A hint for coming up with names
Even though only like two people read these entries, I'm still going to post this here.
When writing, sometimes a name for a person or place just comes to me. Other times I end up using some generic placeholder until I can come up with something. When that happens, there's a method I sometimes use, that might be useful to other people.
First, think of some characteristic about the person, or place you're trying to name. Or you can even go with what they are/what it is. For example, if your character is your villain, and the place you're trying to name is a wizard's tower. Now that you've got that, go to Wiktionary and type that word in. Go to the translations section and look for a word in another language that would work as a name. You don't have to use the word exactly, you can change it slightly or significantly, this is simply for inspiration. I didn't like any of the ones under villain, so you can use synonyms for that (if you don't know any, or can't think of any, use a thesaurus to find some) and then type in that word. I used evil, and scrolled down to the translations.
Hmm, let's see, the Asturian word for morally corrupt (found under the translations for evil) is malvau. The dark sorcerer Malvau? Not the best one I've come across, but I could work with that, and I'm sure with a little thought a letter or two could be changed to make it fit my world better.
What about our place, the wizard's tower? Velho Tornis. I could see that on a fantasy map. It's a combination of the Finnish word for wizard (velho) and the Latvian word for tower (tornis). Again, not the best combo I've come up with, but I spent about one minute on coming up with names for the villain and the tower. Spend a few minutes more searching for some related words and/or direct synonyms, and I think you'll often come up with something that works for you.
Simple method, that while it won't always give a satisfactory result, takes little time so trying it out doesn't cost you much. I hope maybe this method will someone out. For the people who do happen to read this, if you've got methods you use, feel free to share them in the comments. New ideas on how to do things are always helpful!
-
3



6 Comments
Recommended Comments