To fantasy writers: How do you come up with names?

How do you name characters in fantastic setting?

I just do it randomly and aim for a name that is pronoucable and not ridiculous. Cardive and Amira, for example, I just came up with.

Well, if I have an idea as to what kind of culture I want the characters to be from, I tend to look up names from similar, real-life cultures. If it's necessary, I'll modify them just enough to be original, but still allow them to retain the feel of that society. Or, if I find that I like a modification enough, but it doesn't really sound like it would fit in with the culture I'd developed, I'll move the name somewhere it would be better suited, and try again.

edited 28th Dec '11 9:01:23 PM by tropetown

I generally come up with naming conventions for a particular culture - rarely a full-scale conlang, but enough so that it sounds consistent. If the culture is human, I may or may not base the naming conventions off a real-world culture, although I will never do so if they're nonhuman.

, That.

First, I start with a- frequently obscure -placeholder from a real-world language with a sound that I like. I work on the culture enough to figure out some naming conventions, think a bit about a general phonology for the local conlang, and warp and mutate the name until it sounds like it fits into the conlang.

I'll admit that I've only ever done this once, and for a single family speaking the same dialect of conlang.

I tend to use actual names for my characters, so I tend go for meaningful names, and, where possible, puns.

For country names, I use this: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Greentabby55/1276784

For personal names, I use this: http://elonen.iki.fi/code/misc-notes/finnish-name-generator/

(What do you mean Finland is not a fantasy realm? Of course it is!)

I tend to tweak and modify real names, often editing them using sound combinations and such not found in their language of origin. Gives them a ring of truth, but they still sound exotic. Sometimes I'll piece together names using components of other names.

When I do make up names out of whole cloth, I try to make sure that they at least have phonetic solidarity with each other, and flow well under English pronunciation rules. Or not-English, if I'm writing something Translation Convention-y where I feel like representing it.

Good question. This is my greatest weakness. I have to come up with names of characters from other universes. I actually needed months to come up with a good name for an important character.

I use this site sometimes, but the names I truly like are very rare: [1]

edited 29th Dec '11 11:06:11 AM by Teraus

Depends how fantastic the world is and what you're really trying to do with it.

For instance in one of my stories the world is Victorianesque but still quite magical. The names are in turn Victorianesque so there's a mix of real Victorian era names and mystical-type names modified to sound a bit more like they could be names. Example: Cynthia, Augustine, Mordecai (Real names). Jackdaw, Trinkette, Caprick (Fake names, to my knowledge).

In my other story there is no magic and the intent is to make the main setting seem pretty similar to RL. It's 1930s-esque. Therefore the humans have real names, like Joyce, and Vincent (though the protagonist actually doesn't, his name is Gorvin, or "Gorvie" but it's close enough to Gordon that it sort of seems like a real name). The human subspecies that live elsewhere however have very different names that aren't common at all, to emphasize their alien-ness. Like Iriyana, Kuroz and Presha.

Still I'd stay away from really common names, like Will or Mark or Jacob (why so many people seem name their protags Jacob astonishes me.) Mostly because they are boring to the point of tedium. Personally I like names that are real names that wouldn't seem weird, but just aren't that common, like Clive, Floyd, Meryl or Audrey. They wouldn't raise any eyebrows but neither did most people have someone with one of those names in their kindergarten class.

I would also stay away from names that are just really hard to pronounce right or are really elaborate, though I'm of the opinion you're okay with a weird/elaborate name as long as it breaks down into something more usual or manageable as a nickname. My character Jackdaw is usually referred to as "Jack", for example.

If your civilization is similar to one that we know I think it's an extremely good idea to use names from that original culture, or sound as if they were from that culture. It helps the reader to get that feel from the work. If you're civilization is similar to Egypt give characters Egyptian sounding names, if it's similar to Rome, or Ireland, or the Mayan Empire etc.

And last but not least, shorter is better, and easier to pronounce is also better, as is seeming familiarity (similar to something that actually exists) when it comes to good names people are actually going to remember and relate to.

edited 29th Dec '11 8:26:02 PM by NoirGrimoir

I don't believe I've ever read a story with a protagonist named Jacob. Major character, yes, protagonist, no.

I've read a ton of original fiction and fan fiction that has a protag named Jacob. It's weirdly popular there. Which makes it even worse, because I associate it with Gary Stu characters.

edited 29th Dec '11 10:04:45 PM by NoirGrimoir

Badly.

In all seriousness, I take sounds that I think might sound cool and put them with foreign words (usually Chinese) that mean something, or just mix foreign words.

For example, "Gar" seems to be a prototypical term for "spear", and "Lei" is Chinese for "lightning." Garlei would thus be a very quick, impulsive, and skittish character.

You could always invent a character naming scheme with syllabation and limits and naming themes and whatnot in a sort of Conlang kind of way.

That's what I did for naming Preyarans in my Endless Conflict series though that particular example isn't fantasy.

I use real names or mishmash names.

For instance, I just created a few characters with the names: Parson, Mehmet and Quaresma.

Why? Because why not?

edited 30th Dec '11 8:40:42 AM by AtticusFinch

I choose names from random generators, steal from other works and change some letters, or type random stuffand then edit it.

I don't actually try to make a naming scheme or anything. As long as they sound like names...

See this excerpt? See all those names?

It took me less than a minute to come up with all of them. Really.

Depends how Reference Overdosed the work in question is. The gimmick behind Music City is that every character is named after a song, musician, album or band (this actually extends to buildings, artifacts, the law firm of Emerson Lake And Palmer, and other things in-universe besides characters, as well), so all I had to do was pick out music I really liked that would make good names. Easiest. Worldbuilding. Ever.

For the Mythology 101 Cycle, which also contains a lot of ShoutOuts, I used names I liked from other stories for kingdoms (Aberforth, Aensland, Alstrom, Balazar, Belacqua, Nakamura and Ostrogoth). There are also numerous Shout-Out names among the characters, many of them in the realm of Genius Bonus. For characters whose names aren't references (for example, most of the ones from our world), I used mundane-sounding names that could actually be real people.

For some of my other stories I've had to go to name-generator sites.

The only thing I've really had trouble with is that it gets tricky to come up with new variations of "Nick", the main character of my 'verse, who is doomed to be perpetually reincarnated no matter how many times he dies... he's had the first name Nick or Nicholas under dozens of surnames, and has also been Nicolette and Nikolai.

edited 30th Dec '11 2:24:12 PM by EnemyMayan

Either I tweak real life names, or I stab at the keyboard.

Keyboard-stabbing is actually really neat, as long as it's just a starting point.

It depends on what feel I'm going for. My current story involves a fantasy world constructed by a lazy teenage worldbuilder, so I just pick names off the top of my head. On one occasion, the character in question decided to use a fancier method, so I did bad portmanteaus and variations on French words. (I don't speak French, which is good, because it increases the probability of the made-up words sounding stupid.)

Throw random syllables at a wall and see what sticks.

The names that I choose are almost exclusively derived from actual cultures, occasionally referencing obscure historical or mythological figures, or playing with subtle underlying meanings of varying relevance or irony. The most overtly suggestive are those of some of the more out-there characters, for differing reasons: Some are from cultures that pride themselves on hereditary monikers (Börte, Andromalius Worrell); others assuming pseudonyms or bending to translation conventions (Timon Xenophanes); and a few for whom the name is a matter of... profession (Baraqiel, Shamash, Thresher Lange).

In my current work in progress, a large proportion of names are derived from musical terms. Though normally each has an everyday nickname derived from it that sounds "normal". Eg. Marcato -> Marc. That said, the names are still divided along the same lines as the languages they spawned from. Marc and Al (Allegretto) are from one country, Dorian another (a sea side city state ~Athens/Greek), and Adel a third (across the mountains to the north ~Germany). Also some are more meaningful, Marc's doesn't reflect him much, but Adel (noble) is a little ironic, Dorian (both sombre mode of music and "from the sea") is very true, and Pela (Accapela - unaccompanied) is meaningful too.

Previously... I don't think there was any over-arching schema in my workings. Normally choose a counterpart culture, go through a baby names site in that category until I find something that sounds good/means something relevant. Though I also did just throw names together (I'm pretty sure Tenku didn't mean anything), or have punny/meaningful names (Aisling meaning dream/vision for a character who dream-walked, Cory for the central character).

edited 7th Jan '12 2:16:22 PM by Luthen

Never mind.

edited 7th Jan '12 2:33:10 PM by nrjxll