Naming Fantasy Races/Creatures

[AnnieO]

Hi, everyone! I'm new on this site and not positive if this is the right place for this post, but here goes!

The story I'm working on sort of revolves around a non-human character who was tricked and bewitched by, well, a witch. He's one of a race of people who generally live up in the mountains where it is always cold and snowy. And, no, he is not a yeti. These people only come down from the mountains during winter, when it is cold and snowy everywhere, and they tend to cause problems for the humans by stealing their stuff, mostly food. They tend to be solitary for the most part, and there's not very many of them. But they don't like the heat. They can survive summer in the valley by hibernating someplace cool if they have to, as my character discovers, but that's only if they have no other choice. They're also supposed to be a stronger and faster than humans, and they have keener senses.

Anyway, any ideas for what to call them would be greatly appreciated! Oh, and it's supposed to be a medieval type fantasy, and so far the human characters have fairly normal names.

 

[Orc Knight]

Anything else you can tell about them? I'm assuming a bit on the furrier side, due to being high mountain dwellers. Are they within size of humans, bigger or smaller? Vaguely humanoid or more beast like? The stealing bit seems like they might hit some of the goblin vices too.

And on an Edit: Anything else about the culture wise? Are they predators? Omnivores? Herbivores? Does fire scare them? Do they keep animals as pets, protection or food sources?

 

[AnnieO]

Oops, I thought I included what they look like. They look more or less like humans, but they handle the cold by being hot-blooded, if that makes sense. Like the opposite of how a snake is cold-blooded and needs to bask in the sun to stay warm enough. These people need the cold so they don't overheat. So, no, they're not furry. They can be a bit taller than the average human, but they're generally around the same size. At one point, another character thinks that he is a human at first.

They're omnivores, but I'm still not sure about culture wise. I'd say they're more hunter/gatherer or scavengers. I don't really picture them keeping or raising animals. I'm still in the planning stages for this story and I've only written a couple scenes so far.

 

[Orc Knight]

All right. Culture might help a bit before throwing names out. Particularly if you get something parallel to real life when you're doing it. Can also do a placeholder name like the Mountain Kin or the Rock Men or Bigfoot.

 

[MrNybble]

How about Calsang. Using some words from Latin like "Calidum Sanguinem" meaing "Hot Blood". If you want the name to have a meaning that is. I just pick some random place holder name and give meaning later if needed.

 

[skip.knox]

You might also think about what others call them. They will have a name in their own language, but other people probably don't know it.

 

[AnnieO]

Thanks for the ideas! I had played around with some Latin words before, but hadn't settled on one yet. The Latin word for "snow" is nix, and I thought about nixie, but not sure if I like that since it's so close to pixie.

 

[skip.knox]

You could try the adjective form, niveus. Some derivative of that.

 

[Miles Lacey]

They could be officially known as the "People of the Snow" ("populus autem nix" in Latin) officially but, over time, most locals have shortened the name of these creatures to et nix which simply translates to "of the snow".

 

[TheKillerBs]

Wouldn't it be in the genitive form (nivis)?

 

[Futhark]

AMIHAN f Filipino, Tagalog
Means "north wind, winter storm" in Tagalog.

ARWA f Arabic
Possibly means "mountain goats" in Arabic. This name was borne by some relatives of the Prophet Muhammad. It was also the name of a 12th-century queen of Yemen.

AYAZ m Turkish, Azerbaijani, Urdu
From Turkish and Azerbaijani ayaz meaning "frost" or "dry and cold air". This was the name of a slave and later companion of the 11th-century sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.

DORUK m Turkish
Means "mountaintop" in Turkish.

ENKI m Sumerian Mythology
From Sumerian (en) meaning "lord" and (ki) meaning "earth, ground" (though maybe originally from (kur) meaning "underworld, mountain"). Enki, called Ea by the Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians, was the Sumerian god of water and wisdom and the keeper of the Me, the divine laws.

FREDIANO m Italian
Italian form of the Roman name Frigidianus, which was derived from Latin frigidus "cold". This was the name of a 6th-century Irish bishop who made a pilgrimage to Rome and settled as a hermit on Mount Pisano.

FUYUKO f Japanese
From Japanese (fuyu) meaning "winter" and (ko) meaning "child", as well as other combinations of kanji.

GIRISHA m Hinduism
Means "lord of the mountain" in Sanskrit. This is a name of the Hindu god Shiva, given because of his abode in the Himalayan Mountains.

GORAN m Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian, Bulgarian (Rare)
Means "mountain man", derived from South Slavic gora meaning "mountain". It was popularized by the Croatian poet Ivan Goran Kovačić (1913-1943), who got his middle name because of the mountain town where he was born.

HARAN m Biblical, Biblical Hebrew
Possibly means "hill, mountain" in Hebrew. This is the name of the brother of Abraham and father of Lot in the Old Testament.

HAREL m Hebrew
Means "altar, mountain of God" in Hebrew. In the Hebrew Bible this word is applied to the altar in the temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 43:15).

HORYMÍR m Czech (Rare)
Possibly from the Slavic elements gora meaning "mountain" and miru meaning "peace, world".

JAEL f Biblical
From the Hebrew name (Ya'el) meaning "ibex, mountain goat".

KOHINOOR f Various
From Koh-i-noor, the name of a famous gemstone, meaning "mountain of light" in Persian.

LAN f & m Chinese, Vietnamese
From Chinese (lán) meaning "orchid, elegant" (which is usually only feminine) or (lán) meaning "mountain mist". Other Chinese characters can form this name as well. As a Vietnamese name, it is derived from Sino-Vietnamese meaning "orchid".

MONTA f Latvian
Modern Latvian name, possibly from Latin mons "mountain".

MONTSERRAT f Catalan
From the name of a mountain near Barcelona, the site of a monastery founded in the 10th century. The mountain gets its name from Latin mons serratusmeaning "jagged mountain".

NINHURSAG f Sumerian Mythology
Means "lady of the mountain", from Sumerian (nin) meaning "lady" and (hursaĝ) meaning "mountain". This was the name of the Sumerian mother and fertility goddess, the primary consort of Enki.

ORESTES m Greek Mythology
Derived from Greek (orestias) meaning "of the mountains". In Greek myth he was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He killed his mother and her lover Aegisthus after they killed his father.

PARVATI f Hinduism, Indian, Hindi
Means "of the mountains" in Sanskrit. Parvati is a Hindu goddess of love and power, the wife of Shiva and the mother of Ganesha.

RIN f & m Japanese
From Japanese (rin) meaning "dignified, severe, cold" or other kanji which are pronounced the same way.

SHAILAJA f Hinduism, Indian, Telugu
Means "daughter of the mountain" in Sanskrit, from (shaila) meaning "mountain" and (ja) meaning "born". This is another name of the Hindu goddess Parvati.

SƠN m Vietnamese
From Sino-Vietnamese (sơn) meaning "mountain".

TUSHAR m Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati
Means "cold, frost, snow" in Sanskrit.

24 results

Sorry for the long post.
Here’s a website.
Browse Names - Behind the Name

 

[skip.knox]

Wouldn't it be in the genitive form (nivis)?

I was only thinking of it as a starting point, to get away from the "x" in nixie. I wouldn't use correct forms unless I was intentionally invoking Latin. But that's just me!