Dwarf/Northern Name/Term Generator (Patreon)

The very first thing I ever sold for ttRPGs was an Elven Name Generator in Dragon Magazine #251. But what I PITCHED in my physical letter of inquiry (with SASE-Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope: this was in the last century, after all) was a Dwarven Name Generator. That DID get published, later.

That Dwarven Name Generator was designed with prefixes and suffixes designed to sound dwarven, and gave a meaning for each. So it might have had 'Glim-/Gli-' (defined as ring or magic) and '-li/-rir,' (defined as guard or guardian), and if you rolled those results you could play with those elements until you got a name an meaning you liked, such as Glirir, meaning 'Magic Guard.'

I still use that generator, and have oft thought of doing an IP-free version.

But there is a kind of name it won't create--the name made of English words. I have had a lot of characters (dwarven and otherwise) with names made by mashing Northerner-sounding words together. Ashhelm. Felgrim. Scarhammer.

So, here's a quick Dwarven/Northern Portmanteau Name/Tern Generator. It can make personal names, place names, item names, depending on the culture you want to use it for and what the results sound like to you.

I find the best results are to just pick words you like off the lists and mash them together until they collide into something you like. If you want the randomness, you can roll 1d20 on table 1 and 1d30 on table 2 (those tables are broken up to avoid getting results like Scoffgruff), or just roll % twice and use the number in parenthesis across both tables (in case you LIKE results like Scoffgruff).

Not every combination will work for you. Sometimes you just need to play with the word order (I personally like Oathgrim much more than Grimoath). Other times you may need to replace one of the two words... or just reroll. It's not like you have a limited number of credits you might use up on this table!

Table 11 (1-2). Ash2 (3-4). Bale3 (5-6). Bold4 (7-8). Broad5 (9-10). Dour6 (11-12). Eld7 (13-14). Fel8 (15-16). Flint9 (17-18). Frost10 (19-20). Grim11 (21-22). Grue12 (23-24). Gruff13 (25-26). Iron14 (27-28). Keen15 (29-30). Scar16 (31-32). Scoff17 (33-34). Storm18 (35-36). Stout19 (37-38). War20 (39-40). Wise

Table 21 (41-42). Anvil2 (43-44). Axe3 (45-46). Beard4 (47-48). Blade5 (49-50). Brand6 (51-52). Crag7 (53-54). Croft8 (55-56). Ember9 (57-58). Fist10 (59-60). Flame11 (61-62). Forge12 (63-64). Guard13 (65-66). Haft14 (67-68). Hammer15 (69-70). Heart16 (71-72). Helm17 (73-74). Horn18 (75-76). Kin19 (77-78). Mason20 (79-80). Oath21 (81-82). Rune22 (83-84). Sage23 (85-86). Seer24 (87-88). Shield25 (89-90). Sigil26 (91-92). Spear27 (93-94). Stein28 (95-96). Stone29 (97-98). Tome30 (99-110). Ward

(Grimbeard Broadhammer. Art by Reshma)