[Ain't_It_Just_]

Roman names can be handy. They all have an -us suffix, and theymean different things.

[Vesper]

boesjwoelie, on 16 December 2009 - 07:36 PM, said:

well actually, its not just characters, its everything >.<

I've been trying to write a story for a while now. The world and background are coming along, as is the plot, but when I try to name something, just nothing comes out...


So far, I've got four nameless country's, three nameless kings, and about a dozen nameless characters.

Anyone else has had this problem? And more, how did you fix it?

My dirty little secret as a writer is that I very rarely come up with a name 100% on my own. I use handy resources currently available in our modern age.

My preference is to use names from centuries ago that fell out of use before even my great-grandparents were born. Like, one character who happens to be a healer of great renown I named Melisende. Several women of high nobility bore that name in the 11th century. I found it in records from the dynasties that ruled the Crusader provinces when I was doing research for conquests of that magnitude. Another character, Redwald, got his name through my re-working of names common in Anglo-Saxon men. In both cases I didn't sit down and brainstorm phonemes and conventions of nomenclature, I looked to history for inspiration.

The other tool that I use, and which I sometimes feel a little dirty for, is random name generators. There are some decent websites that generate names that have fantasy-esque (mild, or heavy-handed, at your preference) names. I'll generate maybe sixty or seventy before finding enough pieces from each that I like and fit well together. Tacqua, a powerful desert-mage in my book, got her name from this kind of practice, as did Densine, a formidable spell-sword, and Jecerat, a patriarch who died centuries before my story is set but whose name has been given to a basilica he helped found.

The best thing I can recommend is that you simply take some time to work on what kind of names you want to have; the kind of phonemes (sounds, like harsh consonants or soft sibilants), the length (older gods, for example, tend to have shorter names than gods of newer creation in our world), and maybe think of a current language that would match what the people speak. Other than that, just persevere.

[ZombieSheep]

I have found the easiest way for me to come up with original character names is to use scrambled or partially scrambled labels from things around the house. For example, I needed a city name and sitting in front of me was my Dakine backpack. With a little mishmashing I came up with Kenidad.
Sometimes words spelled backwards work too as long as the consonants don't get all jammed up.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

ZombieSheep speaks the truth. Once, I was struggling for a character name in this fic I was doing, and I was daydreaming in science class. There's this huge poster that says CORROSIVE on it, and I just re-arranged it out of boredom, to Veicorors. Pretty kewl.

[Use Of Weapons]

You've got to be careful with that technique, though, as a) it can be awfully obvious to reverse-engineer, and it can result in names that just aren't, well, any good.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I try to keep names, places, etc. short, sweet, and with as few frills on them as possible.



Speaks great volumes, don't try to make everything original!

[Ain't_It_Just_]

jitsukerr, on 29 March 2010 - 10:13 AM, said:

You've got to be careful with that technique, though, as a) it can be awfully obvious to reverse-engineer, and it can result in names that just aren't, well, any good.

Yeah. That's why I twist it around a few times, see if there's one that stands out.

[rannald]

I was recently trying to write a book (have more serious things to do had to drop it) but names and cities and nations just defeated me....my main character ended up as half-half giant....called william....im awful at this stuff so ive began cheating and using an internet site to get some ideas for names....not that ill use them fully i will change them about but your right it's pretty difficult
it really depends on your mindset and imagination

[rannald]

I was recently trying to write a book (have more serious things to do had to drop it) but names and cities and nations just defeated me....my main character ended up as half-half giant....called william....im awful at this stuff so ive began cheating and using an internet site to get some ideas for names....not that ill use them fully i will change them about but your right it's pretty difficult
it really depends on your mindset and imagination

[Use Of Weapons]

On a writer's group on Usenet (rec.arts.sf.composition, if anyone's interested in checking it out), people used sometimes to post lists of names they'd come up with and ask what people thought: what the names suggested, what people thought they might be associated with, whether they were male or female, that kind of thing. Might be a useful exercise here, maybe?

[SpectreofEschaton]

I've never had a problem with names. Actually, they're the only part of writing I *don't* have a problem with. They always (to me, at least) seem to fit the character perfectly, and usually, they just...come to me. (as cliche as that sounds)

[Use Of Weapons]

It's generally a good idea to Google your main names, too, in case they have associations you may not have thought of...

[Aptorian]

Therapistfinder for example...