Character Names

[21stcenturymisfit]

Are any of you Literotica writers willing or able to help me come up with character names for my story. I need A Game of Thrones meets Futuristic crossing with Steam punk type of names?

 

[Deb_Auchery]

You could consider older names but swap I's and J's for Y's , Norsk, Icelandic or any lesser known Deities, as opposed to the more commonly known Greek Gods, unusual words, providing they aren't substitutes for things like syphilis etc.

That's what I do anyway

 

[glynndah]

Try this: Behind the Name.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I sometimes look up words in foreign languages for names. Sword, for example, if you want a warrior's name:

Mech - Russian
Xiphos / Kopos - Greek
Epee - French (I am too lazy to add the accents, LOL)

 

[TrogCPWS]

I love name creation, it is one of the best parts as it usually brings on the character.

I pluck a random letter from the alphabet, add another at random and if nothing comes to mind I add another and then splice them together by either taking them in sequence or adding vowels to get them to fit....for example;

PYM - Polayamo
BRK - Brekka
ISY - Issya

etc. etc.

Not suitable for every eventuality but it sure conjures up some doozies after a while

 

[TE999]

Try this website. It's pretty good: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

 

[Zeb_Carter]

What's in a name?!?!

I usually write stories that take place in the here and now or a short jaunt into the future and assume names don't change much between now and then.

That being said...I have created names of other worldly creatures in a couple of my works. I usually went with the old reliable conjugation...

In a current book I'm working on, a race called the K'lar help humankind fight a foe called the Gar. The K'lar names are all letter-apostrophe-rest of the name...e.g. S'mere, B'ulon, L'bron().

Other than that I have stuck with regular human names...John, Jim, Paul, George, Kevin, Colin, etc. I try to fit the name to the character as closely as possible.

 

[Ruby_Atom]

Steampunk is often pseudo-Victorian. Maybe some traditional English names with a futuristic twist? Perhaps something based on names you would find in a Jane Austen novel.

 

[Handley_Page]

Steampunk is often pseudo-Victorian. Maybe some traditional English names with a futuristic twist? Perhaps something based on names you would find in a Jane Austen novel.

You mean like Shenk ?
That's W S Gilbert.

 

[RoyceConnors]

I did a search on names for a certain period and in some cases, made up my own. It was also common in those times for people to go by nicknames, instead of their given names, so that gives you leeway to create names at will.

 

[CWatson]

That's a tall order for names.

A Song of Ice and Fire is a fairly-authentic medieval fantasy and has a lot of archaic (or at least archaic-feeling) names and name variations: Eddard instead of Edward; Rickard instead of Richard; Catelyn insted of Katherine; Margaery instead of Marjorie; and more, like Dickon Manwoody, Randyll Tarly, Gerold Hightower, Jonothor Darry, Karyl Vance ("Carol" is a form of "Charles"), Myranda Royce, and more. One really interesting thing to note is that there are no Biblical names to be found in Westeros, since Judaism and Christianity were out-competed by the Faith of the Seven. So Davids, Joshuas, Marys and Elizabeths are right out. (The sole exception so far is Lord Tywin's late wife, the Lady Joanna Lannister.)

In a steampunk era, you can not only return many of those names to their more modern forms, you can not only reclaim a lot of the Biblical names, but you have room to tweak. A steampunk era is an alternative history, and you are allowed artistic license to put your own spin on standard Victorian names, standards, practices and technology.

And the same thing happens once you start going into the future. Unfortunately, it starts to happen too much. Just a hundred years ago it would have been unthinkable for someone to have a name like Joshua Chen--either he should have a normal Chinese first name (Yeshu?) or a normal American last name (Smith?). But today I work in a company that is 3/4ths Asian, but every single first name is standard English. In fact, the weirdest first name we've got, "Christian," belongs to a white guy! We're starting to see the rules break down, and one of the things some authors like to do is combine ethnic names; someone named Estêvão Balasubramanium, for instance, has quite an interesting genetic heritage, and if he's a software engineer at (say) Walmart-Sony, then your future has gotten even wackier. And let's not even get into whole-cloth nomenclatural inventions, like William Gibson's Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, or Joan D. Vinge's BZ Gundhalinu. (No, it's not an initialism, that's his full first name.)

So, you want to cross medieval names, which have their own rules, with Victorian names, which have their own rules. We can do that. But then you want a futuristic bent? Sorry, man, but you're going to be more detailed. What are the naming rules of your future? We can't much help you unless you tell us that. =)

 

[BSSHD]

Try this: Behind the Name.

Thanks for posting that link! It looks far better than those sites that just list random "baby names."

 

[MatthewVett]

Are any of you Literotica writers willing or able to help me come up with character names for my story. I need A Game of Thrones meets Futuristic crossing with Steam punk type of names?

One way to think about it is to determine what they most admire and care about, and construct names from that. e.g. Christian Europe digs the Bible and saints, so you get Matthews and Johns and Georges. If your society is heavily focused on society, then perhaps names based on inventors and technological ideas. Whether or not they'll have the same inventors as us depends on your story, but you can certainly use Greek and Latin roots to construct appropriate names.

 

[MSTarot]

I use the phone book to find names a lot. Just pick a random page open it up and look for a good first name. Often they chose them to work well with the last name already but if you don't like it, just flip to another page.

 

[glynndah]

I use the phone book to find names a lot. Just pick a random page open it up and look for a good first name. Often they chose them to work well with the last name already but if you don't like it, just flip to another page.

My phone book is less than a half inch thick. I can tear it apart without the tricks.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

For older names, just look up hippie baby names

I have a character who is half-dryad (tree-spirit) in one of my stories. I just looked up 'names that mean tree'

I came up with a bunch of great ones. Absolom, Ashe, Rowan. All of those are timeless and mean a little extra.

Just think of a character trait. Then look it up.

'Name that means warrior' 'name that means fierce' 'name that means lonely' whatever.

 

[sr71plt]

Messiah seems to be a name of note at the moment.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Messiah seems to be a name of note at the moment.

Not anymore, I think they changed it to John the Baptist.

 

[SecondCircle]

Not anymore, I think they changed it to John the Baptist.

Let's not lose our heads here.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Let's not lose our heads here.

Hey, I could have said Barrack Obama.

 

[SecondCircle]

Hey, I could have said Barrack Obama.

Barrack hasn't lost his head (literally) over a seductive dance. ; )

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Barrack hasn't lost his head (literally) over a seductive dance. ; )

Wanna bet?

 

[MattblackUK]

Welsh names are good

http://www.namenerds.com/welsh/lists.html

Used one in one of my stories.

 

[21stcenturymisfit]

I want to give a massive thank you to all of you who replied, your suggestions were all incredibly helpful!