How do you name your Faerie/Little People ?

[Insolent Lad]

My fairies look like giant termites. Sort of like the prawns from District 9. I haven't thought of what they call themselves (due to how their culture and species is, despite being spread over the world, they still maintain a high degree of connection in terms of language and what-not), but whatever outsiders call them would vary based on specific language.

Ah, Asimov did a story with fairies as large insects, who ruled the world way, way back in time.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Ah, Asimov did a story with fairies as large insects, who ruled the world way, way back in time.

Then there's the book called 'The Borrowers' which happened because one author had a 'shower thought' plot bunny of 'what if the rats in the house were little people instead' which, they aren't faerie, at least I don't think ? but they are 'little people'

It's a lot like something I would cook up when running on fumes at 2 AM lol

 

[Toob Waysider]

So for my story, it's all about breaking 'conventions'

That's something I strive for in my stories about a tavern which straddles two worlds - Connecticut and a "vest pocket" (thank you, Mr. Bellairs) dimension which only contains one flat planet, not even a suggestion of a greater cosmos. My first step in breaking conventions is twisting established classification names into corruptions of the originals, mostly due to long-term isolation from the original sources. For an example, the cait sith who arrived with the Fogarraich (Scottish refugees) in Connecticut back in the 1660s are now known as Cawtshee. From there, I felt free to step away from the basic description of those fairy cats and that led to redefining their powers.

A different route was the characters taking matters in their hands, like the Firbolgs. After escaping from the Tuatha de Dannan by sailing into the west, those Firbolgs who wound up in several subterranean havens in Connecticut (like Machimoodus) decided to co-opt for themselves the name which the Mohegans gave to the white men when they arrived in the region - "Owannux" (Somebody Who Came From Someplace Else.) Without the constant reminder of who they were, based on pre-conceived naming conventions, I can take them in new directions.

But then there are those fantasy figures too entrenched in their name association - like the dragons. I just dismissed the smaugish stereotype and used their appearance in the infancy gospels apocrypha as a jumping off point. (Confronted by the power of the Infant Jesus, the dragons retired from their old ways. Now my dragons are all in the Flatlands dimension, leading lives of religious asceticism.)

What can I say? It keeps me off the streets.

 

[Mad Swede]

Then there's the book called 'The Borrowers' which happened because one author had a 'shower thought' plot bunny of 'what if the rats in the house were little people instead' which, they aren't faerie, at least I don't think ? but they are 'little people'

It's a lot like something I would cook up when running on fumes at 2 AM lol

You mean the low fantasy book series by Mary Norton: The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Afloat, The Borrowers Aloft, The Borrowers Avenged and the novella Poor Stainless. The first book in the series won the Carnegie Medal. The books themselves are quite complex and deep, with several themes running through them.

Mary Norton herself said she was severely short sighted as a child and this caused her to closely study tree roots, tangled grasses, and moss rather than distant views. This led her to invent tiny, fearful people navigating a miniature jungle world.

Mary Norton also wrote The Magic Bedknob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks, which together are the basis for the Disney animated film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

And one final little piece of trivia. Mary Norton's son Robert was a printer and is the man responsible for many of the typfaces (fonts) used in Microsoft Windows...

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

You mean the low fantasy book series by Mary Norton: The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Afloat, The Borrowers Aloft, The Borrowers Avenged and the novella Poor Stainless. The first book in the series won the Carnegie Medal. The books themselves are quite complex and deep, with several themes running through them.

Mary Norton herself said she was severely short sighted as a child and this caused her to closely study tree roots, tangled grasses, and moss rather than distant views. This led her to invent tiny, fearful people navigating a miniature jungle world.

Mary Norton also wrote The Magic Bedknob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks, which together are the basis for the Disney animated film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

And one final little piece of trivia. Mary Norton's son Robert was a printer and is the man responsible for many of the typfaces (fonts) used in Microsoft Windows...

There's a youtuber I watch who has entire movies about similar creatures called waterhands. He uses them as caricatures of the folks in the games he's playing to use as thumbnails. But when he was younger he was writing books/movies about them. He doesn't talk about them much (at least not during his youtube videos, I'm sure he chats about them more openly on twitch.) but I'm always fascinated when he does. I don't know if he has a similar thing going on as Mary Norton, but I'd be curious to find out. Since sometimes he goes on these tangents about noticing 'little' details. (I mean like, LITTLE stuff, like the moss that grows on tree branches) The Species of little folks were like a joint project with him and his sister I think, so I don't think he'll be publishing anything about them any time soon.

Didn't know that bit about her (Mary) also writing those three books, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks was one of the few classic movies (Besides Peter pan etc) that I had seen growing up!