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

So I'm trying to name a couple of religions for a story, one of which the main character practices, and the other which is practiced by a minority group within the setting.

The first religion, practiced mainly by humans:

• there are two deities: Vikassi, the goddess of soil, plants, and growth (meaning both the growth of vegetation, people growing up, and emotional/physical/skill improvement), and Salaee, the god of water, teaching and destiny (Primarily Life and Death, but also the course of life in general). They're viewed as inextricably related and essential for life.
• Their creation myth involves Vikassi growing all of the world's plants, one of which grew into the first human beings
• It's basically a thinly-veiled sexual metaphor. Vikaasi and Salaee are very clearly fertility deities that are gradually taking on new meaning
• Sex is still involved in certain church practices but the religion has mostly moved away from that towards plant worship. The religion is heavily influenced by the swamp the people who practice it live in, which is the only arable land surrounded by massive, hostile deserts.
• Regular rituals involve prayer before meals, dusting hands in soil and washing them off, and ritual bathing (Which involves coating oneself in mud, scraping it off, and then bathing to clean off the excess)
• There are two main sects, one dedicated to Vikassi and one to Salaee. They still respect one another as equals, but focus on one deity over the other.
• There are several smaller sects that focus less on the deities and more on various elements of nature; these sects tend to consider the plant that became humans as sacred as well. Opinions on what the plant was vary from Banyan, to Mangrove, to Swamp Lilly.
• The philosophy of the religion places a large emphasis on how precarious nature is, and how difficult it is to survive, and how things need to work together with one another. More conservative interpretations all but state that without Vikaasi and Salaee actively work to keep things in order the world would fall apart. very conservative interpretations point to the deserts (Where the second religion originates from) as evidence of this.
• Humans are able to perform magic by praying to Vikaasi, using a special language of hand gestures and movements.
• They believe in reincarnation via the water cycle: Bodies are inhumed to the ocean, where their essence mixes with the water and returns to land through rain. Though only the most die-hard will encourage a pregnant woman to stand outside during a monsoon, most consider just being near the rain enough.

The second religion is practiced purely by dragons, who formed a trade agreement with the humans in the last 100 years:

• They have one main deity, named Star Mother. Star Mother was said to be the first living thing in the universe, who made all other things.
• Star Mother's first three children are also viewed in high regard, but are not necessarily worshiped. They're seen more as mythological heroes, the progenitors of the dragon race. These three dragons are Ko-Kenoch, Tor-Tahra, and Sal-Supin.
• Star-Mother had a fourth child after the rest, who was named Ban-Belii. Her name was later changed to Bek-Belii, and she's an evil figure known for her greed and deception.
• A heavy portion of the religion is made of Just So Stories. Star-Mother made the world as a gift for her children, the first three siblings lay in a circle around the dragon's homeland, making the two large mountains and coral reef that surround the desert, Ban-Belii become the small, second moon after her banishment, etc.
• Religious stories are mainly told through song and ritual dances. This are mainly done by a single dragon using their natural shapeshifting magic, but during large festivals will be performed by a collection of dragons. Stories are told every six nights, and are the main ritual of the religion.
• In addition, crafstmanship is a sacred art in the religion, seen as reminiscent of Star-Mother's creation of the world. Jewelry is most common, as the nomadic lifestyle of most dragons doesn't allow for much else. Gold, Sandstone and Azurite are seen as sacred materials, but anything can be used.
• Gift-giving is also important. During festivals gifts are made and offered to Star-Mother (Being left on the stones of the mountains at the end of the desert), and mothers give their children a piece of jewelry.
• With the exception of something an individual has made themselves, or been given as a gift, the religion considers is impossible to own something, as the entire world was made for all dragons. Craftsmanship is the exception to this because it results in something new, that Star-Mother did not include in her original gift.
• The philosophy of the religion encourages nobility, self-reliance, pride and kindness, "To freely offer help but never require it". The ultimate personal goal of practitioners is to be someone that would make Star-Mother proud. This is typically for the sake of personal happiness, but some older stories hold that if Star-Mother is no longer proud of dragons, her light will go out, and the world will freeze and die.
• Conservative dragons take the notion that the world was made for dragons very seriously, to the point of xenophobia. Very conservative groups hold that, by claiming borders as their own, humans are attempting to steal Star-Mother's gift to dragons.
• The nature of death isn't commonly thought about in dragon society, as the children live separately from adults, but it's believed dragons who make Star-Mother proud go on to become stars, allowed to look down on the world until they decide to return, if they ever do.

Sorry if it's a bit of a wall, there, but to summarize: The human religion to a two-deity religion with elements of a fertility cult and nature worship, emphasizing balance and connectedness in nature, and the dragon religion is monotheistic with elements of holy craftsmanship and ancestor worship, and an emphasis on personal spirituality and excellence.

As an additional point, the human religion was largely founded ~1000 years ago when they arrived in their current country, and is most likely modified from another religion, while the dragon religion has existed pretty much since the dawn of their civilization but has only been recorded through oral tradition and rough pictographs and has therefore shifted gradually over the centuries. In relation to the true cosmology of the setting neither one is definitively correct, but they both brush up against the truth. If that makes any difference.

edited 3rd Jul '17 5:15:52 AM by kegisak

I need a name for a Forever War to be used one of the belligerent factions, whose primary reason behind waging said war is to Rape, Pillage, and Burn on a galactic scale.

Drawing upon real life, most religions I know of take their name from a prophet/messiah figure that is held to be the first individual to preach the religion, or named after the Top God of the pantheon (or sole god, for monotheistic religions); examples include Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism. Others are named after a general principle or phrase that broadly describes the religion; examples include Islam (the name is an Arabic word that means "submission", i.e. "submission to Allah's authority") and Shintou (the name literally means "Way of the Gods" or "Divine Way" in Japanese).

However, I can't figure how to apply either of those two options to your religions since the relevant information is lacking.

edited 5th Jul '17 7:36:32 AM by MarqFJA

Marq FJA has a really good point in that important religious figures often lend their names to faith. It may also come from the name of people who practice said religion - for example, "Hindu" comes from Persian word for people who lived near the Indus river. As such, your religions may be called "humanism" or "draconism", or something like this.

You could call the human religion something like "Vikasalaism" (a portmanteou of the two gods), with the two sects being called Vikasi Vikasalaism and Salaee Vikasalaism, but this sounds a bit awkward to say out loud. The dragon religion could be called after the stars, like Stellism, or Astraism, or whatever word the dragons use for "star".

Hmm... that's a good point for the dragons. I don't have much of their language developed, but 'Star' would be a good basis for it. I'll just have to invent a word.

As for Vikasalism... it's a good idea, but the country it's practiced in is already named Vikaasthan and situation around the Salaee river, so I don't want to lean on their names too much for naming conventions. I'm also iffy about going with the idea of a prophet since the religions are true, if incorrect, so I'd envisioned them as being known and gradually changed for centuries rather than having any significant prophets.

I think I'll probably go for a philosophical naming convention—something to do with blooming, maybe—both of the deities have some emphasis on growth and nurturing in addition to the nature elements—or something to do with the idea of balance and harmony.

Thanks for the advice!

I don't see how a religion being true precludes the existence of a prophet, whether the religion started with the prophet preaching it to people, or the people were already worshipping the deity and said deity chose one particularly pious worshipper to become a prophet who would receive the divine revelations (including edicts about what forms of worship are acceptable and what forms are not; maybe the deity wants to prevent the worshippers from attempting Human Sacrifices, for example) and serve as a paragon for the rest to emulate.

Well, that's a fair point. Especially given that the human religion is derived from an earlier religion (Hence why they have two divine entities rather than the draconic five).

It's less that it's a thing I don't think would happen, and more a thing I don't want to do. There'll be a scene later on where Star Mother and Salaee/Sal-Supin appear, so I want to give the sense that neither religion is necessarily more right than the other. Part of that will be making it clear that neither entities are quite what their respective cultures interpreted them as, but another portion of it, to my mind, is creating the sense that each have simply drifted over time rather than being deliberately re-interpreted in any significant way.

I need help naming my solar system / fiction verse. It consists of four small, habitable and vaguely earth-like planets themed after classical elements that orbit around the star Lucidum. Each of them are populated by humanoid races that are descended from the same species of humans but over time developed their own unique traits and cultures. Neither of these races have yet to interact with each other due to lacking the resources or interest for space travel. Here are the planets in order of increasing distance from the star:

• Pyr (fire, might take inspiration from Venus and/or Mars)
• Giinos (literally a carbon copy of Earth with superficial differences, becomes increasingly Cyberpunk)
• Caeleste (air, envisioned as a fantasy setting with low gravity)
• Maris (water, a mostly ocean planet save for 2-3 continents and many islands)

Magic exists in these worlds in varying degrees. In fact, the solar system itself is under the control of three omniscient and omnipotent deities that are actually aliens from a distant galaxy.

edited 14th Jul '17 10:33:16 AM by LegitimateIdiot

• Well, if your going for hard scientific (with magic and everything...ok not "hard" but...) it'd probably could be called the Lucidumite System, like "Solar System."
• "Esarra" is old Akkadian "House of the Universe."
• An egopolis after a Big Bad.
• Something involving the cardinal directions. The four planets made me think of the old Sumerian/Akkadian (I can't remember which) "King of Four Quarters."

edited 14th Jul '17 6:23:53 PM by CenturyEye

Why don't you call it the Ginga.

I need some names for my Maranatha stories.

• Place name for a southern garden of the Maranatha Castle meant for the first Empress Consort to remind her of her hometown, Los Angeles.
• A name for a ancient Weapon of Mass Destruction meant for Rem's destruction. Its name should be epic or biblical.
• An artifact containing all the memories of the human race before the Great Holocaust held by the main antagonist.
• A name for a organization that controls Rem. It is a Well-Intentioned Extremist group which wants freedom from the mountain. Morningstar or MASTEMA or other?
• A name for a Forbidden Zone mountain which Theriomorphs are not allowed.

I got nothing on the first one... For the WMD, something related to Judgment or Exodus seems like it would be appropriate (or perhaps a permutation of, like the Yu-Gi-Oh game-ending summon Exodia), whereas for the artifact, the first thing I thought of was something like Homunculus, as one meaning of the word is a complete yet unborn human being. The last two... I feel it'll depend on what exactly is on the mountain that the organization wants to be free of. From what little I could gather of your Theriomorphs, it sounds like they are the spawn of the Big Bad, but then again your hero is one, so it's not exactly clear... Maybe the mountain could have a name suggesting preservation of the natural order of things?

Meanwhile, I'm trying to come up with a name for a sword used by a character in my Gaslamp Fantasy story. The character in question, Friedrich, is a living porcelain doll born in a Death World, who is made up of many pieces of broken dolls glued together with Blood Magic... essentially Frankenstein's doll. The sword in question is actually a letter-opener that looks like a mini-sword (with a blue sheath and a small black skull on the hilt), so the blade is dull by itself. However, Friedrich is capable of summoning and manipulating shadows that drain life and trap souls. Thus, although the sword mainly functions more like a Magic Wand, it can sharpen into a rapier-like blade of Pure Energy (pure shadow, rather), and its stab has the potential to be a Touch of Death or at least Make Them Rot. The sword was given to him by his creator (Sinistrina, who is a necromancer) as a tool to help him focus his magic, and was previously just an ordinary letter opener sitting unused in a drawer of the study of their house.

I had been toying around with a few names, but the best I've come up with so far were Deliverance (a play on words, since it's a letter opener, and letters are delivered) and Totenschade (German for "deathshadow", an apt descriptor for the type of magic he uses - plus it matches the doll's name which is also German in origin). But it's still hard to decide, and I'm open to other ideas too. Importantly, though, both Friedrich and Sinistrina are the heroes of the story (and not really Anti-Hero except purely in terms of powers), so an evil-oriented name (e.g. something based off of "doom" or "Hell") probably won't work very well.

edited 17th Jul '17 9:50:01 PM by ladytanuki

Doom's Herald.

Now, bear with me, I know you said no Doomy Dooms of Doom, but the word started meaning "fate", and while very often people speak of fate with dark implications, the word isn't related to evil on itself. Plus, from a brief search I've found in /www.etymonline.com that the sufix "dom", from words like "freedom" or "kingdom", comes from Old English dom, meaning "law" or "judgment", and that "doom" comes from the same word.

So "Fate's Herald", or "Judgment's Herald". Now, I don't know if that fits the character well, as "Fate", "Judgment" and "Herald" imply duty, service and law. If you want something with a meaning more related to freedom or wit, I suggest Raven's Beak.

Considering the sword's powers, I suggest The Reaper or its synonym The Harvester, which has less negative connotations.

If you're feeling risky, you could use a name so over-the-top evil and vulgar sounding that nobody would take it seriously, 'The Fuckslayer'.

For the first one, how about going with the obvious, "Hollywood"?

edited 16th Jul '17 9:25:52 AM by Millership

4x Totenschade would translate to "Bummer of the dead", deathshadow would be "Todesschatten"

edited 16th Jul '17 11:42:59 AM by Kiefen

Schienbeinmesser, most likely means "shin knife". Schattenstich - "shadow sting".

Better yet, just call it Sting.

edited 16th Jul '17 2:24:11 PM by WillDeRegio

Well... this is awkward. Three of the four people who have replied to me have seen this character (or at least his creator) in the Character Development Threads, and thus know exactly who I'm talking about. But for the sake of this thread I won't mention any names. (EDIT: I will.)

You bring up a good point, and the duty thing definitely applies to Friedrich as he is quite subservient to Sinistrina and his free will and personality is... hollow, to say the least (so Raven's Beak wouldn't work). However, he isn't really about law - his alignment is officially Chaotic Good. Doom's Herald sounds a bit too epic, as the sword is a repurposed letter opener and that name makes it sound like an ancient artifact of some sort... though the epicness makes a surprising amount of sense given a piece of backstory I don't want to spoil. I'll consider it, but I think it sounds better switched around as the Herald of Doom.

The Fuckslayer? No, just... no. The characters in question may both wield Black Magic, but they act too proper-like to give it a name like that. (Though I have to admit, it's funny that you mentioned something from a Harry Potter fanfic, as there are a few notable parallels between Friedrich and Harry... and Sinistrina and Voldemort as well.) Reaper/Harvester does make sense given the shadows' soul-stealing nature (especially with the fact that a necromancer gave it to him), but I'm not sure it fits for a sword, especially one used more for stabbing than slashing. The name would imply a scythe since it'll make people instantly think of The Grim Reaper or farming. Still though, there is the fact that the word Reaper looks (and sounds, if you want to butcher the French pronunciation) like Rapier makes it hilariously appropriate. It is kind of plain though, so I dunno, unless I give it a name like "The ___ Reaper" as a play on Death.

Whoops, I must've been thinking of the wrong language. I like the sound of Totenschatten, it's a nice rhymey name. I might consider it.

Sting? The reference does make sense given the sword's powers, but I'm quite sure I would be accused of ripping off of The Hobbit/LOTR if I called it that. So no.

edited 17th Jul '17 9:51:44 PM by ladytanuki

"Totenschatten" would be "Shadow of the dead",

"Todesschatten" would be "Shadow of the Death"

In German Death is spelled "der Tod" while "to be dead" is "tot" as such people who are dead are "die Toten"

Actually that distinction makes the name "Totenschatten" even more appropriate, as the Death World he was born into is also a mass grave of sorts for people in the kingdom the story takes place in who were executed. And though the shadows he conjures do bring about death in the general sense, it also fits because he acts acts as a representative for these people, who have been re-animated as Voodoo Zombies... and technically speaking, he is undead himself, as he was reconstructed from pieces of what are essentially dead dolls (as in, they had been brought to life then died).

How about something vampire-related? Lamia's Fang or Bruxa's Fang, for example? "Bruxa" or "bruja" also means "witch" in Spanish, for bonus points.

Other possible names:

• Spider Fang
• Black Widow
• Shadowbrand

Okay you know what, screw it, I'm mentioning names. I'm getting tired of using generic terms. So I edited my previous posts to include such.

Sinistrina has been mistaken for a vampire far too many times, so there's absolutely no way she'd suggest a vampire-based name for the sword. Otherwise I would definitely have considered something vampiric. Though now that you mention it, if Friedrich decides to call it such anyway in a sort of defiance, something like that could work.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Sinistrina has a thing for spiders, didn't I? Well that's just it - it's more her thing than Friedrich's, so I don't think a spider-based name would work. I do like Shadowbrand though. I'll definitely consider it.

Okay, so so far the most promising names in the running are Shadowbrand, Totenschatten, (Something) Reaper, and Herald of Doom. Thanks everyone - you've given me some good ideas.

edited 17th Jul '17 10:06:28 PM by ladytanuki

I guess while we're on the topic of naming magical weapons, I'm looking for one for my own. The weapon in question is one that can morph into any size or shape the user wants (although its default shape is that of a 3-foot long sword). The user can also pull metal constructs out of the weapon (and put them back in) as needed, essentially acting as a very specific Hammerspace. I'd like the name to be either in English or Greek, although I have a preference for the former. The setting is a Heroic Fantasy, and the hero himself is naming the sword in-universe based on the above information.

Ignore this post if I'm breaking some sort of queue.

edited 18th Jul '17 9:41:13 AM by Elfhunter

"Ironmold" comes to mind, given its shape changing and construct abilities. Maybe Ferromold if you want to get a bit fancier with it.

edited 29th Jul '17 6:58:16 AM by sgamer82

Still no feedback on this question?

The War to Take All? Or, perhaps to make it more simple, "The Conquest"?

edited 29th Jul '17 8:16:16 AM by sgamer82

How about something with "Our Due"?