roman or at least Roman sounding.

Nords have very Scandanavian type names.

Someone mentioned Armonde Christophe. I find him to be a strange fellow, being a Redguard with a Breton sounding name. I assume his mother was the Redguard and he's half Breton.

I've found a few that you could use for imperials, since they're latin and all.

Igneus Astrum - Burning Star
Fortis Pectus pectoris - Strong Heart
Umbra Furs - Shade Thief

So many possibilities :goodjob:

Sami Py?rre (the author of EBON) if I recall is Finnish, so the parallel is not that surprising (nor the plug for his native tongue).