Your Character's Name

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Symond Sevynpenys reports that: "I took the Create a Character class on Saturday, and that inspired me to come up with an acceptable faire character and name. Since David wouldn't have been used in England at the time (being a Jewish name and Henry having expelled the Jews from England already), that meant going to the library."

According to baptismal records, the given-names William, John and Thomas accounted for 51% of all boys names from between 1600-1650. For girls, Elizabeth, Anne and Mary accounted for 52%. This figures are about the same from 1550 to about 1750. For a simple first name, look no further!

Great books to use for name research are: Withycombe's Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names and Reany's Dictionary of British Surnames. They tell you where the name was found, give some speculation on origins, and list alternate spellings.

There are names that could easily be mispronounced as "Butt-fish", or at least heard that way when the customer de-code basic faire accent. It'd be a good name for a fishwife or monger.

Some humorous possibilities for surnames include: bandydrag, wallydrag, pettingil, waggletongue, clyssus - epitome, cruentous - bloody, feculent - filthy, fracid - rotten, libence - willingness, linctus - cough syrup, methysis - alchohol addiction, nolition - unwillingness, oragious - stormy, pronken - goatish prancing, pulicose - flea infested, sarcous - flesh tissue.

References



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