Picking Names

[Hysteria]

Well, I've been thinking about how to name not just main characters but also NPCs. In the past I've used a number or ways, sometimes randomly picking names until one sounds right, through to using other languages, referencing other literature or searching names based on their meanings.

For example, my not often used character Raksha means protection. He is a lawful good character who would help anyone he saw in trouble.

Talen comes from a child thief from a David Eddings book I read years ago as a kid (books that helped Kindle my love of fantasy).

Sometimes I take verbs or nouns and turn them into names as well. I used to have a tiefling female character called Ire for example. She was one of a pair who also had a name meaning anger.

Remedy is a mixture of referencing the book Boneshaker for her last name Blue and steam punk references, using a noun Remedy and picking a name that suited her Winona (her not used first name).

So, how do you pick your names? Do you think it's worth while foreshadowing stories by the names you pick for your NPCs? Or is it a waste of time?

Do you find the name actually crafts the character?

[hoytti]

I have a few ways. Sometimes I take a bunch of letters and just try to get a name using them (Sorish), Other times I go with Irony (AbriNANO), and sometimes I go with a foreign language (Invetisto de Masinoj).

[Zook Murnig]

I picked the name "Waterstone" before I actually decided anything else about this character, just as a joking run-with-it reference to the Waterstones bookstores of the UK (my only knowledge of them comes from their official twitter messages posted on tumblr). Alma is a Hebrew name, meaning "maiden," which fits in with the witch theme (the traditional trinity of a coven was Maiden, Mother, Crone). Sehlama'im is actually just a loosely translated and transliterated "waterstone" in Hebrew.

Other names, I've either picked from a culturally appropriate list on http://www.20000-names.com/ or pulled from a DnD or Pathfinder book (in the case of non-human characters). Cohen Ephraim, my old character on this account, was pulled from the Hebrew list on 20000 Names, and his old name of Caduceus Grimaldi was just me trying to find a mysterious sounding name for my magician.

[Alydia Ettermire]

I'm very careful with my names. First, I consider the culture I want to imbue the character with. Take Alydia, for instance. I knew she was going to be basically Carmen Sandiego, so I wanted a city name that would sound exotic to most Althanians for her last name. That put Radasanth right out. Talmhaidh? No, Karuka was already Irish. Irrakam? No, Karu was also half Indian. Eluriand? Proooomising. The High Elves can be pretty nerdy. But the fashion... There's no way a self-respecting Raiaeran would be caught dead in Carmen's getup. Knife's Edge? Nope. What's another city in Salvar? Don't care. Well, we're down to Alerar or working hard digging up more obscure cities around Althanas. Let's see. Ettermire. Good. Solid. Has a nice ring to it. They're also a well-educated people in the class she'd come of age in (because I also went with the 'orphan, raised by the Chief' backstory - which gave her a reason to have the city as a last name), so she'd have access to the materials she'd need to fan the flames of curiosity into a raging inferno.

She's an Alerian, so I knew I'd go with a drow name. I looked up what Carmen meant, and it means poem. I looked at my name table. Nothing for poem in there. So let's look up Melody. Nope. Dance? Nope (or I didn't like it). I tried a couple of other words that also didn't come up, then just started reading the meanings. I stumbled on the right one almost immediately. Aly- means "song." Good. I needed another part. I looked for thief; it makes sense. -dia means "thief." Aly- -dia. Alydia. I liked it.

It took me an hour to name a tribute/joke character after either INDK or Ataraxis double-dog dared me to make her. Pretty sure it was Shyam, though.

[Hysteria]

Ok, Alydia's name is way more complex than I realised ^_^

What do you all think about the merits story wise? Is it all for naught if (perhaps like Alydia and myself) it goes over the reader's head?

Or is it a case of providing meaning purely for the writer? That in itself could make for a more invested author and more complex character.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

For me, names are just names. They've never held any sort of significance. They're just things that differentiate one character from another.

When I originally came up with Madison, she was going to be one of the leads in a cyberpunk webcomic/radio drama I had plans for. The joke was going to be that her great-grandparents were a little too into the 60's and 70's, got into drugs, and changed their last name to pay homage to Skynyrd. None of the descendants ever bothered to change their name back.

That is literally the most effort I've ever put into naming a character. Everyone else gets the good ol' random name generator treatment.

[hoytti]

I think of names being more important to writers then readers. However, if a name seems to have a noticeable pun or something important to the story then the writer could take notice.

[Alydia Ettermire]

I like my names to have meaning, even if it's only to me. Karu's father was a brahmin, and named his daughter accordingly - Karuka is an Indian name meaning "art of heaven." The female founder of her bloodline was named Sheehan (because I had a professor whose last name was Sheehan and I liked her), so Karu's last name became O'Sheean - descendants of Sheehan.

Taische is an Irish name meaning treasure, both because her mother loves her and because her sperm donor only values that which glitters.

Illara was named for a character I liked in a game I used to play (Illaria, Legacy of a Thousand Suns). I thought the name was pretty and just about elven, so I took it for my own.

[Ashla]

I just came up with the name "Ashla" on a whim, but mmost other names have meaning to them. I don't remember what most of them mean now, but they mea something. I found the name "Daisuke" for an NPC somewhere and it stuck; he's a butler type character who personally looks (or looked... DUN DUN DUN!) over Ashla's progress as a leader and will be one of Hanuh's major parental figures in life.

"Hanuh" is a weird spelling for "Hannah," after someone who was a close friend of mine (we're still friends, but not as close as we used to.) I don't remember what inspired Julius' first name, but his last name means something about "fire." I like the name "Percy," the name of... a children's cartoon character... and I made it the nickname of Penelope. Penelope was made on a whim.

I remember I got Kaid from something, I don't remember what though.

So yeah...

[Lye]

Back in the day, I had a tough time picking names. I tried to pick names that no one had used before and ended up with a lot of hard to pronounce, silly ideas. Lichensith was one of them. Back then, I tried to combine the idea of a lich with the idea of black. Unfortunately, Sith from Star Wars came to mind instead. Hence, the horrible name of Lichensith was born. To justify my lameness, I wrote in the character history, that this name meant "black silk" in reference to how the foster parents found him. All of it was so very corny and Lye isn't too much of an improvement. Luckily, Lye has manage to impact to many character stories and imprint himself into many other player character updates.

All in all, that worked out.

As for my other characters, their names were just a whim. Siegfried is somewhat common for hero names and also the name of a legendary knight. Alfheim, his last name, was a deviation of Norse titles for the realm. Niffelhiem being the realm of the dead, Alfheim was the realm of the elves, spelt with an "A" to preserve the "ah" sound of the Germanic Style pronunciation.

Alyssa Snow was simply an old name from an old character on an old RP site. I liked the name Alyssa for a female and ran with that. She was an escapee that was found chilled half to death in the snow. Her saviors, those red things in FFVIII, brought her back to the Shumi Tribe where they called her "Child of the Snow". Hence, she was known as Alyssa Snow. On Althanas, I had to deviate that origin story heavily to fit the current lore, and instead of changing the name, I changed her to be a prototype project. Her code name was then to be some sciency number set of greek alphabet designation and numbers. In all, a child would read it and make out: Alyssa Snow. So, to be more human, she calls herself that.

For Lady, I made her a slave and her history so twisted and dark, that she cannot remember her real name. That makes it simple since her original master just called her "lady".

My other two characters had interesting names using a common name and taking an ethnic twist to it, like Russian. In situations where the first name is highly unique and difficult, I like to give the characters a middle name or nickname that's easier to identify with. Just like odd names in reality, people with odd names in fantasy would likely have alternate nicknames to avoid misspellings or the confused expression of a stranger.

All in all, there are no wrong ways to go about naming a character. Just run through the gambit, make a list, highlight your favs, and repeat until you nail something that fits the image and personality of your intended character.