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

My gaming group is planning a setting that's strongly inspired by Spirit Of The Century and Tom Strong. Much like Tom, the characters are essentially pulp heroes who've managed to survive to the modern era for various reasons. For some unknown reason (i.e., just 'cause we wanted to), they all share a common birthday: January 2, 1903 (1st month, 2nd day, 3rd year). We were inspired by Warren Ellis' "Century Babies" from Planetary: the idea that this special date meant that the children born on that day were destined for greatness. And odds are strongly implied in-universe that, back in 2003, a new generation of soon-to-be heroes have been born.

Thing is, we can't come up for a name for individuals that share this birthdate. Any recommendations?

I'll try, john, warren, mark, alec, and Matthew.. That's what I got really.

I'm inclined to something related to the word "century". "Centennials", perhaps, or a slightly more prosaic "Guardians of the Century"? A slightly punny option might be "Centurions".

Though they weren't officially born with the century, I think "Centennials" could work. Thanks.

Random thought, the "Jantri", or "Jantrie" for pronunciations sake, as the word is a play on "Gentry",

Hi guys, so I'm looking for a name opposite of the great yonder which is basically the spirit world. The other world is the material plane.

'Cause we are living in a "material world"? Or just the Universe if that's where the narrator or protagonist are from. Is it essentially the same as the RL physical universe?

I have a race of giant aliens whose biology requires them to acquire roughly human-sized individuals as their lifemates, with the process involving housing said lifemate inside the alien's body 24/7, where they'll be attended to by homuncular avatars of said alien^note that is, miniature versions of them that they sort of "remotely" control (they prefer maintaining a physical connection, but are capable of telepathically controlling them in absence of such a link).. The aliens use a lot of Floral Theme Naming; for example, the lifemate's "house" within the alien is called anthos (Greek for "flower"), while the avatars are called either stamen (if masculine) or pistil (if feminine)... and each member of this alien race is normally capable of generating both kinds of avatar, reflecting how the majority of flowering plants are hermaphroditic in one way or the other ^note the flowers could be unisex but both sexes coexist on the same plant, or they could be truly bisexual.

What I'm missing is a word for the lifemate that could fit the Floral Theme Naming.

They legit sound like they would be bees. Apoidea is the superfamily for bees, so you could call the lifemates either bees or apoideans...? Or anything else that's a pollinator.

edited 23rd Jan '18 11:11:34 AM by WaterBlap

... Nah, bees travel between flowers and transport pollen from one flower to another, not associating with any particular flower over any others. The aliens' lifemates, on the other hand, are paired with their respective aliens for life; the analogy is not even superficially valid, IMO.

That said, I'd rather reserve "pollen" for some byproduct of the aliens' physiology... Eureka! Perhaps something that they can produce only after bonding to a lifemate, is exchanged between individual aliens (similar to actual pollination), and is vital for their species' continued existence (e.g. the only way for more of the aliens to be reproduced).

edited 23rd Jan '18 3:03:31 PM by MarqFJA

Since an analogy is a "resemblance in some partiuclars between things otherwise unlike" I'd have to disagree.

But it's your work and you asked.

And I'm sincerely grateful that you took the time to give an answer. In fact, I'm not sure if I wouldn't have hit upon how to use "pollen" as a term if you hadn't gotten my brain's gears moving in that direction.

Different question on a completely unrelated topic: I need names that clearly distinguish between the following terms, which designate different classes of "mental aspects" (which itself is a provisional term for which I'm seeking a better alternative) in a Soul Anatomy model that I'm developing for use in some of my stories. All names are placeholders for hypothetical characters.

Class 1 aspects are essentially a specific subset of the person's totality of psychological traits that are closely tied to each other within the workings of said person's mind, such that in a Journey to the Center of the Mind you'd find said subset represented by a single avatar. These are rarely the same subsets from one random person to another; the scientist Albert' may have pride and intellectuality closely tied together, while the anti-intellectual soldier Bruce may have pride closely tied to his warrior spirit instead.
Class 1 aspects can serve a role similar to the psychological concept of personae; the normally shy, soft-spoken and well-mannered computer geek Claire, for example, undergoes a drastic personality shift when she starts playing in a Dungeons & Dragons session, becoming so aggressive, assertive and even foul-mouthed that other players have a hard time believing she's the same person as the librarian they're more used to outside their game sessions. It's like a switch is automatically flipped when she's in the game; she may be aware of the personality shift after the fact, and may even learn how to "pull the trigger" on purpose, but it would take a lot of mental training and self-discovery to accomplish.
In trope terms, this is mainly a case of Ghost in the Machine, with shades of downplayed Split Personality at its most extreme.

Class 2 aspects represent the person's "images" of himself, other people, fictional characters, and/or more abstract concepts, reflecting the person's memories of the images' subjects filtered through the lens of the person's own beliefs and biases. In other words, whereas class 1 aspects are internal in origin and influenced by external experiences, class 2 aspects are a product of external experiences that are influenced by factors internal to the person's personality. Such aspects often play the role of Spirit Advisor in one form or the other; an aspect based on one's gentle mother may try to encourage the person with kindness and optimism, while an aspect based on a Stern Teacher they had once been taught by may harshly criticize the person over their failure and challenge them to stand up again under their own power. Again, in trope terminology, this is squarely a form of Ghost in the Machine, but unlike class 1 aspects, there's little to no Split Personality-ness in them... unless they somehow become a class 3 aspect.

Class 3 aspects are what one usually thinks of when the term Split Personality comes up: What amounts to having two or more full-fledged minds coexisting within the same psyche/soul, regardless of whether the person was born/conceived like that (a la Ryougi Shiki) or had acquired the condition due to some external factor, such as suffering a psychological trauma (e.g. Harvey Dent) or deliberate creation (e.g. Grant Morrison's Batman).
Class 3 aspects tend to have been originally class 1 or 2 aspects, or trace their origins to at least one such aspect. In the latter case, the class 1 or 2 aspects would still exist independently of the class 3 aspect that was "born" from them.

PS: I specifically want to avoid using such terms as "split/multiple personality" or "sub-mind", as they carry unwanted implications and inherently cause confusion with established definitions.

• In the case of "split/multiple personality": The common usage of "split/multiple personality" (as a de facto extra mind within one's overall psyche) does not really fit the common definition of "personality" (as the collection of one's behavioral traits), for example.
• In the case of "sub-mind": The term inherently implies that the aspect is there's always a single mind, with the Split Personality being a sub-entity within said mind. That only holds true for the Downplayed Trope version of Split Personality, where the condition is basically a drastic shift from one personality (that is, set of behavioral traits) to a completely different one; typical examples of the trope, on the other hand, are essentially separate minds within a single soul, whether it's implicit or explicit.

edited 25th Jan '18 11:21:51 AM by MarqFJA

For Class 2, perhaps "shadows": images cast by an external source, and distorted by the process and the surface on which they fall.

@ewolf: "The Great Yonder" suggests that it's "over there"—so perhaps the material world might be the "Here and Now"?

i'm looking for a name for the era that could possibly follow the holocene era?

Cenocene?

Work may have been boring today, but I still had an idea for an interesting name. I thought of Princess Lily, Ashur, Anne-Marie, and eventually Clara forming a subgroup within the Champions of the Light. Their connection is that they've all learned their most powerful spells: Lily's phoenix, Ashur's wolf, Anne-Marie's unicorn, and Clara's netherworld dragon. What do you all think of this name for their subgroup: "the Platinum Circle"?

The Anthropocene is a proposed epoch that would follow the Holocene. Proposals on when it should start have ranged from the dawn of agriculture (8,000 years ago) to the first Industrial Revolution (early/mid 1700s). While the epochs before literally translate to "entirely new" (Holocene), "most new" (Pleistocene), and "more new" (Pliocene), the Anthropocene's name refers to the influence that humans have had on the biosphere and general state of the planet.

So you could just use that, but if you're concerned about dating your work on the off-chance that the scientific community chooses to go with another name, I would look at whatever characteristic is distinguishing this new epoch in your setting, find an ancient Greek word or prefix that aptly covers this characteristic, and go from there.

I need some terminology for my Maranatha novel.

• A colloquial term for a reptile Theriomorph used by young kids, originally was a extremely offensive term for a reptile Theriomorph.
• A secret operation by the Imperial Regime to activate HORUS, a fire from heaven and use the airship fleet to destroy Rem to the ground.
• A backronym for HORUS, a fire from heaven. An ancient superweapon from 3000 years ago, built by the United States to collect solar energy to be used as a weapon.

• Are these reptile-shaped statues animate? I don't quite understand without more context, since theriomorph is a normal word. If they are animate vases shaped like reptiles, then I'd suggest replacing the word "vase" with some other kind of container. It's dumb and silly but that's something kids would find offensive and funny, like "pot" or "bucket."
• If it's a secret operation, it should be named anything that doesn't reference what it is (think "Operation Paper Clip" from RL), or a euphemism. Maybe Operation Showers or Operation Daylight? It could also be something that references pop-culture or their cultural history, which you're on your own for (sorry, not enough context).
• If you're just looking for a backronym, you could look for "backronym generators" like this one. I'd suggest Head Operation for the Resettlement of Unoccupied States where "resettlement" is a Deadly Euphemism and "unoccupied states" being code for "nations we consider to be unoccupied."

If memory serves about what they've previously posted about it in Writer's Block, Huthman's story, "theriomorph" basically means Our Werebeasts Are Different.

On that subject, the best racial slur I can come up with on the spot is "scaly," which is admittedly stolen from Dinotopia. I'll admit it's not the most creative slur even if I did come up with it on my own, but then again, Huth did say it's supposed to be commonly used by small children, and let's face it, bigots aren't exactly known for being clever with their appellations anyway.

1) I need a good name for the 317th as a group or generation - they are basically teenagers and young adults who, in absence of anyone else able to step up, became magic using super soldiers...and after the war are having understandable difficulty incorporating back into society. All lived in one large California town and are affiliated with the same high school, Mc Kinley Central High.

They've shall we say seen things in the war and fought both humans and horrifying abominations.

2) I need a catchy scandal name for the heavily implied support and aid the Trump Administration gave to the villains. For reference the most that is known is shady transactions happened at a place called Keenwind Hill Base.

Ah, I getcha.

If not "scaly" then maybe "lizard" or some other well-known reptile ("salamander" or "crocodile" aren't as easy to say), like how many people lump, say, Asian-Americans as "Chinese" when there's any number of countries they could have come from.

Well, the generations during the Great War are sometimes known as the Lost Generation (born 1890-1915), the G.I. Generation (1901-1924), the Interbellum Generation (1901-1913), the Greatest Generation (1910-1924), and the Silent Generation (1925-1945). It sounds like these characters would be reminiscent of the G.I. Generation ("Government Issue" or "General Issue" Generation), since they fought in the war effort and the war you mentioned seems to be over.

Hi! I'm looking for names for an annoying telepathic teenager who often spills the beans on people's thoughts and also a ghost boy in his mid 20's. Suggestions would be appreciated!

For people, I'd suggest starting with their cultures and the nations where they come from. I suggest looking the web resource behindthename to search by country or language.

Are you thinking superhero style nickname or a real name? Because got the former "Filter" has a certain irony to it.