What real-world cultures inspired the various human name examples?

Question

If you look up example names for humans in the D&D 5th edition Player's Handbook, you see a large list of human cultures and multiple names under each category. This web page might have an identical list: https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/1-human. When I look at the list, I definitely see some names that really exist in real world languages, and some that are only moderately distorted from them. Others may not match real names, but are meant to remind you of real languages in letter choice and syllable structure.

For each of the cultures listed, what real-world languages inspired their name lists?

I don't think the naming culture necessarily connects to the people's appearances or other aspects of their culture.

If you’re reading this because you’d like a source of names for your fantasy counterpart culture, you might find this comment as helpful as I did. It’s by TreeSpawned.

Not an answer, but some further info: Did you know there are lists of names for human characters based on real world cultures at the end of in Xanathar's Guide?

Answer 1

I don't think there is any kind of 1-to-1 match

There is no evidence that every Faerûnian language is inspired by a particular real-world language of a particular era.

We can assume some names/words are inspired by particular cultures because of how they sound. But this assumption would be based primarily on the US popular culture, not other cultures. It's like "world music", which can sound "persian" or "arabic" for a western listener, but not for real iranians or arabs. You need to be a linguist in order to construct a fantasy language which is based on a real language.

However, some Faerûnian language groups were indeed inspired by real-world language families, as their authors claim. We can read this in Dragon Annual 4 which was published by TSR in 1999.

Its "Speaking in Tongues" article said that

• Raumtheran languages (Rashemi, Halardrim, Allesian) was inspired by Slavic
• Imaskari languages (Imaskari, Durpari, Gurri) was inspired by Altaic
• Kara-Turan languages (Amaese, Han, Shou Chiang) was inspired by Asian languages
• Rauric languages (Mulani and Untheric languages) was inspired by Afroasiatic
• and so on, there were more than 60 languages mentioned in the article

Unfortunately, 5e language set is pretty different from its 1999 counterpart, although there are some intersections.

Answer 2

I'm the one who asked the question. I can kick it off with a partial answer based on what I can tell

Calishite

Arabic, but I'd want someone else to look into this one.

A few of the men's names are only one letter off from real Arabic names: Mehmed, and Suleiman. Khalid is an Arabic given name and surname.

I don't recognize many of the names on the list. I know in the real world, there are many varied cultures that use some Arabic given names, so if this list is is more mixed with Turkish or Persian, or some other language, I'd like to know.

Chondathan

Germanic.

This is the default set of names in the region of most adventures. I think the idea is that these are meant to sound medieval to English speakers.

I would like someone else to weigh in on whether these are meant to sound more Norse, or if the other names in the list seem to come from other cultures.

Randal, Helm, Grim, Darvin, Kerri, and Rowan are real names in English and other Germanic languages. The surnames are all English word pairs that sound a little more fantastical than real word-pair surnames. I think this is intended to remind people of Medieval England in a standard fantasy setting.

The "JH" letter pair is puzzling. I think one of the 4th edition names examples was Jhonn, so maybe in D&D, the Fantasy English language uses "jh".

Damaran

Slavic, but I'd want another opinion.

I think Orel, Grigor, Pavel, Olma, and Kara are all real Slavic names. Other names are similar to Fyodor, Katerina, Natalia, and maybe Igor and Josef. The surnames often have the -ov ending in Slavic names. The -sk ending occurs in some place names in Russia.

Illuskan

I can't tell. I suppose it's non-specifically Northern European.

Olga is a Slavic name. The name "Mara" is a cognate of "Mary" and occurs in many languages. Having many words ending in "th" might be to remind us of Old Norse. ("Th" is a rare sound in the world, but it occurs in English, Old Norse, and some forms of Greek and Hebrew.) "Ander" looks clearly related to "Andrew", especially the Scandinavian form of "Anders". The surnames are dramatic pairs of English words.

Mulan

I can't tell.

My number one guess is ancient Egyptian. Ancient Egyptian names often are written with hyphens and I think they often end in "et". The "th" sound does occur. I can also see this being based on Babylonian languages, a mixture of ancient languages, or something completely different.

Rashemi

Slavic, but I'd want another opinion.

"Vladislak" looks like "Vladislav". Slavic women's surnames end in "a". If the "y" in "Dyernina" is a consonant sound, that may be imitating Slavic languages. (enkriptor pointed out that if the "y" is a vowel sound, this name doesn't sound as Slavic).

I think it's surprising to have two Slavic-inspired name lists that are very different from each other. That makes me suspect that I made an error somewhere.

Shou

Mandarin Chinese

These are all one syllable. Chinese words are often one syllable, even if Chinese given names are usually two syllables. The spellings of Chao, Jia, Qiao, and Shui are specifically based on the Pinyin spelling system. Some of these are well-known Mandarin names (Chen, Bai, Long, Mei, Jun). A few of these are not valid Mandarin syllables, but they are close enough for a fantasy analog language or for other Chinese dialects.

Turami

Many Romance examples, at least one Germanic example.

Many of these names are real names in Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian. Others are different by swapping a letter (Diero/Diego, Rimardo/Ricardo) or adding an N. "Salazar" is a name of Basque origin, but it's been borrowed into Portuguese or Spanish.

This isn't the whole story. Vonda is a Germanic name.

Answer 3

Calishite: These names are inspired by Arabic names. For example, male names like "Aseir" and "Haseid" and female names like "Atala" and "Jasmal" have Arabic roots or phonetic similarities.

Chondathan: The names here draw from Old English and Anglo-Saxon influences. Names like "Darvin" and "Evendur" for males, and "Arveene" and "Jhessail" for females echo this heritage.

Damaran: These names are influenced by Slavic languages. Male names like "Bor" and "Grigor," and female names like "Alethra" and "Katernin" reflect Slavic naming conventions.

Illuskan: The names for this ethnic group are inspired by Scandinavian and Norse cultures. Male names like "Ander" and "Bran," and female names like "Amafrey" and "Kethra" are reminiscent of Norse naming traditions.

Mulan: The names are influenced by Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures. Male names like "Aoth" and "Ramas," and female names like "Arizima" and "Nephis" have a distinct ancient Near Eastern flavor.

Rashemi: These names are inspired by Russian and other Eastern European languages. Male names like "Borivik" and "Vladislak," and female names like "Fyevarra" and "Navarra" reflect this Slavic influence.