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A hint for coming up with names

Point08

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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!

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I usually use a theme to make naming easier. XD

 

Kinda like how pokemon used it for their towns.

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Other languages is a good method, but not always the best.

Sometimes it comes off as pretty bad, naming a fire location "Fuego" is not going to trick anyone. However, more abstract sources or compound words might do you better. Calling an enemy "Napad", is pretty obscure and either inspire some tangential education, or investigation. Also a word of warning is to not do this with everything in your game unless it really makes sense in the context of your world. Naming too many things in a modified version of one language can really culturally tinge what you're working with, and doing it with several languages can make things incredibly messy.

I'd also recommend caution around your thesaurus. Too blatant or just off of sounding names can make things sound extremely 90s, extremely corny, or just extremely amateur. Careful around that bible too, use it too much and it's a one-way trip to pretentious town. Of course, if you can live up to your pretensions, that's another story.

 

Anecdotally, I recently changed the name of an ancient progenitor race in my story from "Olamic" to "Aldegund". Names are always a work in progress, and I find "Aldegund" far, far too fantasy and Tolkien for my setting - though that's just testament to always trying to straddle the line between meaning and actual sound / spelling. 

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You definitely make some good points Chaosian, several are things I should have mentioned and simply forgot to include. For example, you should (almost, there's always exceptions I suppose) never use words that are too close in spelling or pronunciation (whether correct or incorrect) to the original word. Your fire/fuego is a good example of why, it just comes off as cheesy.

 

Over use of this method will certainly lead to a mess, not too mention a world where the names likely will seem out of place from a lore perspective. This method is really meant to be used in one of two ways: as something to kick start your imagination, giving you a place to start where you can then come up with your own name; when you are completely stumped and simply can't think of anything, and even in this case you should come back to the name at some point and reevaluate whether it fits or needs some modification.

 

I generally would recommend not using the same language repeatedly, rather pick things that, based on whatever pronunciation you choose, sound like they fit your world. In games without voice acting (99% of RM games), I don't think it's necessarily wrong to include a phonetic guide to a strange word the first time it used, or if there is a non-quest game journal (more like a glossary type thing, with game terms, locations, etc.) putting it in there. I say this as a personal opinion though, since I hate when I play a game, then later find out (through a wiki, or video, or whatever) that something is pronounced completely differently than I thought. I hate it the most when it is a person's name. That may be an odd annoyance unique to me however.

 

I definitely agree with staying away from the bible, or any other religious document in general. This is likely to create more problems than it's worth.

 

As for use of a thesaurus, again, this should really be used as a starting point to jog your imagination, not a naming chart where you look up a word, find a synonym, and that is then your name.

 

If you're planning on looking up mountain and doom, and then naming a mountain in your game Mount Doom, but in another language, or mix of languages, stop. You completely misunderstood the point of this post, and probably need to read an actual guide on naming things (and probably writing and worldbuilding as well).

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I do the exact same thing when I come up with names. For people, one site I like to use is thinkbabynames.com It's good for simple things like what male names mean forest or what female names mean spring. There several name databases like that out there. If I want someone to have a Celtic/Irish/Scottish kind of name, I'll Google "Irish Names" and find a database.

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Nice, inspirational work, Point! I'll admit you'll probably be my crutch when I get writer's block, but otherwise, I'm sure this will be helpful.

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Nice, inspirational work, Point! I'll admit you'll probably be my crutch when I get writer's block, but otherwise, I'm sure this will be helpful.

Well, I get writer's block too, so no promises...

 

As long as my brain is working though, I'm always happy to help if I can!

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