Names for fantasy world characters.

[AllenWoody]

I'm sure this is a common problem, or at least a familiar challenge. I'm starting a new fantasy series and will need names for people, creatures, and divine beings in this world. I can come up with good names -or so I tell myself- but they're inevitably in use somewhere, usually Warhammer or some such. A couple have turned out to be the names of bands or someone's Instagram artist account.

What do y'all do in this situation? Keep inventing ever weirder names until they pass the Google test? Find names that, while in use somewhere, at least aren't major characters? Say the eff with it and name them however you wish?

AW

 

[MrHereWriting]

Are these names in Warhammer because they came from Warhammer or are they common names that Warhammer has used?

There's a big difference between naming one of your characters Felix and the other Gotrek.

If you name your character Sigmar, that's a real name, that's fine. If you name your character Sigmar who happens to found an empire and is worshipped as a god, you may have a problem.

 

[AllenWoody]

Right. I'm not talking about "real" names or common names from history, but rather names that probably never were. As an example, I wondered if the name Aethyria had been used and of course it had, as a place name in several fictional universes. Then I tried Aurelle, which turns out to be a Marvel character, etc. I can't remember the Warhammer name I was looking up but I think it was someone's character name in that game.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Most of my fantasy settings are inspired by real civilizations and their mythologies, so I just use names from those cultures.

In one case I gave everyone "normal" English names like Christopher and Lisbeth but had the narrator muse that Lisbeth was probably only Lisbeth for the convenience of the locals who couldn't pronounce her birth name.

In one setting (femdom matriarchy where men are chattel slaves) people have English first names but matronymics instead of surnames. So you might be Allen in everyday usage, Allen of Barbara in formal contexts or for disambiguation, and Allen by Christopher of Barbara by David of Esther in super formal filling out government forms contexts.

In another, people are named by phrases like "eagle soars at midday" and then go by Eagle for short.

 

[AllenWoody]

Most of my fantasy settings are inspired by real civilizations and their mythologies, so I just use names from those cultures.

In one case I gave everyone "normal" English names like Christopher and Lisbeth but had the narrator muse that Lisbeth was probably only Lisbeth for the convenience of the locals who couldn't pronounce her birth name.

In one setting (femdom matriarchy where men are chattel slaves) people have English first names but matronymics instead of surnames. So you might be Allen in everyday usage, Allen of Barbara in formal contexts or for disambiguation, and Allen by Christopher of Barbara by David of Esther in super formal filling out government forms contexts.

In another, people are named by phrases like "eagle soars at midday" and then go by Eagle for short.

I've had success with that, too, and may fall back on it if necessary. Gaelic is rich with fantasy name material, and I've used ancient Greek names for some of my writing. But sometimes you want a name with more punch than that.

 

[StillStunned]

I try to keep fantasy names short and simple. The kind of names people would use in actual life. The grittier the setting and character, the shorter and simpler the name. I'll make allowances for obviously magical or fantastical characters or creatures.

So in my D&D stories I have Xunaxa the tiefling, Arivor the knight, Lurrock the dwarf and Theayala the elven sorceress. Theayala is probably the closest I'll ever get to the cheesy 1990s fad of giving everyone from empresses to pigboys names like Asha'thesha'ayalaa and Aziroathos's.

But in my sword & sorcery stories I have Sligh, Hew, Rulk, Scabby and so on. How I come up with them is by playing around with sounds until I get something that feels right.

 

[Statius]

I use mostly variations on actual names but from different cultures.

 

[alohadave]

I can come up with good names -or so I tell myself- but they're inevitably in use somewhere, usually Warhammer or some such.

Do you think that they haven't used names from other places?

Names are common and insignificant. Don't worry about the provenance or history of a name. Parents give their kids names that are meaningful to them, not to indicate future accomplishments.

John Wick. Average, pedestrian name. It only has significance because of what he did, not because the name means anything intrinsically.

Titles and nicknames are when you make the name meaningful. William the Conqueror, Ivan the Terrible, The Butcher of Bakersfield.

 

[StillStunned]

Titles and nicknames are when you make the name meaningful. William the Conqueror, Ivan the Terrible, The Butcher of Bakersfield.

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to have a name like Alexander, or Catherine, or Alfred, or Peter, or Constantine? No matter how amazing you are, not matter what you accomplish in life, you'll never be "the Great". You might be "Peter Who Cured Cancer", "Catherine Who Brought About World Peace", "Alfred Who Came Up With A Universally Accepted Definition Of A Stroker", but some dead person from centuries ago will always be considered better than you.

 

[alohadave]

You might be "Peter Who Cured Cancer"

Interesting story prompt

 

[Bamagan]

Create a numbered list of perhaps 30ish nouns and a comparable number of adjectives and adverbs.
Assign them syllables, such as "Gol-" or "Leyr-" or whatever sounds right for your story tone.
Roll dice or otherwise select a pair or group of syllables.
Let's say "Gol-" means "fire" and "-ingwe" means "bright or shining." You now have someone named Golingwe whose name means "bright fire" and can be incorporated into greetings or backstory. "I am Golingwe, the Blazing One, at whose anvil was forged the Blade of Destiny blah blah blah...."
If you pick your sounds well, the names will naturally seem to come from a common cultural source.

 

[CalBishForNow]

Lots of fake names are based on real names. Randall, Matthew, and Perry are real; Rand, Mat, and Perrin are not. Fred and Bill are real; Frodo and Bilbo are not. Arthur is a mythological king (or very loosely inspired by an uncertain real person, it doesn't matter here) going back almost 2,000 years; Aragorn is a king made up less than 100 years ago. If you've got something a little too close to a real or well-known fake name, then you can just play with a few syllables and, bang, it's original, and anyone who notices the similarity will care about it exactly as much or as little as they care about your work itself.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Right. I'm not talking about "real" names or common names from history, but rather names that probably never were. As an example, I wondered if the name Aethyria had been used and of course it had, as a place name in several fictional universes. Then I tried Aurelle, which turns out to be a Marvel character, etc. I can't remember the Warhammer name I was looking up but I think it was someone's character name in that game.

Take your example of Aurelle... so what if Marvel used it?
If it's some obscure character that has nothing in common with yours use it.
Can we not name characters Bruce and Clark because DC used them first?

The test for things like that is, could a reader reasonably be confused between your character and the Marvel one?

If you want to name the happy family man who works in the accounting department Bruce Wayne nothing is legally stopping you.

 

[Britva415]

Make sure to use a minimum of 1 apostrophe, a maximum of 0 vowels, and a capital letter somewhere in the middle.

 

[MrHereWriting]

Right. I'm not talking about "real" names or common names from history, but rather names that probably never were. As an example, I wondered if the name Aethyria had been used and of course it had, as a place name in several fictional universes. Then I tried Aurelle, which turns out to be a Marvel character, etc. I can't remember the Warhammer name I was looking up but I think it was someone's character name in that game.

Aurelle is a real name.

Aethyria is a variation of Aether/Aethyr, and adding the suffix 'ia' to the ending of the word is a Latin/Ancient Greek thing when it comes to feminine names, but it's also used in forming the names of countries, diseases, flowers, and rarely, collections of things.

-ia​

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ia

Honestly, in the many of hundreds of fantasy names/words I've come up with and listed somewhere, I wouldn't doubt Aethyria is in there a couple of times.

You're not going to want a name that is too famous, but remember this, before there was Eye of the World (1990) with a villain called "The Dark One" and an event called "The War of Power" there was Demon of the Dark Ones: The War of Powers (Six part series released from 1980 to 1982)

Want to know more coincidences between the War of Powers series and The Wheel of Time?

War of Powers Characters: Moriana, Rann, Fost Longstrider, Demons called "The Dark Ones"

Wheel of Time Characters: Moiraine, Rand, Jain Farstrider, Antagonist called "The Dark One"

Did Robert Jordan read The War of Powers series? I don't know, but we do know that Robert Jordan (the name of the protagonist in Ernest Hemmingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, which also happens to be the pseudonym for James Oliver Rigney Jr. when he wrote The Wheel of Time) purposely modeled the opening of his series to resemble Lord of the Rings and the name the Mountains of Mist is a derivative of the Misty Mountains.

And don't even bothering looking at George R. R. Martin and names, he goes so far as to name some random character in Fire & Blood as Sandoq the Shadow, who stands 7 feet tall, a former pit fighter who bore a disfigured face and white scars, but if you ever watched the show Spartacus (and he may have been mentioned in Spartacus: Blood & Sand), you'll easily recognize that character as Theokoles, The Shadow of Death, who stood maybe 9 feet tall in the show, was covered in white scars, had a disfigured face, and had never lost a fight in the gladiatorial arena.

What I'm saying is, don't worry about names. You can name your character Rand, but you can't name him Rand al'Thor. If your only concern is the similarity between names, then you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Lots of fake names are based on real names. Randall, Matthew, and Perry are real; Rand, Mat, and Perrin are not. Fred and Bill are real; Frodo and Bilbo are not.

What is your criterion for "real name" here? Most of these "fake names" are ones that have been used in history, give or take minor differences in orthography (e.g. Frodo vs. Old English/Old Norse Fróda).

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Everything is a fake name until someone uses it.
Moon Unit is a real name now...

 

[NuclearFairy]

Usually I just pick a culture to borrow names from. But, I do have one long abandoned story where I hit a random name generator, and then played around with the name generated by adding and taking letters, until either I decided I liked something, or that I wasn't going to make any names I liked. And then I didn't worry about if someone else had already used a similar name.

 

[dirk2024]

I'm sure this is a common problem, or at least a familiar challenge. I'm starting a new fantasy series and will need names for people, creatures, and divine beings in this world. I can come up with good names -or so I tell myself- but they're inevitably in use somewhere, usually Warhammer or some such. A couple have turned out to be the names of bands or someone's Instagram artist account.

What do y'all do in this situation? Keep inventing ever weirder names until they pass the Google test? Find names that, while in use somewhere, at least aren't major characters? Say the eff with it and name them however you wish?

AW

As a reader, I prefer names I can easily read. I have seen some SciFi authors create names for their fantasy worlds that are so unique, they don't roll off my mind (much less the tongue) while reading them. Something like Ell'daramunchio is a fair representation of some names I have seen.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Once again quoting Niven: Halrloprillalar Hotrufan, Harkabeeparolyn, Kawaresksenjajok

 

[TheLobster]

Make sure to use a minimum of 1 apostrophe, a maximum of 0 vowels, and a capital letter somewhere in the middle.

I thought this was about fantasy names, not Klingon ones.

 

[Britva415]

I thought this was about fantasy names, not Klingon ones.

i guess you haven't seen some of the fantasy fiction i've seen

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Make sure to use a minimum of 1 apostrophe, a maximum of 0 vowels, and a capital letter somewhere in the middle.

That's Draconic names on D&D.

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to have a name like Alexander, or Catherine, or Alfred, or Peter, or Constantine? No matter how amazing you are, not matter what you accomplish in life, you'll never be "the Great". You might be "Peter Who Cured Cancer", "Catherine Who Brought About World Peace", "Alfred Who Came Up With A Universally Accepted Definition Of A Stroker", but some dead person from centuries ago will always be considered better than you.