#this means no clan names for dalish no house names for dwarves no qunlat names for qunari

[meg-does-art]

rip lineage-based names ig

[dalishious]

how do you choose names for your characters? they're so nice sounding and creative

Thanks! :D

Here are my thoughts, as well as info from the DA RPG book.

My Observations:

HUMANS AND DWARVES

Yeah so like, the thing about naming my human characters is that at work I am exposed to a lot of older, increasingly uncommon names I end up loving. But since that’s not everyone’s experience, I’d suggest looking at websites like this one as an example. (Oh look mine is on there.) Now, that example website has names of various origins found in Western Europe and the “New World.” But maybe you’d like to get specific about that stuff. Maybe for your character you only want to see French nams. You can always google “french names from x”.

HOWEVER, I would highly encourage you to avoid websites like behindthename.com. Good flags to watch out for is if they group name origins together like “African names” and “Native American names” when as I hope you’d know, that is horrendously wrong, and often the ‘names’ themselves are wrong/offensive. But with any name you’re picking off a site like that, and you care about its origin/meaning, it’s a really good idea to double check what you find from some other sites as well. If you’re getting a bunch of different answers, that’s iffy.

If you look at DA’s list of dwarven characters, you’ll see a lot of them have ‘regular’ names, sometimes with a slight twist in spelling, or replacing one letter. And so you can do what you might do to name a human character, but optionally twisting it like that.

QUNARI

Easily the most “just bullshit it” one. Since the Qunari don’t even really have names, but rather job titles/nicknames, we don’t have much to go on besides what we do know of Qunlat and plucking from there.A lot of Tal-Vashoth/Vashoth probably do with Iron Bull does, and just… picks a name. In which case it may be from Qunlat, or it may be from Common. 

ELVES

Here’s a thing on elven names I wrote previously.

Dragon Age Tabletop RPG Book:

The RPG guide has small sections on names for the different backgrounds, if you’re interested. Although since I know it’ll come up, please keep in mind that just because the book says for example, that Nevarran names “tend to have an Austrian edge to them,” does not equate Nevarra to Austria. Like, we know 100% better. It just means that BioWare I guess decided that as far as making up names, that was a fine origin to draw from to sound all fantasy-like. (So don’t take the fact that “Rivaini names are commonly Spanish” as “Oh I guess that means Rivain is equal to Spain!!1!” etc.)Here’s what it says:

DWARVESDwarven society is made up of various houses, each of which comprises a group of families. A dwarf has a given name and a house name. The house name is sometimes used as a last name and sometimes as part of a title. A dwarf might call himself Bhelen Aeducan or Bhelen of House Aeducan, for example, depending on the situation.

Sample Female Names: Althild, Branka, Ethelwid, Hildred, Jarvia, Orta, Peada, Sigge.Sample Male Names: Eadrek, Gorim, Kerdik, Legnar, Oerik, Oswulf, Roshek, Vengest, Witred.Sample House Names: Azagale, Cadash, Dunnharg, Gundaar, Korkill, Kitrik, Moratin, Ortan, Tethras, Varen

ELVESCity elves follow the Fereldan standard. Though they have family names, they are rarely used outside of formal settings. Dalish elves generally only identify themselves by first name as well, but they also have a clan name. These clan names are shared among all members and have been passed down for generations. Clan names are said to date back to a time before the reign of humans, though this is hard to prove given the lack of historical evidence from that era.

Sample Female Names: Adanna, Ashalle, Desta, Elora, Hanan, Maram, Lanaya, Rinalla, Shianni.Sample Male Names: Athras, Falos, Harel, Lindel, Masarian, Nethras, Pellian, Ralath, Sarel, Zathrian.Sample Dalish Clan Names: Alvar, Brightmore, Brunwyn, Ellwood, Fadrick, Litwyn, Redway, Winbow, Yonwyn.

HUMANSHuman names tend to be based on their nation of origin. Each nation has a rough, real world equivalent. Tevinter names generally sound Roman. For Ferelden and much of the Free Marches, mostly think England or Ireland, though the multicultural Marcher states allow for some freedom from rules generally followed elsewhere. Orlais is old French. Nevarran names tend to have an Austrian edge to them, like Pentaghast or Van Markham. Antivan names are predominantly Italian or otherwise Mediterranean. Treviso and Rialto are two major centers there. Rivain is similar, though the Spanish influence is more apparent. There are also significant numbers of Qunari in Rivain. The names of people from the Anderfels are roughly Germanic, though the Roman influence of Tevinter has made this hardly the rule for naming there. The people of Par Vollen are Qunari, so most names there follow their rules. Seheron is a mix of Tevinter and Qunari sensibilities. Common people in most human cultures tend not to make much of their family names, though most do have them. In some places, they may identify themselves by their trade (Jannelle the Baker) or by their place of origins (Darran of Highever) if needed. Among the nobility, however, one’s family name and title may carry all the clout, and are used liberally by those who care about such things.

ANDER NAMESSample Female Names: Adelheide, Anke, Gunda, Jana, Korinne, Marliss, Narika, Thea.Sample Male Names: Axel, Detlef, Ewald, Friedal, Gerlach, Janko, Konrad, Otwin, Raimund, Velker.

ANTIVAN NAMESSample Female Names: Abele, Chiara, Donata, Gemma, Leonor, Marisa, Nives, Piera, Reyna, Valeria.Sample Male Names: Adan, Basilio, Dimas, Gianni, Ignacio, Marzio, Roldan, Sabas, Tore, Zacaras.

CHASIND NAMESSample Female Names: Ancret, Branwayn, Denore, Gaenor, Jocosa, Lisotta, Meryld, Tiriel, Vanora, Yismay.Sample Male Names: Aleyn, Cenayn, Drystan, Gawne, Helayn, Jasce, Neel, Ronayn, Tygell, Walgan.

FERELDAN NAMESSample Female Names: Anora, Brianne, Leandra, Meghan, Moira, Sarah.Sample Male Names: Adam, Alistair, Edward, Garrick, Landon, Marden, Robert, Richard.

RIVAINI NAMESSample Female Names: Carmen, Daniela, Isabela, Lucia, Nina, Sol.Sample Male Names: Alano, Amador, Felipe, Gil, Lalo, Rafe, Ruy.

MARCHER NAMESSample Female Names: Aida, Becca, Erie, Gwyneth, Hilde, Lilla, Mildred, Tetwin, Wilhelmina.Sample Male Names: Aidan, Burgess, Cedric, Orsino, Paul, Sebastian.

NEVARRAN NAMESSample Female Names: Ada, Cassandra, Emmeline, Forsythia, Gabriele, Klara, RosamundSample Male Names: Almeric, Aurelian, Caspar, Leonid, Matthias, Nestor, Typhon

ORLESIAN NAMESSample Female Names: Aline, Carrine, Elodie, Evette, Josette, Manon,Perrine, Roselle, Solange, Violette.Sample Male Names: Bastien, Fulbert, Ghyslain, Guy, Justien, Lazare, Michel, Pierre, Urbain.Sample Family Names: Azoulet, Belal, Chavel, Gautron, Mellerin, Pallier, Richomme, Trillaud, Vedel.

TEVINTER NAMESSample Female Names: Calpernia, Claudia, Julia, Livia, Murcia, SeverinaSample Male Names: Almadrius, Amatus, Darinius, Dorian, Ether, Florian, Tarsian

AVVAR NAMESThe Avvar are divided into clans, each centered on a settlement called a hold. Clans are usually named for their hold beast, or occasionally for deeds of valor, so the Stone-Bear clan resides in Stone-Bear Hold. Avvar go by two names, a first name and either a byname or a legend-mark. First names are roughly Nordic or Germanic inspired. Bynames indicate the parent of the same gender as the child with “sen” for son of or “dotten” for daughter. Legend-marks replace the byname, and are awarded by the clan for notable deeds—notable, but not necessarily good, heroic, or great. So Thane Svarah Janesdotten, who gained notoriety for having once caught her hair set on fire during a battle might be given the legendmark Sun-Hair, but she might not be pleased about it. Like clan and hold names, legend-marks are usually hyphenated.

Sample Female Names: Agnes, Anja, Astrid, Dagmar, Lilja, Sigrid, Svarah.Sample Male Names: Amund, Arne, Bertil, Dietmar, Gurd, Helsdim, Olaf.Sample Clan Names: Stone-Bear Hold, Wyvern Hold, Red-Lion Hold, Eagle-Reach Hold.Sample Legend-marks: Bright-Ax, Sun-Hair, First-Thaw, Star-Caller, Feather-Fall.

QUNARI AND TAL-VASHOTHThere are very few if any Qunari who know their birth name. These names, kept by the Tamassrans, are made secret. Instead, Qunari are named for the role they play in society. For those of the Beresaad this is specifically a military rank. Some suitable ranks are given below, with descriptions in parenthesis. The Tal-Vashoth, having generally rejected Qunari society, do not abide by these naming conventions. Since the names of their ancestors are lost to them, many take to choosing a qunlat word and using that as their name. Examples again are below, with descriptions in parenthesis.

Sample Beresaad Ranks: Ashaad (scout), Karasaad (mid-rank infantry soldier),Karashok (private), Karasten (corporal), Sten (infantry platoon commander).Sample Tal-Vashoth Names: Aban (the sea), Dathras (cattle), Hissra (illusion), Issala (dust), Kadan (friend), Kata (death), Maraas (nothing), Sataa (the world), Shok (struggle), Taam-kas (battle axe).