I'll open this thread because this subject is rather neglected, anyway.

Well, I have an issue with naming conventions. Way back in Daggerfall, they might have used a name generator of some sorts that actually made some good names... Dungeons were named "Ruins of Kinghart Court", cities "Westhill"... And finally, even the Redguard names seemed right. I mean, they might have used some Semitic language as an inspiration, but it "felt" right.

Now however, there is an increasing tendency towards making up names from the air. Then we get those rather grotesque names like "Arefu", or "Kvatch", or just stereotypical ones like "Caldera" or "Bravil". With all of this, I mean it wouldn't harm if Bethesda began taking some inspiration from actual existing languages back, and name generated whatever isn't name generated yet. I mean, instead of grotesque sounding names like "Arefu" or "Skingrad", why not, assuming that we are in Summurset Isle, a name with definitely Mongolian, or Finno-Ugrian... Or even Armenian inspirations. Yay for the exotic.

yay for inspiration, [censored] no to random generators. names need logical meaning and maybe even ties to lore, and no generator can provide that.

Kvatch really is a stretch. I think Arefu is a Romanian river though.

While I agree that names shouldn't be randomly generated, but Daggerfall did have a lot better names. There needs to be more thought into them. Although, I loved Morrowind's "ald" prefix.

Kvatch equals http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kvetch after all those people in the camp?

All those Colovian Hebrews just won't let it go.

I hope they wont name it exactly like in morrowind, I want to be able to pronounce the names.

what names in morowind can't you pronounciate?

Addadshashanammu.

Or Ashalmimilkalawipvanniafanishipbaliassurnabitashpizergonipal.

Ad-ad-sha-shan-a-mmu. it's easy.

Never heard of it.You could be thinking of Arges however.



Kvatch is weird but Skingrad doesn't really sound that bad though. In Morrowind, the city names were good but I agree the daedric ruin names were kind of annoying, I didn't really remember the exact word while playing, just it's length, and weather or not there was a "k" in it.

Being easy doesn't make a good woman, or a good name.


Grad meaning town, the name means skin town. Some effort is needed.

And I don't think anyone just remembers outright very many of those daedric ruin names. The ones I remember have names like Bal Fell Down.

The names in Morrowind were fine. However, I am in agreement that some of the names in Oblivion were uninspired. (Fallen Rock Cave? Really? Not "Deathreaver's Coven" or "The Cave of One Thousand Screams"? Be more creative)

Depending on location the names do need some thought behind them. In MW the Ald prefix did add a touch of regional flavor to the names. I agree that some of the names in OB did have a more laid-back approach, even some of the caves. The villian in OB Mancocamron (spelling I know) had a very Altmier-ish name.

To the point, yes they need to be more creative with the names...even simple NPC need some flavor.

But you're only translating half the name, I'm not sure if 'skin' mean anything in the Slavic languages let alone what it does in English. As I see it, it's much like some foreign town whose name translated into your language means something most people wouldn't name a city after. Not the best example but anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman,_Turkey.

it could easily be a combination of two languages.

as for lame names, i live in a town called "Parkville." Its located right next to "Towson" and "Carney." "Rosedale," "White Marsh," and "Middle River" are nearby.

[edit] Also, Bel Air :facepalm:

for that matter, bethesda is stationed in Hunt Valley and Rockville.

I loved the names of the stuff in Morrowind. Definitely near-east inspired.

The names of some Dwemer ruins come to mind.

Though with me, it's not so much being unable to pronounce the names as being unable to remember them, mostly the unnecessarily long names used for some Ashlander related things and Daedric ruins, the only ones I can remember are simple ones like Ald Daedroth or something.

But since this is a fantasy setting, i.e. it takes place in a world completely separate from real life. So having made up names makes perfect sense, on the other hand, having names based on real languages kind of makes no sense if you think about it, after all, no one knows about real life languages in the Elder Scrolls, so why would their names come from them? It kind of seems like an alien in a science-fiction movie having a name like "John" or "Bob", okay... maybe that would make sense if you have a setting where aliens and humans have been interacting for quite some time and some aliens could have taken human names, or maybe the alien wanted to fit in to human society and used a human name for that reason, or something like that, but you get the idea, I mean aliens that have never had any contact with Earth before just happening to have real life names, it makes no sense.

Still, you do need to give some thought to it when coming up with fantasy names, otherwise, you still get forgetable crap, and if you don't think about what sort of names a culture might use, you also get inconsistent names, and stealing from real life cultures is still an option if you're too lazy to come up with fantasy names that make sense, and if the rest of your fictional culture is a fictional counterpart to a real life one, having them use names based on a real life culture isn't really any more illogical than any other aspect of their culture seeming suspiciously similar to whatever real life civilization they definately are not. Also, if the languages your names come from are obscure enough, audiences might not recognize the fact that they're stolen from real life, so you get to look original without actually needing to spare the effort of actually trying to be original.

When I see Nord names one word comes to my mind: Celtic. While playing Morrowind Im thinking mediteranean names as well as middle eastern. While playing Oblivion I think Roman. Mediteranean, that sort of thng. What I've heard about Daggerfell I'm thinking old English.

What's important is recognizing the name, but not the pronounciation of the name. I know a daedric ruin, when I see its name, so I know I'll be killing summoners and daedra and lifting good [censored]. I know to be afraid of dwemer ruins, because the loot is mediocre and I hate dwemer ghosts. Anyway, cities don't need pronouncable names either, just give me a sound or two to work with, and I'll assign a meaning.

well how about Bthungthumz

or Nchuleftingth

some dunmer names:

Assallit Assunbahanammu
Tubilalk Mirathrernenum
Yan-Ahhe Darirnaddunumm

Seriously, imagine a town meeting where they read names out loud to see if everybody is there...heads will explode.

The bizarre place names were "acceptable" (not "good") in Morrowind only because the setting was SUPPOSED to be a strange and alien culture. In any other case, I'd have objected to it. Things were somewhat difficult to pronounce, but much more difficult to remember and mentally keep track of which was which.

The naming conventions in OB weren't "bad", but they weren't good, either. A bit more creative input would have helped.

Yeah, it really drives home that 'outlander' feeling when the best pronunciation you can come up with is. "I am in the dwemer ruin of 'Cracker Jacks Mmmm'."
And I'm being serious.
Imperial names were easy. Native ones were harder to track. Ancient stuff was forgotten.

Similiar in OB where Aylied names were similar and stange-ish enough that they worked, and the Imperial stuff was simple still.

Well, Oblivion had "Miscarcand", and "Pelinal [censored] Whitestrake". I know there was some strange [censored], but I can't remember.