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

First, do note that a fictional substance's name isn't always indicative of its function; sometimes it describes its appearance instead, or pertains to its place of origin/fame. Sakuradite (from sakura, meaning "cherry blossom") from Code Geass is an example; it was first discovered in Britain in the Middle Ages, but became truly famous after Marco Polo travelled to Japan and found huge deposits of the material there. Properties of sakuradite include superconductivity, radioactivity, and extreme chemical instability (one tanker exploding can destroy an entire fleet), none of which are reflected in the material's name.

That being said, I suggest "megalium".

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:51:03 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Hm... with the prefix "mega-" I'm going to suggest "megalodonium".

Important question: Is this the official name, or the common term for it?

There's actually a scientific body responsible for confirming the discovery of new elements (The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, or IUPAC), which has a set of standards for what new elements can be named after: mythological figure or concept, geological place, scientist, elemental property, or mineral.

The team responsible for the discovery submits a name for approval, I'm given to understand. So given that you're dealing with something that creates Kaiju, I'm personally inclined to think it would be named after something mythological. I'd say Titanium if that didn't already exist... Maybe Jotunnite or Jotunnium?

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

Or it could have been named before the IUPAC became a thing

Or the universe could be one without the IUPAC or equivalent. Plenty of reasons, I was just suggesting it as a means of inspiration. Regardless of reasoning, I think Jotunnite is a fine name.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

The character Caine Dekeren is heavily metatextual, references a lot of material, and by and large is a Warhammer 40k fan.

His thing is he thinks he technically is several fictional villains, hence why he's evil - he is so insane he thinks villainy is his established character in something he calls the world script.

So, I need several Horus references that will basically leave the rest of the Five Bad Band kind of tilting their heads and wondering what the hell is going on in this loony's head.

Example; As Caine finished his oration of the day's battle plan, the Dark God Champions gave a collective tilt of the head. Reiji whispered, "I read that book...", while Antonius gave an exasperated and resigned sigh, "...Yes, Caine..."

edited 22nd Feb '17 7:38:27 PM by NickTheSwing

Sign on for this After The End Fantasy RP.

How to name a story where an "evil" salesman appears to people in a store made of straw to sell them evil knickknacks to make them learn something about themselves? I have been thinking of "Snake of the Straw Shop," but I wouldn't call him a snake exactly. I want something that sounds menacing but not totally evil.

I am the white void, I am et cetera, et cetera... THE END HAS COME!

Maybe the name of a bird? I mean, the store is a nest of sorts, and there are some birds that are associated with tricksters, like crows for example.

I need help coming up with a name for people that may or may not be magic-users, but have been touched by magic in a way that leaves them specially vulnerable to geas, charms and curses, and able to be harmed by objects or acts used to repel spirits and ghosts. People with this condition are also more likely to have mental disorders, age slower than non-mages, and can learn magic with greater ease than most.

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

Thanks Eterna! I love the bird idea. In reference to your question, maybe prentele? It's a mix of pre and entelechy(meaning the realization of full potential). Also maybe the "touched" or "stirred" since they were touched by magic, and because both words connote to being crazy.

edited 24th Feb '17 3:48:59 PM by LambentSoul

I am the white void, I am et cetera, et cetera... THE END HAS COME!

Thanks, those were very helpful suggestions.

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

So I'm developing a 'secondary' country for a setting—the story stays within a single city (More or less), but this secondary country is an ally that's sent a prince to establish political ties and possibly marry the future queen. I'm currently trying to solidify the name for this country.

This secondary country is fairly loosely based on Polynesian countries, with a bigger emphasis on the Maori side of things. It's sort of an Empire—the 'Main' island conquered the others quite a while in the past, but given that they're a series of fairly distant islands there's only so much rule that can ever really be imposed. Essentially, it's a series of disconnected nations that realized that they're stronger, politically and militarily, as a single entity, and recognize the original conqueror as the central authority. The islands are largely self-governing, but have free trade and military agreement and pay both tribute and tax to the main island.

I'm thinking of something like "Country of many Countries", which according to Google Docs translates into "Wenhua o wenhua maha", which is kind of a mouthful. "chief of countries" is also a possibility, which would be "Tino Wenhua", which is better, but doesn't feel quite there yet.

This is probably a bit of a longshot, but does anybody know enough about the Maori language to help mold those into something that feels smoother without carving up the language too badly? Alternatively, of course, does anyone have any other thoughts?

edited 25th Feb '17 2:37:51 AM by kegisak

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

what should be a good name for a plant based kaiju?

MIA

What kind of plant is it?

Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.

Okay, entering this with the little context you've provided, I've got... Biollante, Chlorofiend, Daijubokko(dai, meaning large, and jubokko, a vampiric tree yokai), Vileage(vile and foliage), and Mandragora(name of a genus of poisonous plants). More names pending depending on additional context you might be able to provide.

edited 25th Feb '17 10:41:14 AM by WillDeRegio

well, i'm aiming for a rose and tree, weed thingy.

MIA

I have a naming question, but it concerns anatomical/morphological terms for a fictional species and requires sufficient expertise with Latin and/or Greek. Would it be OK to ask here, or should I take it to the Biology thread or Medical thread?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Uh, try it wherever. Maaaaaybe not all at once. I could understand doing that, but some people might be bugged by it, so if you do wait until you get an answer. Or, wait until you don't get an answer.

@ewolf: Roseraze?

OK then. Consider centaurs, merfolk, driders/arachne, lamia/naga, and other half-human creatures with similar bodyplans (henceforth referred to as "centauromorphs"): They all have a legless human body (which may or may not include the pelvic region) attached to an animal body where its head would normally be^note This applies even to lamia/naga, because anatomically speaking, a snake's body is mostly an extremely lengthened thorax, with the actual tail only forming a small portion at the end..

So, this begs the question: How would the anatomical terminology work for a centauromorph? In each case, there would technically be two thoraxes; also, in the case of arachnid- or crustacean-based centauromorph, the animal body part that the human portion would be attached to is the cephalothorax (i.e. it's a head and a thorax in one).

This is even more important in the case of one particular fictional arthropod-based species that I'm working on, which has the following tagmata (both technical and common names are provided):

• Prosoma, AKA Forebody: The primarily (and only) humanlike portion of the body. A mostly human body sans legs and pelvis, though with extra appendages (both human and nonhuman).
• Mesosoma, AKA Midbody: The rough equivalent of an arachnid's and crustacean's cephalothorax as well as an insect's thorax/mesosoma. Bears the walking legs and other appendages (e.g. scorpion/lobster-style claws)... and a "secondary" set of mouthparts that are arthropodal in makeup and utterly terrifying when opened up (normally concealed behind spider-like chelicerae). But most importantly, it also contains the creature's primary brain (i.e. destroying the human head doesn't actually kill the creature; it only causes loss of any short-term memories that haven't been transferred to the main brain^note And if your wondering, yes, the creature can completely regenerate from even total loss of the prosoma, though it takes a lot of time spent in a cocoon.).
• Metasoma, AKA Hindbody: The equivalent of the abdomen in arachnids, crustaceans, and insects. Subdivided into the gaster (think spider's or ant's abdomen) and the urosome (cross between a scorpion's tail and a centipede's body).

For the time being, I'm referring to the human torso as the protruncus, or "foretrunk". Me being stumped on what to call the midbody's own trunk is what drove me to come here with this question.

edited 28th Feb '17 3:51:43 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to name.

Are the human-like upper body and the non-human-like lower body homologous or analogous among centauromorphs?

... It depends on whether I understand your question correctly. If you mean "Is the division of the body into a humanlike portion and a nonhuman-like one a case of homology across all centauromorphs, or is it a case of analogy (i.e. convergent evolution)?", then the answer would be that it's probably the former (homology) in a scenario where all centauromorphs evolved naturally from a common ancestor. That being said, any further specifics (e.g. my aforementioned made-up chimeric arthropod-based species that has two brains) would be determined by phylogenetic relationships; between some subgroups, certain traits would be analogous rather than homologous.

The alternative is an Intelligent Design scenario, where some being (divine or not) created the primogenitor specimens of each major group separately, meaning there were several common ancestors in the evolutionary tree of centauromorphic species.

edited 26th Feb '17 9:39:37 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I need a name for an organization of Space Pirates that sounds "natural" for what it is. For reference, they don't act like stereotypical pirates, and so should probably not have a name that would sound like one.

Author.

[Insert founder, homeworld, etc.] Trading & Salvage Enterprises. Or something similar.

edited 27th Feb '17 12:34:12 PM by WillDeRegio

Alternately you can go for a more "nautical" (or in this case inter planetary) name. Like maybe "Argo Navis", "Altair Transportation", "The Horsehead Network" or "[founder/homeworld] Transportation" like in the last post.

If they be the Pirate Booty-hunting sort, then Something like "The Archeologists of [homeworld]" might work, or something snowcloned from RL archeological organizations.

edited 27th Feb '17 12:39:05 PM by MorningStar1337

It just occurred to me that I didn't actually answer this about my question.

I'm trying to come up with plausible terms for duplicate body regions and parts between the humanlike and nonhumanlike halves of the whole body. Take Daily Life with Monster Girl's Arachne race, for example (NOTE: highly Ecchi manga/anime, thus some NSFW images); the terminology used is "first" and "second" with respect to the thorax and abdomen, which seems quite lackluster IMO. For one, anatomical terminology typically proceeds in a medial/proximal to lateral/distal direction with respect to the standard anatomical position, the only exception I know being the numerical order of the digits (it starts from the thumb, which in SAP is actually the most laterally positioned of the digits). For two, it gives preconceptions about the roles of each body region (especially their internal makeup) that may not even make sense biologically; why would a being have two thoraxes that are separated by an abdomen, with yet another abdomen coming after them all?

edited 28th Feb '17 4:06:42 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Hey, don't usually drop in here but working on a deadline for a story swap. I need some random fictional country/region names that are alien sounding. I'm doing political science fantasy and need some background filler. I'll take anything that sounds good while still being pronouncable in English.