Names. Ok,

Chatterbox: Inkwell

Names. Ok,

Names. 

Ok, does anyone else out there spend a lot of time trying to think of just the perfect name for your main/side characters? Cause man, it can be exhausting! 

How do you tend to pick out your characters' names? 

submitted by ***Hannah
(November 26, 2010 - 7:18 pm)

back to the Inkwell

I agonize over names too, and it's especially hard in a fantasy setting, I find. But here is my advice. (This will contain examples of names from my current novel. You steal, I smite, all clear? Well, I suppose I can't lay claim to names like George, but EVERYTHING ELSE...) Some of my examples are mainly useful for F/SF, so this may not help if you're writing hi-fi or realistic. I'm sure that these have their own horrors (imagine having to make sure your names were appropriate and accurate for the time period! This is why I don't write hi-fi.), but I can give more help with the genres I write in. 

First, just use names you like. I have a Mort in my story and I'm proud of him! I'm equally proud of Aiden, and even George and Mark and Will. You can look through baby naming books and websites, too. If you want something unsual you can mess names around or change or combine them. Be sure to look up these new names, though, because you could inadvertently give a male character an exsisting female name or vice versa. This has happened to me. 
I ask my friends for suggestions for names. If one of them says something I like a lot, I use it. Arlan got his name this way. My dad helps me a lot with names, which leads us to another point:
Words from other languages. My dad can help me because he knows some Old English and can suggest awesome OE words to use as names. The dwarf in my story is Ecge, which means sword, because dwarves are known for making weapons and armour. There's also a sword named Fyr, which means fire (sword bursts into flame). There's a thief whose last name is Nym, which is OE for thief. If you looked hard you could probably find an OE dictionary to use for that. Other languages work, too; one of my elves is called Lotheg, which is Tolkien Elvish for flower. (The elf in question, by the way, has servere pollen allergies and spends most of his time inside trying to invent a computer. Ironic naming FTW!) This works especially well if the language you are using is dead, like Latin or OE, or fictional, like Elvish. It also provides a bonus for anyone who understands them, perhaps even helping them understand something new about your character. 

Another thing you can do is mess around with words in English. Spell them backwards, switch letters, whatever you want. I have a sword in the story named Hsart, because it's a fake magical sword. (It's "trash" spelled backwards, in case you missed it.) I also have a dragon called Zard, from the word lizard. Again: Bonus for the people who get it without taking anything away for those who don't. 
Names that are just perfectly ordinary English words that aren't ordinarily used as names can be fun, too, a Door or a Knob or something. One of my characters is called Eponymous, though it's shortened to Epon. 
Name people after people! I have a storytelling elf whose name is Reuel, after the Great Professor (and believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg with my endless references to the Professor's work). When the characters were in disguise and took false names, I made one of them Wynne, after Diana Wynne Jones. My character Fael is named after Leaf, with Leaf's permission, o'course. Hi, Leaf! (It's always wise to get permission if you're going to name characters after people you know, y'know?)
And if this is F/SF, you have the last desperate resort of F/SF writers: Fling letters at the page until you get something pronouncable and good-sounding. Lanor and Elnard and Tem all got their names this way. I would like to reiterate what I said earlier about creating names, though: Look it up and make sure that you haven't just given a female character a real male name or vice versa. 
Well, that was long, but I hope the advice I gave helps somebody. :D
submitted by ZNZ, age Lucky 13, Death's Domain
(November 26, 2010 - 10:15 pm)

Hello, I am a bump. I exsist for the sole purpose of causing this thread to ascend to the highest page. I say nothing useful. I do not contribute to the conversation. I am just here. That will be all. You may move on now. Thank you.

submitted by Bump
(November 27, 2010 - 11:00 am)

I look up popular baby names and choose the ones I like. Though, in hindsight, this often causes agravation because of all the planned parenthood ads that pop up. What is the world coming to?

submitted by Katie
(November 27, 2010 - 12:28 pm)

I tend to use the names of my best friends in one of my novels, but when trying to think up a kooky name, I just type random letters.

 

@ANALESIA@

 

Does anybody know if someone can be allergic to pretzels?

I would think anyone allergic to wheat gluten would be allergic to most pretzels.

Admin

submitted by Analesia, age A. G. E., Loc. A. Tion.
(November 27, 2010 - 9:20 pm)

Thanx Admin

submitted by Analesia
(November 28, 2010 - 12:10 pm)

Anyone allergic to corn would be allergic to pretzels, too. (That's right, corn. They're putting corn syrup in the pretzels now, too. They're putting corn in everything.). I don't know if it's possible to be allergic to corn, but I know that it is possible to have a major sensitivity to it, because I recently found out that I do (and one to wheat gluten, for that matter, and a to whole host of unrelated things--but that's beside the point).

Aetc says anax. Ana X? Annexe? An... axe?

submitted by Ima
(November 30, 2010 - 10:33 pm)

Thanks

submitted by Analesia
(December 2, 2010 - 6:29 pm)

Nah, I usually just base my characters off of people I already know.

Spammy says gxym.  Super Mario Galaxy (I want that game...)!

submitted by Charlotte, age 12, Lost in my mind
(November 27, 2010 - 10:37 pm)

Well, for the friends and parents and sibs of my MCs, I use baby name websites.  They are FANTASTIC and really help a lot.  I also do that for surnames, because I can't come up with those to save my life.  For my MCs... I'm not sure what I did.  I guess I thought of names I knew and asked my parents and searched until I found a name that fit.  For example, I had a character in mind and I couldn't find a name anywhere that matched her, but then somehow I came across the name Miriam and I knew it fit perfectly.

 

However, these names are for a book set in modern times, unlike ZNZ's NaNo, so it's a lot easier.  I'm surrounded by these names all the time, so I can just collect names from people I meet.  One thing I've come up with, but haven't tried is stocking all the names I hear in a separate document or something.  Then I can refer back to it and see if any names fit for my characters.

 

Yes, I agree.  Finding names can be terribly exhausting, but once you find the perfect name, it seems that all your trouble was worth the while. :)

~Leaf 

submitted by Leaf ♪☮♥, age 13, on a tree!
(November 28, 2010 - 12:22 pm)

If you have trouble finding names for your characters, baby naming websites are an enormous help. You can eitherbrowse until you find one that seems to suit your character (If this doesn't work quickly, though, it's best to just give up and try something else. Oh, and on some sites, you can pick a language of origin and even a time period to narrow down your results. That helps.), type in a meaning you'd like the name to have and find a resulting name that suits you, or type what you want the name to mean into an Internet translator to find out how to say it in other language until you find your favorite (you can also try combining bits of it from different languages, if that helps. If none of those things work, you can always use a random name generator.

Aetc sayd ntfn. He's having fun on the Internet...

submitted by Ima
(November 30, 2010 - 10:52 pm)

omg I was waiting for a thread like this!!!!

So, to business...

Names.... I do mostly fanfiction so I don't usually have to invent names.  When I do, I scour the appendix of the Silmarillion and find Elvish name elements, then put them together.

Examples are Alquariel, Carantari, Edhellas, Silmarie, Aranna, Ar-Estel. 

Like em?

Inya says bvyc

submitted by Mattie
(December 1, 2010 - 2:32 pm)

Whoa, whoa, whoa. WHO SAYS LATIN IS DEAD???? My church service is  in Latin!!!!!!!!!!

submitted by Mattie
(December 1, 2010 - 2:34 pm)

Whoa, lotsa exclamation points. I'm not trying to knock your church. It was not my intent at all to cause offense. I know that Latin is still used in many churches. But the dictionary defines "dead language" as "a language no longer in everyday spoken use." People don't use Latin every day to talk to each other. All clear now? 

submitted by ZNZ, age Lucky 13, Death's Domain
(December 1, 2010 - 7:11 pm)

Hahahaha, I knew that. Latiin IS dead. ( that is in everday use.) Just not in Science or at my Church.  No offence taken.....

Inya says vtvw

 

And studying Latin really helps with English vocabulary and spelling and with the study of the modern Romance languages! My Latin book had a section at the end of every chapter called "LLT, Latin Lives Today," explaining and giving examples of the influence of Latin in the world today.

Admin

submitted by Mattie
(December 2, 2010 - 2:31 pm)

Yeah, Admins!!!!

you should talk to my latin teacher....

Inya says rmop. Are Mop. No Inya u r not a mop.

submitted by Mattie
(December 3, 2010 - 4:11 pm)
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