Sometimes the hardest part of building a character is coming up with a good name. You can always take a name from Tolkien or other fantasy novels, but you’ve seen those names over and over and you want something a little different, but not way out there. How about an historical name? Or one from a different culture?
This time I’m covering German names. As always, I’m selecting these for use in fantasy games, so many of these names may be archaic or uncommon.
[Photo courtesy of kevindooley via Flickr Creative Commons 2.0]
Male Names
- Abelard
- Adalbert
- Alban
- Alwin
- Baldric
- Berndt
- Burkhard
- Carsten
- Dagmar
- Detlef
- Dierk
- Eber
- Etzel
- Ewald
- Fastred
- Feirefiz
- Ferdi
- Gairovald
- Garrit
- Gerd
- Gisil
- Gundrun
- Hagan
- Hartwin
- Heilgar
- Hroda
- Ingo
- Isidor
- Ivo
- Kai
- Kasimir
- Kayetan
- Kilian
- Korbinian
- Körbl
- Lanzo
- Lennart
- Lothar
- Malger
- Markus
- Marwin
- Meine
- Merten
- Odo
- Othmar
- Poldi
- Quirin
- Raban
- Raimund
- Reto
- Ruedi
- Seppel
- Severin
- Sigi
- Tancred
- Thorben
- Tielo
- Traugott
- Ulrich
- Urs
- Volker
- Waldemar
- Wendelin
- Wenzel
- Wolfram
- Yvo
Female Names
- Adelina
- Aleida
- Aloisia
- Beate
- Bettina
- Bruna
- Cäcilie
- Conradine
- Corina
- Dörthe
- Ebbe
- Elfriede (Elfie)
- Emlin
- Erna
- Frauke
- Gerde
- Gerlinde
- Gisela
- Gudrun
- Heike
- Helma
- Hiltrud
- Ilma
- Imke
- Imme
- Ishild
- Jana
- Kasimira
- Kinge
- Kirsa
- Kunigunde
- Lene
- Liesa
- Liesel
- Loreley
- Magda
- Malwine
- Maike
- Mareike
- Maja
- Marlis
- Nadja
- Nele
- Oda
- Odelia
- Ottila
- Raimunde
- Renate
- Ria
- Rike
- Roswitha
- Salida
- Senta
- Sidonia
- Silke
- Tabea
- Thekla
- Thora
- Valeska
- Verena
- Vreni
- Wiebke
- Zenzi
- Ziska
German Surnames
- Abt
- Amsel
- Bader
- Bauer
- Baum
- Beike
- Daecher
- Duerr
- Eichel
- Engal
- Faerber
- Fiedler
- Foerster
- Fruehauf
- Gaertner
- Gersten
- Grunewald
- Hoch
- Holtzmann
- Hueber
- Jaeger
- Kalb
- Kappel
- Klein
- Kluge
- Koch
- Koenig
- Lang
- Lehrer
- Luft
- Metzger
- Moench
- Nacht
- Nadel
- Oster
- Pfaff
- Reiniger
- Ritter
- Sankt
- Schreiber
- Schuster
- Seiler
- Theiss
- Traugott
- Trommler
- Urner
- Vogt
- Wannemaker
- Wirth
- Zweig
Sources
- 20000 Names from Around the World: Male German Names
- 20000 Names from Around the World: Female German Names
- Behind the Name: German Names
- German Surnames – Last Names
- German Surnames with English Meanings
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