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Need help with naming.

In my novel I have two areas of naming that I need to put a lot of thought into (though, don't we all?): countries/cities, and the names of my characters. In this case, though, my question is about naming countries.

My novel's genre is magic realism, and it is heavily influenced by ancient history, mythology, etc. Therefore, naming tends to reflect that. The novel itself is set in a city similar to Rome, which I have given the name "Auctoritas", or the Latin word for "authority" - a word that sums up the city's rule (and Ancient Rome in general, I believe). Naming the city was easy enough, but I am stuck in naming the equivalent of Italy, the country it's set in.

As well as that, I'm lost with naming the equivalents of Egypt and Greece.

I would prefer words within the languages that those civilizations spoke, and words that sum up the nature of the country itself. For example, within my novel I'm going for a Egypt = magic, Greece = education angle.

I will consider all suggestions.
Thank you! :)
 

Ophiucha

Auror
For Italy, two things I would consider would be a founding King (or Queen) or something there is a lot of within the country. For instance, if your pseudo!Italy has a lot of wolves you could name it 'Lupia' or equivalent. Rome-Romulus, for the founding King idea. Maybe research the etymology of 'Italy' itself and see if that sparks any ideas? You could even just name it 'Auctoritas' again; that happens, sometimes. New York City in New York, Quebec City in Quebec.

Greece and Egypt have the same sorts of naming schemes. According to Wikipedia, which is the extent of the research I can be bothered to do at 6 in the morning, the Ancient Egyptian word for magic is Heka. And the Greek word is Gnosis, if I'm not mistaken. You could be very literal and just call them, like, Hekat and Gnosios. Otherwise, same advice as before, research the etymology of 'Hellas' and 'Kemet' and see if it inspires anything, consider who the founders were, etc., etc..
 
Ooh, I had never considered it that way! I had been researching the known words from the languages they spoke, which was difficult, especially when the Egyptians used hieroglyphs that translated into words that could be hardly used for the naming. There were also so many to consider! (Going through a Latin list of words is time-consuming).

If anything, I would like to be downright specific, so your suggestions are invaluable in my naming process! Cheers!
 

The Unseemly

Troubadour
Hur hur, I just go to Google translate, type in a relevant word and translate it into a language that seems funky, and fiddle with the letters around a bit. I'm not that much of a cheap skate.

But no, really, Ophiucha makes a good point. Usually, the naming of things relates to the cultural background/symbolism of something. Tolkien did it. Mordor comes from the German word "Mord", which means to murder. The ironical thing about it was that Lord of the Rings was Tolkien's speculations of World War 1, were, funnily enough, the Germans were the "bad guys" (from his perspective). And guess who the bad guys were in LotR?
 

Subcreator

Minstrel
Actually gnosis means "wisdom", while the word "magic" actually comes from the Greek mageia, which is related to the word magos, meaning "sorcerer" or "magician." The Biblical character Simon the Sorcerer (an opponent of the Apostles who was later called the first Gnostic) is often called Simon Magus. They also had different words for "divination" and "enchantment." I'd recommend finding an online dictionary to help with that, or else go to a conlang forum where someone might know the language. I can't help you on ancient Egyptian, unfortunately, other than the fact that they had more than just hieroglyphics.
 

Ophiucha

Auror
I'm sorry I didn't write my first post clearly, but I was going for 'knowledge' for the Greek thing. In the OP, they said they wanted 'magic' for Egypt and 'education' for Greece.

For example, within my novel I'm going for a Egypt = magic, Greece = education angle.
 
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