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Terrible with Names

Gato Cat

Dreamer
I've never been particular good at coming up with names, whether it be place names, characters, titles, ect. This has always been an hindrance to my writing; when I sit down to try and think some up, even to serve as templates, I always end up staring at a blank page.

For example, a race I've been trying to figure out are battle mounts. They're big cats, probably with the physique of a tiger or a little bigger seeing as they're going to have to be pretty strong, and are made to be the 'ultimate hunters'. Their fur changes colour and density to match their surroundings, can imitate speech to lure out their prey and are reasonably fast and decent swimmers despite their bulk. They're also naturally vicious and not particularly intelligent in the conventional sense, so most of their race as been enslaved by a race human psychics (which are as well, presently unnamed) who use their telepathy to subdue them and leave them like puppets to be controlled.

So, where do I go with that? Research existing big cat names and make a mishmash of two? Look elsewhere?

I love to hear about your experiences with naming your worlds. Do you find it a chore, or one of the most enriching parts of world building? What do you usually draw inspiration from? Any names that you've come up with that you've regretted on a second reading?
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
Who names the cats, first of? Is it their owners? Are they named when they are small? Imagine a massive battle cat named "Pouncer."

Also, how do you feed those behemoths? Research how many hundreds of pounds of meat a carnivore that size needs to consume every day before their riders begin to look tasty. Personally, I have always known that if I die, my house cat would eat my face.

As for names, sky's the limit. Cloud strider. Puss in Boots (do your people even wear boots?). Battle Cat (though I think that's trademarked). Shadow Catcher. Purrswell. Eatsface.

Do you own a cat? Watch them play with a toy. That should prove inspiration enough.

** Also, love the redundancy of your name. Makes me giggle.
 

Gato Cat

Dreamer
Hm, I never thought about that. I suppose they'd have similar names or pet names to match their owner's culture. I'm still not sure about a species name. I suppose, again, their owners would have to come up with one.

I never thought about food! I think they'd have to commit McDonald's levels of sin for all the land and cattle they'd have to raise. I could probably make something out of that actually. Yeah, I do have a cat, and completely understand. He's only nice to me for feeding time. I feel used. :<

Thanks for your time! :D

Hehe, my real name is pretty redundant so it's kind of an inside joke. xD
 

Spider

Sage
You could come up with names using words from different languages, or if you're desperate you can use a name generator. Sometimes what I do if I can't think of a name is I use a name generator and change it when I'm finished writing. The time you spend thinking of a name can be used on your WIP :)

Oh, another way I tried coming up with a name is by taking a handful of Scrabble letters and playing around with them. Who knows, you may be surprised with what you come up with!
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Gato cat, your profile pic kitty looks like one of my gals! :)

I love playing with names, its one of my favorite parts of creating setting and characters. I take a sheet of paper, tally up a list of names that I've been marinating on, then just brainstorm. I try different sounds and spelling variations, maybe looking up a meaning for a name in a different language and then playing with that. Some authors give their characters names that match their personality or where they come from (thinking of "Shivers" in Best Served Cold). I think so long as the name is memorable, you're good. And memorable can be anything. So long as it feels and sounds right to you, flows well in the narrative, that's it.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
What language so your cats speak. Do you own cats? If not, watch LOTS and LOTS of cat videos, particularly big cat videos, and listen to them. They have a particular vocal range you may want to think about incorporating. I won't say imitate - that might sound silly. But a sound here or there would add authenticity to your names.
 

Gato Cat

Dreamer
An excuse to dig up my old Scrabble board! Thanks for the help. :)

Aw, lol. You profile pic is not a cat, but is from another of my favourite things. :D I think you're right. Sitting down and just playing with names till I find the right one seems to be the way to go. I tend to over think meanings and sounds, so I'll just sit back and see what comes up.

Thanks again, Lowan. :) I'll do a bit of research, then take Chesterama's approach and see what I can generate.
 

Scribble

Archmage
I often use Google Translate in name creation.

I'll throw some words in English in, and see what I get in various other languages. I won't necessarily take them verbatim, but sometimes I get interesting words and I steal a part of them. For languages with different alphabets, you can listen to the translation.

I like it in that the names hold some "seed" of the meaning I want, while helping me find new names.

Tossing in "feline", I got a few interesting words out.

Croatian: mačji
Dutch: katachtig
Catalan: felí
Latvian: kaķa ... :p
Turkish: kedi
Galician: felino

Sometimes you come up with nothing, but if you just keep pecking at it, some interesting words can come out.

I kind of like mačji, felí and kedi. They sound like a trio. They may end up as character names or place names. Maybe they are words to describe the three aspects of some mystical cat energy. Maybe they are three rhakshasa sisters who live in a giant tree and tell fortunes. Who knows? I plug them into the notebook for later use.

http://translate.google.com/
 
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Xela

Scribe
I used to work in restaurants, managing them and as simply a member of the crew. I would take names from the list of customers. I'd say just to pay attention to people's names/your surroundings a bit especially for names of tertiary characters. Protagonists and antagonists I spend more time considering but if I've just got to name someone to get through a scene, I return to the staggering list I've compiled.
 

Gato Cat

Dreamer
Felí and kedi may make for an interesting compound. I've already fiddled with different names and phrases on previous advice so I'll sit down again and see what else I can come up with. Cheers, Scribble! :)

Haha, I used to do that, except I'd use theorists' names as templates from my Sociology class in my previous WIP (no one could say I wasn't revising that way, though I did end up keeping a few).
 

Scribble

Archmage
Felí and kedi may make for an interesting compound. I've already fiddled with different names and phrases on previous advice so I'll sit down again and see what else I can come up with. Cheers, Scribble! :)

Haha, I used to do that, except I'd use theorists' names as templates from my Sociology class in my previous WIP (no one could say I wasn't revising that way, though I did end up keeping a few).

That's funny, but sociologists have some fairly good names among them!

"Foucault, I should have known you were behind this."
"Yes, Touraine. Your arrogance blinded you as always. You never thought much of me. A sore lesson for my old teacher."
"Then I failed you, Foucault. If you believe it is arrogance, then I failed to teach you humility. I thought only to protect the Sacristus." Touraine strained against the webbed paws of the giant popper. The amphibian held him fast. It licked one apathetic eye.
"The Sacristus is broken. The old ideas are overthrown. You will now answer to the Oligarchs, as your precious Aron foretold." said Foucault.
 

Gato Cat

Dreamer
Oh Lord, I'll now be writing about Popper in my Crime and Deviance paper with the image of him as a giant lizard!

As it happened, Durkheim was the well-intentioned extremist overlord that would justify anything as a tool for social stability, while Marx was the anti-hero that saw and attempted to dismantle real or imaginary social evils everywhere he went. Weber just followed him about and criticised everything he did. I should've made Foucault a prison warden just for the irony. xD

Actually, making the Marxist the 'good guy' may have been biased on my part. I should watch out for that...
 

Scribble

Archmage
Ideas that stand in the way of a selected few people pocketing most of the money are never going to be popular. We should have a politically incendiary beer sometime. :)

A "safe" Marx quote... more on topic for these forums, but one that never fails to light a fire:

"The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money."
~Karl Marx
 

Gato Cat

Dreamer
I may take you up on that offer one day. :) Controversy and politics just happen to be two of my favourite topics.

Too true, and made more prominent considering Marx lived most of his life in poverty. Makes you wonder where passion ends and financial interest begins with a lot of things.
 
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