Naming Characters, Places & Things?

[Xaysai]

I'm the worst ever namer of people, places and things.

How do you guys do it?

To me there is so much FINALITY about it. What if I write an 100k words and never like the names of my characters? I play a lot of MMO's and I'm the guy who spends 15 minutes at the character creation screen spamming the "Random Name" button : (

I find it difficult to choose names which sound real, relevant to the setting, and not influenced by other works. As I write, I just plug in fake names as placeholders while I try to settle in on something I like. Most of my writing looks like this:

The knuckles on Bob's right hand whitened as he squeezed the hilt of his sword. "Yes, Joe. My momma might be so fat she jumped into the air and got stuck, but one more word about my momma and I will cut out your tongue!"

Joe held Bob's gaze as he sized him up. He called his bluff. "Bob, yo momma so fat," but that's all he got out before Bob made his move.

Yeah, super classy names for a fantasy piece!

P.S. No offense meant to any Joe's or Bob's who frequent these forums.

 

[Rullenzar]

I normally take syllables I like the sound of and try adding a variety of different starters or enders and see if i like what comes out. Or if there is a name i've liked in the past i try to give it variations and see if i like what comes out. Sometimes this may lead to something completely original that you just happened upon through trial and error.

I'd give some examples of names I've done for myself but my names are mine I will give you a starter name so you know what I'm getting at though.

An example: Orellius from Gladiator ( Orellius Maximus blah blah)

Variations: Rellius/Bellius/Dellius/Omellius/Ozellius/Fellius/Sellius/Selion/Relion/Melion/Welion and so on.

 

[BWFoster78]

I, too, hate naming things.

Here are some things that I've found help me:

1. Use placeholders until I find names that I like. Joe and Bob are fine to start with and easily replaced using Word.
2. I tend to like choosing names based on their meaning. For places, I've even generated a list of the place's features in other languages and combined them to come up with the names.
3. I use the random name generator to generate a huge list and browse it making new combinations.
4. Eventually, I let go and decide that it really doesn't matter all the much.

 

[Shockley]

Let's just say I keep an Old English Dictionary, a Finnish Dictionary and an Old Norse Dictionary handy when I start planning things like this. To say anything more might reveal a trade secret.

 

[Anders Ämting]

I've said this before, but when it comes to pure fantasy names, I go entirely on sound. I don't write anything down right away, because names are not made out of letters - they are sounds and you can spell a sound all sorts of way. The spelling is something you figure out later. Sometimes I'll just hear something in my head that sounds like a good name, or I'll imagine another character shouting a name and try to "hear" it. Only then I write it down. I think it's matter of practice, mostly. Most writers are probably too used to dealing with names as something written, not something spoken or heard.

For non-fantasy names I tend to go with whatever sounds appropriate - my heroes usually have heroic-sounding, often slightly symbolic names. Sometimes I figure it out right away, sometimes it takes a lot of time spend on name sites and random generators.

Speaking of which, there is also this site, which generates random names. (Literally, by scrambling letters according to various factors.) I've used it to generate a whole bunch of Asian-sounding names for an RPG I'm running.

 

[Addison]

Sometimes I'll come up with a name and the character springs to mind. The name could be human; Hannah, Jason, Tricia etc. Or it could be something completely different; Luca, Hialeigha, Toricia etc. Sometimes I'll see a name in a movie credit or something that's interesting and write it down. Other times....actually most of the time, I'll have the character traits, something of their looks, but no name. So I work on the character and as I build them up they start writing their own name.

 

[Wanara009]

Short answer: Word-play.

Long answer: I find a real-life word and then play with it on both paper and my tongue. Keeping in mind that sound is everything so I first listen to how people say things (e.g.: How Arabic sound like, etc). Then I write down the permutations from the actual word to the made-name one by one (e.g.: Baghdad>Bagdahd>Bagkhad>Baghklaad>Bagkhaled>Bagkhaleed)

 

[Kit]

I keep a running list of names that I like, as well as syllables and other words that just phonetically appeal to me. Then when I have to name a character, I have a list of possibilities ready to peruse.

I tried the "placeholder" thing, and it just was not working for me. I couldn't "know" the character well enough to write him or her until s/he had the right name.

I have also had the experience of just not clicking with a couple of my characters. Finally I went through and changed their names. All of a sudden, they were different people (and ones that I could figure out). Weird, but it worked.

 

[ThinkerX]

Lists. Lots of lists. Lists of olde roman and greek names. Lists of names common in the middle ages. Lists of names once common in the middle east, south asia, scandinavia, and elsewhere. Lists of made up names for elves, dwarves, and other races.

If in a rush...needing to create a minor character or town name 'on the fly' I'll sometimes literally 'roll the dice' - 'Andrew' from 'River Bend', or `Carl from Stone Hill' type deal. Not every hamlet in a fantasy world needs an exotic name; odds are most tiny burgs will have a name like 'Red Bridge' or 'Oak Hollow'.

I usually go for the shorter names because they are easier for the reader (and me) to keep track of. Longer names are usually for one-offs, a (dead) historical character, or the full formal name of a character.

And a latin-english dictionary.

 

[Xaysai]

Thank you all for your input on naming!

Lists, wordplay, sounding out syllables, and old English or Latin-English dictionary - I will give them a try.

My goal today is to name my characters and places today!

 

[ThinkerX]

Good for you!

In your situation, I'd give a bit of thought as to the 'character' of the various nations, tribes, city states, and what not in your tale. Specifically - What countries on earth come closest to them - and what historical era?

Upon deciding this, go google the names for the relevant countries. Lots and lots of lists of names on the web. Scan through them, and pick out the ones which especially seem to fit. Again, unless the character is a one-off or an oddball, try to stick with short names - or names that can be shortened. You will definitely want some extra names as well, for when you have to come up with a name or three on the fly, so to speak.

 

[Addison]

If at any point you have a character, a scene, or even several chapters but still no name, just type NEW GUY or ALLIE or CREEPY GUY in its place until you come up with one. It worked several times for me.