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

They're the villain, right? You could always go for the generic "Emberclaw" or "Emberfang". But here's some other ones I'm just gonna throw out there:

• Emberblaze
• Emberhawk
• Emberstorm
• Emberspark
• Embershadow
• Emberheart (A villain with the name "heart" is a pretty subversive idea)

I made "Sunspot" make sense by changing the character's battern from mackerel tabby to a spotted tabby. The word's meaning is exactly the same in finnish, but the fur pattern means that "Sundot" (the translation) also works.

I'm still thinking about Ember's suffix. Once it's decided, i've named the most important characters.

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 21st 2022 at 7:08:03 PM

Nice!

You definitely put more thought into your names than I do... I used a random generator and assigned the suffixes that way. As long as they weren't absolutely horrible, I rolled with what I got. It did give me some pretty cool names though, like Midnightfrost and Waveglide.

For real dude, link me when you start publishing it, I'm invested in your characters now.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 21st 2022 at 12:26:16 PM

I'm actually planning at least two; first about Ravencall's lifetime, and a second one about Ember's lifetime where Ravencall is a ghost. Ravencall fights Splashnose, and Ember fights Sunspot.

I also need to figure how many generations would be long enough for the dust to settle/the cats who were alive during Ravencall's takeover to be alive/the cats to not talk about Ravencall as much anymore. Ravencall was in Riverclan, but i haven't yet decided which clan to put Sunspot and Ember. Some other clan propably (i have Thunder, River, Shadow, Wind, and Sky in this).

IDK if you know about Mapleshade, but her book took place about two generations before Bluestar's time, and by that point she was already beginning to fade due to being forgotten. So it probably won't take that long.

I know but i haven't read. On the other hand Mapleshade was a random cat who died, while Ravencall took over Riverclan, killed cats, and died (spoiler i suppose, the way he dies?)

Mapleshade actually murdered three cats in brutal, horrific ways, so yeah... Not that different aside from never becoming a conquerer.

I have an idea for two seemingly similar but different subchapter titles in my crossover fic.

For for some obligatory pretext, I want to be clear that I take the titles from existing music tracks, (and that obviously I didn't create either the reference tracks). Ahem.

The titles in question are form the music tracks "Into the Sea of Stars" and "INTO THE BEYOND". To explain my thought process...

I intend to have a scenario set in a ersatz of the US, where one escape route was blocked off due to unforeseen circumstances, and this forcing the people trying to escape to take a riskier but still available plan, traversing a known Eldritch Location. Thus while both titles could be seen as referring to space the "sea of stars" one is a more subtle reference to the setting's basis as fantasy^note rather, post-apoc cyberpunk America. Whereas the "Beyond" one is instead meant to reference that the people involved are force to go to and through a place beyond their understanding (think of the Lovecroaft story From Beyond and you have an idea on how I wanted to use the world "Beyond" in this case).

As such Into the Sea of Stars would be used for the subchapter where they try to escape by conventional means, but ultimatly fail, where as INTO THE BEYOND would be used for the following subchapter where they, now aware that the former is impossible, take the very riskier route.

Thoughts? I know this is is something of a tangent tot he thread's purpose (I already arrived at this pair long ago and will be using them regardless), but It is still the best place to ask for opinions on it and how accurate the wordplay is.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 22nd 2022 at 11:37:10 AM

I think that those titles work, based on your description.

Thanks. I have another query of the same bent, more seeing if things are on the up and up.

I have two pairs of names for 2 pairs of characters each. All being a reference to Franz Kafka's works

• The first pair is for a pair of Witches (this is for a Madoka crossover). This pair is "Josephine" and "K". I intend to have the individual names reference two of Kafka's works (A story from the Hunger Artist, and The Castle, respectibly). But when taken together creates a feminized form of "Joseph K", protagonist of The Trial.
• the second is less multilayered, being Gregory (Greg) and Samson, both being corruptions of the parts of the name of Metamorphosis protagonist Gregor Samsa. In this case they belong to regular prisoners (long story).

To make things more germane I was wondering if there are other names I can use for more references to Kafka's bibliography. I'm also wondering if anyone can provide a link to a summary to a non-Kafka work, "The Moon over the Mountain", for related reasons. (I get the basic gist of the story, but I want to mine it for details)

Nickname ideas for Orville and Wilbur?

Once again: Context for those nicknames, please.

Just from those names. Do diminutives need special context?

They might, depending on who's giving them and how old they are. For instance, my real name is Elizabeth. Growing up, my nickname was always "Lizzie". Then, in middle school, a friend misheard my name as "Izzy", and Izzy is what that group of friends calls me to this day. But my parents very nearly took to calling me "Beth", and as an adult I try and just go as "Liz". So the diminutives can change depending on factors like that, and probably time period too, but that's a bit of a stretch.

Orville was born in 1922 (and Wilbur multiple years later, i haven't decided when. Too young for WW 2) in either Yorkville or Washington Heights in Manhattan, in a German-descended community and family who came there in 1700s or 1800s.

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 24th 2022 at 1:07:03 PM

Well... like I said, it's really more important who is shortening their names.

The neighbors, i suppose?

On a different character. Without any context, how do these sound as superhero code names: The Gyrfalcon? The Peregrine, Goshawk, Riverhawk, Tiger Owl, The Redtail^note  possible confusion with these non-birds?

1. Good! That is the context that was missing.

...

2. And (yet once again), what is the context for those name-suggestions, Nukeli?

You are only making it harder to answer by leaving it out.

Presumably the names are chosen by the government or the superhero. Anyway, thoughts:

• The Gyrfalcon sounds neat and people think falcons are cool birds of prey. It's also short and rolls off the tongue. Maybe drop the "The", it doesn't add much.

• The Peregrine is a bit long, plus it's not immediately tied to a bird if you don't know the name. Drop the "The".

• I guess Goshawk is all right. Not much else. Does have the hawk part going for it.

• Riverhawk sounds really boring as a superhero code name. I mean, yeah, there's the hawk part, but as a descriptor of a bird (i.e. a hawk who presumably lives near rivers) it's not great as a codename. Not intimidating or anything.

• Tiger Owl also sounds boring for the same reasons. It's just a descriptor of a bird's appearance/behavior.

• The Redtail brings to mind red pandas, at least for me. I assume that's not the intended association. Plus, like you said, there's a lot of potential for confusion. See:

"Tremble in fear, evil-doers, for I am... The Redtail!"

"...Why are you named after a lemur?"

"No, it's supposed to be after the red-tailed hawk, not a- oh, whatever."

Redtail was supposed to be a reference to the red-tailed hawk, a shortening because i can't actually call him "The Red-Tailed Hawk". Tiger owl is another name for a great horned owl that comes up when you search wikipedia.

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 26th 2022 at 12:11:07 PM

Still, not a lot of people are going to get these references, in-universe or out. Better that the names are short, easy to understand, and at least in-universe impressive-sounding.

I need a good first name for a young male character who is timid, gentle and mellow?

Picking from what pool of names? (e.g. Modern American; or 1980s South African; or 1800s Indian; and so on and so forth.)

Okay I had a flash of inspiration for my crossover fanfic, and am now looking for names to match.

Ahem the context here is that there is a mega corp that has a focus on (mostly Human) Weapon development and experimentation among other things, I'm looking for a term that

• Refers to stars in space on the surface.
• But instead actually alludes to the Astras of Hindu myth, Fantastic Nukes before actual nukes (in fact they seemed to had inspired the atom bomb, and of course there Oppenheimer's famous quote pulling from the Gita).

Any ideas?

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 27th 2022 at 3:34:46 AM

You've already hit the nail right on the head. The Sanskrit astra shares a Proto-Indo-European root with Greek astron and Latin astrum/aster — all meaning, you guessed it, "star". I think that an European-language speaker unfamiliar with the Mahabharata or Ramayana would read the name "Astra" and associate it with modern derivative words like astro and estrella before learning its origin.