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

I'm trying to complete an acronym.

Project S.P.H.E.R.E. (Simulated P H Enhanced Reality Experiment) was set up to reverse the brain damage of people that have been put in comas by injuries.

You mean a "backronym".

How about P for Personal?

H for Healing is rather basic, but does articulate the experiment's primary goal rather well.

^^ You learn something new every day.

Thank you both.

I need a nickname for one of my characters. He goes by Shimmer, because he has a shimmery rainbow tattoo-like design all over his body. But when he deals with a Chinese gang they have their own name for him. I don't need it in Chinese (they supposedly have their own dialect), just in English.

How does h get on with the gang? Are they antagonistic?

He's a honorary member and they owe him a favor, although this particular encounter isn't friendly.

Rainbow Sprite? You know after the 80's cartoon character.

I'm trying to come up with a name for a classic Film Noir Private Detective. Thoughts?

No, I don't think that'll work. I need something more serious.

How about Clyde Salvatore?

edited 1st Nov '12 9:41:17 AM by silvercat

Hong?

Well! That's just about as perfect as I could wish for. Thanks!

: I know you're probably trying to invoke a mood or nostalgic chord with the name, but, not knowing the area of film noir very well, I just fell back on name meanings and came up with either Malvin Maddock or Malvin Dobry, both names meaning "smooth brow" and "good".

They at least stand out just a little bit, if you ask me.

@The Thnikkaman, re: Film noir detective names:

I think given the era, give him (or her) old, traditional names - especially a masculine one - like Sam, Jack, Jim, etc. Also, go with a short name with a sound to one or more of the syllables (e.g. Jack, Kovac, Gordon, etc). Generally, I'd say to avoid flowery, classy or pretentious-sounding names. After all, the detective is generally rough, tough and gruff. Having a name that goes with it can only help establish with the credibility.

Also, an additional idea would be to make reference to a bourbon or whiskey brand (e.g. Jack something or something Beams).

edited 2nd Nov '12 3:42:13 AM by peasant

Thank you.

If everyone wouldn't mind, then I'd like to hear ideas for:

• A quiet and somewhat moody young woman in her late teens/early twenties with a mostly unrevealed background, save for that she began studying Art History recently and is a fencing hobbyist (still working on the research for that one). Currently considering "Anastasia" or "Sarissa".
• An ancient male fey with a wolf motif who acts as the protagonist's mentor figure and is accordingly knowledgeable, though less than completely sensible. At the time of the plot, takes the form of a middle-aged man and carries a bow. Only name seriously considered so far is "Kellan" (really haven't put much work into this lately).

Many thanks in advance.

For the first - Both of those sound good, but some other options: Elaine. Marissa. Katerina.

for the second - Karel? Killian? Diarmuid? All of those are just random kind of unusual male names that I like. Were you after something reminiscent of a particular culture?

Many thanks! Yes, I started out looking for something that sounds somewhat Irish (with the character being a faerie and all that) but now am considerably more open to other options. >_>

What changed your mind?

Well, Diarmuid is Irish. You could try 'Behind the name' and look in the 'Irish' section'.

edited 9th Nov '12 4:38:52 PM by LoniJay

Nothing big, just trying to find more options. :P All my thanks for the link!

Oh, and if anyone else is interested...

What about Cormac? Cormac mac Airt was a famous High King of Ireland who was supposed to have been raised by wolves. It's also a good deal more pronounceable than most Irish names.

For the second one as well, I myself looked more into Gaelic (ergo, *old* Irish) names, and came up with some that had fairly relevant meanings:

"Kenley", meaning "wolf head".

"Conall", meaning "strong wolf".

"Kyan", meaning "ancient".

"Ainsley", roughly meaning "hermitage in the wood".

(Since most of those are so similar, actually, you could probably even get away with mashing a few of them together if you so desired.)

[This is turning into a lengthy post, it seems. Yikes.]

I'm revising my novel's title. (If this is the wrong place for title talk, apologies in advance.)

What I have in mind is a One-Word Title with the pattern "Blood[something]", where [something] should imply either that several things come from one common source (like "Bloodline"), or, conversely, that several different sources are combined into one hybrid thing (like "Halfblood"), preferrably with a negative connotation, as non-PC as that would make it, or ideally ambiguously to both at once. Also, the more obscure the word, the better, as long as it doesn't become entirely opaque to the average reader.

Further, I have a tagline in mind which directly relates to the title: "Two Brothers. Two Tribes. Two [Species]. [Phrase involving the title.]" It's admittedly about as cliched as it gets, but it makes total sense here, so I'm prepared to overlook that unless something as fitting and at the same time more original happens to cross my path.

My current favourite is "Bloodtwined", and thus something like "Two Brothers. Two Tribes. Two Species. Bloodtwined into One." (or perhaps just "Twined into One"). "Twined" works as the ideal twofer mentioned above, if one reads it in a "twin" sense and a "twisted together" sense. As a verb, "twine" is moderately obscure, so it qualifies on that count, too. My only misgiving is that the combination of "Blood" (thus vampires) and the "twi-" prefix might be taken as a deliberate reference to Twilight. Ick.

My first set of runner-ups are from the family of English words derived from the Proto-Indo-European roots *wreik or *wreit, "to turn": "Bloodwry" (using "wry" in the older sense of "twisted", "warped", preserved in "awry") or "Bloodwried" (past tense of the obsolete verb "to wry", whence the adjective); "Bloodwreath", "Bloodwreathed", "Bloodwreathen" (archaic past tense form of the verb). None of these convey both potential meanings of the twisting concept (twist two things together, twist one thing out of shape), unfortunately, each leans either one way or the other. "-wreathen" gets bonus points in my book for being doubly obscure, but may already be borderline incomprehensible to some.

My second set of runner-ups are from the related *twerk root: "Bloodqueer", "Bloodthwart", and perhaps "Bloodtorque" or "Bloodtorc". All of those could express the idea of "crossing bloodlines", but all of those have strong denotations and/or connotations that don't really allow for that to shine through, I'm thinking. Again, all get at least some credit for being more or less obscure.

Right, that's pretty much the totality of my thoughts on the matter, up to this point. Both comments on the above, including personal preferences, and original suggestions, would be appreciated.

As a related matter, can anyone think of a better word than "species" for the tagline? Something with a less scienc-y, more fantasy-ish, feel to it? "Kindreds" and "races" are the usual terms for the various standard humanoids forms (humans, elves, dwarves), I think, but that's not what I'm referring to. Think humans and wolves ("bloodtwined" into a werewolf), rather, to use another standard example. Those would belong to different... what?

edited 13th Nov '12 7:36:48 PM by kassyopeia

Maybe "Two Brothers. Two Tribes. Two Natures." Has a more fitting ring to it, but at the price of being totally vague.