I made a random name generator. (http://www.colugo.org/jmcmurra/generators/names/name.php) In many ways it's just a conglomeration of the dataases from other name generators I could find on the web, although I've added nicknames to the options.
If you do want a nickname, be prepared to have to do a little mixing and matching though, as the nicknames don't conform to the source filter. For instance, generating 10 Chinese male names with nicknames got me:
1. Rongfang 'DiBi' Tsien
2. Xiumin 'Frankie Breeze' Hsiao
3. Yanjun 'Fat Vinnie' Jianbua
4. Shing 'Shorty' Fong
5. Fai 'Mongo' Lan
6. Jing-wei 'K.K.' Lau
7. Lok 'Madame' Chen
8. Yuying 'Jimmy Nap' Song
9. Shipeng 'Hippie' Shing
10. Xingjiang 'Underdog' Kou
Frankie Breeze, Jimmy Nap, and Fat Vinnie don't fit very wel, and if the guy's nickname is "Madame" he'll be an interesting character one way or the other. Underdog and Mongo could fit, as might some others if translated (either actually or by using my lazy man method of "his middle name is Tak Ban, which means Shorty").
If you know of a good website for names, please let me know. Right now I've got Middle Eastern, Spanish, Chinese, Egyptian, English (and Americanized), German, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Latvian, Russian, African (mostly Swahili), Thai, and Viking names. For a bunch of those I'm having to use first names as a second lookup for a surname because I couldn't find a good list of surnames from that area. They look ok to my layman's eyes, but for all I know they're the equivilent of giving someone the last name of Jimmy or Sarah.
I'd like to keep the database growing, so if you've got any cool name resources you use please let me know, especially if they're sorted by region.
I've moved the generator and fixed some bugs. I also added personalty traits, quirks, interests, and how the NPC is feeling so it's now a much more comprehensive NPC generator.
Check it out (http://www.colugo.org/jmcmurra/generators/npc/npc_statless.php)
Question: would it be useful to add the region they're from to the table if you selected "All"?
Some are pretty obvious (like Fadwa Al-Zeid), but others, such as the various Asian names, can be hard to tell. As more regions get added (French is up next) ot'll be even more difficult, especially for people like me who can't tell Russian from Polish without a cheat book.
I've updated it to include more name sources including native americans, dwarves, elves, hobbits, orcs, and more. I've also added "All Fantasy" and "All Non-Fantasy" to the filter choices.
The exact list of what's there and how many names are in each category is here (http://www.colugo.org/jmcmurra/generators/npc/statistics.php).
Yanjun 'Fat Vinnie' Jianbua
I really love that name.
I've created an index page for my generators and tools here (http://www.colugo.org/jmcmurra/generators/index.php). Available currently are:
Generators
- NPC Generator
- Exalted Manse Generator
- Car Chase Generator
Tools
- Exalted / Scion Dice Roller
More toys forthcoming (as soon as I figure out what I want to do next). Any suggestions or requests are welcome.
Very tasty. They will be used.
Glad to be of service. Next on the list is probably a weather generator, but it'll be slower because I have to actually learn stuff instead of just going on the internet and grabbing lists.
I made a random character generator on my TRS80 back in high school which had Old English names with a first and second component and translations which gave the modern English meanings. I got the info from issue #72 of Dragon magazine. Would be cool to see that if you happen to have the CD-Roms or the back issue in question.
Sorry, but if you happen to know that they've gone into the public domain and want to zip me a copy I'll be happy to put it up.