11 réponses à ce sujet

[Driggan]

Am I the only one who thinks trying to come up with decent and original names is the hardest part of writing plot and dialog? It's a total mindf*ck for me, it bothers me while I sleep.

Honestly, sometimes I just go search medieval names in google and try to find decent ones. Many of them look pretty strange these days, so it's hard to find one that modern folk wouldn't find disconcerting.

Other times I try taking normal words and rearranging the letters and adding a few in to find a name that sounds pretty decent.

What do you folks do to come up with names for your characters, elves, dwarves, kings, cities, forests, mountain ranges, villages, oceans, lands, fields, kittens, etc?

[Tekbear]

brainstorming is an art no question about it. try not to think too hard that always helps for me

[Niko Daemon]

What u r doin is actually a good tactic, but eventually some1 will know who Elric is, or that Commander Shepard came from so&so [HEHEH]. Try takin that research and twistn it, like the rearranging that u mentioned: like Erlic, or Commander Shaperd...



Names should b the easy part if u r truly creative... It's the deep plots that r hard 2 produce.

[Driggan]

You'd think names would be easy, plot hard. But here I am, sitting on a project with a complete plot which I think is deep enough to get soaked in, and I'm drawing a big blank at names. I guess the real problem isn't just naming a few folks, it's that I have to name somewhere around 10 cities, a mountain range or two, an ocean, several rivers, lakes, some forests, and over a hundred characters.



The elf ones especially are difficult, every time I try to come up with some I get something ridiculous like Elaladuludalia and start laughing my *ss off, and never get any names done.



I guess I should just focus on giving the less story-related characters more generic names and work more on main characters.

[Kanerian]

What I've found that works is picking a theme for a race/culture or setting, matching it with a rl one and drawing from there. Say, tying all of your humans from a particular area with Norse names, Cymryc names, or old Germanic names. Google a list of the appropriate names if you don't have access to research materials. That way the names are linked. Even if people don't recognize them, they can see the similar patterns and it feels more authentic. I'd change them around from there to make them more pronounceable or unique to your setting, but it serves as a good base.



And I agree, while story and plot can be difficult, they also come with a lot of payoff while writing. Names are tedious, especially when you're getting away from the main characters. Add in that when you do get the names just right...big deal, they're just names. It's not like tying together a bunch of plot lines for a great ending or climactic moment; you just named some characters.

[Amberyl Ravenclaw]

What I do is look up real-life names from obscure origins and mess with them by adding or subtracting some letters here and there. Heck, sometimes I even use baby name lists sourced from the Net. As long as it doesn't sound too ridiculous and can still be pronounced somehow, that should be OK.

[MightySword]

Honestly this is probably the biggest rock I'm banging my head against now as I'm formalizing my script. I naturally suck at remembering people name so I'm naturally suck at making one up. Searching around for references and I usually find myself end up with some really corny names that make the script pretentious half of the time >_<

[OwenM]

Yep, this is one of my biggest problems too. And the solutions are fairly similar to what people above have suggested. XD



Of course, some authors cheat, and use everyday objects/verbs for their characters names. *glances at Steven Erikson*. Names like "Fiddler", "Blues", "Jumpy", and so on. Mainly only in one area where it makes sense - a military, or other hierarchical order. But that often doesn't 'fit' other worlds, particularly pre-made ones like we often find when modding...

[Dennis Carpenter]

MightySword wrote...

Honestly this is probably the biggest rock I'm banging my head against now as I'm formalizing my script. I naturally suck at remembering people name so I'm naturally suck at making one up. Searching around for references and I usually find myself end up with some really corny names that make the script pretentious half of the time >_<

Try some books even baby name books also name books from other countries.. most popular names and such or books like th silmarillion by tolkien where there is a whole vocabulary in the back that allow you to put together names. Even just check names online theres milllions of them.

[Axe_Murderer]

I just start typing letters and see what comes out...sort of refine it as I go until I get something acceptable. I try to keep them in the pronouncable arena -- I don't like names with symbols in them. Sometimes just take common names or words and start changing letters.

[DeaconX]

Thankfully it's not something I have too much trouble with.



To me, the key is capturing the spirit of that character/place in the name. I don't focus so much on names, but on what I'm trying to tell people on an almost subliminal level instead.

[Taltherion]

Search the internet - there are a couple of not-so-bad name generators, some even generating names in the language Tolkien invented for his elfs.



http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/

http://www.fantasyna...namelanguage=el



These ones have a lot:



http://www.squid.org...andom-generator



http://seventhsanctu.../index-name.php





Granted, a lot of names in the lists are not that good, but I think you can find good ones if you play around with those names a bit.