118 Tavern Names

My random inn generator has a number of built-in charts so every time you refresh it gives the inn a new name. But your list gives me a few new words to add to the charts.

http://www.inkwellideas.com/roleplaying_tools/random_inn/

I’m actually hoping to get random menus finished tonight.
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nice list. very handy.

my favorite has allays been ‘the dirty cornhole;

Our campaign trends silly, and human establishments traditionally follow an “adjective-noun-starting-with-same-sound” convention. So Prancing Pony would fit. We have the Pickled Platypus, the Merry Maiden (a brothel — the name made more sense when they first opened), and the Weeping Will-O-Wisp.

Who couldn’t use more Inn names

Vulgar Unicorn (personal favorite)
The Office
Bronze Dragon
Silver Mandolin
Dragon Slayer
Dragon’s lair
Fool’s Tavern
Tigers Head
Diamond Realm
The Parlor
Staggering Lion
The Power
The Rowdy Bar
Hell’s Kitchen

Well, there are many many tavern names to choose from….. But I like this one the best:
The Dirty Dungeon
You can actually pull a trick with this one. When the players enter, tell them that they have entered the Dirty Dungeon. They’ll be so confused because they though they entered a tavern… After that you can get a good laugh out of it.

For my freebie adventure release, A Curse at the Old Inn, I had come up with the tavern name of “The Bear & Barrel” – I’m a fan of alliteration. But my artist took the description of the tavern sign I gave him, drew the bear and the barrel, but added “Bear & Ale” along the bottom of the sign. I liked how it turned out, and I didn’t want to make him re-draw the sign, so I went through my copy and had to edit all the instances of “Bear and Barrel” prior to release. But those still are two good tavern names, particularly when you consider the owner is named Greybear.
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One that I’m particularly fond of is the inn name that I used recently in my home campaign (http://gamecrafters.net/docuwiki/doku.php?id=start). The inn was the lair of a thieves’ guild working for the big bad, and I needed a name for it that was a little sinister, but not overtly so. I settled on the Black Goat, a name that I like a lot because of its Lovecraftian overtones.
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My favorite…

“The Steaming Pig”

Maybe because it was unpretentious, maybe because it brought up memories of a local beer joint (now long closed) named the “Pig and Whistle” – but mostly because they both conjured up images of exactly what they were meant to be, swill-spewing dives.

My group’s campaign has a Dirty Goat.
How odd. We ended up being part of the scuffold that burned it to the ground.

The Murderous Mackerel
The Drunken Sailor
The Stories End
The Missing Finger
The Maledictum
The Miscellaneous Missile
Ackbar’s Trap

Aren’t you missing the point here? Pub names aren’t random, there a point to them, at least those with heritage.

For example, I live in rural England near the Welsh border, at a guess I’d say 90% of the pubs within 15 miles are called either “The White Hart”, “The White Lion” or the “The Swan”.

“The White hart” (hart=deer) is always depicted with gold crown and chain, because it’s the badge of Richard II. As seen on the reverse of the Wilton Diptych http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton_Diptych
see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hart

The White Lion is the badge of the Marcher Lords, and eventually inherited by Edward IV. Marcher as in Welsh Marches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Marches

The Swan, has as similar story.

My point is that all these serve to point to an allegiance if not outright fealty to certain houses. You can be damn sure the JRRT had a rationale for naming the inn at Bree after a horse rampant.

Now while you can get away without a back story to a village boozer called “The Plough”, I be surprised at finding a pub called “The Cross Keys” in a fantasy setting, unless you’re going to come up with additional explanation that doesn’t include St. Peter holding the keys to the Pearly Gates.

Similarly if I were a player walking my character into “The Hound”, “The Fox” or “The Unicorn” etc, I’m going to want to know whose shield that is, I want to know which noble it would be a bad idea to insult, and maybe who he’s got a grievance with that might lead me being able to sweat-talk the inn keeper.

So yes the tavern’s name is important, but not just because it maintains your setting’s illusion, more often than not it is material detail that really should add substance to your world. Making ever inn sound like it’s got a comedy name breaks the illusion even worse than not giving it one.

For more examples for the origins of pub names you can start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pub_names

I found this looking for pics of Tavenrs, for a setting of a orpahned satyr character named Malachite who was raised by Dwarves. The Local Inn is called Shade aand Sweetwater’s Inn, They are two Syvan Elves (very Elfquest wolfrider looks) Shade is a theif and Sweetwater is a bard.
I really loved the names of the Taverns, surprised a few I ahve used myself …
Some I ahve used are:
The Fawn’s Arse,
The Black Goat,
The Buggered Goat,
The Dancing Goat,
the Drunken Satyr “What do you do with a drunken satyr..?”,
Horns and Hoves,
Lonely Goatherder,
Two Bucks,
The Rampant Goat Nan,
The Dirty Goat,
Pan’s Arms,
Nanny’s (a brothel, although Houri, prostitutes and Sacred Prostitues tend to be found in all of Phil’s taverns and Inns)
These were all built by the same person my Satyr Bard called Philander once he became rich and well known. Philander personally chose the Bartenders/Managers … from his “casting couch”