Hi,

I sometimes do adventures and other supplements for my site, as many of you know. I'm putting together an adventure set in Eastern Europe. It's the biggest Shadowrun thing I've done since Carnival and frankly, I need some help with it. When I have it in draft format, I'll be asking if anyone from Germany or Hungary (if we have any of the latter) would like to help localise it by working with me to add extra detail.

Right now however, I just need some character names. I want to convey specific impressions with each of these names. I can do it in English, I don't have the familiarity to do it in the languages I need. There are websites containing whole lists of names, but I've no way of telling the Marjorie's from the Mary's on these lists (to pick two wildly different feeling names to British ears).

What I need at present are as follows (quite a long list, I'm afraid):

German names:

Real name, old fashioned and slightly cumbersome (1x male name needed)

Real name, serious sounding and slightly dangerous: (3x male, 3x female needed)

Ordinary sounding names, surnames included: (2x male, 1x female)

Street names, cliché shadowrunner names, e.g. Shadow, Hunter, Ghost, etc. (12x or more, assorted male and female)

Street names, non-cliché shadowrunner names, whatever you can think of (8x or more, assorted male and female).

Hungarian names:

Real names, genuinely serious / sinister names: (4x male, 3x female)

Real names, ordinary sounding: (9x or more assorted male and female)

Real name, silly or very weak sounding names (1x male, 1x female)

Street names, hideously cliché sinister names, e.g. Dark One, The Fiend, The Dweller, etc (1x male)

Czech name:

Real name, innocuous, but suitable for a complete psychopath (1x Male)
Street name, non-cliché (1x Male)

...

Please provide a translation for any street names, just so I can get a feel for them. And please, because it's the point of this, note which category each name belongs to!

I know this is a long list, but this is hugely appreciated if anyone can help with this initial stage. If Adam also wants to sort out the PDF release of SoE, that would also be most welcome.

Many thanks for any replies,

-Khadim.

Check out www.babynamesworld.com. You can search based on origin and it gives you the meanings as well.

I use these two sites:

Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names; damn good site (especially the random name generator; you can have it do global, or just from one language or culture)

20000 Names.com; lists of themed and regional names, with a short blurb on their history or etymology for each.

I'm not Hungarian, but I lived there for 2 years and my wife's a native. Just off the top of my head - (P.S. - Hungarian names, in Hungary, are written with the family name 1st and the person's given name second, ex. Bartok Bela (in Hungary) is Bela Bartok outside of Hungary. I'm going to write them in the Hungarian way, so the given name will be last. Also, a / mark after a letter shows that it's accented)

No problem, I wasn't sure if you had checked such websites. I spent 9 years over in Germany, so here are a few I've encountered. Note: The first and last names have been mixed around so as to not duplicate real people.

German names:

Real name, old fashioned and slightly cumbersome:

Friedhelm Lueken

Real name, serious sounding and slightly dangerous: (3x male, 3x female needed)

Rainer Wolff


Ordinary sounding names, surnames included: (2x male, 1x female)

Christian Gundert
Christoph Llingg (yes an actual real German family name:)

Tanja Meijer

Those are some just off the top of my head. I'll probably remember more after I sleep.

Props Prospero - I finally caught you on this site! I figured you'd have some good Hungarian names.

Knasser - I would love to check out your site. I have a game to run on Sunday and no adventure . Could you post your site for us?

Regarding the names for actual german shadowrunners, it's probably safe to say that 90 % of ze germans are going to be using a cliché english handle. At least thats what my experience tells me.

But since things always sound cooler if you have no idea what they mean here goes:
Non cliche street names (most just being the rick to someones richard):
Lille (m), Sham (m/f), Sami (m/f), Bobbi (f), Karo (f), Gando (m), Mara (f), Cuthbert (j/k), Flo (m), Kuba (m), Stein (m), Hamster (b), Stauffen (m/f)

and on to the more trite handles:
Eisheiliger (m, -r for f; ~Icesaint), Rabentochter (f, ~Daughter of Raven), Konfusius (m, similar wordplay as Confusius), Nachtwesen (~being of night), Psycho, Schattenklinge (~shadowblade), Faust (~fist, also protagonist of one of a rather well known cautionary tale by Goethe), Schnappi (m/f), Pumuckel (m; two characters of childrens books/series with high pitched annoying voices), Wolf (m), Nachtglanz (m/f, ~nightglimmer), Schwarze Witwe (f; ~Balck Widow), Feuertänzer (m/+in for f, firedancer).

Thanks - Nice site Knasser. I'm checking out your stats for Harlequinn.

Huge amounts of thanks to those who have entered into the spirit of things. These are really going to help a lot. I particularly like some of the German street names (but Hamster...? what??!!!??!?! ).

All of this is very useful though. Please post any more if anyone still has some good ones. I don't know exactly how many names I shall need at this point. The adventure is going to be quite big, on the scale of Carnival or slightly larger, but have more of a focus on a specific adventure path. I know many people liked the open-ended nature of Carnival, but in the case of this adventure, I think the stricter path will be a very positive thing.

Dizzman - thanks for the comments. My stats for Harlequinn were... contraversial . But I think the game benefits from even the great H. being a real person. It's not as if anyone is going to outwit him!

Again thanks for all names posted or still to come.

-Khadim.

By cliché and non-cliché street names, I was referring to the phenomenon whereby for a while, you couldn't throw a watcher spirit without disturbing the aura of someone called Shadow or Steel, etc. Less cliché names that have I have used for NPCs are Buffalo, Sultan and Blaze. Though these may seem cliché to some, I hope they're not as bad... When I asked for serious, scary, real names, I meant say the difference between Rob, Bob and Caine. Any of these could be a dangerous hitman, but only one of them has that edgy name of murder (no offence to any Robs, Bobs or conceivably Caine's around here).

Anyway, this thread has produced some wonderful material and I thank you. The translations are very useful. I still need a few more, I think, but I'm now starting work on fleshing out characters for the adventure. I only wish Arsenal was out already, as some big guns would be useful. Oh well...

EDIT: Walkir - "Mustermann" is very useful information, I can work that in. Cheers!

Hey, Dizzman!

knasser - if you need any more Hungarian stuff, just let me know (besides names or street names, if you need place names or anything of that nature, I'm happy to help as well).

Cliche german streetnames are taken from bad american television series OR american comics. Using translated ones will actually sound very funny to us. Nicknames can be taken from any language, as english+german is pretty much the minimum here. Names from Polen, Russia and Turkey are also very common, along with their respective minorities.

But anyway:
Keule - old word for "chummer", could be a nickname now. Means bat (the weapon).
dok - short for doktor, same as doc really.
Tiger - pronounced with an i like in independent. Have fun...

Real surnames that could double as street names
Stein = stone
Bär = bear
Rabe = Raven
Wolf was mentioned. It is pronounced with o instead of u though. Sometimes the surename is written Wolff.

here's some additional slang you might find useful, an official web-addition for Shadows of Europe: http://www.shadowrun4.com/resources/soe_slang.shtml

also, for an "idea" on obtaining some very real, common sounding names, take a look at sports rosters like soccer teams, and combine/mix names.

I have a few sugestions for street names, they are one of my favorite parts of creation for characters and contacts.

Street names, cliché shadowrunner names, e.g. Shadow, Hunter, Ghost, etc. (12x or more, assorted male and female)

Nacht- I can't no one threw this one out, it is pretty freaking cliche.

Faust- He was German.....good name for a creppy runner.

Ichabod- Sleepy Hollow anyone?

Beowulf- He's big, he's bad, he kills monsters