Thomas Laszlo
Sage
I think it'd be cool to use names as a... a thought by a character, like name them abda and make sure them a servant
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Naming Characters
- Thread starter DragonOfTheAerie
- Start date
I think it'd be cool to use names as a... a thought by a character, like name them abda and make sure them a servant
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TheCrystallineEntity
Istar
^Oeuyia is a much weirder name. 
- Thread starter
- #23
DragonOfTheAerie
Vala
^Oeuyia is a much weirder name.
At least it's not an SAT vocabulary word.
TheCrystallineEntity
Istar
I decided, based on Oeuyia, that all Sereners would have unusual names [they are, after all, guardian spirits]. Enter Yinxi and Na-ah.
Alyssa
Troubadour
If any of you have Scrivener, go to Tools>Writing Tools>Name Generator.
There are thousands of names, all with their origins and meanings (although check them online as well to be sure). If you choose a specific language of origin for the names of certain groups of characters (I chose Hebrew/Jewish) you can really develop their arcs around themes central to that culture, giving it a greater amount of depth. The just scroll through the 4000 or so for each gender and pick the ones you like or the ones who have a translation similar to their role.
There are thousands of names, all with their origins and meanings (although check them online as well to be sure). If you choose a specific language of origin for the names of certain groups of characters (I chose Hebrew/Jewish) you can really develop their arcs around themes central to that culture, giving it a greater amount of depth. The just scroll through the 4000 or so for each gender and pick the ones you like or the ones who have a translation similar to their role.
Mike Chara
Scribe
This is exactly how I name my characters, if I can't find something off the top of my head.
Christopher Michael
Troubadour
This is neat. I'll definitely check it out when looking for names. Thanks!
- Thread starter
- #29
DragonOfTheAerie
Vala
Am I the only one who pays literally no attention to meanings when I name characters?
In my next book, none of the characters are named. It's just "the boy," "the girl," "the grandmother..." I think it creates the kind of distance from the characters I want. As if this is some old story from in the past being told instead of an event you're experiencing. (Also why I chose 3rd omniscient as the POV, which is unusual for me.)
So, I don't have to worry about this.
In my next book, none of the characters are named. It's just "the boy," "the girl," "the grandmother..." I think it creates the kind of distance from the characters I want. As if this is some old story from in the past being told instead of an event you're experiencing. (Also why I chose 3rd omniscient as the POV, which is unusual for me.)
So, I don't have to worry about this.
TheCrystallineEntity
Istar
^I'm the opposite. All of my characters have incredibly complex names and name meanings. Although in my next book, my main character might not have a name...Maybe. I've got two story ideas that I don't know how to fuse together.
Mythopoet
Auror
Woah, I use Scrivener but I never noticed this. Nice.
Draconianwriting
Dreamer
honestly, these are all really good websites. i have even looked through a couple, but you really cant deny the effectiveness of putting a word that describes your character into google translate and messing with it. that is how i have gotten quite a few names for both magic items and several characters.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
I’ll take good names wherever I can find them. I have scoured baby name lists before, but not for specific names, mostly to get an idea of how a name may sound in a certain culture. I like to base things on cultures but not really be replicas of them, and part of me feels like, if the world is not exactly Earth, the names are not likely to be the same (minus of course simple names like Sam and Joe, I can see how some sounds might come up again). It is somewhat important to me to have unique names to go with the world I am trying to build, but then, I don’t want to spend forever dwelling on it either.
I was unaware there was such a book as “The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook.” I will look for that.
I find, however, that just as I am trying to create names that bring life to a culture, I am often confounded by many other aspects, such as the names they might give to their currency, or the names of the land and landmarks, or objects I might take granted here on the world in which I live. For example, there cannot be Greek fire, if there is no Greece.
I do get jazzed though when the right name appears and fits well the character I want to create, and I do hate finding that I must change a name I have already lived with for a long time. Hitting Baby name web sites certainly brings a lot of nice sounding, and perhaps not very much used, names to light.
I was unaware there was such a book as “The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook.” I will look for that.
I find, however, that just as I am trying to create names that bring life to a culture, I am often confounded by many other aspects, such as the names they might give to their currency, or the names of the land and landmarks, or objects I might take granted here on the world in which I live. For example, there cannot be Greek fire, if there is no Greece.
I do get jazzed though when the right name appears and fits well the character I want to create, and I do hate finding that I must change a name I have already lived with for a long time. Hitting Baby name web sites certainly brings a lot of nice sounding, and perhaps not very much used, names to light.
fiera43
Scribe
I've spent as much time looking up names as I have for anything else in the writing process. Have 2 notebooks set up for me to add new names in whenever I find some I like.
fiera43
Scribe
I use pininterest surprisingly has a good variety of stuff on names as well.
