Two-Column Name Generators: Italian-Style

Angelisia, Benedonia & Gepettetta

The standard D&D approach to coming up with names is a modge-podge of fictional and historical influences, all thrown together by multiple people drawing from different sources and with varying degrees of seriousness. That's not ~*bad*~ per-se, and can have its own fun Ren Faire charm. If, however, you're trying to capture a specific tone for a setting, I submit that it can be something of a missed opportunity.

Even within the euro-fantasy genre, consider the following:

1. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in Fangorn Forest
2. Riverwind, Raistlin Majere, and Sturm Brightblade in the ruins of Pax Tharkas
3. Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, and Sandor Clegane at Winterfell

Each one has a very distinct feel largely defined by personal and place names. I would also argue that in the context of a game they direct you towards different approaches to the setting, whether ancient saga, high fantasy kitsch, or pseudo-historical family drama. 

Salvatuccio, no!

When a specific tone is desired for a particular game, I find naming tables useful. They can produce a cohesive and flavorful feel without loading players down with homework, they involve rolling dice, which is fun, and they can help get players into the mindset of discovering their character through generation (helpful for B/X / OSR / dungeon crawl-y games where character death is a distinct possibility).

The typical naming table is just a numbered list of names. Sometimes that's all you need, but I've found that:

1. They aren't very reusable. Once you've drawn Florimell you'll probably re-roll when you hit that name a second time. This can be an issue if you're using the table for NPC names as well as PC ones.
2. They don't do minor variations well. Even on a d00 table of names, do you really have space for both Aragorn and Arathorn? Will including both Gerlach and Gehrman tilt the table too heavily towards the Gs? This can be an issue if you want a pseudo-historic feel, where shared naming elements can define a family or culture.

The most obvious solution to both of those problems is to make the table very big, but that carries its own costs - it becomes harder to use, and often gets clogged up with weaker names that are mostly there to pad out the count. I can probably find or invent 100 pretty good names, but 1,000 is a much heavier lift.

Enter the two-column name generator. By splitting your collection of names into common prefixes and suffixes and combining at random, you can generate names to your heart's content. Let's use Italian names as an example:

Fantasy Italian Name Generator

d00 Roll	Prefix	d00 Roll	Prefix
1-2	Agath	51-52	Gepett
3-4	Allegr	53-54	Giovan
5-6	Alons	55-56	Grecc
7-8	Andron	57-58	Hercul
9-10	Angel	59-60	Isab
11-12	Anton	61-62	Isid
13-14	Artem	63-64	Jacop
15-16	Bartol	65-66	Jul
17-18	Basil	67-68	Leon
19-20	Bened	69-70	Lor
21-22	Beren	71-72	Luig
23-24	Cass	73-74	Lup
25-26	Catr	75-76	Lyd
27-28	Cyr	77-78	Mar
29-30	Cleop	79-80	Nicol
31-32	Cyr	81-82	Palad
33-34	Demetr	83-84	Paol
35-36	Domin	85-86	Piet
37-38	Donat	87-88	Puchin
39-40	El	89-90	Rom
41-42	Enz	91-92	Salvat
43-44	Floren	93-94	Stregan
45-46	Fortun	95-96	Tomas
47-48	Franch	97-98	Vital
49-50	Gemin	99-00	Xanth

d20 Roll	Masculine Suffix	Feminine Suffix
1	-andro	-ana
2	-ardo	-andra
3	-ato	-ara
4	-ello	-atra
5	-enzo	-elia
6	-eppo	-ella
7	-esco	-ena
8	-etto	-esca
9	-i	-etta
10	-ico	-ia
11	-ino	-iana
12	-io / -eo	-ica
13	-isio	-iette
14	-izo	-ina
15	-o	-isia
16	-olo	-ita
17	-omeo	-olla
18	-ono	-onia
19	-ore	-ora
20	-uccio	-osia

Masculine Examples: Francheppo, Giovanenzo, Basilisio, Pietesco

Feminine Examples: Herculonia, Demetronia, Grecciana, Puchinella

This method takes more upfront work than a simple list of d00 names, since you need to figure out where and how to break apart your source names and stress-test the various components (for example, I really wanted a table that could produce "Guiseppe" but "Guis" doesn't play well with the other components) but you get more names for your buck in the long run. The results might all sound like the SNES Fighting Baseball roster of American baseball players, but I think that's good enough for a roleplaying game.

Note: When pulling from historical examples, I've found that it's a little easier to fit a masculine prefix with a feminine suffix. But don't let that stop you from rolling into the dungeons of Fantasy Italy with Allegrardo the Fighter, Cleopato the Cleric, and Isabeppo the Magic-User.