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

First name ideas for The Lightbearer's father?

Lightbearer's mother is named Columbia. I'm not sure if i'm going to need her maiden name but just in case, ideas?

They're all American of ambiguous but propably British background, and both parents are old enough that the father fought in [WWI.

Edited by Nukeli on May 16th 2022 at 12:38:19 PM

Columbia is kind of a weird name even for pastentimes. Considering that the US wasn't even referred to as "America" but usually "Columbia" or "Freedonia" up until the early 1900s, that is a strange choice for a name. It would be a bit like naming a child "Norway" or something.

That aside, would Eugene or Herbert work as a generically turn of the 20th century kind of masculine name?

As for maiden name, just toss a generic one if you need. Obviously not "smith" but maybe "Ingram" or something.

Edited by Florien on May 16th 2022 at 4:24:32 AM

Depends on how meaningful in a Doyalist sense you want it. Have your tried an internet search? "Names of boys born in (place) in (decade)"

(Up lots) Archmage, yes you! My advice in general is write it, and change it later. I've always found putting something down helps give it a form of its own. With find replace on a modern word processor its easy(ish- be careful of accidentally missing/including something).

To be fair I've found naming relatively easy, so I may not be helping! the biggest problem I had was when I wanted a meaningful name, like Gabriel from "Far from the Madding crowd". Gabe pointed out that was his name too. I said it wasn't, that just the name stuck in my head. 3 days latter I went 'it is Gabriel, isn't it', and he replied 'I told you that 3 days ago'.

I find writing a troublesome bit helps straighten things out in my head. I've had even the most tightly scripted bits go off at a tangent because a character basically said 'no, that's not what I'd do'.

My advice is even if you are the tightest of Plotters,its OK to Pants occasionally; if you want, just open another .Doc up and just write, to see where it goes. Tell yourself the story. Let your characters talk. I once wrote a passage, then decided I'd written the female lead in too much of a male voice. I rewrote it and ended up in a diversion, which not only was correct, but added another chunk to the book that was always there, I just needed to find it.

Somebody on this site suggested Columbia sometime the last year, and i just went with it.

I'm trying to find something that sounds good with the surname Gesse, and whatever Lightbearer's mom's maiden name ends up being.

Since he's a Captain America Expy, how about "Simon"?

"Sam"

On that basis, i had the idea of naming the father Joseph^note  (though Captain America's father is actually named Joseph already), Simon, or Jack.

If i went on with the theme, the mother's name could be Josephine or Simone, propably. Josephine would propably be the better one.

In order for them to be named after different people, that'd mean the father's name has to be Jack (or possibly John?). Does Jack Gesse sound okay to other people? I'm not sure about it myself.

Edited by Nukeli on May 17th 2022 at 10:32:10 PM

Sounds fine to me.

Maiden name ideas for Josephine?

Singer, Kafka and Songbird would be my picks

Propably not.

On a side note, are Franziska Handschin and Jan Handschin good names, or do they sound bad?

I'm working on a future history in which in a couple of decades from now, the world's developed countries successfully made the switch in their energy regimes from fossil fuels to nuclear and/or renewable energy, while most developing and pretty much all underdeveloped countries were still largely dependent on fossil fuels due to a combination of factors. The division becomes cemented when a multinational consortium's project to develop and improve upon a wide range of technologies^note Point-source carbon capture, direct-air carbon capture, carbon storage and utilization, and roboticization of coal mining to name a few real-life examples. to render the fossil fuel industry both ecologically sustainable and commercially profitable meets with exceptional success, ushering in a new golden age for said industry and allowing many countries to continue capitalizing on their domestic fossil fuel reserves that would've been rendered more or less useless in a different history.

Would "green carbon" work as a catch-all term for the aforementioned technologies, and "Carbon Renaissance" for the fossil fuel industry's new golden age?

Edited by MarqFJA on May 19th 2022 at 11:04:15 AM

So i thought that in my "dark pulp" story draft, i thought the nazi supervillain The Lightbearer could be on a sometimes-assembled Super Team which consists of all of the superpowered people the nazis have. Kind of an evil version of The Invaders, like The Lightbearer is basically a nazi version of Captain America. Most of the members are from different military/espionage branches that hate each other^note  (The Lightbearer is SS, at least one guy is from Luftwaffe, one is from Kriegsmarine, one is Gestapo (she wasn't supposed to have powers but ended up with some, so they put her somewhere), and others i haven't decided on. Most of them are different branches' Super-Soldier projects. I haven't figured how the superscience/supernatural operations would go with those divisions or if there'd be an organization specifically for the supernatural), but The Lightbearer manages to make it actually work and they end up becoming more loyal to Lightbearer/each other than their actual leaders (who try to pit them against each other for their own agendas), so when Lightbearer in 1944 or 1945 decides that Hitler is ruining the war and needs to go......

Name ideas for the team?

Given Nazi Germany's fixation with Germanic pagan mythology, I could see them naming this super team after the Einherjar; the word literally means "lone fighters", which can be taken to imply the members' status as supersoldiers (and even One-Man Army connotations, should they be powerful enough).

I want to ask about an unusual topic

I want to see about converting the name "Hecate" into an adjective. Or more specifically, an epithet for a trio of monsters themed after the Moirai (and also named as such)

The "Hecatrio"?

Seems more like a name for a group. I'm specially looking for a feel again to "Aphrodite Pandemos", "Helios Hyperion" or "Pallas Athena"

Plus it sounds like a worse version of "Hecatrice" (which I am considering as a possibility, I just want to ask for better alternatives)

Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 19th 2022 at 7:53:48 AM

Hecatian?

Looking at the examples that you gave, it seems that the name may simply be used as-is: Hyperion—>Helios Hyperion, for example. So it might be that "Hecate" can likewise be used as-is.

Otherwise, I don't know whether this is a valid construction, but "Pandemos" suggests something like "Hecatos" and "Hyperion" suggests something like "Hecation".

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 20th 2022 at 10:36:56 AM

Does anybody else have ideas about my supervillain team's name?

I'm considering Einherjar as an option, but more options.

I mean, Ragnarok, or Gotterdammerung seem like easy choices

The "Wilde Jagd" = The "Wild Hunt"

Definitely this one.

Edited by TitanJump on May 20th 2022 at 5:35:12 PM

Any feedback on my question?

The case of "Hyperion" is just a result of how it's constructed; it's originally a patronymic/adjective that was then nominalized for use as the Titan's name.

That said, "Hekate" seems to fall into the same category, as it's listed as one of the epithets of the goddess Artemis (with the meaning of either "far-shooting" or "worker from afar"); I think the logical plural form is Hekatai. But it is the feminine form of Hekatos, so you could use the logical plural Hekatoi.

Edited by MarqFJA on May 20th 2022 at 8:59:56 PM

That would suggest that the example of "Hyperion" is potentially applicable here—after all, the request was for an adjectival form.

However, it seems that you know the grammar here better than I, so I'll bow to your argument on the matter.

[edit] Ah, and I did miss that we were looking for a plural form—that's a good point!

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 20th 2022 at 9:40:39 PM

I'll think I'll uses "Hekatai". Thanks.

Now for a related pair of monsters. I also want to use Justine, Juliette, Tess and Emma (latter two are references to one Thomas Hardy) as monsters for a story with a fatalistic bent (which is also why I asked about Hecate earlier).

I ask how the "J" names could fit that theme with the context that they are references to the Marques de Sade's eponymous novels.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 20th 2022 at 3:21:45 AM