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

It's a Single Specimen Species.

How about The Sleeperbane Maw? Or is that a bit too much on the cheesy side?

I have a modern-day superhero story. In the drafts is a ww2-set prequel series which is somewhat inspired by Inglourious Basterds^note  The characters actually inspired the in-universe version of Inglourious Basterds and features a group of Germans who aren't too happy with the Nazi regime and intend to end it. They utilize Basterds-style psychological warfare and Vietcong-esque traps. Everybody knows who they are and they have adopted the aliases the civilians and the nazis use to refer to them. Also some of them have superpowers^note  in The 'Verse, superpowers occur naturally at around 50% of the human species, so it isn't by itself a big thing. The group consists of....

• An afro-German man who has shadow-related powers that allow him to appear out of nowhere and vanish. He's basically a horror story amongst the Mooks, and at night could be literally anywhere. He's functionally the leader of the group. I have already named him The Dark. He's just there for context and reference.

• An afro-German woman, The Dark's sister. She has Playing with Fire powers and a habit of litting herself on fire and charging at the enemy while screaming bloody murder. Due to the nature of her powers, she's the one whom the Nazis see the most.

• A romani woman with Innate Night Vision and a captured sniper rifle. She sits in the trees and on buildings providing covering fire and and picking the enemies off one by one while remaining unseen, usually at night. She's in this because she wants revenge for her people and says that much.

• An ex-Wehrmacht conscript. He looks overall normal, without powers or any distinguishing physical characteristics. He deserted, only for The Dark to press-gang him into helping by promising a way to Switzerland. His primary job in the group is to help with covering fire and act as an infiltrator and/or bait.

Aside from the individual nicknames, i'm not sure what the group as a whole should be called. I thought that would be the easy part but i can't come up with anything simple but distinguishing enough. The individual names are also hard because nearly every name ever is trademarked by either Marvel or DC.

Edited by Nukeli on Nov 23rd 2020 at 10:33:21 PM

About The Dark and his sister. Maybe, you could use African side of theirs? Africa is full of interesting languages, which could be a nice source for a couple of names. Let's say, they were born somewhere in German East Africa (modern Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi), and the language of their ancestors was Swahili — then you can call The Dark as Giza and his sister as Pepo, which means, according to Google Translate, "The Dark" and "The Demon" respectively.

The Dark and his sister are half-black, but aside from that they don't have any real connection to Africa^note  They were conceived by a black French soldier and a white German civilian in the Rhineland post-ww1, after which their father went on his merry way. Their mother then gave birth and ditched them because of out-of-wedlock-angst and because the children were clearly black. The Dark and his sister grew up in Germany bouncing between orphanage and the streets, only ever hearing about Africa. Then the Nazis show up and the plot happens. Having African names would make no sense because they only know Germany and only speak German, and their aliases were coined by other Germans (like in Inglourious Basterds, where the frightened nazi Mooks started calling one character "Aldo The Apache" and another character "The Bear Jew").

"The Demon" could work as The Dark's sister's nickname, though.

Edited by Nukeli on Nov 26th 2020 at 9:43:25 PM

Ok, I get this, thanks for clarification. In that case you can look at the German folklore/mythology. Maybe, for The Dark and his sister you should play with names Hansel and Gretel? Also I found an interesting character from medieval German mythology called nachzherer — some sort of reversed vampire, which eating his own flesh and spreading plagues. Maybe, this name symbolically fits to your former Wehrmacht conscript?

I don't really get the symbolism. How is he similiar to Nachzehrer?

Nachzehrer devours it's own body — I saw it like your deserter working against his former comrades. I was assured it pretty clear, but if it's not, then forget it.

I have a setting where superpowers have been around since the 1980s and have been integrated into society with superhero acting as state police for taking down supervillains comic books and movies about these superheroes have made and as such, popularity is very important to being a hero.

Superheroes are treated as celebrities. And my main character, Ultimate, is trying to become number one. He’s trying to become a biggest, most popular, most famous, most well off hero in history. I have a superhero name for him, I just can’t think of a REAL name.

I'd use something very common for the real name, to contrast with the character's desire to be special.

In my alternate history setting, Kamen Rider Kuuga got an English dub in 2001, and became a roaring success, causing the later Kamen Rider series to get dubbed. But I can’t think of a name for this hypothetical franchise, so does anyone have any ideas?

Edited by GeneralGigan on Dec 17th 2020 at 8:10:29 AM

Bump.

Well there are a few scenarios

• Kamen Rider goes untranslated, as is the norm for several anime series and also Kamen Rider Dragon Knight
• Masked Rider as a nod to the other localized KR show and as a literal translation
• Power Rider: Assuming that Saban is handling the localization like they do the ones for Super Sentai as Power Rangers

I was specifically trying to avoid those names, plus Masked Rider still happened in this timeline.

Edited by GeneralGigan on Dec 18th 2020 at 8:11:22 AM

Edited by GeneralGigan on Dec 30th 2020 at 12:04:01 PM

Bump.

I need a few random names for things in my stories:

• An Amarelo battlecry that is a counterpoint for the Iberian slogan: "Gold, Gospel & Glory!". The Kaom Amarelo are slaves of Asian descent, and they are willing to fight for their dignity and liberty until the raw end.
• A better name than the Three-Lobed Ones for a intelligent species evolved from trilobites.
• A name for a majestic city situated in an underground lake, named for a place in Latin American folklore.

I suppose things like "For freedom!" and "Death to oppressors!" are too generic for the Amarelo battlecry? Hang on, I wonder if there's Asian folklore with The Trickster archetype standing up for slaves and their rights and dignity? If there is, the Amarelo battlecry might invoke the trickster by name or title?

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jan 1st 2021 at 8:42:08 AM

A suggestion for the Battle-cry: "Live, Die, SURVIVE!" (Meaning that even if you manage to "kill" them, it won't stop them in the slightest, just make them fight harder.)

And for the Trilobites, how about "Trions"?

Edited by TitanJump on Jan 6th 2021 at 6:32:08 PM

1) I need a good name for the event wherein a group of former mortal Eldritch Abominations called The Timebreaker Demons emerge from the dimension that was imprisoning them. The event would be heralded by the sky literally shattering like a glass pane and the shards raining down (causing its own fatalities), and from then on the sky is red instead of blue. Even at night.

2) An imposing Red Baron name for Viraag, the current head Timebreaker due to Yctrax, their leader, being mostly dead. She's more or less a statuesque stunner, harshly beautiful type, who uses her own shapeshifting armor in a fight. Her armor is comprised of The Corruption that had until this point been turning people into horrific monsters. It goes between a liquid-like state and a metallic look on a dime.

3) I need a name for their main camp where the Timebreakers try and find the next place that'll help resurrect Yctrax. The design for it is deliberately to have a "physics have just given up at this point" vibe; it's made of segmented, rotating sections, floating octahedron designs around it, a singular pyramid floating underneath it, and a ruined city hanging upside down over their camp.

For (1), perhaps simply "The Skybreak"?

For (3), what about "The Vortex"?

The Shattering?

In a short story set in the same universe as my previous comment^note  A prequel to a modern-day superhero story. Basically Inglourious Basterds with superpowers and in south Germany, about the modern-day protagonist's grandmother and great-uncle, there's two other characters who need names.

1) A British superhero who's used in propaganda for his impressive-looking but kind of weak powers. Before the Normandy Landings he's mostly used as a symbol and not taken seriously. After the Normandy landings he fights in France and finally gets respect from the other soldiers. Think of him as a British Captain America. He needs a propaganda name.

2) A nazi officer whose job is anti-partisan combat in West Europe and who also fights the other heroes in south Germany and the british hero in France after Normandy landings. He has very powerful Shock and Awe powers and everybody fears him and his unit, including the other nazis. He is actually an american who joined the nazis in the interwar period. He needs an impressive or scary Red Baron nickname.

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 16th 2021 at 1:20:00 PM

1) "The Shattering"?

2) "Merycry" (Combination of "Mercury", "Merry", "Cry" and "Mercy")

3) "Tetris"

...

1) "Union Jack"?

2) "Blitzkrieg"?

Edited by TitanJump on Jan 16th 2021 at 12:23:52 PM

Marvel Comics has a Union Jack.

When it comes to "Blitzkrieg", i think there's at least five supervillains with that name already.

New suggestions.

1) "Big B"?

2) "Oberst Donnerfaust"?