I’m a big fan of the SF/Fantasy genre and am currently embarking on a fantasy novel (with the help of Scrivener, of course) but here’s the thing, I’m not actually a huge fan of the character names in fantasy novels. Stories in fantastical settings I can write, but I find giving characters what would be considered traditional fantasy names, with apostrophes where apostrophes have no earthly right to dwell, I hit a stumbling block. The names don’t ring true or feel naff.
Until I get a name that feels right, it impacts on my writing and I struggle. Using placeholders doesn’t help at all, as I feel the correct name gives the character more life in my head, and makes the story flow smoother as I write.
Agree entirely - I can’t write until I have a character’s name.
If you’re looking for something outlandish (literally) then one of my all-time favourite tricks is to look at really small place names in a really big world atlas. I’ve found lots of great names this way. You don’t have to stick with what you find of course; you can mess around with the sounds and how it looks, etc.
Another great source is historical literature, and something like Bullfinch’s Complete Mythology or Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” would come in useful, as would ‘novelty’ baby-name books based on ancient gods and goddesses etc. The first two of those can be found online through this link bartleby.com/reference/ (and there’s some other neat resources there too).
I guess if you’re looking at ‘other galaxy’ names you might want to get further from something recognisable, so that means combining words (no irritating apostrophes though - I’m with you on that). Who knows - you might find someone has even made a “sci-fi character name generator” website. If not - any web developers out there want to make one?
The name is seldom a problem, but adding the flesh and a personality is where I begin struggling. Once the character wakes and starts talking though, it’s often a struggle just to keep up!
Also ugh, is pulling letters out of a hat (or a scrabble bag) and using them in the order pulled.
My preference is for pulling random syllables out of a (mental) hat. I can weight the syllables for characteristics of their language (if I have any idea what it should sound like) but otherwise I’m at least guaranteed it’s pronounceable.
I try to get the name on paper as soon as possible after bringing in a new character, otherwise they develop a nameless personality and I have a hard time fitting a name to it. If they have a name from the start, the personality forms around the name.
I’m currently finishing my 2nd fantasy novel (and “currently” can be taken literally ). My characters names are not based on anything - but more than once I had to change a name, because I had made something up that was actually a city in Iraq and suddenly in the news every day or the name of some medicine (internet search is your friend …).
The names are made up letter by letter with two things in mind:
Distinction.
I hate it when characters names sound too similar. I remember mixing up “Saruman” and “Sauron” when I read LotR for the first time. In my expierience the easiest way to avoid this is to have names with as many different first letters as possible.
Sound.
Now that’s a question of individual taste. Some people like “my” names, others can’t get used to them. But I try to let the names sound as fitting to the character as possible, but not too telling (“Lou Cipher”, anyone? ).
I pull a lot of my fantasy names from my trusty Latin, Gaelic, and Hebrew dictionaries, combining different words (totally incorrectly as far as the actual languages go, I know) to make names.
I have a friend who just mashes his hands on the keyboard and then deletes letters from the resulting mess until he gets something readable.
Gene Wolfe, in his Book of the New Sun series, used actual English words which had fallen into disuse to name his characters, places, and objects.
Browsing through my own OED not only wastes time in a delightful way, but you run across the nicest bits of knowledge.
I always make my names distinctive from one another, because I also had trouble with Saruman" and “Sauron,” especially if one is a fast reader and uses the recognition technique, instead of actually sounding them out.
On a less serious note, I know of people who use the names that appear on spam emails (was that mentioned on this forum somewhere…I can’t remember - I have severe CRAFT).
After a while, you end up checking the sender’s names on all your spam, just in case you get a great character (today I got one from “Heriberto Horner” who wants to sell me a rolex).
As for taking names from spam emails, I read that in the NaNoWriMo book, No Plot? No Problem! There really are some outlandish names. Here’s two from todays batch of spam in my inbox… Hubert Orozco and Zamora T. Louise.
One thing I’ve noticed is that some of my favorite authors are simply terrible at naming characters. With a good story it doesn’t really matter, particularly in sci-fi and fantasy writing. Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, probably the most shining examples, managed to come up with some of the most ridiculous names this side of the Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Generally, until I can find a name for a character, it’s “Jack the .” I try to find something that fits when I have the chance, or I wait for divine inspiration. Sometimes having his or her actions and personality fleshed out will create a good name later on.
Good character names can be useful whether you’re writing mainstream fiction or fantasy. It’s very easy, however, to write dreadful fantasy names. Instead of the usual apostrophe thing, why not look at inspiration from other languages? Japanese characters, French ones? Or names that SOUND like they are from another country (which, in a fantasy setting, they are).
But if you’re writing comic fantasy, that’s another matter…
Roman gladiator? Gluteus Maxius
(or, remember Monty Python’s Biggus Dickus)
Starter for ten: why not have a look at names from other languages, and combine, for example, an Arabic surname
He’s already in my novel! How do I go about starting legal proceedings for plagiarism? (OK, I lie. But it’s not far off… and I’m not writing fantasy either. Or comedy. Oh dear. Maybe I should change his name.)
I’m not sure I can help you, since I do urban fantasy with a heavy dose of sci-fi. Almost all of my character names are relatively normal. The ones that aren’t tend to come from heavy metal albums. For example, I have a villain named ‘Ahura Imaginos’ (but he uses the name ‘Isaac Magnin’ around humans). The “Imaginos” part refers to the Blue Öyster Cult album that inspired the character.
I agree with you concerning the use of apostrophes in names. It’s annoying, and it’s a pain in the ass to figure out how to pronounce such name when reading out loud, even if the author does provide a half-assed pronunciation guide. Of course, this brings me to another beef I have with fantasy writers: unless you’re a professor of linguistics of philology, it’s probably a bad idea to even attempt to invent a language.
I’ve found it helpful to go to those “name your baby” websites, especially the ones that let you type in the meaning you’d like your “baby’s” name to have. They’ll generate lists of names that have that meaning, and you can tweak them at will. I often plug in the character’s dominant traits, and see what I get.
). My characters names are not based on anything - but more than once I had to change a name, because I had made something up that was actually a city in Iraq and suddenly in the news every day or the name of some medicine (internet search is your friend …).
).
