Drow Name Generators
"Commission" by Nikulina-Helena (resized) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
I have assembled four random name generators for Drow characters and their noble houses. I started with a wide variety of sources, including the Forgotten Realms wiki; my book, Drow of Porphyra; an older but wonderful article in Dragon magazine; and drow dictionaries online. Then, I added new meanings and adjusted everything as best I could. There are now three different ways to use the generators.
When you generate names, feel free to play with them until they suit your taste. All you need for a basic name is to add a prefix to a suffix. There is an optional column for middle elements you can add if you want longer names. You can drop letters or pieces, add letters (vowels work well), or move pieces around. When all else fails, you can add an apostrophe between pieces. Names can be long or short, but you might want to keep them shorter so they will be easier to remember and pronounce. For example, if we generated Lua (Bright) + thel (Scion) + tyrr (Poisoner), she could be Luatheltyrr, Lua'thel, Luatyrr, Theltyrra, and so on. This might inspire a character concept, such as a Drow rogue who has acclimated to sunlight.
Keep gender politics in mind when you are making Drow names. Females might be given male name parts if they are in a male-dominated society, or if their mothers are feeling particularly mean in a female-dominated society (the female with a male name is rather like the boy named Sue). In traditional Lolthian society, it would be rare for a male to be given feminine name pieces - but males might use feminized names in secret societies, especially if feminine names are the ones with power. Have a look at some naming practices of the Drow to further enhance your Drow names.
It helps to note that Drow values can be rather harsh, so naming a child Haltyrr (Deft Poisoner) or Ilraun (Greedy Destiny) is not a way of shaming them; it's a way of setting them up to be ruthless members of a ruthless society. Some names, however, might have been chosen or given later in life. Jyslara (Relentless Cynic) is not likely to have been born as such, but she may have earned it after years of wry observations. Talra (Gullible Prey) could have disgraced herself enough to have been forcefully renamed - and she might be willing to do anything to get her old name back.
Random Name Generators
Generate random names and see their meanings at this link, thanks to a reader!
Or download the files below, visit the RPGChartmaker site, and load a file you'd like to use.
Female Names |
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Male Names |
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Unisex Names |
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House Names |
From there, you can hit the "Roll!" button to generate names with the click of a button. You can only load one generator file at a time (but can set up different files in multiple tabs of your browser, if you'd like). If you just want to generate results quickly and figure it out from there, hit the Roll! button. It's set to make 10 rolls by default, but you can put in another number, if you'd like. If you let the site make multiple rolls at a time, then if you don't like a particular result, you can look at those further down the list.
There are a lot of options at RPGChartmaker that you can use to get the results you want. Here are some of the most helpful:
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You don't have to include every list in a roll. If you click the dice icon near the list's name so it's deselected, it won't be used until you select it again.
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You can add a whole new list by clicking the Add button at the top.
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You can add new entries into a list by typing in the List Entry box and hitting the Add button there. You can even cut and paste entries from a spreadsheet into the List Entry box and add them all at once. From there, if you want to alphabetize entries, hit the A-Z button.
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You can change or delete an item in a list by clicking on it (press Enter to put it back in the list, press the minus sign to delete it).
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Each list also has a trash can icon in the top right-hand corner; if you don't want to see that list ever again, you can delete it that way.
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You can change the fonts and colors by using the palette button. There are several templates available for you to choose from, and you can adjust from there.
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If you've made changes to the file and want to save them (and if you want to save the roll results), use the Save button in the top menu.
Drow Name Google Sheets
Below is a preview of the generator names in Google sheets. You can make a copy of the file and use it however you'd like. You can add or change entries, delete those you don't like, or move them between categories. You can use the numbers on the side of the page to roll for random results, or you can just choose pieces that go together well.
Resources are free for personal use; please do not offer them for sale or claim them as your own work.
Please do not repost material elsewhere; link to this site instead. Thank you, and happy gaming!