Presumably over the years many of us have visited many taverns and these often have rather silly names. What are some of the favourites you have thought up as dms or encountered as players.

The great thing about tavern names is they can say allot about the town sometimes it does not make any sense until the reference is explained but it can help explain attitudes and whatnot that the townsfolk have.

In the town my players are currently in the tavern is named the spooky scary skeleton because of the towns skeleton problem and the fact that they are able to joke about it speaks volumes about the towns attitude to the problem they dont let it get to them (although it helps that its nowhere near as much an infestation as it used to be)

I found that naming inns and giving them a short backstory to the name really helps flesh out a setting. I have one city (huge), with many many inns and hostelries:

QuoteThe Dwarven Arms up on Small Lane is where to go if you want to try imported dwarven Ales. Because of the rowdy nature of patrons to this establishment, a city guard house is located opposite the corner of Small Lane on Castle Street.

Whilst away from the market, The Marlpenning is the site of an inn used by the city's Court of Piepowders. Here, disputes between traders and sales people from the markets are heard and judged over. The court covers trade disputes, acts of violence and theft. It is not an officially sanctioned court that is recognised by the officials running the city, but it is highly regarded by the traders and merchants. It has the reputation as being "the lowest, and at the same time the most expeditious, court of justice known across the land" (misquoting here).

A good starting place is with real world names, twist them a bit and bob's your uncle!

In a first edition Shadowrun caampaign I ran in the 90s I used the Salty Dolphin. Emblem was a mowhawked dolphin holding a beer mug.

I had a tavern/inn in a small farming community that I was struggling to name. I had what the sign looked like already designed, just couldn't get a fitting name. The sign features a rooster and a turkey predominately as they play a big part in the local farms.

I just hurriedly jotted down "The Cock and Gobbler" and set it aside...

It wasn't until later that a friend pointed out the... ahem... problem with the name.

you consider a lewd double meaning a problem

hell many tavern names are meant to have a double meaning

and others not so double just plain lewd (the wet bitch comes to mind)

The wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pub_names is, umm, encyclopedic.

Working in a college town, I'm less than 2 blocks from "He's Not Here" and "The Library", but both of those are a lot more anachronistic than I aim for in a fantasy world.

For the main village in my current campaign milieu, the ale house has been named Beer & Bretzel - as it combines the local bakery with the local drinking hole, inspired by the city tavern in the Hammer classic "Dracula has risen from the Grave".
(And yes, I know how Pretzel is actually written. I just love alliterations too much.)

Page 113 of the 5e DMG has a quick Tavern Name Generator. So you can get names like, the "Staggering Demon" or the "Leering Pony" etc. And then think up why it was called that. Which could be as simple as "I wanted a fancy name and made one up." or could lead to some weird tale of how the tavern came to be. Or even a mystery if the current owner does not know why the tavern is called the "Howling Eel"... Or the name could be a clue to its true nature such as the "Bloody Dagger" being a front for an assassins guild.

My tavern names are in Polish, so (un)fortunately the puns won't translate. From my English - based campaigns, I most fondly remember a drow tavern, "Silkweb", because my character took it over in a true drow style - the innkeeper tried to help with a plot to murder us, so we murdered him back and took over the place.

Two of the odder ducks in my campaign:

The Waflo Inn has been part of the campaign for eleven years, and was the home base of my main group for four.  On startup, my fiancee decided that her character would be an innkeeper, running the family business, so she picked an inn in the rundown maritime district in which I decided to start the group and determined to use the inn name for her family name.  It was named "Woflo" after a small mouse-like creature in my campaign, but she heard it as "Waflo," named her character accordingly, and on discovering the real spelling insisted it be changed to her spelling.  Confused patrons ask about it, sometimes.

The Nekkid Elf is one of the most rollicking dives on the Pirate Island, and started life as the Nekkid Goat, based on something of a florid floor show, the details which I'll mercifully obscure.  The elven-blood knife fighter in the group got very drunk there one night and did a striptease on the bartop, and the next year when they returned to the island, found out that the place had been renamed, with an extremely faithful representation of Lily -- naked and oiled -- as the front sign.  The embarrassment was doubled in so far as she was the daughter of the Commodore of the pirates, a relationship they were trying very hard to keep quiet ...

Quote from: Ravenswing;805276the details which I'll mercifully obscure

aww come on tell us please

in the campaign im running right now the only lich in the region has a sex addiction so i just had a thought i can call the tavern in the closest town the slutty lich

now what to call the tavern in the town controlled by the vampires

Quote from: tuypo1;805290in the campaign im running right now the only lich in the region has a sex addiction so i just had a thought i can call the tavern in the closest town the slutty lich

I'd say it's a fine idea, presuming that neither the proprietor or the patrons have anything to fear from an angry and humiliated lich.

Something I think's hugely underrepresented in RPGs -- very curiously so, given how many have giant timelines full of obscure trivia -- is the number of historical taverns named after people.  When researching for a Wikipedia article I wrote, it turned out that hundreds of the pubs opened in the wake of an 1830 licensing reform act in the UK were named after some permutation or another of King William IV, who was on the throne that year.  You'd think there'd be more fantasy taverns named after "Good Queen Arianna," who brought peace and prosperity to the Empire 200 years before, or somesuch.

Twenty-Five real quick like from my custom built Tavern name Generator.

The Blue Pick Inn and Casino
the Sheriffs' Crab Pubhouse
The Bit Oak Alehouse
The Harlequin Winery
The Flail Tavern
The Crossbow Tavern and Inn
The House of Spirits Inn
The Cup Tavern
the Glen and Stew Inn
The Granite Fawn, Tavern and Inn
The Thirsty Orc Meadery
The Sailor's Axe Inn
The Cafe Venison
The Executioner and Javelin Alehouse
The Abbot's Cup Alehouse
The Griffin's Bottle Tavern and Inn
The Paupers Alehouse
Punch and Melody, Tavern and Inn
the Count and Hawk, Tavern and Inn
the Glenwinter Tavern
Whisky Casino and Winery
The Flying House of Meadery
The Pink Swineherds Meadery
The Cup & Bar Casino

Quote from: Ravenswing;805328I'd say it's a fine idea, presuming that neither the proprietor or the patrons have anything to fear from an angry and humiliated lich.

Something I think's hugely underrepresented in RPGs -- very curiously so, given how many have giant timelines full of obscure trivia -- is the number of historical taverns named after people.  When researching for a Wikipedia article I wrote, it turned out that hundreds of the pubs opened in the wake of an 1830 licensing reform act in the UK were named after some permutation or another of King William IV, who was on the throne that year.  You'd think there'd be more fantasy taverns named after "Good Queen Arianna," who brought peace and prosperity to the Empire 200 years before, or somesuch.

those are both good points