Naming Characters

[thaddeus6th]

Aye, the 'interesting but unpronounceable' names that sometimes crop up in fantasy are not something I like. That's partly why I tend to use real names (it also helps keep a culture seem cohesive and distinct from others, whereas if you're making names up then this is not necessarily the case).

 

[Gumboot]

I always try to think of names that the parents would actually name their baby. Some will want names that are popular at the time, in that culture, others will want fancy names - maybe the parents imagine the baby will live up to that name and become someone important.

Personally I think characters grow into their names. When I name a character, I try often try out a few different alternatives (unless the name comes to me written in stone, and I know there is no way I'll change it). After some time, the character has settled into the name, it's become part of the package. Just like with real people, I can also start liking a name I originally wasn't thrilled about when I start liking the character.

This is along the lines of what I do.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

When I create a name from scratch I always Google it to make sure it doesn't mean something in another language. Remember hearing an author talking about their book going in to Dutch translation and a minor character had a name which meant "Bucket" in Dutch.

Or it can be really obvious, such as what Darth Vader means in dutch...

 

[Fedos]

Naming characters for my fantasy series in progress (or even localities) has proven to be the easiest process for me of creating a fantasy world. If everything else was as easy as naming things I might have completed my novel by now. Basically I let my subconscious come up with names. Sometimes I'll come across certain names for characters or whatnot when I am reading a book or playing a fantasy role player for instance and then I'll perceive it differently than what it is presented and that is how I usually come up with names for characters and places. And then to piggyback on something that was mentioned earlier, I always check google to see how prevalent the name is and a good deal of the time the names are not taken or either it is used to such a small degree that I keep it or sometimes I have to alter it a little. Not only that but the names that my subconscious gives me tend to be harmonious, and not hard to pronounce monstrosities. I think it may be related to being introduced to the fantasy genre through the Final Fantasy series as they always seemed to have great sounding and harmonious names.