# Gaydar of Caldor: why do RPG character and place names sound like that? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2007, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217 "2007-10-27T13:18:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/1 "2007-10-27T13:18:36Z")
I was listening to a show on NPR where live action role playing, one of the geekiest of pursuits, was showcased. The characters and places mostly had names with a lot of hard letters and "ar: sounds: Gardor, Rargon, Kordar, Darkon, and the like. Thinking about it, it seems like whenever I’ve heard or seen a reference to medieval ad fantasy RPGs, all the fictional names have a “gargar”-like sound, much in the same way that many Wisconsin place names have plenty of “au” and “owoc” sounds (answered by Cecil, but I can’t find the column). What are the roots of this? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/2 "2007-10-27T13:30:06Z")
I’ve always assumed that it arose out of a kind of gestalt. It used to be a convention in our D&D game that you could make a male character’s name by simply adding -nar to the end of any word. Thus we had a Honknar, a Swanknar, a Slaynar, and a Narnar. In my science fiction games I also make fun of the tendency to use meaningless apostrophes in alien names and words by assigning actual phonetic value to them. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/3 "2007-10-27T14:06:13Z")
My guess is that fantasy writers tend to look for their sources of inspiration in the same places. Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology, with their dragon-slaying, monster-hunting sagas, feature a lot of names like Hrothgar, Gunnar, Ragnar, Fafnir, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/4 "2007-10-27T14:56:46Z")
I’d assume it also sounds kinda badass-ish. At least, it did when the practice started. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/5 "2007-10-27T16:46:33Z")
Was the choice of Gaydar intentional or an unintentional funny? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/6 "2007-10-27T16:54:23Z")
Upchuk, guardian of the Temple of Florwaks and the priestess Oolala…\* \*From a VERY old Dragon magazine article about this very subject ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/7 "2007-10-27T16:57:32Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] Was the choice of Gaydar intentional or an unintentional funny? [/QUOTE] It’s the incantation for the Detect Sexuality spell. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/8 "2007-10-27T17:06:07Z")
Funny he should mention that…[that’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldor) where I bought my gaydar. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/9 "2007-10-27T18:03:44Z")
I blame the influence of the Loc-Nar. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/10 "2007-10-27T18:21:27Z")
And then Trogdor smite the Kerrek, and all was laid to burnination… ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/11 "2007-10-27T18:43:15Z")
I think we should ask **Qadgop the Mercotan**. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/12 "2007-10-27T18:50:43Z")
Because most Dungeon Masters have read relatively few fantasy novels and even fewer mythological accounts and thus have relatively few models on which to base their names. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/13 "2007-10-27T18:53:37Z")
I’m sure **Lord of the Rings** (the book) has a major influence. You have Mordor, Sauron, Aragorn, Gondor, Arnor, Minas Trony, etc. Tolkien derived his names from earlier sources, of course, but the role players probably heard the names from LOTR. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/14 "2007-10-27T23:42:28Z")
I often judge a fantasy book by its character names. You can often tell it’s trashy pulp by its unimaginative, or overly complicated, naming structure. When I name characters, I tend to use existing familiar names, and change one or two letters, so you’d get: Symon Erek Liisa Katrena etc. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/15 "2007-10-28T01:00:21Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] When I name characters, I tend to use existing familiar names, and change one or two letters, so you’d get: Symon Erek Liisa Katrena etc. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure how that’s any better. Especially if I’ve got to read the names and try to figure out whether it’s suppose to sound like a common name in my language or because it’s spelled different it must have a different pronunciation. Not that I have room to speak. Recent character names of mine include Alcibiades Aristides and Milo Telemachus Orestes. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/16 "2007-10-28T01:20:46Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] I often judge a fantasy book by its character names. You can often tell it’s trashy pulp by its unimaginative, or overly complicated, naming structure. When I name characters, I tend to use existing familiar names, and change one or two letters, so you’d get: Symon Erek Liisa Katrena etc. [/QUOTE] Yes, please stop that, it’s distracting. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/17 "2007-10-28T01:23:23Z")
Well, one thing I don’t like in a fantasy book is unpronounceable names full of accents and apostrophes. Especially if you have six people all with a similar mess of letters. If they have the same first initial, it gets way confusing. That was really popular in the 90s, too. Really pisses me off. So that’s why I like shorter, pronounceable names. How anyone pronounces them as they read the story isn’t a big issue, usually, as it’s all in your own head. But it goes towards an important part of enjoying a book - easily distinguishing the characters, especially early on in a story when you’re not familiarised with the world yet. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/18 "2007-10-28T02:21:44Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Well, one thing I don’t like in a fantasy book is unpronounceable names full of accents and apostrophes. [/QUOTE] Seconded. That ain’t writing: that’s typing. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/19 "2007-10-28T03:08:05Z")
I’m pretty sure there’s a Penny Arcade strip where either Tycho or Gabe is playing an MMORPG like WOW or EQ and is getting a bunch of crap because he named his wizard character something like Bob. Can’t find the strip though. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217/20 "2007-10-28T04:10:59Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Yes, please stop that, it’s distracting. [/QUOTE] Yes, I agree. I knock it off with the ambiguous "y"s while you’re at it, authors! I spent the better part of half the book of _The Golden Compass_ just working out whether it was “Leer-a” or “Lye-ra”, and as soon as I was satisfied, my internal narrator voice would switch it on me again. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaydar-of-caldor-why-do-rpg-character-and-place-names-sound-like-that/424217.md?page=2)