Naming Bandwagon

 I actually do have something on this as I am a prolific namer and often devise immense casts of funny little characters for my campaigns or worldbuilding projects and so on, though until the recent discourse on the subject i never interrogated myself on the exact mechanisms of my process. Having thought about it I can pinpoint a few details about it that probably consist of the core off how I go around naming guys. I also don't want to sound like I'm stating the obvious or what a bunch of people know but I'm trying to explain my process from first principles so I apologize if it sounds that way. Also I'm not gonna complain if people have entirely different methods or actually fuck with Herpys.

1. No historical names or things. I'm not naming someone like Euphemia or Narcolepsy. Not against it I just don't do it often (unless it is a historical setting ofc)

2. Derive naming conventions off of historical or modern names but make them a little different (Chasta, Anxamander, Vara, Tomault). If I accidentally make a real name it's fine.

3. Vibe check it to see if it sounds too silly or out of place, even for just describing the NPC, unless its on purpose (Loquodon probably isn't a shopkeep but could be a general or wizard, unless the joke is to contrast the gravitas of his name with his humble profession, or he is some kind of freaky merchant).

A set of examples for a northern kingdom I once made:

-Lundwig
-Katolavinia 
-Amatrius
-Kren
-Alyan
-Hundry
-Vadalia
-Jevasai
-Ramia
-Grechnik
-Jechniya
-Cresh
-Jozrei
-Borz
-Paden
-Mandel
-Hetyan
-Rembat
-Jekain
-Ruvidany
-Dorvig
-Blayt

I think for this to work you need a conscious and/or intuitive sense of what sounds good and what sounds evoke certain cultures or aesthetics. For me this is mostly intuitive, I have a good sense of the feeling a name evokes and where it might be associated. What sort of feeling did you get from the above list of names? Was it something around eastern europe and central asia, with a few wild cards? That was the intent. I love reading about names and cultures so I have a library of sounds in my head I can apply here.

This is probably not unique to me but I see most names are almost hues, like you can spread them to paint a picture or a gradient. Each syllable represents a hue you can apply across a swathe of the population. Do it right and if you imagine hundreds of names clustered together around where they live on your map, and they should smoothly linguistically transition from one culture to the next in how they sound and relate to one another. This to me creates a fun level of verisimilitude and immersion even if the players never notice. But if you do it wrong then everything will sound like a homogeneous mishmash weirdly disjointed (japan names next to roman names with no blend between). But like if you want to do that anyway don't let me stop you.

Also, because names come with cultural expectations, you can chop and blend them to create a vague sense of context for your players. If you name people Hellingskr and Jorgis they are going to expect vikingy type guys. Even if you put them in the desert you can prime them to know that they're sand-sailing longboatmen raiding oasis settlements or what have you. Its a communicative tool that shortens the amount of information you need to convey. But if you do it clever enough and only put a dash of contextual-name-sound-spice in there you can keep it consistent and evocative without sounding like "oh its just vikings". Off the top of my head I'd use names like Vakkr and Najadoggn for the aforementioned sand vikings. I can't tell you why but those names feel "warmer" to me so they would be good for desert vikings.

I don't really know how to end this post but I hope it helps in some way.