#character creation ref

[gloura]

drow are so healthy and normal i love them

[gloura]

Although a drow’s own name is of vital importance to her, parents are often relatively careless in assigning names to their offspring. Thus, many drow choose to take on a new name upon reaching adulthood. Each drow name consists of a prefix and one or more suffixes. If a suffix’s use differs based on the gender of the drow, the standard form is considered the feminine, and the masculine is given in parentheses.

Name table from Drow of the Underdark. Some overlap with the Dungeon magazine one that's popular but there's a few extras and the meanings are different. It's interesting to note that there's overlap with some of entries for elven names from Races of the Wild.

[gloura]

Elven naming table from the 3.5E D&D supplemental sourcebook Races of the Wild. The book gives the following naming advice for players:

Often the definitions can be combined in a poetic way for better results. In the case of a name with three or more syllables, try dropping one or more of the definitions. For example, Anenfel could mean “the Hand of Autumn’s Lake,” “Lake of Autumn’s Hand,” “Autumn’s Hand,” or just “Autumn Lake.” Don’t worry about two names sharing the same meaning or having two definitions for one name; this is a language full of subtlety and nuance.

[gloura]

Drow phrases from The Drow of the Underdark.

[gloura]

Commoner surnames from The Drow of the Underdark.

“Drow last names are many and varied. Only those of noble blood, or commoners holding titled ranks (such as patron, weapons master, or herald) in a noble House, may use the name of their House as a surname. By tradition, no House name begins with the same ‘L’ sound as the name of the Spider Queen, Lolth, and no drow bears the personal name of ‘Lolth’ or any of its variants (Lloth, Loethe)—except a revealed avatar of the Goddess.” (p. 97)

[merlinsbed]

googled 'random character appearance generator' and found this neat little website 

it's a nice little starting point when you have no idea what you want your character to look like