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

@Millership: Well, now that I've thought about it, I really should've have provided some context about the setting that I'm trying to come up with the terms for.

It's more or less a typical Standard Fantasy Setting, set shortly after the magic community equivalent of the real-life Thirty Years' War, a conflict which was sparked by a magic-using church — one that is among the majority religions of the region, with a sizeable Church Militant and plenty of allies in several temporal polities following its creed — considering a particular school of mages' choice of name for the former's brand of magic as the last straw for its tolerance of the "sorcerous heathens". At the Peace of Westphalia equivalent, the emissaries of the various magic-using factions decided to settle the centuries-long disputes over nomenclature once and for all to avoid such a devastating war from erupting over such a comparatively trivial reason, and come up with names for each branch of magic that everyone could agree upon.

Now, the reasons I'm not completely satisified with my placeholders:

• Arcanology: Type 1 Magic is basically Magic as a Science, and thus it strikes me that using the word arcane (meaning "hidden, secret, mysterious") may give the wrong impression — that the practitioners actually treat their magic as esoteric and unknowable.
• Arcanism: Same problem as "Arcanology", plus the suffix -ism gives the impression of it being more of a cult (religious or otherwise), so it would work more as a derisive name by those who look down up Type 1 Magic.
• Magecraft: Though it actually fits as a colloquial term for the masses, it's not really original (it's more or less the most common fan-made term for the Nasuverse's own magic-as-a-science).
• Theurgy: Sounds like what a Type 1 Magic user would call Type 2 Magic, which probably would offend a lot of the latter's practitioners (e.g. church types would decry it as reversing the dynamic of how they obtain their magic^note For them, it is bestowed upon them, wheras "divine-working" (the literal meaning of Theurgy) implies the mortal practitioner devising ways to invoke the divinity's power for themselves., while certain animist types would protest the idea of calling any of their nature spirits "gods" because they don't believe in the very notion of a "god" as preached by the aforementioned church types).
• Divine magic: It's in this strange limbo between "formal" and "colloquial"; I only put in in the latter because I'm trying to avoid using the word "magic" in any of the names as much as possible, since I'm leaning towards only Type 1's users being ever widely called "mages" (as evidenced by me using "Magecraft" as a provisional colloquial name for Type 1).

EDIT: Fixed it a couple of redlinks.

Edited by MarqFJA on Dec 25th 2018 at 2:40:28 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I don't think you should worry about the word "arcane" giving the wrong impression. Think of it more like plumbing the depths of mysteries rather than treating them as mysterious. Dungeons & Dragons has popularized "arcane" as being "magic that mortals do" rather than anything more than that.

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I've been racking my brain for weeks for the title of a story, and I just can't come up with anything. Sci-fi story about how humans discover a magic crystal that can transmute into any base element, act as an extremely dense energy source, and manipulate gravity. Just as they're unlocking the secrets, two alien empires that resemble angels and demons appear and demand they ally against the other. Humans decide to go their own way rather than making an immediate enemy of either one. Themes are about the extreme ends of functional fascism and functional anarchy, and how to balance authoritarianism and freedom.

Working title is "Angel Demon Crystal Story," other ideas have been "Between Heaven and Hell," "Demons From Above," and "the Crystal Federation."

I'm looking for name suggestions for The Wicked Witches of the East and West.

At the moment I have "Eveline" for West and "Victoria" for East. I'm somewhat happy with the former given it's a pun and sort-of reference to another Oz adaptation, but the latter feels a little too mundane and out of place compared to Glinda and Locasta (the Baum-given names of the good witches, which I'm keeping).

If it helps any...I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with East; she doesn't have much of a personality at the moment and might not feature in the main story at all. With West, I'm going for a slightly more Noble Demon-esque approach. She's wicked, she knows it, and she isn't trying to pretend to be anything else. However, she's less gleeful and cackly than she is bitter and resigned. She's also more respectful and a Graceful Loser.

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!

So I'm working on this game which has a Samurai class. I'm wanting it to have ranks at different levels. I need five of them total. Anyone have ideas?

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"

Borrowing from real-life Edo period titles:

• Chugen: The lowest-ranking men-at-arms/retainers, technically below the samurai rank. Analogous to the earlier ashigaru. Those serving the shogunate in Edo city were called doshin.
• Goshi: Smallholder rural samurai who answered to the daimyo in certain regions. Folks from the "full" samurai ranks generally treated them as farmers with swords.
• Jokashi: Landowning urban samurai who serve the regional daimyo. They lived in the domain capital and generally didn't administer their holdings directly.
• Gokenin: Mid-ranking retainers serving the shogunate government, mostly as civil administrators. In earlier eras, the title referred to the lowest class of landowning samurai.
• Hatamoto: Bannermen to the Tokugawa shogun, more or less the highest rank.

Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)

Alright, so I'm planning a Schoolgirl RPG campaign that takes place in a fantasy world counterpart of modern Japan. The whole thing about this school is that the students take club activities really seriously, forming alliances and rivalries like nations at war. But that's not all that the school has going on! Every so often, the school gets attacked by terrorists (like the ones from Die Hard), demons summoned by the Occult Club, and even aliens! The questions are: what do I name the school, and if this were to be adapted into a light novel series, what would you name it?

If I die, tell Hex Haywire I loved him.

I'll reiterate my request from a couple of months ago that got unanswered:

I need a set of thematic epithets for a triad of deities for my setting.

• The first one is Asier, the Superego, incarnation of beginnings and endings, birth and death, patron of doorways.
• The second one is Ceallagh, the Id, a war and fertility goddess, the catalyst, the exacerbator, the incarnation of discord.
• The third one is Trond, the Ego, god of time, the incarnation of growth and decay.

So far the nicknames I got for them are the Reaper for Asier (duh), the Sower(ess) for Ceallagh and the Ploughman for Trond. While Ceallagh's epithet is connected to her habit of sowing dissent among people, I think the first and the last one don't quite fit their respective deities. All three nicknames must belong to the same thematic, since they're basically the Power Trio (and Freudian Trio) of the pantheon.

Spiral out, keep going.

If you say so. What about the others?

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On another note, I need a title for a Mega Crossover fanfic that takes characters from a wide range of settings and plops them into a Survival Sandbox-like world heavily inspired by ARK: Survival Evolved.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

How about Brave Expanse. It would fit the Mega Crossover theme of taking several characters from fiction and dropping them off into a survival sandbox.

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Anyways, it's my first post in this thread.

I want a name for a city. The city is located in New Hampshire and it is built on land that was originally owned by the Algonquins. Later it was settled by Anglo-French settlers who build a city over it.

... I'll be honest, I had been confused by your use of "brave" as a qualifier for "expanse", because it doesn't make sense for a setting to be courageous or daring. But then I remembered Brave New World, and I realized that I'm missing something vital, so I goggled the word up; turns out it has a now-obsolete meaning of "great" and "excellent". Furthermore, its etymology traces back to Italian bravo, which has now-obsolete senses of "wild, untamed" and "(of places) harsh", both of which certainly apply to the setting that the characters would be dropped in and the general tone of their new lifestyles.

I don't know if you've intended any of this, but even if you didn't, it's a golden stroke of luck that you've suggested it.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Thank you for the appreciation. To be honest, I never known the other definition for 'brave' is something magnificent or wild.

After almost an hour of experimenting with various combinations, I've finally settled on what I think is the final title (complete with subtitle): BraveGÆA: Primordial Eden. The title BraveGÆA will also be the name of the world that serves as the story's setting.

• Brave: As stated above. Thanks again, AdeptGaderius.
• GÆA: From an archaic alternate spelling of Pangaea, the name of the primordial supercontinent that existed in the early Mesozoic era and until the Middle Jurassic, when it finally split into Gondwana and Laurasia. It's stylized in all-caps to represent that it's the stressed part of the word, and with the Latin diphthong AE written as the ligature Æ to draw the reader's attention to the term it originated from (it's fitting, since Gaea is also the name of Greek mythology's primordial earth goddess).
• Primordial: Because it's a recreation of very ancient prehistoric environments and wildlife. Also, a homage to several Dinosaur Media works whose titles use the words Primal or Primeval in them.
• Eden: An earthly paradise that was the original habitat of humankind's primogenitors, thus it existed in a ancient time (and would be very old if it still exists). Seems fitting for a world where humans walk alongside dinosaurs and other ancient forms of life.

Edited by MarqFJA on Dec 25th 2018 at 6:11:16 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Now I need a name for an Unobtanium that has such a huge variety of applications they may as well be infinite, but unfortunately is also quite toxic and/or corruptive if mishandled or abused, there's a correlation between said negative effects and whether the user themself is either abusing the substance or ruled by one or more Fatal Flaws (i.e. the substance reacts to one's psyche; a "contaminated" psyche causes the substance to become "contaminated" as well), and it's kinda alive in its own right. At its absolute worst, it can take over a planet's core and unleash a World-Wrecking Wave that corrupts the whole planet into a Death World inhabited by mindless mutated monstrosities that are universally hostile to all non-corrupted life.

Preferably, the name should seem reasonably innocuous at first glance, but have a subtle sinisterness to it that fits its hidden evil.

@AdeptGaderius: Regarding your own question... I"m afraid you need to provide more details about the city's history, because the only thing I'm coming up with is to pick a random name from any of the three relevant languages.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Should I suggest the title for your substance, Lurrunkor. If you're writing a fantasy novel, I suggest you use that term. Lurrunkor means 'volatile' in Basque, which would fit the properties of the substance.

If you want to make it sound innocent to hide the true nature, altering the name to Lurrencor to sound innocent and exotic to human ears. It should disguise the nature of the substance.

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Anyways, to answer your question about the city's name, I'll give you a short and brief history of the town.

Long before the settlement of the Europeans, the Wabanaki tribes of what is now called New England settled on this land. They called the plot of land, 'the Land of Dark Hills' because of how unnatural the land is.

French explorers working for the Hudson's Bay Company who arrived at the 'Land of Dark Hills' and built settlements, they Gallicized the Wabanaki name for the settlement. Finally, the British arrived and obtained the settlement, they Anglicized the name from French.

Edited by AdeptGaderius on Dec 28th 2018 at 7:44:35 AM

No suggestions for my inquiry?

Spiral out, keep going.

I'll answer that for you, Millership. Asier could be called The Doorkeeper since he fits the theme of duality and doors and Tron could be called The Timekeepr to fit the theme of growth and decay.

Edited by AdeptGaderius on Dec 29th 2018 at 1:04:04 AM

Thanks, but not what I'm looking for. All three of the names must fit the same theme while representing their domain of power. Right now the theme is agriculture: The Sower, The Plowman and the Reaper. I'm a bit dissatisfied with the way the meanings fit right now, so I'm looking for some other theme for them.

Edited by Millership on Dec 29th 2018 at 3:25:35 PM

Spiral out, keep going.

Alright, I need a name for a title of an assassin employed by the gods to take down their targets, functioning as their Dirty Business guy.

How about Alastor: In Greek mythology, it is an epithet for Zeus who, according to Hesychius of Alexandria and the Etymologicum Magnum, avenged evil deeds by mortals, specifically hubris, host-breaking and familial bloodshed. This epithet is also used by playwrights to designate any deity who avenges wrongs committed by men.

@AdeptGaderius: It takes place in our modern-day Earth, actually. And that term doesn't look like something that a scientist — even one whose native language is Basque — would give to a newly discovered chemical element of any sort unless it's quite evident from the get-go that it's "volatile" in one of the many chemical senses of the word.

... On the other hand, I actually figured out a name for this Unobtanium that I cannot believe I hadn't thought of before: Pandora. All-Gifted. All-Giving. She who unwittingly released all evils upon humanity (thus becoming the namesake for "Pandora's box"). Also known as Anesidora (Ἀνησιδώρα), meaning "she who sends gifts"; it's not that well-known as a name for the figure, and in fact it's an epithet shared by other Greek goddesses such as Gaea and Demeter (interesting how they're both earth deities), so it can work for obfuscating the true intention behind the name ^note Maybe the name-giver was thinking of Gaea or Demeter when he picked it, and scoffs at those who criticize his choice by reminding him of its connection to Pandora as either superstitiously paranoid or grasping at straws..

"Anesidorum"... It sounds quite exotic and lofty. Or maybe "Anesidorium"? Or "Anesidoron"? What do you guys think?

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New question: Is "glacial biome" adequate as a general term describing biomes that in real-life terminology would be classified as "Arctic/Antarctic tundra" or "polar desert"?

Context: I'm trying to find an alternative to "Arctic", "Antarctic" and "polar" that could be used to describe biomes when none of those terms are remotely accurate for the biome in question (that is to say, it's not located anywhere near a planet's polar regions, nor is its location known as "Arctic" or "Antarctic"^note And yes, this has precedent in real life; the only things called by any of these three words are things that are directly in or from the polar/Arctic/Antarctic regions; for example tundra are split between "Arctic", "Antarctic" and "alpine", and the former two are exclusive to the namesake regions while alpine tundra uses an already existing sense of "alpine" as "of, relating to, or inhabiting mountains, especially above the timber line", and the word is considered different from "Alpine" (which exclusively refers to the Alps).), e.g. in an artificially built and sustained ecosphere where esoteric technology is used to divide the entire system into specific biomes that can coexist next to each other even when logic demands that it should be impossible; e.g. a sand-filled hot desert, a tropical jungle and a zone straight out of Earth's polar regions can border each other, without any physical barriers whatsoever to the movement of anything (air included, though not temperature) between them.

Edited by MarqFJA on Dec 31st 2018 at 6:44:43 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

@MarqFJA: You didn't specify the setting in the OP you asked, so I'd assume you're writing fantasy/sci-fi story.

Anseidorium sounds it came from a scientific nomenculture, which is acceptable in scientific studies in your story. The variant spellings, Anesidorum and Anesidoron would enter collquial usage for those who are not into science or a slang term by normal people.

For your question on biome nomenculture, Glacial Biome is an acceptable catch-all term for biomes considered Arctic or polar desert. I think this would be used by your characters and others for your story.

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New question: What would be a name for a government agency who investigates the paranormal and the anomalous?

Context:
In The Cambion, Claire Vaughan, the main character, is taken by a government agency to be safely contained. The agency is like a cross between, SCP Foundation Monarch Sciences, BRPD and other anomalous organizations.

Their purpose is to investigate the anomalous, monitor supernatural activity, prevent interdimensional breaches, protect Earth from extraterrestrial interference and other paranormal activities.

The name of the organization should fit the themes and their purpose: Morally ambiguous, manipulative yet absolutely necessary for humanity's existence in a dark, oppressive universe where monsters, demons, aliens, eldritch beings and other horrors exist.

Not a title, but a team. It's for an Arrowverse fic set on an alternate earth. I'll keep this vague for those of you who aren't familiar, but long story short, I have a team of 3 female superheroes. One is a Technopath, one is An Ice Person, and one is a Badass Normal.

They primarily fight ordinary criminals, particularly ones who target women, but will ultimately work towards any cause so long as it doesn't conflict with their morals. They're fairly rough around the edges, but they are all good-aligned.

Edited by Spottedleaf on Jan 1st 2019 at 2:49:32 PM

You could use something involving light, like "Guiding Light," "Firelight," or similar. It's not as morally-ambiguous as you're probably going for, but light reveals things and gives a sense of safety in the midst of darkness, which fits.

Well, what sort of super team is it, and what kinds of threats do they primarily deal with? That might help narrow it down.

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I've got an organization in my Pokemon Super Fic that specializes in combining ancient arts with modern technology. Basically, something along the lines of Devon or Silph Co., but with magitek. I've decided I want to name it EOS, after the Greek goddess of the dawn, but I don't know what EOS should stand for. I'm not looking for a full name here, just a few words that I could use as a starting point.

The E and S could stand for "esoteric" and "science"/"scientists", respectively. As for the O... it doesn't need to be the English letter O, but a letter from another language or even a symbol that looks similar enough to O to stand in for it. For example, the Greek letter omega; its name literally means "big O", linking it to the letter omicron "little O", which is where English O gets its shape and sound from. Or maybe it's not really a letter, but a circle that links E and S, basically symbolizing the synergy of the esoteric with the scientific, and it's just happy coincidence that it looks like the word eos in all-caps with the O being very oversized.

There are real-life chemical elements that end with -um or -on, the latter typically because the name comes from Greek, where -on is the standard neuter ending for normally masculine words (e.g. xenon, from ξένος xenos "strange, foreign"). And Anesidora is Greek, with the second half of it being the feminine form of Greek δῶρον doron (yes, a neuter word being given a feminine form; that's rare in my experience with the language).

Well, first off, if it's a government agency, then that implies it answers to a government, whether it's a national one like we're used to or a supranational one. In other words, the first question we should ask is: What country is it from?

Alternatively, you're using "government agency" in a very loose sense, and the term you actually want is the "NGO", which is what the SCP Foundation and the likes of it are (that is, the organization as a whole is supranational in nature, and only cooperates with local governments on a mutual benefit basis rather than answers to them). In which case, the question instead would be this: What is the organization's culture like? The modern incarnation of the SCP Foundation, for example, is rooted firmly in science and secular humanism, hence its straightforward and simplistic name^note It was founded for the securing and containment of anomalies, as well as the protection of both humanity and anomalies from each other (well, the non-evil ones in the latter case; humanity as a whole is their ultimate priority)., whereas some in-universe older incarnations/predecessors or analogues from alternate universes do not share that mentality and their name appropiately reflects that (e.g. some of them appear to owe allegiance to the British crown and their organizational cultures are similarly influenced by British cultural traditions, as their names follow the format of "Her Majesty's X for the Y of Z" in a rather ornate style).

Edited by MarqFJA on Jan 1st 2019 at 10:01:14 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

The organization in the story, is a mostly located in the United States, but have bases and branches all over the world as supranational NGO. Its culture is firmly rooted in investigation, defense and containment of anomalous or supernatural activities. They track, study and if possible destroy anomalous things.

They are clandestine, necessary to maintain normalcy in a world where supernatural beings and other anomalous, paranormal things exist. They make sure those being do not wreak chaos and fury upon the mundane populace.