TigerLily
Deck Hand
 Canada
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« on: July 18, 2012, 01:27:58 am » |
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Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen
I was looking to enlist some help with choosing names. Whenever I write, anything, I have the most difficulty with names. This is often due to the fact that I like, far too much, symbolism in the names of people, places, and organizations. So, if you are a writer, how do you tackle this problem in your writing?
Cheers
TigerLily
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Are you the Doctor?
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Anastacia
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« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2012, 02:43:42 am » |
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I don't do much writing anymore, but I tended to visit baby-naming websites for inspiration. A lot of them have little snippets about origins and meanings of names, which is sometimes helpful.
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TigerLily
Deck Hand
Canada
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« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2012, 02:52:34 am » |
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Thank you Anastacia, but I've already tried baby-naming websites. I find they are alright for first names, but as I've said I am looking for places and organizations; perhaps even family names. I guess I'm looking for cool translations from other languages. 'Cause at this point, I don't feel like trying to figure out the logistics of creating a fantasy language.
A couple of things I've tried, for a mafia style family I looked up the oldest billionaire family name, heh. The hard one I'm trying to tackle is thinking of a name for a new colony and landmass.
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Captain Shipton Bellinger
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« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2012, 06:19:22 am » |
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The hard one I'm trying to tackle is thinking of a name for a new colony and landmass. You could always use what appears to be the most popular format in all of human history and prepend 'New' to the name of the colonising country. |
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Capt. Shipton Bellinger R.A.M.E. (rtd) |
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Lady Chrystal
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« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2012, 10:40:53 pm » |
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I find it's useful to search baby-naming sites for the term I want, hoping it will crop up in the "meaning" part of a name. So if I wanted a name for a geologist, I might call him "Peter", as this means "the rock". If I wanted it as a surname, I'd go for Peterson, Peters, Petri, ...
Do your colony / landmass have distinguishng features you could use as prompts in this way?
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"The Chrystal? Ah, now - that would be telling."
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Madasasteamfish
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« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2012, 11:59:56 pm » |
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Weirdly I understand your problem as I'm trying to use as much bird of prey imagery with reference to my protagonist as possible (e.g. his surname is Harrier, his ship is called the Falcon and I make reference multiple times to the resemblance of his nose to a hooked beak). My suggestion is to get a thesaurus or look up synonyms and or related words for surnames. I would also advise along a similar line as Lady Crystal and use the topographical features of the colony (or a synonym of it, as the basis of the name, either that or as Cpt. S. Bellinger suggested just add 'new' to either the nation colonising it, or a region thereof).
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If tha knows about a better 'ole then tha can get thi sen in it!
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Lady Chrystal
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« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2012, 06:53:45 pm » |
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Ooh, sounds like fun. You may like to know:
Gwalchmai (Welsh, male) means "Hawk of May". English equivalent is Gawain.
Astor (English, male) from Provencal astur, meaning "hawk".
Falk and its variations are all from "falcon".
Horus, of course, means "falcon".
For other words to research, try hawk, falcon, eagle, raptor, gryphon, ...
Tigerlily, apologies for diverting from your own quest. How's it coming on?
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S.C. Barrus
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« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2012, 07:21:05 pm » |
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I have a variety of methods I use to name characters, one which I stole directly from J.K. Rowling. She often names characters using phonetic sounds to symbolize a characteristic. Think "Dud" in Dudly, or the name Serious which really nails down character in a single word. My personal example is Thadeus Lumpen, or Mr. Greatworth from the novel I'm working on now.
I also try to work in meaning or theme, where baby name books really can help, but internet meaning databases are even better. It can be a slog finding the right one, but good names set your writing apart. One example of mine is a character named Rem Reeves from novella I wrote last year. Rem is addicted to lucid dreaming, and his first name points to the state of sleep in which dreams occur, and Reeves means Dreamer.
I would say there are not wrong methods, find whatever works for any particular character or place. The fact that you are thinking about it is a great sign that you are on the right track!
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Dr Fidelius
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« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2012, 01:08:40 pm » |
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Place names?
Find a big old atlas. Really. There are tonnes of outdated names for countries, regions, or obscure cities just sitting there for you to steal repurpose for your stories.
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The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not represent any other persons, organizations, spirits, thinking machines, hive minds or other sentient beings on this world or any adjacent dimensions in the multiverse.
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Vylyntyne
Deck Hand
 Switzerland
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« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2012, 07:13:53 pm » |
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I often use the names of scientists from my text books, but there are also some great names if you wander through a graveyard.
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Two-faced? You give us too little credit.
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pakled
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« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2012, 02:56:59 am » |
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One thing I've used for years -look on the web for the Most Popular Baby Names for year x - whatever year or age the character is. Not terribly original, but it does give a little accuracy.
Play around with things; I have a dragon in the current work called Iskra (Russian for 'spark', and also a very old Communist newspaper). Everything above works too. Have fun with it.
Realized this is a cross-post. Feel free to delete it. my bad.
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« Last Edit: July 22, 2012, 05:44:27 am by pakled »
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Crescat Scientia
Gunner
 United States
Fabricator and temporally confused.
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« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2012, 04:17:39 pm » |
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I have long played roleplaying games, and many years ago I started a notebook of names from around the world so that I could quickly create characters from beyond my Anglo-American experience if need be.
I had separate sections for each continent, subdivided into countries. Whenever I ran across a name from a reliable source (not fiction) I would add it. I would mark if a name were patronymic or personal, and male or female.
Good sources of names have been international newsmagazines and newspapers and sports reports.
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Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact to its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
-- Rudyard Kipling
Have you heard? It's in the stars, next July we collide with Mars.
-- Cole Porter
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walkthebassline
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« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2012, 08:29:27 pm » |
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For characters, I'm a big fan of this website. http://www.behindthename.com/There is a surname version as well: http://surnames.behindthename.com/ |
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"Well, I don't really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like? It's like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how - what does that mean? How far is all the way, and then if it stops, what's stopping it, and what's behind what's stopping it? So, what's the end, you know, is my question to you."
~ David St. Hubbins
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Maets
Rogue Ætherlord
United States
Rocket Man
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« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2012, 10:08:57 pm » |
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Ezra Hogbin
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« Reply #14 on: July 27, 2012, 04:53:56 pm » |
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Place names?
Find a big old atlas. Really. There are tonnes of outdated names for countries, regions, or obscure cities just sitting there for you to steal repurpose for your stories.
Or from other languages. I've read books and I know that names the author came up with are at least influenced by Islamic names and may be even directly "re-purposed"  |
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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
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