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

The name is a bit obvious for a German speaker but it is legit.

Josef was a common name during the WW 2-era and Totenstein is the name of a mountain in Saxony.

While it is not uncommon to have a last-name after a local mountain, I could not find people called Totenstein IRL (well not having your character be named after a real-person could be seen as positive)

/@Ellen Van Zylle

Some more ideas: Vasíleio Oneíron, if you don't mind a direct translation. It sounds like a cool name in my opionion, so long as you don't know Greek.

Alternatively, Amantes Somnia. This has a few advantages, a) if you do have them be siblings, they can have a similar name / same surname (and you can invert the order of Somnia Imperii without losing any meaning, as order has no meaning in Latin sentence, other than perhaps emphasis or other rhetorical device; all meaning comes from the words themselves which are conjugated to their grammatical role). Additionally, while Somnia Imperii refers to the dream realm itself, but not any reference to love or lovers or soul mates; Amantes Somnia ("Lovers' Dream") does the latter, but has no mention of the place itself.

Another option: Aristophanes the Androgynous, again (double) referencing the Greek origin of the concept of soul-mates in the dream realm.

edited 30th Jun '16 12:13:48 AM by Sharur

Nihil assumpseris, sed omnia resolvere!

I am looking for a plausible name for a fatal illness or disorder (that doesn't have a cure, and no treatment, or at least not very effective treatment). I was going to use a real illness(specifically Cardiac Amyloidosis), but since the plot point it is used in involves discovering a cure for the disease/disorder, I had a second thought that it may offend those dying of such an illness, or those around them, and so it would be better to use a fictional one.

Nihil assumpseris, sed omnia resolvere!

Also avoids Science Marches On.

What exactly does the illness do? Which part of the body does it affect? What sort of setting is it? What country and era?

Thank you

Now known as Cibryll.

Well, good thing the story takes place in a fantasy world that doesn't resemble ours much, despite having analogues for various continents and nations/cultures.

How about "Fabian Totenstein"?

edited 30th Jun '16 7:33:26 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

There isn't anything wrong with "Josef", but "Fabian" is also a typical name in Germany, though it is a bit more associated with people in their 20-30's. "Josef" is more typical for people above 50.

edited 30th Jun '16 8:02:32 AM by Kiefen

Does "Maztencatlan" sound like a good name for a Fantasy Counterpart Culture that amalgamates the major Pre-Columbian American civilizations, though less as a single culture/civilization and more as a loose confederation of related cultures/civilizations that are considerably more similar to each other than their collective real-life inspirations?

edited 3rd Jul '16 7:34:01 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

@Hellomoto: The illness is essentially a McGuffin (or rather the cure is); the main character is a Science Hero Detective, who has an internal moral debate as to whether or not he should destroy the cure, and thus doom the people who suffer from the illness, or release the cure to the public which would validate the methods of his insane Mad Scientist Serial Killer Stalker with a Crush Rival, who could have interned under Mengele.

The other issue: Said rival sent him the cure via Sumerian cuneiform branded onto the backs of her victims/test subjects, along with her testing data, and a marriage proposal (said cure is intended to part of the dowry).

Nihil assumpseris, sed omnia resolvere!

If you wanna be cheeky about it, you could try Hell's Fury. If you are going for a scientific name I...don't know enough Latin to help you with that.

Also you never really described the diseases effects.

A modern retelling of Book of Esther

Up in Useful Notes/Paraguay

Atraxerxes for a Secondary Character Title, Haman for an Antagonist Title, Hadassah for something of a "cipher" (That was Esther's actual name), The Scrolls for...that being another way to refer to the book (shrugs)

edited 3rd Jul '16 11:17:31 PM by MorningStar1337

Thank you!

Up in Useful Notes/Paraguay

The Book of Esther: A Modern Retelling. Or The Book of Ester 2: The Sequel

So... I spent a long time thinking of a Fantastic Slur to be used in my Verse against people who don't fit the society's view of their gender, and I have for now settled on a word that could be translated^note as I write in portuguese, and used a made up word very close to a real one, this is actually the translation of the real word to birdling.

The reasoning behind this is that male birds are generally smaller and often more colourful than their female counterparts, something that would be even more obvious in this verse, because the main centers of polictics and economics are near the equator.

Not only that, but in this verse there is also a species of sapient birds with genders roles that are very different (but not diametrically opposite) from those of humanoid civilization, and also a reputation of being tricksters, liars and thiefs.

I want to know if I didn't do anything stupid, silly or offensive(out of world offensive, that is. In world it is supposed to be as offensive as "faggot") by accident, as it is supposed to be a serious work.

If it helps, it is going to be used mostly against those born as males.

edited 5th Jul '16 8:00:43 AM by EternaMemoria

"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."

You could use specific species of birds. Some species have the females fight over the males. Some have the males take care of the eggs and chicks. Some even have polyandry.

For a society familiar with such birds, it makes sense that they would refer to specific types of birds for specific types of insulting. Insulting a man for dressing 'flamboyantly' is different from insulting a man for staying at home and taking care of the kids.

Which part of the world do the people live in? Bird species differ from region to region.

The slurs could be flipped to insult females for, say, going out to work and making her husband stay at home.

I myself am not well versed in birds, but you could do the research.

edited 5th Jul '16 7:18:14 PM by hellomoto

Suppose that the Saxons had become the dominant cultural group in Britain instead of the Angles after the Anglo-Saxon invasion; what name would the real-life England would've had, derived from the name of the Saxons? "Saxland"? "Saxony"? "Nessex" (as a Sussex/Wessex/Essex-style contraction of Old English Nēoweseaxna, lit. "New Saxony")? Something else?

edited 6th Jul '16 6:07:51 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Considering "Angles" evolved into England, my guess is that a name derived from "Saxons" would be "Sexland"... which is my kind of place.

But seriously. Either Saxland or Saxony would make the most sense.

edited 6th Jul '16 11:52:14 PM by peasant

Well, "Saxony" has the problem of confusion with the original Saxony on the mainland (modern Lower Saxony, aka "Old Saxony" at the time); that's the reason why the British "Saxonies" were all named according to where they are on said island — "West Saxony" (modern Wessex), "East Saxony" (modern Essex), and "South Saxony" (modern Sussex). All together, they were apparently called "New Saxony", hence my proposed neologism "Nessex".

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I'm not sure if they were ever referred by anyone - at least not at the time - as "New Saxony" since they were never really a united/combined political entity on their own. At best, they are sometimes referred to as the Heptarchy (aka The Seven Kingdoms though again this wasn't used at the time and included the Angle kingdoms.

As for it being confused with the German state of Saxony, one place already having a name has never prevented another from using it as well - e.g. see Georgia and Georgia.

But like I said, Saxland probably makes the most sense as an alternative to England.

Guys I need help figuring the name of a fictional pop idol band for a story idea of mine. What I'm looking for is something that has to do with stars, sparkles, gemstones, and inspiring hope in people.The closet I got is ruby and the starbritez.

edited 9th Jul '16 6:52:21 PM by ewolf2015

MIA

"The Diamond Stars", perhaps?

edited 9th Jul '16 7:18:02 AM by ArsThaumaturgis

My Games & Writing

Cosmic☆Sunshine.

Hmmm....I don't know.

MIA

Need a name for a swarm of von Neumann probes that are devouring the galaxy. They're not intelligent enough to name themselves, and their creators are dead. I seriously can't think of anything better than the Silver Horde, which just doesn't feel right.