Well, I thought this would be good, I guess. Uh, I've had some trouble of what to call things when making up my own world. So... How doy you come up with names for stuff?
Like, Mountains? You could always put your favorite color ahead of the word but thats not to creative, I think. Do you come up with some name that rolls off your tounge or mixing two regular words together? Tell me how you do it.
~Pol~
Names
22 posts in this topic.
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In my land of Cyri ("Bubble Picture"), the mountains border the north part of the landmass. I have four mountains named: Mt. Suith (Mother Mountain, named for the river that flows off it and branches through the entire land), Mt. Typhon (holding the goblin city of Typhonlocke, Typhon meaning "strength" and "locke" meaning "to hide"), and the double mountains Respite and Requite (in the valley between them is Geoneath, the capital).
Before coming up with fancy names, though, you might want to think on what the names mean. I knew I wanted a mountain to give the flow of water to the entire continent --it's a vital part of the backstory-- and the term "mother" leapt to mind. Blah blah blah.
Another way for landmark names is to make up a legend with a hero involved, and name that place after the hero. "The Mountains of Saerune" or something similar. (Legends also provide depth and light to the world, which is why I like them, especially in med. fantasy)
If you're looking for a specific theme, try messing with these: http://www.behindthename.com/themes.php (that's an excellent site, BTW; I recommend you explore it.)
There's always the option of translating words into other languages (I like African and Arabic for this particular method. If you're going to try this, also try using it for the entire story -- it'll add a nice flavor, similar to rosemary.
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I also enjoy weirder names -- the place where Bettina first finds herself in Cyri is the Desert of Swiftly-Singing Sands. Alliteration = pwnzage.
*Ramble*
Anyway, yeah. Try Behind the Name. I love it. It's probably one of the biggest name sites out there. >.> -
I've always had a bit of trouble coming up with names so I go to baby name sites, search for a meaning I like, and explore the names the search brings up. Probably not the best way to do things but the names I come up with are ones I like
I think I am going to try behind the name for the next story. Baby name sites only have so much.... -
I just kinda, make em' up on the spot. Sometimes I'll actually think about it for a while but sooner or later something usually comes. Ink's ideas are good though (better than mine.)
-GJ -
Mmm...I go to baby names and fantasy place/name generator sites and look at any lists it comes up with and choose the ones I like best. One thing you could try doing if you're, say, trying to come up with names for towns/cities is think of how many you want and then decide what they're known for. In the novel attempt I WAS working on for almost two years, I hadn't gotten far enough to figure out anything about any other places in the story until the main character had to leave her home, which was a hidden village for magic users called Selestia. But once I did get to that point, I chose four names and decided what each place was known for. One was a port for trading, one was known for thieves and the "darker" kind of people, one was known for its taverns and inns, and one was known for..I think its market places (if not the first one), and also being the town that the palace was in.
So you could try doing that and use lists of names and just choose them, or...you could do something where...if you wanted a town that was known for its thieves, you could name the town Theveren, which could sound similar to the word "thieves."
o.O I dunno if that'll help any, but... -
Anagarams are good, I've found. And I try to use parts of two different words. For instance, I have a vegetable called corato (corn and tamato, incase you don't get it).
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For names, I suggest the site www.freedict.com
From there, you can translate most English words into many languages, and perhaps edit the result for your ideal name.
For example, if your character has a fiery spirit, you could use the word "fire" and translate it into Latin, German, Japanese, etc. and see if you like any of the results.
Good luck! -
I'm big on emphasis and hidden meanings, so I do a lot of what Kaz said. In my country, Claragensa, "Clara" is Latin for "Clear," and "Gensa" is land....I think. Or country, one or the other.
I did the same thing with all the towns and cities and major landmarks. It's really time consuming, but in the end, all my names mean something. I don't feel right just pulling a name out of a hat and calling that it. 
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...Or if your really stuck on a name you could just PM me and a few other people who could help. I'm always open to that. I like making up names
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-gman -
It depends on the area of the world my characters are. Like I had a scene in Africa, so I googled African names. Then it gave me sites that had the names and their meanings. That is very helpful.
I try to make them up as I go, but since I use so many ethnic backdrops I have to make sure and research the names and make sure they match up. That's more for urban fantasy though. -
I pound on my keyboard, and see if any interesting words show up.
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Goldenheart wrote:I pound on my keyboard, and see if any interesting words show up.
That's my other method, 'cept for me it's usually with my forehead. -
I usually pick random letters and mix them into something that sounds coold (or stupid, depending on how you look at it.)
I've found that random words in other languages work well, but beware you dont accidentally use a curse word. I doubt it would got over big with your fan base. -
I dont know how i just make them up or write down words and then mix teh words about.
For example my friends surname Stannard turned into Drat-Nas.
I took out a N and mixed the rest about.
Or Losnah. I cant remember how i got that one. I found it is one of my favourite names.
I usally stop writing and look about for names of things and mix them all about and hope for the best. -
I've taken names that I know and added letters and made them sound similar to each other. In my story I have Lyllan (lillian/lilly), Bryndon (brendon) and Jaimes (james). They all have the same sort of feel to them. Then I've also got a man named Zamias, and I've no idea what name that supposed to sound like, it just looked like Jaimes and, as they're related, I figured it would be a good idea to have them similar.
I suppose I'm going to end up doing the same thing with the place names. There are two peoples in my world, so they have different types of names. Jaimes and Zamias are from one people, and Lyllan and Bryndon are from another. The towns of each people will come with the same feeling to them. I think it can be important in a completely made up world to have names that sound different to our world, rather than using our languages, adapting them is better.
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