Naming Beasts

[Mindfire]

Easier if you're writing about a more primitive culture. You could just use descriptive phrases:

"Thing with big teeth."

"Thing that run fast."

"Thing that eat Thag"

And so on.

Interesting idea... until you have to refer to them collectively. Then it gets awkward. Also, while the culture is primitive, they're quite intelligent. And they also vaguely resemble Native Americans, so... yeah. I'd like to stay away from that trope.

 

[Zireael]

Easier if you're writing about a more primitive culture. You could just use descriptive phrases:

"Thing with big teeth."

"Thing that run fast."

"Thing that eat Thag"

And so on.

This is a cool idea. It can be used even if you don't want to use plain English for names, just find a Native American dictionary of some sort...

 

[Rullenzar]

Like someone said earlier, it would depend on the sophistication of your society. Caveman types could use names such as Sharp-Tooth/Giant-Tooth/Large-Claw etc... Where as a more intelligent society may refer to them by a more general name that we are used to.

 

[Zero Angel]

Like someone said earlier, it would depend on the sophistication of your society. Caveman types could use names such as Sharp-Tooth/Giant-Tooth/Large-Claw etc... Where as a more intelligent society may refer to them by a more general name that we are used to.

...to be fair to so-called "primitive cultures", it's not like our names have ever really progressed much past this point. We just say them in Latin or another language so they sound cooler...and it doesn't just apply to species, we do the same thing for towns, tools and mathematical principles!

In fact, it's rare that we don't name something in this manner.

 

[ALB2012]

Like someone said earlier, it would depend on the sophistication of your society. Caveman types could use names such as Sharp-Tooth/Giant-Tooth/Large-Claw etc... Where as a more intelligent society may refer to them by a more general name that we are used to.

At least with the simple names you know what you get- Sabre-toothed cat- images of large fierce feline with a mouth full of blades and not to be messed with.

Thylacosmilus- sounds a bit nicer doesn't it Skull is second from the left in the pictures on the wiki page
Saber-toothed cat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not your average pussy cat.