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

You're welcome! Glad I could help! ^_^

Besides, I got "zomborg" out of it. I'll have to keep that one for later!

Zombie cyborg?

Precisely.

I need a name for two things:

A) A nickname for a squad. The setting is WWII and the squad are a badass crew, but they don't really look like a badass crew. When of leave they stay out of trouble and keep to themselves. I originally decided they would be 'The Mongooses', what with mongooses looking ugly cute, but also they hunt venomous snakes. Mongooses sounds silly, though.

B) An American city in a neo-Noir story. The city has an upper-class Irish mob family as its unofficial royalty.

For B, maybe New Dublin?

For (a)... well, mongeese (?) are descended from the clade known as the Viverravines, which sounds awesome but doesn't really roll off the tongue... They're also known as ichneumon. Hyaenas are a related genus.

Mustelids - the family of weasels, skunks, wolverines, etc - have similar associations. Hogbadgers and polecats are lesser-known but neat-sounding members.

The Secretary bird is another ugly-awesome-carnivore, but unfortunately doesn't have a very cool name either unless you go into its etymology a bit (it's a corruption of the Arabic saqr-et-tair "hunter bird").

For (b), the various names that start with the Kil- prefix stand out somewhat. Kilgevrin, maybe?

edited 9th Jan '11 8:43:45 PM by Noaqiyeum

Hey everyone,

I need a name: I've just added a Magical Girl style character but her name is at a loss to me. Her brother is called Therro Andomon; they are both sorcerers but while he hates it she thinks it's the best thing ever.

She dresses kinda trashy but it's all bark; she will most likely be a platinum blonde or a redhead. Will be somewhere between a Genki Girl and a Manic Pixie Girl: used to be one of the foils of the cool, collected, and callous Dark Action Girl Alex.

Input is welcomed!

What's a good name for a female criminal? She's the lover of and unofficial consigliere to the main antagonist (kind of a Bonnie And Clyde type of deal). She's fiery, aggressive, and sarcastic, complementing the antagonist's cold, logical nature. It's heavily implied that they have a genuinely loving relationship, serving as a humanizing element for the antagonist (who's something of a borderline Anti-Villain). She'll probably have a bit of a punk rock streak to her.

Bonnie?

Angelica.

Hmm Angelica seems a bit sophisticated and wordy, I was thinking more something brief and punchy.

Becky, Becca.

Maud?

I always liked the idea of using the name Lauren Mc Call for a character similar to the one yo described.

One of those might work, actually. Thanks.

edited 10th Jan '11 12:04:26 PM by tilitzd

I'm thinking of naming my city Dunkirk. What do do you all think?

Dunkirk sounds right to me, but I'm no linguist.

This is less of a naming thing and more of my indecision, but I'm stuck between two ideas for naming a painting. It's a post-apocalyptic scene of a young man, face hidden by a gas mask, standing alone in a landfill. Originally I wanted to name it for the music that inspired it, the Gorillaz song "O Green World." I can't think of a better name, but the more I think about it, the more hesitant I am to borrow the title from someone else.

Dunkirk sounds good.

I have in my setting four (actually, three by now, because one of them died out) beings that are best described as Hive Minds consisting of ordinary humans who have a spiritual parasite latched onto their souls. Most of them are unaware of this, but the parasite utilizes the unused portions of their brain as free processing power for the hive mind. The few who are aware of it, act as hubs for the hive mind, pursuing its respective agenda and generally maintaining The Masquerade.

So now I am having trouble coming up with:

• A name/descriptor used by hive minds for each other
• A name/descriptor used by nodes of a particular hive mind for each other
• A name/descriptor used by outsiders who know of the hive minds' existence for them and their nodes

If you need more information than that, ask me, I will tell as much as I can without revealing the plot...

Regarding the outsiders, how negatively do they view the hive minds? Parasites? Equals? It's hard to know what they'd call them otherwise.

Well, most of the humans in the setting are not even aware of their existence. The global (also secret) magocracy is aware of something interfering with their designs but they only suspect that the nodes might be mentally linked. Of important note is perhaps that the parasites tend to infest scientists, engineers, and inventors (which the reason behind many, many so-called "simultaneous but independent" discoveries in the history of science). So, for a very careful outsider, it often looks like prominent scientists suddenly start acting as if they were perfectly aware of other's actions without ever contacting each other in any way.

Hmm. I don't know, maybe they would just call them 'parasites'? Sorry, I'm hopeless at names.

1. I really dont know to be honest. 2. The Wave? Short for Brain-waves. Also a play on the Web. 3. The Informed?

Are these beings and those who know of their existance benevolent?

I've developed something of a "proto-martial art" and I don't know what to call it. In universe, it's meant to be the progenitor of all forms of eastern martial art techniques. When used by an accomplished practioner, it's meant to amplify the Artist's speed, strength, endurance to Charles Atlas proportions. Think Iron Fist, but with out the glowy stuff.

edited 15th Jan '11 8:04:50 AM by AtomJames

Thing is, they are not the only parasites in the setting, but the only ones who combine into a hive mind. -__-

@Atom James: The beings themselves have Blue-and-Orange Morality which is best approximated as "For Science! On Crack". The ones who know of their existence are primarily hidden masters of the world, in other words, an Ancient Conspiracy. So, evil.

"Wave" sounds interesting, but it's not really really a wave, since waves imply motion, and there can only be 144,000 nodes in existence at any time, thus limiting their expansion... "Web" or "Network" can be good, though.

"The Informed" sounds awesome. Does anyone know enough Latin to help me translate it? ^^;

About your martial art, since it's original progenitor of everything else, its name is not required to be particularly descriptive (since it's not needed to distinguish it from others, which do not exist in its time). Something like "the Art" or "the Way" could be used. In modern times, it would be referred to as "the True Way" or the "the Old Art" or something, to distinguish it from its descendants.

edited 15th Jan '11 8:19:51 AM by Koveras

Google Translate came up with 'certior'. Of course, the accuracy of that is debatable.

^No I got that too!

^^The Web sounds good. Oh I thought of another one. How bout, the Well? Do you think you could describe these parasites? Since they have a blue and oange morality, how bout The Unknowable?

I like the sound of The Art actually! Uh, I don't suppose anyone knows how to speak Tibetan? Or a good english to tibetan site?

edited 15th Jan '11 10:32:02 AM by AtomJames

I just checked and Tibetan isn't available on Google Translate, but I'm sure you could find a translator somewhere else on the internet. I know they catch a lot of shit for having no sense of grammar, but I learn two languages at school so I have a lot of experience of using translators, and they're generally fine for single words.