Trouble Naming Things

Drackana Darastrix

Drackana Darastrix

Artist and Monster Maker
So I am not sure if anyone has this problem or if maybe this is just me, but does anyone have trouble naming things for characters or places?

I know I have this need for most of my characters and places to have names that mean something else, but recently i have been working on properly naming things for an alien planet full of a multitude of monsters and I am having trouble creating names. So I was kind of curious on how others deal with naming things and maybe I can learn something to help me with my problem.

:)
 
Erasmvs said:
I usually name my OCs random names in matter of seconds lool
But you can look up mythical name generators or stuff like that
I just googled some stuff and I found this!
http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com
Try it??
Click to expand...
I want to say I disagree with that. I want a name that hints at what a person is like, an every role-play is different. You'll never know when you need a custom name fit for your particular needs. You are unique from everyone else, and so is you role-play.
 
There are a couple of ways to do it.

#1: Just come up with a basic nomenclature and then roll with it.

Eg: All Elves Have Apostrophes.
Elun'dora
Mova'kun
Alo'vera
Melan'dor

And so on.

#2: Take two names of real world creatures. Smash together.

Eg: "Bear" and "Wolf" become "Wear" or "Bolf".
"Dolphin" and "Elephant" become "Elephin" or "Dolphant".
"Hyena" and "Lawyer" become "Hyer" or "Lawena".

#3: Use a name generator. Take any names you get and modify them accordingly.

#4: Don't try to name literally everything from the word "go." Name things as they appear. If you have to name more than 20 creatures from the word go, you're probably overloading on the content anyway.
 
Okay, i have a somewhat odd way of naming things unless they just pop into my head of course. I close my eyes and imagine everything about the character. how he/she looks, what they act like, what they like dislike, how they live or lived and so on. basically, I imagine they were alive and usually that helps me find a name. usually, i flip trough names then and see if the name feels right for the person or not. I also usually don't pay much mind to what others say about the end result since I know that for me it is what felt right.
Just make a list of names and try flipping them or combining them with other names that is also an option but it doesn't work the best for me. get inspiration from other media, use words that describe the person and transform them: Goodwin, Vanice being two for example.
I'm not an expert by far, have fun with the names a bit.
Also, there are generators for everything these days in case that's more for you. or just google a list of names that fit your character and the world they live in best. also, keep in mind if it is a medieval setting for example that you use names that actually existed at the time unless its a time travel setting :)

Hope it helps and isn't too out there :)
 
I completely agree, names for characters can be so difficult to think up. So I usually just focus on something else, then when I least expect, I get ideas for cool names!
 
For me, it depends on what kind of names I want. For the alien planet, I suggest looking at who named them in your Universe. If they're alien names in an alien language, you could go the standard gibberish route and put a bunch of random syllables and sounds together. You may want names that sound like they came from the same language. Try looking at real-world languages and make up words that sound like that. Combing languages that have little in common is a good way to go, too. Look through a text in a language you do not understand, and twist it a bit. For example, Raverossin was inspired by the Spanish word for "Keep," flipped backwards.

If humans exist in this world, it would be probable that they named them. In fact, it would be safe to assume some sort of Biologist named them. Biologists usually use a combination of Latin roots, notable names in the field (or even outside, there's several spiders named for David Bowie if I'm not mistaken) and what I'll call descriptor words. Words like "Hammer" or "Head," In the case of the Hammerhead shark. Descriptor words could be anything, describing anything from shape, to color, to place of origin, to diet. Translate part of a phrase into Latin for a cool effect. For example, the Green-Blooded Ovumcomedenti describes a green-blooded organism that eats eggs. All I did was translate "Egg Eater" to Latin and smash the two words together to get a species name. You could also create a Frilled Ovumcomedenti, or an Anything you want Ovumcomedenti.

Sorry for the long post. Hope this helps!
 
When I'm coming up with names for anything, be it a person, place or thing, I try to have a little background created beforehand. Something for me to go on and look into.
For example; I wanted to create a codename for a character to use. I took a trait/skill of theirs and translated it into different languages until I found one that I liked. Or, if I know what culture/region a character is from, I'll use a name generator and look at names from that specific area. Ex; Russia.

Hope all the advice that was given by others and myself is helpful.
 
I'll try to keep this short, as I imagine there is much better advice here, but I would go with what sounds both

A. Recognizable
B. Memorable

A simple name like "The North" is easily recognizable and memorable. A big gripe I have with fantasy writers is the insistence to have these exotic sounding names, often with very French-inspired "x's" and "y's" thrown about. Unless your trying to depict an exotic character in-universe, names should be both simple and easy to remember. A common way of doing this is manipulating common suffixs and prefixs and meshing them together into hybrid words or simply creating words. When writing or roleplaying, it is not about trying to show off how much you know about conjectures, prepositional phrases or feats of vocabulary. It is showing off how much you can efficiently use them.
 
I honestly have this same problem sometimes. I want to have names that mean something, but sometimes it's hard to come up with them. So I have my own little system I use. The first thing I do is pick a theme for my world, characters, etc. Being a mythology geek myself, I often go along those lines.

Say, for example, you decide to theme your world to Greek mythology (I picked this example because it's one of my go-tos ones, because it's one of the ones I know the most about. My screen name actually comes from Greek mythology.) You can go to wikipedia and look up lists of mythological creatures or the gods and goddesses from Greek mythology. You get a whole list of names, along with an association that goes along with them. So, let's say you found wikipedia's page of Greek mythological figures (this is a page I use a lot). You want to find a name for some sea predator. You find that there was a Greek god named Phorcys, who was the god of the hidden dangers of the deep. Seems like that would work for some frightening sea beast, right? You can, of course, use the name as-is, but personally I prefer to alter it slightly. So maybe you decide to name your sea beast a phoryx. Close enough to the name to carry some of the meaning, but it's your own name, not one that's just copy/pasted from and ancient culture's beliefs.

But perhaps you don't want to go the obvious sea route. Looking through the list, you find there was a deity named Oizys, who was a spirit of woe and misery. This would also work for a dangerous beast, even if it has nothing to do with the sea. So maybe you decide to name your creature oizones. Again, close to the inspiration, but you changed it a bit to make it yours.

This trick works using just about any theme. I have, of course, used Greek mythology for this, but I've also done Roman, Egyptian, Norse, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc. But you can also do other themes. Take names from the scientific names of real plants, animals, etc. Put your own spin on things. If you're creating a fantasy world and are a fan of Lord of the Rings, use a base from any of the suggestions, but alter them to resemble some of the common themes of Tolkien's names.

But anyway, that's just my two cents on the matter, and I hope you find the suggestion helpful.
 
I also have this problem but I just write gibberish and pick out a nice word. Another strategy is picking out a random letter like L and making a name like Lavander, Lamara, Lasterous. That works for me all the time! Also, think of what you're naming. More casual names for people and more epic names for weapons, cities etc. Hope it helps!
 
Sometimes when I try to name things, I either come up with a generic name or I use Google Translate to come up with something in Latin. Not exactly the best way to go about it, but it works.
 
Erasmvs said:
I usually name my OCs random names in matter of seconds lool
But you can look up mythical name generators or stuff like that
I just googled some stuff and I found this!
http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com
Try it??
Click to expand...

I also use fantasynamegenerators.com but I tend to use it as reference/guide. I usually pick something random from there that I like and then try to match it with something else to come up with the name that I think is acceptable for me.
 
If I name a character that is important to the plot, I will often look up names with the definition I want that reflects the character or look up a key word in other languages. That often gives me a start. If that does not work, I will use name generators, usually if I'm having trouble making it feel authentic. I have a terrible time naming dwarves. Dwarf name generators can at least point me in the right direction.
 
I usually think of a few words describing a character and then throwing them into a translator, I'll pick a language which suits the topic. So if I were to introduce say a gunslinger in a desert setting I would translate gun to Arabic and find Sillah Nariin a perfectly usable name.
Although this might come off as a bit 'corny' to anybody actually speaking the language in question so it's best to know your group a bit before doing so.

A good example of this is how Groot from the Guardians of the Galaxy comics and films just means big in Dutch.
 
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