Is there a way to edit the name list that comes with Scrivener?
I ask this question because in the German lists (first as well as last names) there alway occur names which are definitely not “typically” German and some which are spelled wrong.
I know that I could just “overlook” this but I find it extremely distracting.
Thanks
jester
Oh, the name generator… 
I do hope nobody seriously uses it for generating Russian names, because I tried it out of curiosity and cannot stop laughing now.
As far as I can see, there is a way to import your own list of names. However, it’s not clear whether my own list will replace the whole built-in list or will be merged with it. Anybody tried importing name lists yet?
P.S. - If the developer team decides at some point to revise the built-in name list, they can always count on me if they need help with Russian names. I’m a native speaker and do know what I’m talking about.
I believe it merges with what exists.
The way I’ve done it is to specify that it is my custom list in the “origin” column–so instead of Russian, I actually have “Russian Period” because the names came from a list of “period Russian names.” (Middle ages in general is the period here, which suited my needs). I also have things like 1812 American. I got most of them from DL Thurston’s collection of names at http://www.dlthurston.com/blog/scrivener/.
You could also use tricks to sort the name options to the top of the list. Not sure if special characters are allowed, but just by putting ARussian or even ARussianCorrect could work to make it easy to find good names.
That’s a good trick, actually! I will need to try it. Thank you for the pointers! 
However, the… erm… weird built-in list of Russian names will still stay in Scrivener and somebody might try using it. I don’t want to even think about whether the name lists of other origins have the same problem and that people of other nationalities might find them hilarious, too.
By the way, the most fun part was that I clearly could see the way the list was built. Most of the last names are easily recognizable, because they belong (or belonged) to famous people: modern athletes (seeing Averbukh, Plushenko and Vialbe sent me straight into a giggle fit), both historical and modern politicians (yes, there is Putin), some historical figures (Plekhanov, Nakhimov and even Kshesinskaya, for God’s sake!), musicians (Bashmet, Rostropovich), classic writers and composers (Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Glazunov) and names of characters from said old writers’ books (I got Raskolnikov at least twice). And most of the first names are not names per se, but their pet forms: Petenka, Slavik, Yurochka etc. Add to this the fact that male and female forms of last names are not distinguished. Therefore, anyone using this list runs a risk of getting some Pavlushka Totmianina or Marinochka Beria as a result.
By the way, I don’t suppose there is a way for the generator to distinguish between male and female forms of last names? It’s not a problem with most nationalities, but with some it is.
ETA: Guess that changing the origin will solve the problem with male and female last names’ forms. Make them two separate origins and that’s it. I’ve already built a list of 120+ first names and have started on last names, as you might have guessed already.
Yes, using the origins was the trick I’d have suggested.
My only hope is that aspiring writers who are looking for authenticity won’t just use what random names come up in a bit of software, but who knows? I think it is fine for some things where authenticity isn’t as necessary–I often use the names in fantasy stories to look for things I can tweak anyway (rather than use it as is). Still, there’s nothing like independent verification when going into a project.
There’s been discussion on the forums elsewhere about the lack of correctness in the various Scandinavian names, so it isn’t as if the Russians got picked on. One thing I’ve noticed is that some origins have very, very few female names, or that they have few options in general. Meaning that they are useless unless you only need it for one story. (And then all the Scriveners who use the same name origin will have stories with the same names in them!)
I hope that you share your lists with the Scrivener public when you get them done. I have a medieval Russian novel on the back burner and would love to use your lists for it. (It’s a fantasy, and so is actually pseudo-Russian, but I try for at least a closer approach to authentic names when I do that).
I didn’t mean to say that we were being picked on or something. It’s just that it was really funny experience and it was only logical to think that names of other origins had the same amount of mistakes in them. And you’re absolutely right, everything needs to be double checked before it can be used, and names are no exception.
As for male to female name ratio, I suspect that in some cases it can be due to the fact that there are more male names in use. I built my list of common contemporary Russian names (so I don’t know if you could really use it for a Medieval themed novel) using a telephone book. And I’ve found that there is more variety to male names than to female ones. Currently I have 66 male and 60 female first names on the list. Not that huge a difference, but it’s there nonetheless.
And sure, I will share the lists with Scrivener users when they’re done.
This is a pretty interesting discussion. However, the answer for my question is still open? Can I edit the name list? I would love to delete entries I do not need, or correct wrong spellings - and obviously many of my co-writers above would do so, too.
I suspect that it can, in fact, be edited, although I haven’t checked yet. The database with the default list of names is in the directory where Scrivener is installed. It’s in SQLite format. I gather that if you used a piece of software able to manage SQLite databases, then you could edit the built-in names list.