I HATE Naming Things!

[BWFoster78]

I hate naming things with a purple passion and could use some help:

For my Power of the Mages series, I need to name the following:

The area where the mage university was before the mages were killed off. - I’m picturing the center of two mountain ranges that curve and meet each other at each end, creating an oval in the middle. The university is near a lake in the middle, which makes the whole think look like an eye. I’m picturing a network of buildings with classrooms, offices, and dorms.

A race of “barbarians.” — I don’t know much about them at this point other than they’re tribal, have shamans, and are going to be the Big Bad in the fourth book in the series.

For my scifi series, I need to name the following:

Protagonist — A male college student from the American south. Want something that pays homage to Perry Rhodan.

Perry means traveler.

Other names that mean traveler:

Catlin
Christopher
Cree
Faramond
Kit
Methodios
Nestor
Peregrine
Rover

None of those really do it for me, though? I’m open to ideas.

Enemy alien race — All my races are very humanesque with only minor differences (for my rough draft anyway; I may change my mind later). This race has a shorter gestation period (maybe 8 months instead of 9?) and is prone to produce multiple births (lots of twins and triplets). Fast population growth coupled with an abysmal lack of empathy for any species not their own results in an expansionist empire that seeks to wipe out alien populations in order to plant new colonies. I’m thinking of synonyms for Swarm.

Italian — sciame or nugolo
Classical Greek — hesmos
Latin — examen
French — rejeton
Spanish — jabardo

How about:

The Rehesmo
The Nulomos
The Exardo

“Good” alien race — Paying homage to Perry Rhodan’s Arkonides, this race is an old race that currently controls a vast empire through their superior technology. Due to age and centuries in control, they’ve lost their fighting spirit, and the enemy race is slowly but steadily encroaching on their territory. I’d like for their name to be reminiscent of the Arkonides without totally ripping it off.

My planned book title are:

Book 1 — (Protagonist Name): The (Enemy Race Name) Invasion
Book 2 — (Protagonist Name): The (Good Race Name) Gambit (or Initiative or something along those lines)

Getting name for my scifi protagonist and the enemy race are the priority in this post. I look forward to your comments!

Thanks.

Brian

 

[Butterfly]

What I'm seeing

Per[ry] [Rhod]an = Rhodry Peran

Per[ry] Rho[dan] = Danry Rhoper or Rydan Perrho (also seeing a hoper name there somewhere)

 

[ThinkerX]

I hate naming things with a purple passion and could use some help:

Names are an issue with me as well. For example, the imperial secret police on my main world are rather imaginatively named the 'Eyes'.

Still:

For my Power of the Mages series, I need to name the following:

The area where the mage university was before the mages were killed off. - I’m picturing the center of two mountain ranges that curve and meet each other at each end, creating an oval in the middle. The university is near a lake in the middle, which makes the whole think look like an eye. I’m picturing a network of buildings with classrooms, offices, and dorms.

What you are describing sounds a lot like an ancient meteor impact crater. Hence:

'Starfall' or 'Godhammer' (attributing the sites origin to a ticked off deity) or 'Mystic Vale'.

A race of “barbarians.” – I don’t know much about them at this point other than they’re tribal, have shamans, and are going to be the Big Bad in the fourth book in the series.

Hopefully, these are the same ones as in your 'cloak' story. Apart from that, might I suggest taking a peek at some of the tribal names of native americans and 'twisting them to fit'?
For my scifi series, I need to name the following:

Protagonist – A male college student from the American south. Want something that pays homage to Perry Rhodan.

Perry means traveler.

Other names that mean traveler:

Catlin
Christopher
Cree
Faramond
Kit
Methodios
Nestor
Peregrine
Rover

None of those really do it for me, though? I’m open to ideas.

can't help you there.

Enemy alien race – All my races are very humanesque with only minor differences (for my rough draft anyway; I may change my mind later). This race has a shorter gestation period (maybe 8 months instead of 9?) and is prone to produce multiple births (lots of twins and triplets). Fast population growth coupled with an abysmal lack of empathy for any species not their own results in an expansionist empire that seeks to wipe out alien populations in order to plant new colonies. I’m thinking of synonyms for Swarm.

Italian – sciame or nugolo
Classical Greek – hesmos
Latin – examen
French – rejeton
Spanish – jabardo

How about:

The Rehesmo
The Nulomos
The Exardo

“Good” alien race – Paying homage to Perry Rhodan’s Arkonides, this race is an old race that currently controls a vast empire through their superior technology. Due to age and centuries in control, they’ve lost their fighting spirit, and the enemy race is slowly but steadily encroaching on their territory. I’d like for their name to be reminiscent of the Arkonides without totally ripping it off.

Given that these are *aliens*, with no pre-existing connections to earth...this may be the wrong approach.

I would suggest randomly striking the keyboard a few times, taking note of the 'words' which emerge, and picking the one that is short and weird.

I would also point out there is what the aliens call themselves, what they want others to call them (at least with the 'good' aliens), and the names that humans will come up for them on their own. By way of example, some of the lingering 'ancient aliens' on my world are collectively called the 'Click-Tack', because their speech is interspirsed with clicking sounds. This is not their name for themselves, but they do (?) accept it as a designation from other species.

 

[BWFoster78]

What I'm seeing

Per[ry] [Rhod]an = Rhodry Peran

Per[ry] Rho[dan] = Danry Rhoper or Rydan Perrho (also seeing a hoper name there somewhere)

Those might be a little too close to the original. I don't want the homage to be too obvious.

 

[BWFoster78]

'Godhammer'

Interesting...

I would suggest randomly striking the keyboard a few times, taking note of the 'words' which emerge, and picking the one that is short and weird.

From a trying-to-tell-a-story-without-annoying-the-crap-out-of-the-reader standpoint, I don't think I want to go this route.

 

[Zero Angel]

From a trying-to-tell-a-story-without-annoying-the-crap-out-of-the-reader standpoint, I don't think I want to go this route.

I can't help you with the naming, but that made me laugh aloud. Thanks!

 

[Thom]

Perry means traveler.

Other names that mean traveler:

Not to good with names myself, but... I take it that Perry comes from the Greek pherrein? (As in meta-phore?) How 'bout something resembling Hermes or, if you're more into Roman names, Mercury?

 

[Ireth]

As far as I know, Christopher means "Christ-bearer", not "traveler"... and this comes from two years of study in Biblical Greek, mind you.

 

[BWFoster78]

I made a couple of decisions.

I went with The Exardo for the name of the bad guys.

For the protagonist, I went with, and I pretty much made this up on the fly, Daniel Darcy.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Sometimes a lot of people look at words in different languages to name their characters. So let's say they make a character and his culture is based off of Greek/Norse/Persian/Native American etc. society. Let's say you want to name this character after something, perhaps an element or an emotion or adjective that reflects their personality. That's great, but what if the translated word doesn't sound quite right? You could try mixing up letters but sometimes that doesn't always work.

What I do is I copy and paste a very long paragraph or two from a random article online and put it through a translator. Then i look at the different words, notice the prefixes and suffixes. Then I jot down some letter combinations I like. After that I combines and mix them up so they aren't too similar to their original word. I think this is a lot easier because it allows you to get a better grasp of the language and how the words and names are constructed.

I know naming things can be a daunting task. I invented every single name in my novels, from towns and cities, to rivers and continents, to clothing and weapons, to festivals and Gods, to first names and family names. Every name I had to create so that's quite a lot! If you happen to see a name in my books that is an actual name or word for something just note that it is simply coincidence and I try to not make my names sound or mimic real names, though I also have to keep them from being too bizarre.

So try doing what I do and just use translators and mix up the words. Doesn't matter if the name for your necromancer character is made from combining and changing letters from "soup" and "pretty" if it sounds cool and fits your character, use it. And hey, "soup" and "pretty" might sound menacing in other languages!

Good luck, and I hope this helps you!

 

[A. E. Lowan]

The great necromancer Soup... ok, it sounded funny in my head, but when I type it it generates a REALLY gross mental image.