Need help choosing a name

[MemoryTale]

OK, the situation is this. I've got an idea for a book I'll be writing in the future. It's in a very rough ideas stage at the moment, but the basic premise I've got is that a character has gotten stuck in the future, and wants to get back to the past and all his friends.

The problem is how I've decided time travel would work in my stories. Time travel to the future is possible because we're all travelling in that direction anyway. Time travel to the past is impossible, at least in the magical way my character is doing it. In trying to force time to go back, the character ends up breaking it.

Quite what would happen after that hasn't been formed yet, but one of the side effects I've decided on is that what was once fixed is no longer so stable. People who were never born now exist, species that didn't evolve now exist, etc. I've been trying to come up with a collective name for these people, and am stuck between two.

...So being the gutless wretch that I am I thought I'd ask you guys for your opinions

 

[Bowler1]

Would there ever be a collective name as only one person would be traveling back in time and the collective, would never know any better to give themselves a name?

That aside it's a nice idea and one I would have kept to myself! You're safe with me as I'm into SciFi!

 

[MemoryTale]

The collective name is something they'd be given by non-collective people who became aware of the situation. I'm not too worried about idea theft. As I've said it's in very rough ideas form at the moment, so anyone who nicks off with it would end up producing something entirely different anyway. Who knows, if they get published simultaneously we can sue each other and get awesome publicity

 

[allmywires]

I like that idea, and went for Never-were...as a name I like the Fateless, but I'm not sure it really fits with what you're going for as much.

 

[alchemist]

The problem with Never-were is that they Now-are, and they do have a fate. I think a term with a root of New- or Neo- may be better.

 

[Vertigo]

Seems to me that what distinguishes them is having no past or no history. So here's some ideas (some horrible) but might give you and idea:

Historyless
Pastless
Ageless
Timeless
Norigins (no origins)
Lifeless
Unborn

 

[nixie]

I like the Norigins

 

[The Judge]

Never-were reminds me of the neverwozzers from le Carre's A Perfect Spy (they're the ones who can't be called has-beens because they never were). These people/creatures are actually the once-weren't.

I agree with alchemist -- I'd go with something along the lines of the here-live, here-now, now-living, but I'd spend some time with a Latin/Greek translation so as to give it a bit of class!

 

[Bowler1]

The collective name is something they'd be given by non-collective people who became aware of the situation.

Ouch, that burned out quite a few of my remaining brain cells.

I guess you'd have to have some baddies/goodies chasing your hero to stop them changing history. Good luck with the law suit.

 

[Bowler1]

Never-were reminds me of the neverwozzers from le Carre's A Perfect Spy (they're the ones who can't be called has-beens because they never were). These people/creatures are actually the once-weren't.

Ouch, ouch and oouucchhhhh. Me brain cells.....

 

[Hex]

Of the two, I prefer 'Neverwere'. I like the idea of a fancy furrin word meaning now here -- but I also wondered about something that describes where they come from -- something like the chaosborn* or [whatever name you come up with for your catastrophe]-born.


* I have a strong feeling I knicked that from somewhere, but the closest I can come is 'Prince of the Godborn', and I don't think it's that.

 

[Mouse]

I see 'Neverwere' as Neverwhere and immediately think Neil Gaiman.

 

[MemoryTale]

Ouch, that burned out quite a few of my remaining brain cells.

I guess you'd have to have some baddies/goodies chasing your hero to stop them changing history. Good luck with the law suit.

Well the way I see it, a story needs conflict if it's going to work. No-one's really going to stop someone saving a world they happen to be living on, so for any conflict in the main plot there needs to be a group who would very much like to keep on existing.

...I know a guy who can do brain transplants nice and cheap, no questions answered.

 

[James Coote]

+1 for Norigins, but in the vote, I caste for the fateless. It might not be correct, but it sounds better than never-were

 

[Grimbear]

Have to opt for neither one. Like Mouse the Never-were made me think of Gaiman, and sounds to me like calling them Fateless would be a misnomer.

How about just something on the theme of newness: could be you could raid other languages for your term? 'Nuevos', 'Nouvos', 'Natos' ??

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I read "Never-were" as if the "were" is part of "werewolf", rather than past tense of "was". I don't like "Fateless", and I don't think it's right for your concept.

My feeling is that they are something more like rootless, nebulous; I like Hex's "chaosborn", if it's not from something else.

 

[Abernovo]

Of the two I prefer Never-were, but I keep getting a Raven's voice saying it, which puts me off.

I like some of the suggestions so far, so I'll add my own: Uncreated. They go back and erase their own existence.

 

[Icyphoenix]

Not really into either name. How about a name playing on the word chronological? Here's a list I thought of:

Chronological
Chrono-ilogical
Chrono-shift
Chrono-jump
Time-breaker
The other time(s)

 

[Grimward]

Blast.

Thought I had a good one for you, then found that Heinlein grabbed it a long time ago. Of the two, Never-were (although I'd also remove the hyphen). Of the other recommendations, make that +2 for Norigins.

 

[MemoryTale]

Thanks, some really helpful comments here. I'm tempted to avoid our own foreign languages. Since I'm trying to make a world that has its own languages it might look out of place if suddenly there's a Spanish or Latin name in there.