The Naming Guidebook

[Firlodge]

Anonymous Legion

Yami_no_Eyes

Many geographical names have come from explorers being far away from women for a long time, too. Such as, the Grand Tetons.

Also, many names, both real and by good fiction writers, mean very bland things, not spectacular things. Such as 'Man in wood hut' or 'Guy with farm in valley,' even in the ever-popular Japanese names.

Quite.

Especially old last names...

They generally were the name of your father with "Fitz-" or "-son" tacked on.

Or a defining characteristic, like in England, a person with black hair was named "Black."

Or Profession, like "Smith" or "Cooper."

Yeh, the 'Fitz' prefix syiginifed illegimate birth.

[snoflaxz]

I love this, thank you so much!

[ur 1 friend]

hmmm cool

[Thats-Your-Funeral]

About the character naming... I find it so much more amusing when an egotistical, self-centered character ends up with a name like Vain; then a random, but nice name, like Richard, or whatever. It really attatches me to the character more if they have a name that fits their personality. It's such sweet, sweet irony!

[Mishirure]

Quite helpful, this thread. 3nodding I was always naming my places by random, simply because names sounded cool. But now I have links galore that shall keep me from my consistant errors! Whee~!!! ^-^

Thankie muchly! heart

[-Tiny Unihorn-]

Im obviosly thinking of the name "Bumping Godess/God"

[8-Time kitti-8]

But Butterfingers is the perfect name for someone =D So is Flopsy, Seren, Kathleen, Kitter, and Phoenix. whee

[IndignantLemur]

*looks at guidelines in first few posts*

I wish half the people who write fanfictions and originals read all that.
Actually, I wish half those people could actually read and write without mangling words and basic grammatical structures, much less names. XD

[Host Kaoru-kun]

really helpful...kinda already knew it, but helpful none the less. kinda refreshed my memory.

rofl

[Gistelle]

Yeah, I don't really like it when characters have names that you can obviously tell are fitted to their personality. I understand the irony but it seems to me like they aren't being creative. I personally like it when a character has a name that's meaning is so unlike the character, it's funny.

[PanickedKarma]

thanx for the help, dude!

[Envy_the_sin]

Wicked!

[Akira_Hoshino]

Gistelle

Yeah, I don't really like it when characters have names that you can obviously tell are fitted to their personality. I understand the irony but it seems to me like they aren't being creative. I personally like it when a character has a name that's meaning is so unlike the character, it's funny.

I agree. It's kind of fun when you have to dig a little to find out the correlation though. Like in lots of anime/manga, especially shoujo, if you find out what the characters' kanji mean in translation, you'll find they often have to do with an important character trait.

I like that sort of thing. If I had a Greek character, I might pick out a Greek name with a meaning that fit her personality. But it's not the first thing I go for with names. Sometimes, I just think, "I'll call her Sarah" and then the name's... stuck on her.

[Etienne Amour]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before in this thread, but I have a small question for you all! In one of my pieces, three important characters (two of the main characters and a close friend of theirs) all have names starting with S. I'm sure it would be noticeable if Sebastian, Sadie/Sophie, and Shandy all ended up on the same page together. This was completely unintentional, but their names have stuck and I don't know if I should change them or not. As a reader, would this be bothersome? As a writer?

I'm thinking about changing Sebastian to simply Bastian and Sadie/Sophie to Adele, but somehow these don't seem to fit their characters. Has this happened to you before? Any advice?