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 Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:40 pm
Post anything and everything about naming your characters here! -"I have too many cool names! I must share!" -"I NEED NAMES HELP ME." -"I find names along [X] line pretentious and bad." -"I feel [X] about naming characters." -"I get all of my good names form [LINK]." -"Apostrophes in the middle of character names are for quitters!" Ahaha, I don't really think that last one. I just think they're overused. A LOT. http://www.20000-names.com/^ My favorite place for names. Also, New Project? I am SO at a loss for names. One of the MCs is even nameless at this point. *whistles*
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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:57 pm
It irks me how my dad keeps mispronouncing my character's name and stressing the second syllable instead of the first. Arg! But I'm still keeping her name, even though it may cause discrepancy, because that's the name I developed her with. xp
If I need names I usually just google "names meaning _____" and more often than not I'll find one I like.
I ended up changing a character name recently to make it match the setting...because I thought French Canadian girls with Hindi names was stupid. Other than that, I don't usually mess with names once I've got the character. They're like package deals for me, name included.
THAT'S ALL MY NAME RANTING FOR TODAY.
What gender is your nameless MC?
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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:36 pm
Emphasis is often hard to convey in invented names! Tolkien, for instance, must be rolling over in his grave, some of the crap I've heard people slur out of his stuff. And he even published a pronunciation system!
Alas, I've yet to discover a solution for that problem, short of having the characters argue over it and that's one kind of meta humor readers don't seem to like.
Sometimes I get the name with the character. Sometimes not. Next project? Two of the relatively minor characters fell into the thing with names! Others I've gone fishing in my name bin. My editor named the one XD.
The character is male. He needs a name that sounds good as "Dr. [Name]". But something conversational too.
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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:50 pm
Hmm...well there are still many options and I'm not sure what kind of direct advice to give yet. So I'll ask more questions.
What ethnicity is he?
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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:12 pm
OK biggrin . I didn't want to sound too picky.
He's... an imaginary ethnicity. I think he must originally be from the continent that had more European-sounding names. Personality-wise, he is friendly, but only in a cursory sense. He tends to put his work above the feelings of others. Secretly, he is fascinated by watching other people go through moments of strong emotion since he's not very emotive himself.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:28 pm
I'm going back and forth on whether or not to use the name I gave my main character. No one, and I mean NO ONE pronounces it right. But I really like it, and no other name seems to fit at all, especially since I made this name up for said character.
I've asked a lot of people, and everyone either says to just change it or to write out the pronunciation in the beginning of the book. I'm leaning towards the second, but I'm still unsure. T.T
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:38 pm
Sugar- I HATE HATE HATE IT when that happens D:! Yeep!
Can your beta/editor pronounce it? That's one more thing you could check since such people are non-dumb by default XD. And if dumb people can't get it out? Well then, they're dumb!
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Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:07 am
No, he couldn't! I mean, my pronunciation of it isn't WRONG or anything, but it COULD be pronounced many different ways. When I told him how I pronounced it, he said it was fine to pronounce it that way, but to be careful because it's likely that no one will pronounce it like that.
The thing is, the first book I'm writing has her as a main character, whereas the second, third, and fourth she's a secondary character or a side character.
Besides, there are a lot of names out there that I pronounced wrong when reading them. The most famous being Hermione from Harry Potter. I totally pronounced her name as 'her-moan' before the first movie came out and corrected me. sweatdrop
But heres the question: Would it turn you off from reading a book if there was a pronunciation key at the beginning? Would you even read it, or skip over it?
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Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:35 am
City Under Glass by Tanith Lee has a pronunciation note at the start AND a mini-dictionary. I liked having them and I've certainly never heard anyone complain about them, even in the Amazon reviews.
You might also try to redirect the correct emphasis by sneaking in an h or an e.
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Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:41 pm
I'm ALWAYS stuck on naming my characters, so I created a name bank.
I can to Seventh Sanctum, hit the quick naming generator a few times, and used that to string together a number of names to be used in the future. Now if I introduce a new minor character and am thinking of what to name her, I just look at the list, find a name, and cross it off.
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Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:31 pm
I love SS! > http://www.seventhsanctum.com/But I mostly use it for place names myself. Doesn't seem to kick out a lot of people names I'm really happy with. Maybe I'm too picky?
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:28 am
Yeah, I've never gotten a character name from SS, but I have grabbed up place names, AND I've used it for spaceship names, too. ^.^ It's helpful that way.
Usually for naming characters, I simply use baby name sites. They're my favorite, and some of them have really cool, unique names that I've played around with. A lot of the time I'll find a name I kind of like and change it a bit to where I absolutely love it. ^.^
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:32 am
I'm a big fan of several different sites. Everything to random name generators to baby name sites and historical sites as well as the Social Security database of popular names for each year.
It used to be I'd rarely change a character's name. But recently while re-writing alot of older works character names have been traded out for more interesting and less cliche' names. One character recently went through five name changes. That's a bit extreme, even for me.
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:17 pm
You know, I almsot wonder that, if in the sea of probability, someday we are going to be recognizing each other based on the simple fact: "O hai u did get ur names from 7th Sanktum, yes? Awesome! HIGH FIVE!" XD
When it comes to replacing character names, I always think of the poor woman whon write Gone With The Wind.
Scarlet was originally named Pansy, you know. And the publisher made her change it.
This being before Find -> Replace.
Ouch.
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:13 pm
Ouch indeed. I think the change for me was: Elizabeth-Gwendolyn-Samantha-Some Norse Name I don't Recall-Daphne.
I think I'm sticking with Daphne. Short, sweet and to the point.
I think I prefer Pansy. But Scarlet is so iconic now.
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