# Naming Everything



## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 2, 2011)

I can never seem to give people, locations, regions, continents, mountain ranges, rivers, or anything else names without meaning. At the moment, I'm using old Norse for my names, mixing words, altering them so they can be pronounced more easily - but the names always needs relevant origins. I am, however, sometimes tempted to settle for something that sounds nice, or cool, but I usually dissuade myself. 

How about you guys? Do you painstakingly research the names for everything? If so, what is your process? Or do you happily let yourself skip this step, choosing cool words, saving yourself a lot of time, and relaxed in the knowledge that most readers won't even care to consider that the name of your capital was influenced by _x_, and is relevant due to _y_​?


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## Chilari (Sep 2, 2011)

At present, my place names consist of "Naulach Rings", "main town hillfort", "town where Bredyn lives", "another hillfort", "stone circle", "another stone circle", and "burial mound". Admittedly not exactly polished place names for the main part. I'll sort it before I start writing, but I won't go researching them in too much detail, but just get names which sound sort of iron age British. I don't make names significant, generally, but prefer different kinds of motifs - particular numbers cropping up, patterns, imagery, etc.


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## Philip Overby (Sep 2, 2011)

I've only researched meanings of words in the past when it came to stories I was writing that take place in the real world.  For fantasy I usually just make stuff up.  I typically just use "medieval" sounding names.  Whatever that means.  I'm really interested in history but I feel like my writing gets too bogged down if I'm fiddling with names too much.  Mostly for first drafts that may not see the light of day anyway, I'll name a character something easy like "Jack" so I don't have to rack my brain thinking about it too much.  I recycle lots of names too, so that saves me time as well.


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## Codey Amprim (Sep 2, 2011)

Names are powerful things. They act like a bookcover. (Yes, yes, I know. Don't judge a book by its cover, blah, blah. Shut up.) They can give first impressions of a place, and sometimes lessen the nuisance of describing your regions or realms. Be creative.

There are many ways you can go about naming things in your world:

1) First and foremost - you don't need to have a name for everything, right now. Obviously you will need to eventually, but it isn't something that needs to be done at the start. Sure, it helps, but it isn't necessary until you're finishing everything up.

2) Think about your world. A fun and easy way to label your regions is to look and examine what kind of region they actually are. Environmental Labeling. Say you have a forest in a swampy area, you wouldn't name it Firerock. That was kind of an exaggerated example, but hopefuly you'll understand. I would choose the name Bogroot, as it associates both types of the environment. Come to think of it, I may use that for something.
Here's another example, one from my work. There is a region on the eastern border of an expanse of desert. The region is a rocky, craggy land of hills and cliffs that separates the desert from the sea. Strong winds blow through these barren hills, and they're difficult to navigate through. I have named the region the Sandhowl Ridges.

This is but one way you can go about labeling things.

3) Mythologically based naming. As you have said in the OP, you can base your names from various types of mythologies. This works well, since it is recognizable  - as long as you can pronounce it. I like to take parts of the names and use them as suffixes and prefixes. This works far beyond naming regions; this can be used to name characters, nations, creatures, and items within the world.  For most things, especially creatures, you won't even have to change the name! How awesome is that?

4) Historical Labeling is a means of naming your regions after events that had occured there in the past (Or perhaps it's a place where something is to take place in the future?). Here you can get creative, too. These types of labelings can give places an ominous tone, a feeling of mysticism, or a sense of relief because it's a safe haven. Perhaps the area was the resting place of Kings? Or the downfall of an evil overlord? Maybe the region was the site of a bloody battle? Could the place be named after a hero that died there? I could go all day.
When you use this type, you create lore as you go. It gives the reader a sense that your world wasn't just poofed up in a day.

I'll give you an example. Another from my work (I apologize if this seems like a self-promotion). There is a region of forests that surround a lone strip of mountains. The river that flowed through it was a key route for the dwarves for their transportation of people and business/industry alike. A great ogre-lord rose to power in the mountains, and he despised the puny bearded ants that were the dwarves. As a result he blocked the river off and destroyed any boat or being that trespassed in his domain. A Dwarven champion by the name of Anduvar rose to the challenge and sought to destroy the foul ogre-lord. After many a days march from his home city of Durnfall. He and the Ogre-lord fought. The Ogre's over confidence led to his downfall, and the Dwarf defeated the giant. On his return to his home city with the ogre's bloody head. Feeling invincible, the dwarf decided to sleep on the ground of the forest that night instead of taking the time to make a hammock or shelter. Little did he know that there were tiny venomous spiders crawling throughout the area. He was found dead with the orge's head. The giant was bested by the ant, and the ant to his own ant. In celebration of his victory and for his memorial, the entire forest and its creatures were named after the Dwarf. The Anduvar Forest still stands to this day.

5) Use all of the styles. Variety is the spice of life. Having every type instead of one repetitive type will give your world some depth to it, and will show that you took time and effort to make your world unique.

Hope I helped.
-Codey


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 2, 2011)

I was just looking for a conversation on the naming methods people use, not a lesson. I already have my own methods, though I guess it might be useful to any that stumble on this thread looking for help in naming things. I'm not meaning to sound defensive, but it's hard to have a relaxed discussion with walls of text that seem to speak with authority.

To steer this into a more conversational subject, I have some responses;

Whilst Bogroot would be a fitting name for your example, I would say there's a time and a place for that style of naming. The reason being is that the name would dominate how the reader 'feels' about the city, whereas if your name is more ambiguous, then you retain control of how you present the place.
By 'old Norse' I meant the language, not 'Norse mythology', but yes, I guess they have are intertwined to some degree.
As for using all styles, well yes, you could. I don't think it's necessary to do that to show depth and to hint at the effort you put in tho. I put a lot of effort into naming cities in a similar way, and because it makes sense to the culture I am creating.
What I am more interested in than place names, is surnames. They really need to be relevant to the family history, so how much consideration do you put in to them? Again, it's something that readers might not even care to think about, and I imagine it matters to the writer more.


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## SeverinR (Sep 2, 2011)

I tend to name things various ways, much like people in real life did.

Cities can be named after anything:
terrain-cedar falls, Cottonglen, Maplearch, 
Who founded it or built it: Pennsylvania, 
Who discovered it, who conquered it, 
maybe even named by battles that took place on them.

Also it should have a sound similar to the inhabitants, either current or past. Many US towns and cities have Native American names.  So an elvish city should have an elvish name. Human city should have one of the many human culture sounding name. and so on.

Some names can just be made up, with an unknown history of why it is named as it is.

One city, I got tired of trying to name, and finally created a simple name. Capital city. Why Capital city?
It was named after a king, who reigned from the city, but he became a tyrant and was overthrown, no one could agree on a name, so people just started calling it Capital city.  

I think if I used one method of naming, it would not be as realistic as multiple ways.  Unless of course one person named everything.

I have used random name generators to name place too.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 2, 2011)

Actually, my point about not _having_ to use different methods of naming is a little different to the points you two have made. Yes, I do use different methods of naming things - but I then translate whatever that may be into old Norse, as best I can. And of course, that's just one culture. So yes, I agree that it's a good idea to use multiple methods for realism.

I'm not sure I could let myself use a name generator. I feel I want complete control over things like that, and to pack it with meaning.


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## sashamerideth (Sep 2, 2011)

I have a bag of scrabble tiles or sometimes I throw together syllables to make up names of animals, rivers, and from those, place names.


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## Donny Bruso (Sep 2, 2011)

I don't have much of a system, honestly. I tend to go with what sounds/looks good on the page. If I have multiple cultures in the story I'll assign each one a country somewhat similar to their country of origin and pick names from that country on earth. Maybe modify the spellings a bit. As far as places, I tend to go with terrain oriented, or at least terrain-influenced names. For example I have a castle in one of my stories named Pine Ridge. It happens to be in the midst of a giant pine forest on a hill. Shocker, I know.
On the other hand, once they have a name, my characters tend to develop colloquial names for places. Pine Ridge, for example, becomes 'The Ridge'. I think it shows the characters' awareness that names are sometimes corny, and people find their own ways to make them more palatable.

@ Johnny It sounds like you are already using all these multiple methods, just translating them into Old Norse afterwards. I could be mistaken, my apologies if I have misinterpreted what you're doing. (I'm currently imbibing heavily after a period of forced abstinence.) I think that is definitely an original way of doing things, my only question is how does it read? I mean are the words obvious in the way they are pronounced, or is your reader going to come across one and go 'uhh.... Shimbla... Shimblech... Shimblack... F*** it, I'm calling it Shim' *Caveat: I freely state that I know nothing of Old Norse, this is just an example*

As far as surnames go, historically, a lot of people took their names from their trade. That's how we ended up with people named Tanner, Chandler, Cooper, etc. Also some families, particularly offshoot branches of a large family would modify their surname somewhat, to differentiate them from the primary branch of the family. Or perhaps the primary branch insists on it, lest some fourth son of a fourth son be mistaken for the heir to their power.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 2, 2011)

That is more or less what I'm doing, with some exceptions. As to how it reads: you would probably not consider it too hard to follow even if I left the words in their purest form, but I do alter them. One name I created was for the River Eydeila, which runs almost through the centre of the continent. 'Ey' means island, and 'deila' means divide. 

There are words such as 'storr', from which I might remove unnecessary letters, and others such as 'kaldr', where I'd add a vowel to help with pronunciation. Storkaldur means 'great cold', and is used as the name for a city ruin in the cold north of the continent. Rather than describe the function of the landmark, it describes the general feel. 

However, nobody has to know that they have such obvious meanings.  The beauty of this is being able to use such literal, easy names that get hidden behind a gorgeous language, although, I do still spend a long time looking for the best combinations of words, the ones that sound natural, and cool. It just feels more justified for me to commit to a name if I've followed this process through.


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## Shadoe (Sep 2, 2011)

I try to stick to certain conventions when I'm coming up with names for things and people in my world. There are four countries that I'm dealing with right now. With each of them, I start with words from a specific language. Araith - the main country - uses Swahili. I'll find a word I like in that language and fiddle with it until I come up with something I like. City names are often cobbled from city names in India because they're so wonderfully complex.   People names are generated from a number of sources, but I do try to keep like sounding names belonging to people from the same region of the country. Now I'm starting to work on things from another country and I'm using Croatian as a basis for a lot of the words.

Of course, if I come up with a nifty sounding name outside that process I'll use it anyway.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 2, 2011)

Oh yeah, absolutely. My capital city was a street name close to where I live. I don't know where it comes from (other than a name I guess), but it just sounds so powerful that I had to use it.


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## Ophiucha (Sep 3, 2011)

I mix and match it. I make the names relevant to me, but not necessarily to the reader. Nothing annoys me more than an _obvious_ name. Even as a kid, I rolled my eyes a bit at 'Remus Lupin', and was a bit unsurprised at the 'twist' with that one. A werewolf? _Lup_in? _Really?_ What are the odds. Even in languages my English speaking audience isn't likely to know - I doubt many of them know the Persian word for 'bird' - I avoid it, just on principal. But I do want names that mean something to me. This usually means a bit of Wiki clicking, admittedly. An example is a character from a project I finished recently. The character's name was Sebastian, and his character was based on the Wandering Jew, a character from Christian folklore. There was a book written in the 1800s about a similar character, Melmoth the Wanderer, and the author happened to be Oscar Wilde's uncle. On Wilde's travels, he used a fake name: Sebastian Melmoth, the Sebastian from the famous Saint. It's not an association anyone is going to make, but I know that story well and connect the name Sebastian to the Melmoth character.


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## Chilari (Sep 3, 2011)

I do use name generators, usually the Rinkworks one, but the beauty of it is that it gives loads of different names and you can pick the combination of vowels and consonants, syllables, etc with the advanced options. Then I can just pick one that sounds right, even if it's nothing like any genuine names from the time and place I'm basing the culture on.

I'm just starting to think about surnames for the novel I'm currently planning. Because it's a late iron age sort of setting, surnames are replaced by clan and tribe names, with clans named after the founder of the line. I'm also using patronymics - fathers names. This stuff goes for the warrior class only, with the lower classes using place names and occupations instead of clans and patronymics, though their tribe is still important.

If I was writing something set in the modern world, I'd certainly use street names from around where I live for surnames. A few, perhaps, are not suitable because they'd sound stupid, but I like the idea that anyone else who lives in the area would pick up on it.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 3, 2011)

Ophiucha: I agree. I don't mind a hint behind a name, but some of the Harry Potter names are ridiculous. Lupin, LeStrange, Snape, Riddle is silly when you consider that it was used because of the mystery surrounding the character. I do name my place names quite obviously, and translate them, but that's fine considering people would name them for characteristics. I name my people as a realistically as I can, only really hinting to the nature of the family rather than the individual. For example, a father might want to name his first born son something that conjures images of greatness and courage, etc.

Chilari: The street name I chose doesn't sound like anything in particular. A lot of streets are named after people, so there's probably a lot that would sound fine.


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## mythique890 (Sep 4, 2011)

Ha.  I live in a place with a grid system instead of street names.  I can see it now:

"Hey, look, there's Bob Seventeenfiftysouth!  Hey Bob, it's me, George Eighthundredeast!  Remember?  We went to high school together."

"Oh, sure, George.  I remember you.  Didn't your sister marry Clint Centerstreet?"

"Nah, she dated Clint for a while, then married another guy.  Her name's Fifthwest now."

*

Ok, maybe for a humor piece.  Anyway, I don't make up names much, but if I were going to, I'd try to get as close to natural language as possible, which means real linguistic processes.  I <3 them.  I was going to post a list of them and say which ones are my favorites, but then I realized, wow, I am a nerd.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 12, 2011)

Go for it! Post your list!


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## HÃ«radÃ¯n (Sep 13, 2011)

if it is a mountain range I pick a nice sounding name then tack on the end alztio. if it is a river a nice sounding name then mÃ¯sro. if it is a lake mÃ«rso. other wise, I try to stick to my very small made up language, like the name HÃ«radÃ¯n (RhÃ«adÃ¯n) comes from hÃ«ra meaning 'strong' and dÃ¯n meaning 'man' then there is hanudÃ¯n, with 'hanu' meaning wise or smart.


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## Xanados (Sep 13, 2011)

It actually makes me slightly irritated when I get people to try and pronounce the words: Hlidskjalf, Niffleheim, Valaskjalf, Jotunhiem, and especially Ginnungagap. GET SOME CULTURE, FOOLS. =]


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 13, 2011)

Ha, I don't get irritated at that because I probably pronounce some wrong myself. I'm not sure it has a lot to do with being cultured in general, because this is a very specific cultural strand (and one that is generally irrelevant to most people).


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## SeverinR (Sep 13, 2011)

Xanados: I always shorten any name longer than 3 syllables in a story. So it would be:
Hlid, niffle, Valas, Juton, and Ginn.  If its only listed once I give it one attempt at pronunciation then go on.

Hey, we could just call em Fred.( Bob and Tom)

Street names near Childhood home, named after states.  Oregon, Nebraska, etc.
Town nearby named after trees, elm, oak, pine, 

I have used name generators, I have also taken letters from two generated names and created one of my own, or changed suffix of a name. not real just an example:Glennhold, Glennshire.


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