Anyway, I was wondering if I could compile a list for common, lore friendly names for each race and gender for Rp'ers to use. So I was wondering if you guys had any ideas. Personally, I can never think of anything, and end up naming my characters after characters in game. For example, my Nord is named Ralof and my Imperial is named General Tullius. Real Creative I know, so

Male
Altmer
Argonian
Bosmer
Breton
Dunmer
Imperial
Khajit
Nord
Orc
Redguard

Female
Altmer
Argonian
Bosmer
Breton
Dunmer
Imperial
Khajit
Nord
Orc
Redguard

My Nords, I always look up Viking names (Gunnar, ect) which also holds true for many of the Nord names in Skyrim.

Bretons, I've been using Celtic/Gaelic names since that seems to be how they are in Skyrim (Cadfael)

Do what I do, goto UESP type "[insert race here] names" into the search and combine names from previous games.

From oblivion my male redguards names usually ended up in the alley with: Glenroy, Roy, Roland...

Savos Aren


That's a boss name right thur'.

I'd love to see this list totally fleshed out. I can always use some help. For khajiit males, I've had J'Kail and J'Skhan.

Darn it, I was gonna say that.

Well I find the trick to a good RP with a character is to have his name sound a bit like what you intend him to be like/ his goals and future. Ie I made a character once named Sadis Lakrome because he's SADIStic and Lakrome because it sounds like Chrome and the La was just to make it sound fancy, he was a virtuous bounty hunter who went bout collecting bounties for Jarls, but if you were a criminal or you got on his bad side...you better pray to whatever God gave you life because he will make you SCREAM for death before he's done with you. Hence the Chrome bit, he's not Black not White not bad, not good, somewhere inbetween. That's my thought process anyway Now lets see if I can't generate some names for you I'm not that good at this without a personality lol.

Male Altmer: Helcano
Female Altmer: Laedenfen
(On thing to note with Altmer names is they generally have 3 syllables AN-CAN-O, CAL-CEL-MO a bit like the Dragons.

Male Argonian: (depends on if you wanna go with a name or those title like names some have like "Lifts-her-tail" those names have to do with personality, lifts-her-tail is one of submission, as an argonian for instance would lift it's tail to reveal it's anus, I'll let your imagination go from there. Alternatively you could have a name like Madesi (riften jewellery merchant) So I would go with either Bleeds-his-hate or maybe Sadisi
Female Argonian: drinks-her-hate/ Harava

Bosmer are a lil harder lol hmm the L sound is generally important with them, (ie Faendal, Malborn)
Male Bosmer: Haefling
Female Bosmer: Caelrill

Bretons have very regal names as we saw in Oblivion (Mattieu bellemont, Francoise mottierie, antoinetta marie) so look at France for these names, especially old French.
Male Breton: Gaston Lefay
Female Breton: Rosette Felay

Aha Dunmer, now those are fun, lets see Dark Elves, hmmm. Well when naming your elf keep in mind the houses of Morrowind. Hlaulu, Indarys, Dreth etc. (I never played morrowind so I don't know much about that)
Male Dunmer: Salin Dreth, or maybe Ravan Indarys?
Female Dunmer: Llatha Indarys

It's 3 am here so I'm only doing the first 5 lol I may do more tomorrow but for now I'm exhausted xD

I don't really think about the names of my characters that much, but when I do I go onto UESP.

For male warriors i generally use the title Bone-Breaker or Bone-Shatter

Kveldulf, as a renowned Viking hersir and landowner in ninth century Sogn, Norway.

I usually pick comic book style names. Like I'll call a vamp Eclipse and a vamp hunter Solar.

We think a like too much, Kalamari

UESP helps alot, plus there is a canon TES name generator.

"Walk them, until they walk like you."

I'm usually horrible at names but I made one up that's ok sound that I use for my Dark Elves now.

For DG, I am using oneof the Vampire Clan names from MW: Aundae...and since he will be dunmer it will go something like Tyrith Aundae.

Tyr-Magic user surname, and sometimes first name,for a Telvanni-Born sorcerer or sorceress, and -ith is a common ending syllable for a dunmer, and then Aundae, for the Magic/Stealth based Vampire Clan whom initiated him into the brotherhood of blood.

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/ngen

Male Dunmer
-Rhanyan Belvani
Female Dunmer
-Alavesa Belvani

Male Altmer
-Rumarene

Male Orsimer
-Basrum gro-Gorok

Male Breton
-Varus Mehrvan

Bretons have French names I think. Most of the time if I just want a name, I randomly move my anolog stick around until I hit a letter. Once I get my first, I hand pick a vowel and randomly pick another letter. Normally works pretty well. For Kajiit and Argonions, I search the interwebz.

I usually go with folk lore names such as Zamiel (samiel)the Black Huntsman and Caspar (not Casper the friendly ghost) from Weber's Der Freischutz etc.

Sage-of-Old (Argonian), J'Rahkacher (Khajiit), Noradzeer (Redgaurd), Lief (Nord) and Zamiel as a Breton.

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/index.php?p=modding_data%2Fngen&race=D_ELF&gender=male&count=1

Argonian names are easy. [insert random action]-[insert a small word in the middle]-[insert random thing/adjective/action] ex: Swims-in-Sand, Runs-with-Wind, Dives-too-Deep

I have an Argonian named Smells-His-Feet. My rationale for that is it's a poor translation of his Black Marsh name, which is unpronounceable for non-Argonians.

Sometimes I reference other things with my names. My Nord, Buliwyf, is named after Vladimir Kulich's character from the 13th Warrior. Vladimir Kulich voiced Ulfric Stormcloak. There's a female Altmer NPC named Nenya, which is the name of one of the three elven rings of power from Lord of the Rings. There's another Altmer named Nirya, which is almost like Narya, which is another ring. I named mine Vilya, which is a reference to the third ring.


Breton names seem to be mostly French, Gaelic, or Anglo-Saxon sounding depending on the game. They often have surnames/family names. I have a Breton name Genevieve Desele.

Redguard are kind of weird. Most of the ones in Skyrim and some of the other games seem to sound at least a little Middle-eastern. A couple sound African. But then there are some with completely "normal" names, like Wilbur. What is that? I tend to go more with the Middle-eastern. Most don't have surnames. My next Redguard is going to be named J'avarr ibn Rassad (ibn essentially means "son of" in real life so Rassad would have been his father's name, not his family name.)

Orcs ofter sound gruff and have a lot of z and k sounds. Also, Orcish last names are generally the name of the parent of the same gender. So if Orc-man Burz had a son with Orc-woman Orbul and they named him Shagrol, Shagrol's last name would be gro-Burz. If the same couple had a daughter named Yazgash, her name would be gra-Orbul. gro- is male, gra- is female.

Imperial names are usually very Roman sounding. i.e. Hieronymus, Bruccius. You could probably have one named Nero Augustus Bacchus and it would be lore-friendly. They usually have surnames.

Dunmer seem to have a lot of l, v, and y sounds. Double-L and HL at the begining of a name are common. Llendo, Hlaalu. I believe their surnames are usually clan names. All of my Dunmer have been of the Talvalu clan or family line. Andryn, Orvyn, Ryvas are some of my males. Ashlander Dunmer, on the other hand, usually have Messopotamian-ish names. Assunbahanammu. Yeah.... Lots of double-consonants. Seems to usually be ss and mm.

Khajiit often have prefixes before their names, though these seem to be more common in males than in females. Prefixes usually mean something. Dar means thief/clever, J/Ja/Ji is young advlt, S is advlt. They usually don't have surnames.

Nords have Norse names. They don't usually have traditional surnames, instead having clan names or descriptive titles. Some are hyphenated. "Stormcloak", "Grey-Mane", "the Fair". Real Norse surnames were often patronymic or matronymic. -son is "son of" -dottir is "daughter of." Lief Eriksson is Lief, son of Erik. Names like this don't actually appear in TES anywhere, but I don't think it would be completely lore-breaking and might be something to keep in mind.


Eek! I got a little carried away there, but I hope this helps. I usually got onto the UESP as mentioned in an earlier post, check out the name lists, and see if I can't figure out a pattern from the names listed.