Using foreign languages to create names...

[Pythagoras]

I don't know if this is common, but I have run into many problems coming up with names for characters in my work. I also study German as a language in school, and as I was reading a bit about the classical elements and their corresponding geometry according to Pythagoras (a happy coincidence), it occurred to me that I could manipulate German words into English names that sound cool, yet not totally out of place. As an added bonus, these names automatically have an inherent meaning. What are your thoughts on this?

For example: my current work is set in a world created by five god-like characters, each of which are based on one of the classical elements. Naming these gods has been a challenge for me, and I've come up with these tentative names based on German words: Aether (this isn't actually a change from English at all, and only a slight one from German, but I like the ring of it), Erda, Himmall, Vassara, and Brennar. How do these names sound?

 

[Scribble]

Google Translate is my workhorse.

I will take words that echo aspects of the character, and then try translating into a variety of languages. It's an excellent way to find interesting words and letter combinations your don't often see. You can leave a clue for the few readers who know languages, which can be interestingly subconscious for them. You can cloak it a little by dropping accents. I like to find ways to introduce randomness into my creative process to inject new words I might otherwise not come up with.

Google Translate

 

[Trick]

I'm a big fan of this method. Oddly enough I've been experimenting with German names recently as well, though I've stuck to Latin and the Romantic Languages in the past. With English and German so closely tied together I find that manipulating German words is relatively easy. I think the names you've chosen are great!

Another resource you might consider is Online Etymology Dictionary
You can search English words that you want to incorporate into names and then find their sources (many of which are German) and manipulate those into names you like.

Good Luck!

 

[Pythagoras]

I think English is a fantastic language to experiment with this method, because it is a Germanic language in origin, but is also heavily influenced by the Romantic languages, making words from several languages from most of Europe sound like suitable names. Personally, I enjoy the sound of German words, but for my examples, I've 'softened' them a bit, most often with an 'a' where there would normally be an 'e'. I also like to combine words to make names, such as 'Erde' and 'Zauber', meaning earth and magic, respectively. Put them together, and you get 'Erdatsauber', the name of the fortress of the Sentinel, a character descended from the Earth Goddess Erda.

 

[Scribble]

German is also wonderful for the very Nordic inheritance of being able to easily stick words together to create new words with new meanings. Ex: Schadenfreude -> Schaden (damage, harm) and Freude (joy).

I tried some random bits with Romanian:

fire-field -> foc-scut. It made an interesting sound combination, I could leave it as is: Focscut. Eh, don't like it. However, I could Anglicise it as Foxcut. I like it! I tuck it away in my name dictionary, to be used later, like so:

Foxcut - meaning fire-shield (Romanian), could be a red-headed shield man. Or it could be the name of a hot-tempered shield-fighter, or defender.

I find this kind of name-farming to be quite fun. Yes, I am a complete and utter word-geek.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Using names from a certain language group will also have the benefit of lending a little depth to the people you're describing.

If you're describing a race of tall, barbarian north men you won't give them names like Juan Carlos or Li Ping. You'll want names like Styrbjorn or Torkel. You could go with the first ones and you could match your lore and your world to make it fit, but it would still ring untrue to an uninitiated reader.

 

[Pythagoras]

'Schadenfreude -> Schaden (damage, harm) and Freude (joy).'

This is actually one of my favorite German words, along with Schnurrbart (line-beard, or mustache). Also, I think being a word geek isn't altogether out of place in a forum of writers and readers.

As far as who it is I'm describing, it would be a people similar to the Germans, at least geographically. It is set in a small village in an area inspired by my home in PA. It a place of rolling, wooded mountains with a temperate climate (very cold in the winter, but very warm in the summer) based around a river. PA was settled largely by people of German descent. It suited them because it is so similar to their homeland (a fact I can now personally attest to, having lived here for the past several months. It's almost like I never left home, at least as far as the scenery goes). So my use of the language as inspiration for names not only works on a linguistic level, but on a geographic level as well.

Thank you all for the input, by the way. I enjoy reading and discussing things of this nature.

 

[Jabrosky]

I use this method all the time, but I believe it works best if your fantasy cultures have at least a superficial resemblance to real-world ones. If you're pretty much creating your cultures out of whole cloth, there may be no point to favoring one culture over another as source material.

 

[Asura Levi]

I'm guilty of this, all the time. My favorite is Irish, specially for magic related aspects like the magic words.
Lately I'm playing with Jewish as well.

 

[ThinkerX]

My usual practice involves digging out my old AD&D 'Historical Earth' sourcebooks, which among other things give lists of common names for whatever region/time that book represents. These books cover such diverse areas/peoples/times as the Vikings, Ancient and Imperial Rome, Ancient Greece, Celtic Europe, Charlemagnes Empire, and the middle east at the time of the crusades, each with lists of common names, common items, social notes and the like. For areas not covered by those tomes (Russia, India) I go to name sites on the web, and make lists from there. For names with no earthly analogue (goblins, ect), I try to decide what sounds are most common to the language, make up lists of those sounds, and combine them, sometimes at random (literally rolling the dice for list A, and then again on list B). Essentially, I have a lot of lists.

Something important, but easy to overlook: the best names are short ones, or short versions of longer names. Unless memorable somehow, I tend to restrict names of more than a couple syllables to minor characters (usually aristocrats for some reason). (These days, a lot of readers will sort of mentally skip over longer names.)

So, not only do I have a bunch of name lists, I have lists mostly edited down to the shorter names.

 

[Chessie]

Oh man, I've totally done this with my WIP. The setting and culture is inspired from late 1800s Russia, so I played with some Slavic (mostly Russian) names for the characters, towns and world the story takes place in. Its all perfect and beautiful sounding, really makes it feel real to me. I also added in a couple of Russian words for items, etc. I think doing this works great!

 

[Nameback]

I do this all the time. I think the only way you'd be justified in making up names out of whole-cloth would be if you're a linguist, and you've invented your own fantasy languages.

Using a real-world linguistic substrate isn't just helpful for you, the writer; it also helps the reader. It gives them a frame of reference to know how to pronounce the names, so that it doesn't sit as a meaningless jumble in their mind. It gives them subconscious context--someone named "Septimas" will instantly recall ancient Rome for most readers, helping them envision that world. It gives them consistency; as they work through the book, people's heritage/place-of-birth will become immediately identifiable by their name. And, of course, this method tends to produce names that are more euphonic than just making stuff up.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Once you've decided on a name, make sure to google it to see what, if anything, it means.

I just got confirmed to me that the name of one of my female main characters is a male name in Finnish. Now I have to come up with another name that feels the same but which isn't male or male sounding.

Optionally I could go with something a long the lines of A Boy Called Sue, by Johnny Cash - that might be interesting too.

 

[Scribble]

Once you've decided on a name, make sure to google it to see what, if anything, it means.

I just got confirmed to me that the name of one of my female main characters is a male name in Finnish. Now I have to come up with another name that feels the same but which isn't male or male sounding.

Optionally I could go with something a long the lines of A Boy Called Sue, by Johnny Cash - that might be interesting too.

Does it really matter? Unless your target market is Finnish fantasy readers, I can't see it making any difference. If it is written in English, and the market is mostly North America/UK... who cares? When you sell millions of copies and they translate it to Finnish, they can suggest you change her name to Aune or Bengta.

 

[Svrtnsse]

No, from that perspective it doesn't matter, but it matters to me.

Now that I know the woman has a male name it's going to color my impression of her and will affect the way I write her. I may yet decide to keep the name and either just ignore the fact, or make up some reason that accounts for it. I've got a couple of options to go with, it's just annoying to end up in this situation where I may have to get used to a new name for something.

 

[Scribble]

No, from that perspective it doesn't matter, but it matters to me.

Now that I know the woman has a male name it's going to color my impression of her and will affect the way I write her. I may yet decide to keep the name and either just ignore the fact, or make up some reason that accounts for it. I've got a couple of options to go with, it's just annoying to end up in this situation where I may have to get used to a new name for something.

Google is EVIL!

 

[skip.knox]

"Word-farming" is now one of my favorite neologisms. Thanks, scribble!

I'll echo all the treasure people say here and add another penny: Wikipedia for place names. Specifically, Wikipedia is getting very good about providing historical versions of place names. For example, my WIP takes place in the late Roman Empire in the area that is today Romania and Turkey. The Danube River flows through the middle of it, and through the middle of my story, but with in Altearth that becomes the River Ister. Same for tributary rivers, mountain ranges, and so on.

One advantage not yet mentioned: whether for place names or people names, this approach has the additional benefit of having all the names for a group or area be linguistically consistent. Your reader will appreciate it, even if he doesn't know why.

 

[Aprella]

Right now I am going to derive all the names for my religion and magic from Finnish. I am very very bad with names and I am fascinated by Finland. I am not going to just translate since I have a Finnish character so that might be a bit strange. But going to add extra things to the translation or use the sound and do something with that

 

[Mythopoet]

Names and languages in my world are drawn from ancient Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Celtic languages, Japanese, and Finnish.

 

[Pythagoras]

The general approach I have been experimenting with is to take a German word that describes what I want, and spell it out using English phonetics. This has given me some pretty cool results.