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This is actually a very cool thread. I don't see why it didn't last longer. We have less creative discussions *looks at the is there Roleplaying in 4e thread* threads than this.

Sadly I'm not very good with Dragon names. But back towards the original poster I think a dragon would protect his true name under any circumstances, even from other dragons (well actually especially other dragons). But TrainedChimp gave me and Idea to make dragons based off the entire Periodic table... A Uranium Dragon would be cool, it could give of radiation and cause radiation poisoning to anyone within 100 feet. And its breath weapon could be a blast of nuclear power, like a mini nuke going off.

I tend to both ascribe to the True Name concept, in that dragons keep long, slightly incomprehensible names that often grow as they get older due to the fact that their names have some measure of power over them, and they therefore want them to be unpronounceable by any humanoid tongue, and also to the theory that dragons simply hold such things as a pride factor.  Longer the name, the longer you've been around, the more power and prestige you hold in the dragon world.  Furthermore, many of my campaign world's dragons came by their titles as a result of human(oid) reaction, so it's often something they didn't intend upon.  Also, some of them simply prefer having an alias that lets them move in human circles, should they choose, I imagine.

In my game setting, I have four dragons I've detailed out (though there may be more noteable dragons in my world; I just haven't come up with them), mostly because they were what came to me at the time.  Their names tend to fall into one of two categories: an actual "dragon-y" name, or some sort of title, often implied to be in some long-forgotten tongue that has been out of use for so long that most don't know the meaning of it, and therefore assume that it is the dragon's proper name.  Most of the dragons don't care to discourage it, or they simply would point out--in the case of the chromatics--what that title means, in order to further their self-aggrandizement.

There's Sang Vermiel, a red dragon of fairly old age who's settled into a comfortable relationship with the people of a castle-city now named for him, because he has taken to extorting a massive tithe of food, treasure, and what-have-you from the citizens in favor of him not eating them.  Think of him as a mafia boss in dragon's clothing, as it were.  This is more a title than a proper name--a combination of the French word for blood, and a sort of mangling of the terms "vermeil" and vermilion--implying both blood red and a sense of "blood money".  He's old, set in his ways, and doesn't care to put out much effort unless he has to.  And with an entire city all too happy to do what he wishes under threat of having their crops burned, their livestock (and possibly families) devoured, and their city demolished, he doesn't have to do much of anything but sit around and watch his hoard grow.  He doesn't have to worry about keeping his True Name hidden, because more folks fear his title at this point.

Next is Asketanaraisha, a silver dragon who's better known as Raisha.  She is a sort of mother-hen type, who finds humans and other such beings fascinating in their absolutely deuced determination to do things that could likely get them killed.  She's quite willing to help travelers where she can, for the right price, and on the promise that they'll return to tell her what became of their strange plans to do...whatever it is they were setting off to do.  She's chatty, a bit fussy, and has a sort of empty nest syndrome, as her only offspring is off doing gods only know what somewhere far away from her.  In her case, the name shortening is only for the sake of making her name easy to pronounce, as well as keeping it from being readily known to those who might use a True Name against her.

Then there's Tefydarian, the young copper dragon who tends to wander the world masquerading as an Elf Bard.  He's more often known as Fidarian, with a completely different pronunciation than the fragment of his draconic name (Fih-dar-ee-an, as opposed to Teh-fie-dar-ee-an), and he likes the anonymity of it.  It lets him find out more things of interest, and keep abreast of the goings on in the world, if people are unaware they're speaking to a dragon.  For him, it's all about hiding in plain sight, as opposed to anything mystical.

And then there's the resident terror of my campaign world, one Xzeviticus Galloreiin.  A black dragon who's quite likely the oldest dragon in the world, and the most sadistic, cruel, downright foul beast you'd ever meet.  He's also actually a hybrid of red and black dragons, as I tend to ascribe to a belief that dragons are a rare thing, and thus chromatics can interbreed, as can metallics, and the resultant offspring has the appearance/breath weapon of one parent, but might have traits/mannerisms of the other.  Xzeviticus has the red dragon tendency toward meglomania and the like, in spades.  He's also quite arrogant, though with good reason--he's gotten and kept his power by being both cunning and powerful, treacherous and brutal.  He knows when it's best to simply kill someone outright, or when they might be useful to him if they remain alive.  He's an incredibly well-studied mage, but also is willing to disguise himself as a warrior of great physical prowess, such that no one expects his mystical might.  He's also quite the tyrannical brute; mispronouncing his name is grounds for getting bitten in half, though he'd never lower himself to the savage practice of devouring someone for it.  Such things are for those oafish, bestial white and blue brutes, in his mind.  His name is actually nearly unpronounceable by human tongue, requiring a great amount of hissing and growling to be said properly; no one's sure where the name originates from, but it means "Destroyer of Worlds" in some long-lost tongue.  He has no care for what one might do with his True Name, nor does he use his title for any sort of implications of power.  All fear the mere mention of him, for that name has been passed down from antiquity as a thing of terror.

I imagine that a low-magic setting would be any number of such things.  Maybe there's just a draconic custom of lengthening the name for every decade/century/stage of life.  Maybe it began as a practice against True Name-based rituals, though these rituals might actually have been lost to the sands of time.  Nonetheless, the dragons remain steadfast in adhering to this practice, be it out of habit or for fear that someone may find the spells again.  That said, you could also go the way of giving the dragons titles and other names, as something that other races use to either show that these dragons inspire great fear, foster great hope, etc., or as a way around some unpronounceable stew of draconic.

Nov 16, 2012 -- 6:11AM, Aetharion wrote:

I name most dragons either with traditional suffixes (-s, -x, etc.) or with the Elder Scrolls dragon language. The latter is more interesting since I can incorporate aspects of the dragon itself into its name - my players once fought a Dracolich named Vulqethkulaan, which literally means "Dark Bone Prince".

The dragon my group is currently facing is called Kaldwarag. the accent falls on the first syllable.

The name came about as a combination of Y Draig Goch (the Welsh Dragon), the North European Draugar (meaning "ghost" but derived from Gaelic "driug" meaning "portent/meteor"), and some other fantasy dragon name that began with a K that I can't recall.