Something that’s almost never covered in fantasy mediums is common names.
Like we all know fantasy names are unusual, but any name to a foreign culture is considered unusual English names to Indian people are very unusual for example. But naturally, given that it’s an entire culture, there will be some common names, it’d be refreshing to at one point here this exchange.
“So I was talking to Vicnae and-”
“Wait which Vicnae? You can’t just say Vicnae. There are ten Vicnae’s in my village alone.”
This has 100 notes yesterday and 300 this morning what the fuck happened.
People understand the truly important things.
DSA (a German fantasy P&P RPG) actually has the name Alrik, which is hugely popular in the universe. Everyone is Alrik.
This is also a great excuse to use “X the Y” or “X of Y” type names without being pretentious. Calling someone “Thognor The Stout” goes from pomposity to practicality if he lives down the road from Thognor The Small.
And if you’re going anywhere NEAR Celtic-type influences then for maximum realism I insist upon populations of:
Ruari Dubh and Ruari Ban (full brothers)
Ruari Mhor
Ruari Dubh Mhor (no relation)
Wee Ruari
Wee Ruari Dubh
Ruari (Who Lives By the Hill)
Not-As-Big-As-Medium-Sized-Ruari-But-Bigger-Than-Wee-Ruari Ruari
The two brothers called Ruaraidh are named after two different grandfathers called Ruaraidh.
Their two sisters are called Ruaraidhina.