Names...

[SDNess]

How do you come up with names?

A big problem facing sf/f is awkward names. Readers need to be able to pronounce and comprehend the names.

[littlemissattitude]

I think that one of the reasons that I probably won't ever write traditional, orthodox fantasy is that I can't come up with credible names that aren't a part of the culture I grew up in.

When I am looking for names for characters, I look in places like phone books and baby name books. I just look for names that I like or that sound like they might match the characters I'm writing. I don't try for names that have meanings similar to what the characters will go through. Some writers do that, I've noticed, but I just can't bring myself to do so.

Occasionally, a character will come to me with a name - but this doesn't happen very often. I wish it would happen more often, because I often have a really hard time settling on names that don't sound either too mundane or too outlandish.

Actually, naming characters is one of the things I most hate about writing fiction.

[Allyn]

naming characters is hard. Some characters, when I write them, have a name that springs out to me. Others will be hard to find.

When I name a character I use a name generator script on another site for ideas. Sometimes this helps. While it doesn't do human names well it does do some good elf ones.

Also, when I name, I don't try to name them on what will happen, but rather what name fits their personality.

[knivesout]

Using a name generator script seems a little like cheating to me. Just my opinion...


I just use names similar to those I hear around me, but I usually simplify them and make them shorter, so I have characters with names like Sila, Jay, Kris, Ria and so on.

[Foxbat]

For surnames, I usually use a telephone directory. It can take a while to find a name that seems to fit the story.

Another favourite of mine is spelling corruptions of existing names - Adem rather than Adam for example.

For fantasy names it's perhaps worthwhile looking into how our own names are created - Cooper from the craft of barrel making - and do a bit more evolving. It could become Cu'Per (not a very good example but I think you get my meaning)

[aftermath]

what you do is just type a bunch of consonants and vowels until you get a word that looks like you can pronouce it. :P

[Allyn]

Originally Posted by knivesout

Using a name generator script seems a little like cheating to me. Just my opinion...

It sorta is, that's why I don't use names from it (well, online game accounts don't count), it just helps to get ideas.

Usually just writing down a bunch of letters in ways that could form a word will get me a name, which is what I use.

[knivesout]

A telephone directory does seem a logical place to look for names.

[Incognito]

Originally Posted by SDNess

How do you come up with names?

A big problem facing sf/f is awkward names. Readers need to be able to pronounce and comprehend the names.

Sometimes I merely think of a fictional name that sounds "right". Usually works for main characters. for peripheral characters I suually use ancient Roman and Greek names and corrupt them. Not famous names, however.

I have a very specific way of corrupting the names, however - set up some ground rules on how particular consonants and vowels should change. And then bend or break the rules as is necessary.

Look at the neaerst equivalent culture and then ersearch that culture for names. For example, something drawng on Egyptian influence could benefit rfom corrupted Egyptian names, and so on.

[Lucifer]

I usually get the name before I get the character, then I build the character around the name. Sometimes they come together. Other times I'll just sit down and write out possible names, then refer to that list to choose the ones I like. I have a terrible tendancy to choose long names; one of my friends just confessed to me that she thinks of most of my characters as the first letter with a mental buzzing sound after it.

One of the most evocative names I have is Arimanthia. It's pronounced exactly as it's spelled. She's a snotty little brat at the beginning of the series, but because she's an immortal, I felt that she needed a name that could carry her through centuries of time. Lately, one of my male characters has been shortening her name to Ari, which she hates, but trying to figure out why she allows it is part of the intrigue. (I hope everyone interacts with their characters like this: I mentally set them up, watch them play, and take notes - some of it goes into the books, some of it doesn't.)

Sometimes name generators can be helpful. I like the DADA generator, which gives bizarre combinations.

As others have suggested, making room for linguistic variation can be helpful too. Sometimes a baby name book with good international names can give you a sense of what you want a name to sound like, if not necessarily be.

Lucifer

P.S. Saying names out loud after you create them is important. I've had names that looked great on paper but sounded obscene when said out loud.

[knivesout]

I usually get the name before I get the character, then I build the character around the name.

Hey, that happens to me too! Usually a name, possibly with an added cognomen (such as Ria of the Solitudes) will suddenly impinge upon my consciousness from some subterranean dimension, and float around in my head until I finally have to sit and write about this person!

Most recently, I was given (by the mysterious djinns who control my unpredictable stabs at being creative ) a name, not of a person, but of a city, and am now busy conjuring up its various odd and wierd locales and slowly populating it with people and the conflicts they inevitably fall into.

[Mark Robson]

From my limited experience, names plague most writers. I tend to cheat. For simple fantasy names I tend to scour my aeronautical charts. All pilots navigate the world by way points. These are all identified by five letter names. A lot of these are unsuitable, but whenever I look at maps of unfamiliar areas, I normally find 3 or 4 that are useful.

I also gain unusual names from being observant when I travel. One of my Magicians in The Darkweaver Legacy was called Akhdar. This is actually a brand of bottled water in Oman, but the name just seemed to suit a Magician somehow. Hakkaari is a variation of a spelling of a town in Turkey. A further source is booksignings and school visits. Whenever I come across an unusual name that I've not heard before, I will invariably ask the person if they'd mind me using their name for a character in my next story. They are invariably delighted. Hence, Femke, my main character for Imperial Spy was someone I met in a booksigning in Cheltenham a couple of years ago. Alix, was a young girl in a school in Milton Keynes and Veryan was someone I met in Guildford.

[Rane Longfox]

Ahh, names. The eternal problem. I tend to just take names I already know (be it from real life or another book) and change it a bit... Quon Tali becomes Qan Tilo; Canada, Kanata. Or mix up some other words to make a new one... However, I very rarely find a good name for anything unless I get a flash of inspiration, which is very rare. Rane Longfox being the product of one of these few occasions.

[polymorphikos]

I just pull stuff out of my hat. I used to be into trying to come-up with languages, so interesting names (or names I find interesting, anyway) don't really seem to plague me. It's actually one of my favourite parts of writing. You can corrupt, which is fun, make puns, make really evocative names, mangle foreign words, plagarise foreign tongues, and all sorts. The main problem is writing a name that sounds awesome when correctly pronounced, and then finding that no-one can pronounce it properly, even when it's using a simply orthography. This happens to me a lot since I like to write names using the spelling-systems of French, German, Greek, Arabic etcetera, which can only lead to confusion.

[Phoenix]

I generally think of the character and see what name inspires me. I've been doing it since I was a kid, but after the 77th name, inspiration for good names are harder to come by. It's like the first people who invented the first words, creating language. I look at my character, who they are, and where they come from, and try to create a fitting name.
Though I admit, it might be clear to me as how to pronounce them, it isn't always obvious to others. Different people, different ideas, there's not much anyone can do about that.