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

Weavers. As in, they weave the strings of fate. It's surprisingly not as commonly used as one would think.

Reality Shifters.

What kind of organization does the name "International Security Support Elements" remind of?

Something more bureaucratic in nature, to be honest. Maybe some company selling alarm systems.

What comes to mind if you read the title "Jurassic World: The Chaos Effect"?

An all-out battle between cybernatically enhanced dinosaurs, with plenty of explosions.

How would you call a Mother of a Thousand Young Eldritch Abomination associated with colour red/crimson? It's a "she".

The "Chaos Effect" subtitle is actually supposed to be mainly a reference to the chaos theory, which was also referenced by the character Ian Malcolm more than once when talking about the From Bad to Worse potential the franchise's eponymous park has (and, of course, he's vindicated by the disaster actually happening), and secondarily a reference to this toy-line. What does that make you think of now?

edited 1st Sep '15 4:17:24 AM by MarqFJA

Ah, sorry. I may've thought too much about Metal Wolf Chaos.

A group of survivors on an island overrun by dinosaur hybrids.

How about a series of stories that begin with a premise similar to It's not the Raptor DNA — i.e. I. rex really is part-human, pulls a Heel–Face Turn when Grady manages to communicate with her — and continues from that point as Jurassic World pulls itself together and reopens (with the now more friendly I. rex proving to be a major hit with the customer base), only for the Sequel Hook raised by Dr. Wu's escape with his unethical genetic-engineering research eventually becoming reality as the dinosaur hybridization techniques go open source on the black market, leading to an emergence of bioterrorism via monstrous dinosaurian living weapons, all while at least one Misanthrope Supreme Animal Wrongs Group seeks to undermine Jurassic World and do whatever it takes to usher in "a new era of dinosaurian supremacy", with InGen executives, good old BioSyn, and even a government conspiracy related to the InGen-sponsored weaponized dinosaurs project plotting their own agendas (which may or may not clash with each other, and may even suffer from internal factionalism)?

edited 1st Sep '15 12:18:34 PM by MarqFJA

@kakai, a good name for your thing might be "crimsion spawn(er)" if you want something simple

Certainly fits! I like the premise already, BTW.

Sounds nice, though I'll think on it a bit more.

Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up too much. You're likely to not see this story idea being realized any time soon; I seem to be cursed to have very little opportunity to sit down and actually write stuff, even if it's only as a way of learning by experience (i.e. write shitty stuff, analyze and learn from mistakes, rinse and repeat until writing quality — and the speed to write at that quality — has improved to an adequate level).

That said, I do need a good unsubtly-terrifying binomial name for a dinosaur hybrid that is intended be the Ultimate Lifeform according to its creator, and is basically this thing taken to the Logical Extreme, plus human DNA. Current placeholder is Diabolus imperator ("Devil emperor"), which is still insufficient for my needs. It needs to be something that any sane listener would immediately pale at after learning that the name is supposed to poetically indicate the nature of the being in question, and that the Big Bad who commissioned its creation has deemed it a huge success that perfectly lives up to its name.

edited 1st Sep '15 1:19:40 PM by MarqFJA

Imperator is certainly a good name for the "best" of the murderous lizards. As for the other half...

• Sicarius - murderer
• Omnicida - all-slaying
• Carnifex - butcher (bonus points for accidental 40K Shout-Out)
• Ultimus - ultimate/final

edited 2nd Sep '15 10:32:07 AM by Kakai

Then what are you doing wasting precious slow-writing time on freakin' TV Tropes? Here, look up some text software called Q10 (there are others), find a machine that will run it, and don't look away from that screen for an hour?

Also, those names are trying too hard. The "any sane listener" bit would realistically include the guy who named it. "Wow, did I really give it that name? Maybe I'm the bad guy here..."

How about D. Astaroth, the "D" standing for "Dinosauria" to make it clear that the creation is in its own taxonomical order. Google says it hasn't been used, either.

Percussor deus would be a pretty good name for it, it translates to "killer of God", and sounds scary even if you don't know that fact

How about Diabolus deicida? "The Devil, slayer of God" seems sufficiently horrific in its implications about the hybrid's purpose/power and/or the creator's sanity, if he chose the name and then designed the monster to fit it as closely as possible in his own mad perception.

Wait... Diabolotyrannus deicida! "The tyrant Devil, slayer of God"! That seems perfect, doesn't it?

edited 3rd Sep '15 3:53:58 AM by MarqFJA

Easy on tongue, quick to the point and would make for a sweet Wham Line. I like it. BTW, its creator must have a hella ego to call it "god-slayer", mustn't he?

Of course. S/he's a mad(wo)man with a god/messiah complex who either wants to drive humankind to extinction and replace them with a race of "superior" hybrids, desires to rule the whole world with this monster as his living nuke-equivalent to sic on whoever doesn't listen to him, simply hates the world so much that he wants to see it all burn... or is just plain crazy enough to want to unleash this abomination on the world and see what happens. Or heck, maybe each of its co-creators hits one of these motives (among others that I haven't thought of), and has been pretending to be going along with the other co-creators' stated motives (which may not be even the real ones in the first place!) just so that s/he could have his/her way in the end... and perhaps all ignorant of the fact that they're all being played against each other to the benefit of a single schemer (no comment on whether it's another fellow human or the monster in question itself). Gambit Pileup, essentially.

On another note, does "D(e)ino-Hybrid" sound like a plausible term to give to hybrids of modern animal species (human or nonhuman) on the one hand and prehistoric, not-necessarily-dinosaurian species from the Mesozoic era on the other hand? The Greek root of the prefix "d(e)ino-" that occurs in the binomial names of several of such species simply means "terrible, horrible; marvelous, wondrous".

edited 3rd Sep '15 10:56:03 AM by MarqFJA

Deino-hybrid - yes. Especially that it brings deity to mind, as in "new god of Earth".

Dino-hybrid... Not sure if it's the same in English, but where I am, "dino" is used as a cutie diminutive from "dinosaur". Like... oh, aren't you sweet, little Dino! Look how cute it is! Not really the thing you're aiming for, I guess.

"Dino-" and "Deino-" are the same word, you know.

edited 3rd Sep '15 3:37:41 PM by MarqFJA

I know! They do look differently in text, though, and so bring different things to minds of people who don't know original greek root.

Hmmm... You have a good point. Using "Deino-" would also allow using a Running Gag where several characters misspell the name as "Dino-Hybrid" out of either laziness, ignorance, or not understanding or caring for the difference in connotations between the two spellings, thus opening themselves for criticism by other characters as they get called out on the reason(s) behind their mispelling.

On another note, are there any real-life trends when it comes to naming military dogs in the US Armed Forces? Like, how often do the handlers/owners bother giving the dog more than just a single given name? Because I'm thinking of giving Owen Grady in the aforementioned Jurassic World fic a history of having been the handler of a military dog as part of his canonical background as a US Navy military animal handler (he worked with dolphins, hence why he's hired to work with Velociraptors).

edited 4th Sep '15 12:31:41 PM by MarqFJA

I have this idea for a Fighting Series, and I got the basic synopsis for it, but I'm stuck on a name. From this synopsis:

A young lady has enrolled in a school specifically built around the study of battle. The school is among a special council of schools that are centered around various styles and techniques of fighting. Some focus on brawling, some on swordfighing, others are weapons based, based on karate, boxing and the like. During the school year, this school (and the other schools) hold a round robin from the start of the year in September, to the end of the year in mid-June. The student who wins this round robin goes on to the double elimination tourney representing their school and the winner of the tournament wins for the school and is crowned the Worlds Greatest Fighter.

MC is one of the schools veteran fighters, and is well respected with at least the staff of the school. However, no matter how many time she tries, she has yet to win the round robin and advance to the Ultimate tournament. She spends the story training throughout and now, she is determined to win the school's round robin and lead her school to victory.

What could be a good name for this story?

The Ultimate Brawl?

Warrior Academy

School of Brawl

Combat High