Inventing better names

[Hugget Sukker]

A sometimes overlooked little feature of fantasy: Original names. Perhaps most famous for invented names would be JRR Tolkien, but I don't want to copy his style frankly.
I'm trying to invent as many nice-sounding and catchy fantasy location names (cities and realms) as I can. I want them to mean nothing in plain English, and just be memorable, varied, and waking curiousity.

Here is my list so far.

Realms, lands, and settlements

Asumea
Btuim
Chuuns
Dorleest
Dyfulskor
Êbalunea
Furfoelnec
Gergrisl
Hark-Chillea
Holdums
Lanisvoll
Mursplanum
Mystursas
Nalnung
Nuim
Ogdynu
Pelparavel
Saffensten
Slenvarren or Silvarren
Termynaros
Turnabia

What do you think? Do these all sound good to you? I can have a slippy memory, so something here could be unoriginal without me remembering where it comes from. But I should not think so.
Do you have some juicy tips also?

 

[Kunfury]

these look good and as far as i can see they don't remind me of anything. Mind if I use a few of them?

 

[Hugget Sukker]

I don't mind. Use them. I have only found use for these so far:

Bunch of description

- Huldums. I decided to use Huldums as "The Huldums"; a range of mountains a bit like "the Alpes".
- Ogdyno became transformed into "The Great Ogdynae to the East": The Ogdynae (in my lore) is 1001 Nights classic Arabia, where sultans rule and is known for treasures, goods, merchants, astronomy, magic, thievery, assassins, and, ofcourse, sand. It's just a name that came out of nowhere, like Huldums.
- I'm probably not using Êbalunia, but Eppalun instead. The inspiration to the name was Avalon from the start.
- I'm using Slenvarren, not Silvarren. I don't know what to use it for yet, though.
- Mursplanum is going to be some strange realm beyond the normal plane of existence, tied to a deity named Murs. He is father to the Murs Dukel, a strange species that I haven't finished yet, but they're evil evil evil and alien.
- I've allready used Btuim and Nuim in something I wrote here on the Hive and never finished. No matter what I use them for, they're supposed to be two otherworldly places or planes that are opposites to each other, hence they are a rhyme together.
- Pelparavel is becoming "The Pelparavel" and naming a very big river. I like to say this name.
- Asumea, Termynaros, Chuuns, and Turnabia might become lands.
- Dorleest, Gergrisl, Lanisvoll, and Saffensten sound more like towns to me, and Slenvarren probably a land area, a marsh or something.
- I like Nalnung.

Just in case you absolutely don't want to clash with my naming, that leaves out Dyfulskor, Êbalunia, Furfoelnec, Hark-Chillea, Mystursas, Ogdyno, and Silvarren. I don't expect to go beyond private use, and if you are, fine.

I would try with renaming ancient names, but I am not familiar with their familiarity and association value. I don't read a lot where references like that are made, or at least I don't remember the references when I do. It's not hard to find the names by reading geeky mythology stuff on wikipedia, but to know which are more okay to just rob or change a little, and what they are associated with, I find hard.

 

[MiniMage]

I don't mind. Use them. I have only found use for these so far:

Bunch of description

- Huldums. I decided to use Huldums as "The Huldums"; a range of mountains a bit like "the Alpes".
- Ogdyno became transformed into "The Great Ogdynae to the East": The Ogdynae (in my lore) is 1001 Nights classic Arabia, where sultans rule and is known for treasures, goods, merchants, astronomy, magic, thievery, assassins, and, ofcourse, sand. It's just a name that came out of nowhere, like Huldums.
- I'm probably not using Êbalunia, but Eppalun instead. The inspiration to the name was Avalon from the start.
- I'm using Slenvarren, not Silvarren. I don't know what to use it for yet, though.
- Mursplanum is going to be some strange realm beyond the normal plane of existence, tied to a deity named Murs. He is father to the Murs Dukel, a strange species that I haven't finished yet, but they're evil evil evil and alien.
- I've allready used Btuim and Nuim in something I wrote here on the Hive and never finished. No matter what I use them for, they're supposed to be two otherworldly places or planes that are opposites to each other, hence they are a rhyme together.
- Pelparavel is becoming "The Pelparavel" and naming a very big river. I like to say this name.
- Asumea, Termynaros, Chuuns, and Turnabia might become lands.
- Dorleest, Gergrisl, Lanisvoll, and Saffensten sound more like towns to me, and Slenvarren probably a land area, a marsh or something.
- I like Nalnung.

Just in case you absolutely don't want to clash with my naming, that leaves out Dyfulskor, Êbalunia, Furfoelnec, Hark-Chillea, Mystursas, Ogdyno, and Silvarren. I don't expect to go beyond private use, and if you are, fine.

I would try with renaming ancient names, but I am not familiar with their familiarity and association value. I don't read a lot where references like that are made, or at least I don't remember the references when I do. It's not hard to find the names by reading geeky mythology stuff on wikipedia, but to know which are more okay to just rob or change a little, and what they are associated with, I find hard.

Asumea, the land where everyone keep assuming that you're a citizen.

 

[Zarathustra]

The thing with names is rather interesting. There are resources on the internet, some of which are surprisingly good. Kate Monk's Onomastikon is basically a dictionary of names indexed by the culture in which they originated. Alternatively, you could fantasy name generators to get you started.

Directly using foreign words can get weird, and unless you really do some research you're probably going to end up conveying the wrong message to someone who speaks the language. Also, you definitely don't want to end up naming a character "Translation Server Error" in another language.

I also suggest playing with the phonetics. It's pretty ridiculous how evil characters and male characters are likely to have more hard consonants in their name, but good and or female characters abound in vowels and soft consonants. It's almost unavoidable, since the basis for this is rooted in psychology and it is a pattern in Western languages (others too, for that matter). When you make names up, you don't even realize you're doing it but you tend to follow these patterns. It's up to you whether you embrace the pattern or deliberately contradict it to screw with the audience.

 

[MiniMage]

The thing with names is rather interesting. There are resources on the internet, some of which are surprisingly good. Kate Monk's Onomastikon is basically a dictionary of names indexed by the culture in which they originated. Alternatively, you could fantasy name generators to get you started.

Directly using foreign words can get weird, and unless you really do some research you're probably going to end up conveying the wrong message to someone who speaks the language. Also, you definitely don't want to end up naming a character "Translation Server Error" in another language.

I also suggest playing with the phonetics. It's pretty ridiculous how evil characters and male characters are likely to have more hard consonants in their name, but good and or female characters abound in vowels and soft consonants. It's almost unavoidable, since the basis for this is rooted in psychology and it is a pattern in Western languages (others too, for that matter). When you make names up, you don't even realize you're doing it but you tend to follow these patterns. It's up to you whether you embrace the pattern or deliberately contradict it to screw with the audience.

Would be a nice idea to defy this tradition then and present the character as a good guy, that way, you'll pretty much never see it coming. You'll be like.. holyshit, he's actually evil! :O

 

[Hugget Sukker]

Hey, thanks for some very good comments guys.
You're spot on, Zarathustra - which sounds very enigmatic.
I'll check out those links.
I do prefer to not hit any meanings in those language which Western literature has used excessively. Although, being a westerner, it just comes natural to use certain sounds more than others.
You're right that going against the naming tropes gives a better element of surprise. However, you lose the effect in the names. I do like to generally wait a little with exposition of who's the bad guy. Introducing the villain as Thulsa Doom is a spoiler, but you can always give the bad guy a cover name and a real name.

 

[Grimdour]

Hey, thanks for some very good comments guys.
You're spot on, Zarathustra - which sounds very enigmatic.
I'll check out those links.
I do prefer to not hit any meanings in those language which Western literature has used excessively. Although, being a westerner, it just comes natural to use certain sounds more than others.
You're right that going against the naming tropes gives a better element of surprise. However, you lose the effect in the names. I do like to generally wait a little with exposition of who's the bad guy. Introducing the villain as Thulsa Doom is a spoiler, but you can always give the bad guy a cover name and a real name.

Or a meaningful name.

Take what everyone's said here and play around with it; Zatharustra mentioned phonetics and psychology. Try giving your Big Bad a name which sounds all heroic, but have subtle, evil meanings.

A blatant example would be our beloved Archimonde. Ignoring the character, it sounds regal. Fit for a king. "His Royal Highness King Archimonde I of Altea" has a ring to it. But it's a jumble and a mispronunciation of "arch demon". Suddenly, bam. Big Bad Evil Guy.

Also, if you're going for eldricht/Old Ones style characters, a title works better than a name. Adds to mystery, and signposts to your audience that this dude is ancient, important and probably powerful beyond belief.

 

[Ignitedstar]

Don't just make up a name... A character's name is the combination of sounds and letters that you'll be using to make people remember them. Make it memorable. It doesn't matter if it's a boring name or not. It needs to fit the character. If you just "make something up", then the author doesn't really care about the character. I don't know why I should care about a character if their name came out of thin air and was considered not that important. I never help any of my colleagues or friends when they say, "Can you help me name someone?" As a writer, I'd be backstabbing my own ideals about a character's name if I helped them.

The longest name and title I've used is Akemeshdanazul'esasch of the Laughing Skulls. It was to make fun of the drearily long names some Warcraft characters use. The characters in my story make fun of him because of it. He has a REAL name (which he won't tell anyone), but this is the one that he was given when he turned Undead. The characters also make fun of the fact that peoples' names get changed when they become "enslaved". The name is ironic for Zul, as well. The guy is fairly simple, prefers to be called Zul, he isn't very funny, and gets picked at despite being a former Lich.

Of course, there is a reason why he got that name when he was an actual Lich (which I haven't gone over yet).

 

[squelch]

Don't just make up a name... A character's name is the combination of sounds and letters that you'll be using to make people remember them. Make it memorable. It doesn't matter if it's a boring name or not. It needs to fit the character. If you just "make something up", then the author doesn't really care about the character. I don't know why I should care about a character if their name came out of thin air and was considered not that important. I never help any of my colleagues or friends when they say, "Can you help me name someone?" As a writer, I'd be backstabbing my own ideals about a character's name if I helped them.

The longest name and title I've used is Akemeshdanazul'esasch of the Laughing Skulls. It was to make fun of the drearily long names some Warcraft characters use. The characters in my story make fun of him because of it. He has a REAL name (which he won't tell anyone), but this is the one that he was given when he turned Undead. The characters also make fun of the fact that peoples' names get changed when they become "enslaved". The name is ironic for Zul, as well. The guy is fairly simple, prefers to be called Zul, he isn't very funny, and gets picked at despite being a former Lich.

Of course, there is a reason why he got that name when he was an actual Lich (which I haven't gone over yet).

I agree with him all the way Tolkien was a master in many languages and new the roots so when he made up a language or a name it had meanings that went along with the roots of words already created.

There is a story about a car that was named in english which got a certain idea across in english but when they tried to sell the car in spain it didn't sell because the meaning of that word in spanish meant doesn't move. So be careful when making up names. And don't make up names just to sound different. Tolkien didn't do this and you shouldn't either he was interested in languages so much that he wanted to make up his own. I ask you to either follow in his footsteps or use a real name like Frank Herbert did. Both masters and both took advantage of mixing what they were interested in not in how different they could be.

 

[Magtheridon96]

Usually, I just make up names and:
For Orc Shamans, Mages, or Witch Doctors:
- Add these letters in: Z, W, X, V, etc...
- Put an apostrophe ' somewhere

For Warlords or Knights:
- Add these pre/sufficies in: "din", "mag", "lo", "ther", "don", "idon", "thar", "ok", "tol", "drin", "dar", "hin", "tho" etc...
- Fix it up a bit to sound memorable and all powerful

For Anything else:
- I tend to merge different sufficies and preficies together.

From the above, I generated:
- Mag-ther-idon (Copyright Blizzard )
- Lo-thar (Copyright ... I think Blizzard )
- Mag-lo-don
- Don-ok-ther
etc..

 

[Zarathustra]

Interesting that we've delved into etymology here.

"Archimonde" could be seen as a combination of roots that mean something vaguely like "ruler of the world" while "magtheridon" breaks down to something like "great (mag) beast (therion) tooth (odon)". Kind of fitting for both characters.

Sometimes Blizzard thinks through the names, and other times they make up stuff that sounds cool.

 

[fladdermasken]

Tolkien and Lord of the Rings should be mentioned when discussing etymology, even if it is a cliché.

Sometimes Blizzard thinks through the names, and other times they make up stuff that sounds cool.

Sometimes they dust off names from old tales and folklore (not that I'm complaining). Mephisto for instance is derived from old german folklore (Doctor Faustus), Lilith is a female demon in jewish folklore, Uther Pendragon is a legendary king and the father of King Arthur, Arthas is a blatant reference to Arthur etc.

 

[Ignitedstar]

Tolkien and Lord of the Rings should be mentioned when discussing etymology, even if it is a cliché.

You can't call them the cliche if they're the one who caused high-fantasy fiction names to explode. x_x

Sometimes they dust off names from old tales and folklore (not that I'm complaining). Mephisto for instance is derived from old german folklore (Doctor Faustus), Lilith is a female demon in jewish folklore, Uther Pendragon is a legendary king and the father of King Arthur, Arthas is a blatant reference to Arthur etc.

And thus, why research is always one of the best things (if not, the best thing) any writer can do for themselves.

 

[Bugz]

Sometimes they dust off names from old tales and folklore (not that I'm complaining). Mephisto for instance is derived from old german folklore (Doctor Faustus), Lilith is a female demon in jewish folklore, Uther Pendragon is a legendary king and the father of King Arthur, Arthas is a blatant reference to Arthur etc.

Well it ended quite good these names was really succesfull, and yet they were copied :/ or the idear came from something else.

Also i think you should come of by names yourself ( making everything more your own ) instead of all that " copying ", but in some cases is really good..

 

[Ignitedstar]

It's classic, though. It's not a bad thing that names are copied. If anything, it's a great honor when people are incorporating your work into their own. However, some people are highly against this. Check Winnie the Pooh-- HUGE controversy ever since A. A. Milne died.

 

[fladdermasken]

You can't call them the cliche if they're the one who caused high-fantasy fiction names to explode. x_x

No, but I can call the act of mentioning them a cliché. That paragraph is ambiguous.
- Key is telling whether or not it was intentional.

Tolkien and Lord of the Rings should be mentioned when discussing etymology, even if it is a cliché.