The "What's a good name for this?" thread

I need a good name for a fictional brand of high-end absinthe, with a little occult flair.

"Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy."

Wormwood?

TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer

It's official selling name is "Visions and Dreamscapes", but in common tongue, it is simply known as "the primo shit."

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

But the long one could work as a the full form of the name, especially if one wants to go the Insistent Terminology route, right?

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1. I have a Jack The Ripper-style Serial Killer character in a Wretched Hive setting who makes a point of cannibalizing (parts of) his victims. Would it be plausible to have him be given "Raven" as the surname part of his moniker (given that his actual name is unknown), with it being based on the second, etymologically-unrelated senses of "rapine, rapacity" and "prey; plunder; food obtained by violence" (and their verbal counterparts), rather than the usual sense of "someone with raven-black hair" or being named after the namesake animal (whose name, being Old English in origin, is not related to the aforementioned senses that originate in Latin through French transmission)?

2. I need title suggestions for a story that starts off with a teenaged boy being thrown 14 years into the future, and the first arc of the story focuses on adjusting to the situation, especially when it comes to his unofficial, now-much-older Love Interests (the primary focus of the arc, the secondary one being family and social stuff). The tentative title was Girlfriends 28 (yeah, I know, it sounds like a Gratuitous English anime/manga title; it's based on an anime/manga, after all), because originally this first arc was supposed to be the whole thing and the love interests were all girls, before I ended up adding a Gay Option and got hit by so many plot bunnies that now I have action- and thriller-oriented arcs in the works. That said, an Artifact Title in itself isn't bad or intolerably undesirable here, to be honest.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

How about '+14'? It's really short, general and the meaning is quickly apparent as soon as the reader saw the time jump.

I don't have any good ideas for your first question, though.

Well, that does sound like a good last resort. For the record, the "28" part is because the protagonists (i.e. the time-jumper and his love interests) start off as 14 year olds, and after the time skip the love interests are 28 year olds. Much of the romantic drama involves Christmas Cake complexes and related issues.

The moniker is "Jack Raven", if that helps.^note It follows the example of how Metal Gear character Gray Fox's obtained his civilian name — he was a Child Soldier who tricked his enemies with his childike "frankness", only to kill them with the ruthlessness of a "hunter", thus he was "the Frank Hunter", and eventually that became "Frank Jaeger" due to him speaking some German.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

So I have two kinds of 'magic' in my setting.

One variety, Type A is so insanely common among most people of the world that not being able to use it is treated as a disability, like being blind or not having a hand. The other is Type B, and is rare and poorly understood enough to be considered magic in comparison to Type A.

I'm fine with calling Type B 'magic' by my stories' Translation Convention, but it doesn't make any sense for people to use a term whose closest English equivalent has connotations of being mysterious or beyond scientific understanding to refer to something as universal as Type A. I'm thinking of maybe an archaic or uncommon English-language word for 'power' or 'strength' or something to that effect, but I've been coming up blank.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Maybe Dynamism or Endowment?

Perhaps it would help to know more about "type A" magic: how it's wielded, what it can do, and any other potentially-useful tidbits (such as its source).

Without that, I'm (as per usual ^^; ) tempted to suggest something that uses the "-urgy" suffix: it means, essentially, "work"/"working" (in the sense of, say, "metalworking" or "wonder-working"), I believe, which would seem to fit well with the idea of a common, everyday ability.

Otherwise, perhaps something like "potentia" ("power")?

My Games & Writing

What would be a fitting first name for a god of winter, darkness, and war to take while in disguise on Earth? My original idea was naming him Lucas, but I recently learned that "Lucere," the root word in that name, actually has to do with "shining," the opposite of what I was going for. (-__-')

"Snow" might be a good start.

edited 5th Oct '14 7:19:16 PM by MorningStar1337

Perhaps something related to crows or ravens? A "meaning" search on BabyNames.com suggests several, including "Corbeau", "Rook" (which can have additional connotations related to cheating and chess), "Crawford", "Bran" (which additionally may refer to one or more figures in Welsh mythology), "Corbin", and a few others. However, I don't know how reliable that site is, so you may want to double-check any names taken from it if you do find something that works for you.

My Games & Writing

How about Blake? Sounds kinda dark.

Be not afraid...

John

Oh really when?

...That actually sounds Crazy Enough to Work. So generic it's suspicious.

Both types of magic are based around using the same generic 'energy' (I've been calling it magoenergy up until now to distinguish it from the physics variety, but I think whatever name you guys help me come up with would be a good starting point), which is also what souls are made of. Users of Type A are almost completely incapable of performing Type B, and vice-versa.

Type A works on the macro level, and can manipulate that which our five senses could perceive with physical extensions. (As in being able to raise water that's underground or something like that.) Water vapor in the air can be condensed to water crops or frozen to make ice, fuel such as wood can be heated until it ignites, air can be moved to create a breeze, a row of a field can be tilled by walking alongside it, the hormones and other pathways of the body can be manipulated to fix small cuts and bruises, and so on. Like a mix between bending and alchemy, I suppose.

The biggest differences in Type A and Type B come in the form of how this energy is conjured. Performing Type A necessitates that energy flow through the user's multicellular flesh (their nervous tissue, specifically) before whatever they're trying to do with it can happen. They cast by borrowing energy from their soul (can be life-threatening if too much is borrowed) and possibly supplementing it with energy stored in an object (even more dangerous because your body won't be able to tell you if you pulled too much energy). The applications I listed above are generally the most the average Type A user can do without extra training.

Ars, you and Morning Star have given me some nice-sounding suggestions already- I especially like dynamism -so thanks! Hope all this helps.

edited 5th Oct '14 8:39:21 PM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

From Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names:

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Where can I find a list of such names to peruse? And are there any examples of such names for women?

edited 7th Oct '14 4:28:02 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I don't think there's a list of such names per se, but browse articles and when you see some weird US name, note it down. We Americans tend to be of limited help here since we're somewhat more used to people going about with "Hank" and "Dwight", and thus our benchmark tends to be the ultra-New England names like Hezekiah and Ezekiel. (And then you have the really weird cases, like the Texan judge Learned Hand...)

As for female names...you know what, I figure the Bible's as good a source as any other. The stereotypical "weird New England name" takes its basis from the Pilgrim settlers, who tended to go for Biblical names that had long gone out of favor anywhere else.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Okay, I have these powerful dragon-like beings with Elemental Powers called "Elementals" (Yes, creativity at its finest), namely:

• Sea Elemental (Water, Ice)
• Sky Elemental (Wind, Lightning)
• Land Elemental (Earth, Wood)
• Core Elemental (Fire, Metal)

But I'd prefer not to keep calling them Elementals. Anyone have any suggestions for good names (It could be either English or Greek, both are fine)?

If I knew how I know everything I know, I'd only be able to know half as much because my brain would be clogged up with where I know it from

Maybe something along the lines of "Spirits"? or maybe a name related to Dragons, rather than elements would suffice. (Wyrm, Wyvern, and maybe names of famous mythological dragons/serpents would count)

edited 7th Oct '14 11:06:49 PM by MorningStar1337

Arcanes? That's what I called the powerful Made of Magic beings in my story. Would Ethereals work either?

...eheh

and - They have a physical form though, so Spirits and Ethereals seems out of place. I can look into Wyrm/Wyvern/Arcanes, though I'll have to modify my naming scheme to accommodate them.

Any more suggestions?

edited 7th Oct '14 11:28:15 PM by Elfhunter

If I knew how I know everything I know, I'd only be able to know half as much because my brain would be clogged up with where I know it from

Well you can try a Greek god Theme Naming: Sea is Poseidon, Sky is Zeus or Oranous, Land is Demeter (or if you're going for a more aggressive name,.. I got nothing) and Core would be something like Hades or Prometheus

edited 7th Oct '14 11:36:03 PM by MorningStar1337

If you were going that route, Hephaestus(the blacksmith) would probably be best suited for Core, but then you got Zeus and Poseidon without Hades, and that would just make him mad. You could use him for an antagonistic being, but that fits less well than modern media would have you assume.

As a name for a group, don't dismiss elementals just because it's common. Being unique is important, but sometimes it's best to stick with what works.

Actually I was just looking for a group name, not individual ones.

Well, if you think Elementals is okay then I guess I can keep it.

Thanks everyone for your help.

If I knew how I know everything I know, I'd only be able to know half as much because my brain would be clogged up with where I know it from

I don't mean to discourage you from picking something more unique. I just meant that you shouldn't throw out the obvious choice just because it's obvious.