Miles Lacey
Archmage
Character Names:
In a lot of cases I simply think of a personality trait, a prominent physical feature, an occupation or something that is valued within a culture then use Google, Bing or Yandex translation to find the appropriate translated word.
An example is the word Rose. It's a nice name but the society is based on southeast Asian and Polynesian societies so the English name won't do. When translated into certain languages Rose becomes:
Rosas (Filipino)
Mawar (Indonesian and Malay)
Rohi (Maori)
Wungu (Javanese)
Rosa (Samoan)
Rosi (Fijian)
Rose (Hawaiian)
I choose the appropriate words that would suit the character the best. If the character is of a specific race I use words from one language. If they're mixed race I use words from two (or more) languages for their names.
Pen Names:
I use my real name both here and in all my writings (most of which is political stuff). In my view if my writing doesn't have people wanting to either kiss me or kill me then I have failed as a writer.
In a lot of cases I simply think of a personality trait, a prominent physical feature, an occupation or something that is valued within a culture then use Google, Bing or Yandex translation to find the appropriate translated word.
An example is the word Rose. It's a nice name but the society is based on southeast Asian and Polynesian societies so the English name won't do. When translated into certain languages Rose becomes:
Rosas (Filipino)
Mawar (Indonesian and Malay)
Rohi (Maori)
Wungu (Javanese)
Rosa (Samoan)
Rosi (Fijian)
Rose (Hawaiian)
I choose the appropriate words that would suit the character the best. If the character is of a specific race I use words from one language. If they're mixed race I use words from two (or more) languages for their names.
Pen Names:
I use my real name both here and in all my writings (most of which is political stuff). In my view if my writing doesn't have people wanting to either kiss me or kill me then I have failed as a writer.