I thought some of you who are new to the game and have no idea what to name your character might appreciate some suggestions from myth./lit./legends.
(My apologies to any of you who finally came up with a brilliant name for their characters only to find me posting it on the web for everyone to use. Btw. I would be really interested in hearing from you guys how you came up with names for your chars. Also, it might be possible that some of the names I give below are used in AD&D novels, which could very well be the case as I'm not familiar with any of em)

Male:
Beowulf(danish hero from 8th century manuscript[oldest manuscript found in England]) probably fits any Good Alignment
Grendel(the monster from the Beowulf saga) for Chaotic Evil Alignments
Some other chars from Beowulf: Unferth, Hrothgar, Hygelac, Heorogar, Halga the Good

Some names from Arthurian legend: Lancelot, Gawain, Ywain, Arthur(duh), Agravain, Accolon, Galahad, Mordred, Lamorak, Merlin, Meliodas, Meliasgaunt, Leodegranz, Uriens, Uther Pendragon, Tristam, Percival.

Some heros from Greek myth: Herakles, Perseus, Bellerophon, Achilles, Theseus (who would probably not be good-aligned since he used Ariadne and abandoned her on some godforsaken island - but anyway all greek heroes have their flaws)
Greek gods: Hades (e.g. for a mage kit) Bacchos Zeus Hermes(who would be best suited for a thief kit) Apollo Phoibos Ares(fighter kit) Hephaistos

Some names of Shakespearean "Fools" and other comic characters which are perfect for bard kits (esp. jester): Falstaff, Touchstone, Feste, Berowne, Costard

Female:

From Arthurian saga: Igraine, Morgaine/Morgan/Morgana (for evil mages if you like but in my opinion not neccesarily), Viviane, Nimue, Elaine, Iseult/Isolde

Medea, Kirke/Circe, Calypso(nice for females mages/sorcerors), Female Archers/Rangers: Artemis, Diana
If you have high Charisma you might wanna try Aphrodite, Venus, Helena, Psyche or to move from Greek Myth: Gwenhwyfar (yeah I know, it's also Drizzt's Panther, so make it Guinevere), Ligeia (beautiful woman in Poe's short story of the same name - there's also Annabel Lee from one of his poems)also a nice one I think is Morpho Euginia from one of A.S. Byatts short stories (for a Druid Shapeshifter maybe...)

These are only a few suggestions as I don't want to clutter the board too much and I'm not even sure if anyone needs this information anyway (hope so, though!). Let me know if you like em and esp. how you thought up your own aliases.



Oh yeah, Melusine (which you CANNOT use since it's my very own private and favorite nick name ) is derived from a French legend and is a winged mermaid that falls in love with a Prince, Raymond. She marries him on the condition that he may never visit her on Saturdays. This goes well for years, but then one Saturday he cannot control his curiosity any longer and peeks through the keyhole when she's taking a bath. To his utter bafflement, his wife turns out to have a serpent's tale. Although Melusine is angry with him, she agrees to stay, on the condition that he will never use his knowledge of her true appearance against her. Unfortunately, some of their children turn out to be monsters, and when one of them becomes a murderer, he cries at Melusine: you foul serpent! Melusine leaves him, but the castle (Lusignan) is haunted ever after.

We could always turn this into a little poll on how everyone got their names, but they usually end up cheesy. Last one I saw had people with names like 'ILikeBigGuns' posting "Well, I like big guns, that's why my name is ILikeBigGuns". Uh, sorry.

Yes well, you didn't tell me where your name comes from, Armisael.

Hmmm, some names I forgot (sorry it's just irresistable )
Egyptian: male necromancer: Osiris female cleric: Isis male cleric: Horus, Toth
Summerian: female evil: Ereshkigal Male Good: Marduk, Enki, Enlil. Evil: Tiamat, Apsu(female), Pazuzu, Humwawa, Lilith(female), Xastur(female)
Good: Inanna/Ishtar(female), Ninib, Nebo, Nergal, Shammash, Sin/Nanna

Yeah I know most of these names are corny (esp. if you listen to metal or sth.) sorry!

Heh, alright. My name's angelic, means 'Angel of the Womb'. Try to keep the quips down, eh? ; )

My monk is named Brother Elon. I thought about stuff like grasshopper, and Mr Morita, but Elon just sounded "monkish"

My favorite trick trying to give character D&D sounding names is spelling stuff backwards.

My cleric is named Xolam. I had an upset stomach one night and while looking at a bottle of Malox(spelling isn't right)

I used my name for my mage. Ronn = N'nor

I also like the game Axis and Allies so I tried some of those terms backwards in Icewind Dale

Allies = Seilla

armor = Rom'ra

If all else fails use cool names from movies. My paladin in BGI was Braveheart.

I use the name of my dogfor my bladear'Kan
->I find it a very simple but elegant name.

oops used a smiley without knowing it.The name was Dar'Kan.

Some names from the portal of death

Haplo Onera Hugh Sinistrer (great name for evil) Dog(if your race is dog) Alfred? Nexus Jarre

Oi! After about 15 mins of resultless thinking I put down the name Dominic. I know it's corny, but still fitting for the type of char I'm playing.

in case u know the books i suggest Lan al´Mandragon for good fighters/paladins
or Moraine Sedai for good(evil?) mages/clerics
not to mention my Elaida Eminagium(paladin) and Arostrosius Neh´Tar
lol
my real AD&D char(pen&paper!) is one Iribus Znatgniwz (zwingtanz-german-forced dance
a DSA spell)
finding names is soooo easy =P