How do you feel about borrowed names?

[SeverinR]

Names should reflect their place in the story.

I use period human names for humans in my stories. Even mixed cultures can have mixed names, an elf by the name of Bob, would be strange, but it could happen. We name babies after special people, and sometimes those people are from a different culture.

Modern names used in old worlds would be wrong, and would seem lazy.
Just as names for other races using all human names would be wrong. Look at the various ethnic names of the world. Hispanic, African, the various oriental names all have unique names, so imo all different races and cultures would have different names.

[Androxine Vortex]

I agree that everyone has their own opinion. In no way am I suggesting that my preffered style is the only way to write. It's just a preference. Like it has been said before in this thread, some names fit while others don't. I think that Legolas is a good name for an elf character rather than William.

Let me give you an example from a novel I am working on now: I have a demon (haven't decided on a name yet) who personifies lust, desire, etc. He has a city dedicated to his worship and I named that city Modos. I based the city off Sodom and just changed the name around. So I don't have a problem with taking a word and altering it but I dislike just taking the word in it's entirety; I wouldn't actually name it "Sodom." Most of the names I use, whether they be for people or places, are derived from other words.

Modos -> word derived from city of Sodom =
Sodom -> word taken directly from Sodom =

But still, I am not so stuck up that I wouldn't read a story that had borrowed names in it. Names alone do not make up a good story. Like I said, it's just preferences.

EDIT: And yeah sometimes just writting a name backwords is a little lame but I do that only rarely.

[Alva]

But still, I am not so stuck up that I wouldn't read a story that had borrowed names in it. Names alone do not make up a good story. Like I said, it's just preferences.

I may be stuck up enough to leave a book unread, but even then the major question usually is “entirety”. I can't remember a book I’d have left unconsidered just because of the use of names. Instead, negative first impression, the lack of imagery, unconvincing characters and uninteresting language combined with lazy or downright annoying names... this makes me turn away from a book.

(Or not. I've completed numerous books I still dislike gravely. And others I ended up liking although they demanded serious work to reach that point.)

And even if I leave a book unfinished after reading it halfway through (or usually sooner than that) it doesn't mean that I would never turn back to it. My interests change and alter. Often times while looking for new stories I have some specific criteria or particular case of interest in mind. (May it be old ships or the use of first person narrative or... penguin protagonists, whatever.) I love reading but I'm also quite a picky reader at best, and it's not necessarily the writer's "fault”.

And then there are times I simply make a random choice and play for it.

EDIT: And yeah someti-mes just writting a name backwords is a little lame but I do that only rarely.

I remember reading somewhere that Le Guin, as well, has done that occasionally. Although, if my memory serves me right, her source of inspiration came from traffic signs and such. So, in other words, she used words that (necessarily) had nothing to do with the world or the story she was writing about... (And she might have used only parts of the words. Hmm.)

In any case, I think you have every right to go for as long as you feel your story calls for it. Nonetheless, the least I'd do was to leave the work of interpreting the original word entirely for the reader. No further hints, no clues (aside from the obvious context, in your case. : )