Will any future WIndows version have the facility to make the names created by the Name Generator less obscure? I know the Mac version has this function, but the Windows version at present seems defaulted to the obscure option, with no slider like the Mac version in order to reduce the obscurity. I can’t use it at present, because it’s coming up with weird and wonderful names that don’t suit my writing.
I noticed that too. The names I get are too unusual to be useful.
This is on my list, to take a look at the current lists and create some new ones with some more familiar names, but I have to say it’s low priority at the moment after bugs and whatnot. So it’s not forgotten, just very back burner. If you’d like, the generator does give you the ability to add your own lists; clicking the “Help” icon in the Import tab will give instructions and an example for how to do this. Feel free to post any lists you create in the Tips section of the forum, if you’d like to share with others users–and take a look there, too, as I know some others have done this.
I’d like to see this fixed too - the name generator was one of the major reasons I bought Scrivener. Thanks.
It would also be great to be able to specify the decade when the character to be named was born - names do go in and out of fashion. But I appreciate that that would require a lot of work.
As I said, you can create your own lists and browse the boards for others. There are some here, for example, that have names from a few specific periods.
Well, if I had my own lists, I wouldn’t need the name generator…
Thanks for the link, I’ll keep an eye on that thread - I need 20th century UK names, perhaps someone will generously share them.
At the risk of being Captain Obvious, may I suggest the phone book? Pick a first name you like, and pair it with a family name you like.
I’ve found spam names (porn and others) quite useful in the past - a desirable mix of colour and rarity, with a hint, when deployed appropriately, of revenge…
It’s really easy to make your own lists. I’ve just put together a few of my own in under 10 mins. All you need is a copy of Excel and a bit of Googling.
Baby name sites are good for first names and you can usually pull about 500 at a time. They also tend to be ranked, so you can get most the popular names for each year and more importantly by country.
There are quite a few census data sites where you can pull last names too.
Here are my quick and dirty steps to make yourself a list.
0. Find your names
- Highlight and copy them all
- Open excel and click the top-most box (a1)
- In Excel (2010), drop down the “paste” options and choose ‘paste special’
- Choose to paste as ‘text’
- You should (fingers crossed) get a list of names running down the A column.
- Click on the first box in column b (b1)
- Type: =A1&",M,English,"""""
You’ll need to adjust the syntax according to your own name list. The ‘M’ represents [M]ale names, but you can use ‘F’ if you have [F]emale names. ‘English’ refers to the nationality, obviously you can change this, as well as append the era or any other pertinent information. The five quote “”""" symbols just feed the system with a blank value for the name meaning and close the formula. - When you hit return, you should get:
A1 | B1
Aaron | Aaron,M,English,”” - Hover the mouse over the bottom right corner of box B1 and you’ll see the cursor change to a + sign. Now click and drag right the way down to the bottom of your name list. This will copy the formula down and append all the names with this extra information.
- Select all of your appended names in column B and copy them.
- Pick an empty column (say column C) and Paste > Special > Values. This recreates the names list, but free of the formulas.
- Highlight your two original columns (A & B) and delete them completely
- You should now be left with just one column of names with the sex and nationality and quotes in.
- Go to ‘Save As’ and save it as a ‘Formatted Text (space delimited)’ File which has the extension .PRN
This is key, as all of the other formats add extra quote marks which will annoy Scrivener. - Once your file is saved, find it in explorer and just rename it from a .prn to a .txt file. It will throw up a warning, but just ignore it.
- Now go to the name generator in Scrivener > Import > Browse, find your file and Import.
- Done.
The only stumbling block with this solution is if your name list does not paste into excel as a vertical list. You might find it just fills cell A1 with a million names, depending on how the source data is formatted. But generally I have found this method to work 99% of the time. Obviously it doesn’t account for name meanings, but I have found these to be of little importance in the grand scheme of things. You can always look up your favourite names on the web if you’re that desperate to find out!
Anyway I hope this helps somebody. It’s not as complex as it sounds (I hope). I promise once you’ve done it once or twice you’ll be making your own lists in minutes.
Maybe we should set up a thread where people can share name lists?
Take it easy
Joe
Wow, such a lot of helpful advice. Thank you, folks. I’ve had troubles finding UK names, because Google is less then useless these days and keeps directing me to US sites and sites that list “top 10” names for 2011 and similar. But I haven’t thought of baby name sites or (sigh!) the telephone directory…
Re sharing lists, yes, definitely - there’s the thread MimeticMouton linked to, so we could add to them.
There are analog ways to do this–besides the phone book, consider a stroll through the cemetery–and digital ones: If your WIP is set in the UK, and you have some sort of context–by era, location, affinity group, whatever–try Googling (for example) Genuki Devon. Or Genuki Lancashire. You’ll find endless lists of 15th-century harquebusmen and owners of fishing vessels and marriage records, etc.
Consider who your character is, and from that what his or her name must be. Random digital name combinations seem more appropriate for faceless backgrounders. Your main characters need to wear names those people would have in real life, from their real family background and class. An upper-middle-class attendee at a Public School who speaks perfect RP is unlikely to be named Chardonnay. A plucky working-class teenager clawing herself upward by her force of intellect is unlikely to be named Iona. Search the Web for who your character is, and you’ll probably discover her real name, though you may have to splice two people together.
When I watch American TV dramas I’m often struck by how unsuitable the names of British characters are, particularly personal names. There is a whole “class system” of names in Britain, and American writers are just not familiar with it. It’s a bit like coming across a Texan called Marmaduke. Not impossible, I’m sure, but you take the point!
Martin.
I agree. A name IMO should say something - definitely social, possibly personal - about a character, and should be carefully chosen. Fleming allegedly created names for his villains (Blofeld, Scaramanga) from people he’d known at school that he disliked. No doubt this gave him a degree of personal satisfaction, but it also probably appealed to the xenophobia of the post-war WASP readership for which he was writing. They read the name 'Scaramanga" and they knew immediately its owner had to be a bad 'un. Needless to say, the name ‘James Bond’ may have been stolen from an ornithologist, but in its sound, rhythm and word-associations, it tells you a huge amount about Fleming’s hero.