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I have trouble coming up with names

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Worlder What? Since: Jan, 2001
What?
#1: May 23rd 2011 at 10:36:21 AM

I'm sure all of you have read bits and chunks of the story I have.

The problem is that I am not good with coming up with names for people and places.

What would you suggest to help me come up with naming the characters because I have an idea of who is who just not sure what's the name.

blueharp Since: Dec, 1969
#2: May 23rd 2011 at 11:06:00 AM

Have you tried any of the numerous name generators?

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#3: May 23rd 2011 at 12:00:09 PM

Where do the people live? Or if foreign or from foreign descent, where do they originate?

www.behindthename.com is a damn brilliant source for names by language in which they're used, and name etymology. It's my go-to whenever I can't pull a name out of my ass.

Here, I'll give you a run-down for some names I put together:

  • Niloufar Aliaabaadi: She is Iranian, so I picked out her first name from Persepolis. The surname I found in a list of Iranian surnames.
  • Benjamin Winesap: American mutt. I actually picked the last name from a captcha. The first name is from Benjamin Netanyahu, who has a similar personality.
  • Jack Clive: Jack I pulled out of my head because he "looked like a Jack". This guy never even got a name until later in life because he's a parentless cell culture clone. The project he came from was called One Fifty Four. That number in Roman numerals is CLIV. I put an E at the end to make his last name.
  • Vivian Hart: All pulled out of the hat. The name Vivian gives me the impression of an unimpressed, watching young woman with long black hair, so I named her after her appearance.
  • Sachiko: The name for a Japanese man's pet mountain lion, which I found in a list of female Japanese names on behind the name. I picked this one because of the "sachi" element meaning "happiness".
  • Borghild Brynlagsdottir. Borghild I plucked directly out of Norse mythology, but she has nothing else to do with Borghild Sigmund's wife. Brynlagsdottir is a patronymic: "Brynlag" is the name of her father, and "dottir" means daughter. I created the name from the elements "Bryn-" armor/protection, and... uh..., I actually have no idea what "-lag" means or where I got it from. Perhaps I should swap that piece out for something more plausible. The names alliterate because name alliteration is very common in the Germanic tales: Hrothgar Healfdening, Scyld Scefing, Thruðr Thorsdottir, etc.

edited 23rd May '11 12:20:29 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Gamabunta Lurker that doesn´t lurk from The very end o the world Since: Feb, 2010
Lurker that doesn´t lurk
#4: May 23rd 2011 at 12:00:26 PM

Here you go, my good fellow :)

http://www.behindthename.com/random/ http://kleimo.com/random/name.cfm

The first two results for googling "random name generator" :P

For cities, I usually look up in wikipedia lists of real cities until I find one that sounds interesting.

Suffer not the witch to live.
Worlder What? Since: Jan, 2001
What?
#5: May 23rd 2011 at 12:14:08 PM

The problem is some names that I want are in languages that are not exactly used to this day, nor is it on life support like in Latin.

Nahuatl, for example, the language of the Aztecs.

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#6: May 23rd 2011 at 12:22:52 PM

[up] Please rephrase that, I have no idea what you mean.

A lot of common names today actually come directly from Latin: Vivianus, Julius (Juliet, Julio), Lucius (Lucy, Lucille), Antonius (Anthony, Antonio). Just because the language is dead doesn't mean the names are.

edited 23rd May '11 12:23:11 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Worlder What? Since: Jan, 2001
What?
#7: May 23rd 2011 at 12:43:50 PM

What I mean is that some languages are so undocumented that they aren't even available for a bad-machine translation.

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#8: May 23rd 2011 at 1:31:43 PM

Are you talking about languages with little-to-no written material, like Proto-Germanic?

What is exactly your problem, then? Either go learn about how names in that language were put together (For example, names in the Germanic languages were usually composed of two elements), find a dictionary or wordlist, and start making names.

Or reconstruct dead-language forms of newer names by translating the name elements using the wordlist.

edited 23rd May '11 1:32:03 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Worlder What? Since: Jan, 2001
What?
#9: May 23rd 2011 at 1:38:57 PM

Ok I'll try to find wordlists.

Just hope those sites don't charge me for total access.

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#10: May 23rd 2011 at 2:01:33 PM

Actually, it's very easy to find free information on dead languages. I was able to find a pretty extensive Proto-Germanic wordlist off of some dude's google pages.

Most people who host wordlists for dead languages are professors and linguistics students on pages that look like they were written in the 90's.

edited 23rd May '11 2:02:39 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
thespacephantom Jamais vu from the smallest church in Saint-Saëns Since: Oct, 2009
Jamais vu
#11: May 23rd 2011 at 2:42:52 PM

Name them all some variant of Little Jimmy.

UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI
annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#12: May 23rd 2011 at 2:55:52 PM

Mały Obcsalegaczek!*

And the feminine form: Mała Obcsalgaczka!

</probably hilariously off>

edited 23rd May '11 2:57:11 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Diamonnes In Riastrad from Ulster Since: Nov, 2009
In Riastrad
#13: May 25th 2011 at 5:33:06 AM

>Think of a characteristic of the person/place/thing

>Go to Google Translate

>Check out various translations of the word

>Find one that sounds cool

>Success

My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.
annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#14: May 25th 2011 at 5:55:17 AM

[up] Meet 18th century English gentlewoman Kimiko Achmadsdottir and her brother-in-law Wladyslaw bin Vivianus.

edited 25th May '11 5:56:06 AM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
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