the greatest general under the heavens
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Post by Egao, Egao Everywhere on Oct 10, 2013 21:31:13 GMT -8
How do you name your characters? Do you have a sort of philosophy about naming them?
Obviously if the name has a ring to it and it fits the character, I go for it. I usually pick names that are already inside my head. Names that other people have, names of characters, etc. To me, it makes the character kind of have a personal meaning to me no matter how small. I usually only have to look up names when I need to fit the setting or if I want the character to represent a certain nationality.
I never use a name randomizer. If anything, I randomized names inside my head lol.
I have some legit very corny names which I keep partially out of sentimentality (made the name when I was 10) or just for the laughs. Though I think recently, I've been able to improve on that to make the names more natural. I look them up in google to check if it's too unique or something. I'll be more assured if there's at least one person out there who has that name.
I also like Catholic names for some reason. I've always had when I was young. I have a guy name Noah, Joshua, Gabriel. I want to use the name Caleb at some point too. I also really like Arabic names, though the only Arabic name I've used is Adil, which is something I got from Suikoden xD the meaning fits though so it's cool.
I'm one of those shameless ones too who name her chars directly after fictional chars C: a lot of people in the anime and manga industry do it!
I like my names to sound common and real, but unique. I never use graceful, feminine names though. Probably out of hatred from my own name xD well, not hatred but names like Anabel feels too close to me.
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Post by redox-kun on Oct 10, 2013 21:55:33 GMT -8
name randomizers
and then i pick the one that i can imagine the character having
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Post by habs on Oct 10, 2013 22:35:57 GMT -8
sometimes i go for specific meanings, sometimes its just what sounds cute together. i also try to like...if the character has a german background, give them a germanesque name. if they have a french background, a french name or at least surname. stuff like that.
most of the time theyre kind of unique names. like i have characters named isolde, phoenix, elsie...theyre still actual names but not super popular.
and then sometimes i just pick random greek mythology names cuz greek myth boner man. like i have a character named iphigenia aulis. im so original haha.
sometimes i go with a theme. i have a character named dill. his parents are basil and saffron. his grandma's name is sage. and his sister's name is lavender...the family dog is named tansy. all spices/herbs, obviously! thats not common tho for me.
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Post by spring on Oct 11, 2013 6:59:06 GMT -8
i would name my characters whatever the heck i wanted, if only it wasn't for the fact that i like to please people. i like people liking my characters' names. maybe i'm weird like that, but i just do. so i pick names i think people would like, or at least remember, and then choose the ones i like the best.
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the greatest general under the heavens
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Post by Egao, Egao Everywhere on Oct 11, 2013 8:29:13 GMT -8
most of the time they're arabic, but i've used some german ones as well. I was going to give Adil the name Ikram which meant honor but I couldn't help but think of the Pikachu you had nicknamed it with.
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Post by pascaline on Oct 11, 2013 19:09:44 GMT -8
It's a mix of things, but almost always a character tells me their name. As soon as I think up a character they either come with a name, or I know what to look for in order to make their name. On the rare occasion that I don't have a name but have a personality and face to go along with it, I look up names based on either meaning and/or the character's ethnicity. I'm obsessed with place names (ex. Bedlam and Bethlehem) and names that are technically supposed to be words (ex. Synergy, Sabbath, Tantric, Silhouette, Darling, Shadow, etc.) I also really love names typically used for males for a female (Rex, Spike, and Seth) and female names for guys (Darling). I have a hard time with surnames though, but I always try to find a name that has a meaning for the character. And this site helps a lot.
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Post by darth vader on Oct 11, 2013 19:24:35 GMT -8
mostly my chars come w/ names already. i think of the name and they build themselves around it as characters. most of my names are rooted in what i know so they're roman/greek (thalia, calliope), arabic (zahir, zaynab) or ancient classical names (lu-shalim).
like i thought of the name zahir for a character and he formed himself around it. zahir isn't actually a name in arabic but a term used in critical interpretation of the quran. it refers to the "apparent" knowledge of the quran, the literal meaning of the expressions used. the world that we see, that is obvious. the flip side of that is batin, the abstract and hidden meaning of the quran, and more generally the world of the hidden/unknown/spirits and jinn. so the character became a highly philosophic vigilante rebel who went by the name "zahir" in his normal life and "batin" when he was burning shit down to bring the new world lol.
tl;dr im a nerd
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Post by Starry Neko on Oct 13, 2013 14:36:27 GMT -8
My names come all over the place. Some names have meaning to them, that I specifically think matches them. Some of their last names especially in old-time families or clans have purpose to them. Then I just have the mothers who have the name cause it's pretty and wants to name everything under the sun that. I do love Scottish names (Since I can't pronounce them worth jack but they look pretty- and my family always has been proud that we have Scottish blood) - but then I have that character who I just threw a name onto cause it was supposed to fit and no one really cared otherwise.
I try not to think of other people when I come up with names- since my characters are mine and not what other people would name them. Sometimes I like being a jerk and naming character's flowery names to ruin their lives and make them have a complex. Just a roll of the dice really.
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Post by Zozma on Oct 13, 2013 15:25:31 GMT -8
My favorite character names are Severin, Laith, Nerio. I use Severin on pretty much every site I'm on because it's my favorite name. Tried to get my sister to name her son that but she went with Kwynn instead. Laith is just a super pretty name to me although now I only associate it with my own character... And Nerio was actually a name I thought was made up (I mixed his parents' names together) but later realized is a real name. When it comes to naming characters, though, I do first think of family, background, and where they came from. If I make a character named like... Rainbow Evans and then later describe her mother as being this strict and punctual woman who runs her house like a military vessel then um... Better have a damn good reason for why she named her daughter something so whimsical. That being said, though, I love naming characters. I've been known to spend an hour naming NPCs even. Haha!
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Post by sairri on Oct 19, 2013 14:08:21 GMT -8
I'M THE NAMING GURU if its not my character or an npc...then its wtf am I even going to call you.
It really depends on the character for me, sometimes they just kinda pop up, sometimes it takes me (a) week(s) of scourging through baby name sites and random generators.
I really like Nymblr because I generally have an idea for the 'mood' of the name but not the actual name itself.
For my trends...I really like alliteration. Maverick Meriwether Mason, Cecilia Sinclair (I know not real alliteration), Maxine Maybrook, the rest usually depends on the character/the character's parents like Cerribelle Antidote who was born to a young sweet new-age/hippy couple
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Post by beekeeper on Oct 19, 2013 14:36:22 GMT -8
Oh god I love Nymbler like you don't know.
Well usually names come to me pretty easily, but if not I just kinda go through nymbler and name lists, narrow it down and pick whatever fits best. I'm not a fan of weird special names all all tbh, I usually keep to pretty normal names (though I do like them to sound pretty and flow well) and I try to keep my character's race and what their parents were like and stuff in mind. Unless there's a good reason for my character to have a weird name I don't usually give them one. But alliteration is my guilty pleasure, as are really bad fake names.
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Post by tunasaurus on Oct 20, 2013 19:05:14 GMT -8
as much as i like unique names, i leave that stuff for other people 'cause in all honesty, i'm too lazy for it. ahahaha.
i guess i 'steal' names sometimes? like, i often take the names of objects or famous celebrities/historical figures, and would go with stuff along the lines of 'marion sue,' 'clyde barrow,' 'robin hood,' 'antoinette julia bonnefoy,' (because i'm obsessed with the bad touch trio from hetalia please don't hurt me) etc. & apparently i really like to have inside joke names with myself too, 'cause i'd remake characters on different sites and give them 'matching' names - kotori, hatori, nitori, for example.
yeah i'm a loser.
but otherwise i just google stuff up; if i like it, i'll use it. nvm that i like pretty much anything i see. oops.
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Post by murk on Oct 20, 2013 19:34:33 GMT -8
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Post by naomi on Nov 10, 2013 4:19:11 GMT -8
i decide on a nationality first then i go from there. usually the nationality is the hardest part... name are easy to find after that.
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A seadog looking for crewmates
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Post by Elena on Nov 16, 2013 0:17:09 GMT -8
Names are extremely important. They have to match the character's nationality, gender,the time the story is set in and the character's social status. Especially in historical settings, one didn't give a child a name just because it sounded exotic (and especially not an enemy country's name).
In 18-th century Britain, you'd find commoner boys named John, Thomas, Robert, George, David, James, and noble boys named Percival, Arthur, Titus, Marion (yes, a boy's name right then!), etc.
I do sometimes choose from name lists, making sure the given name and the surname do match. And I always know why (in the story) my character has been named like this.
My half-Venetian, half-Greek sailor girl, Marina Costa, got her name by being born at sea. Her elder brother Andrea Costa is born on 30-th of November, St Andrew's feast, but he also is wearing his maternal grandfather's name.
Raoul Etienne Duval is a French Rear-Admiral, so he has two names noblemen used. Probably he had a wealthy godfather to be named for.
My mercenary's given names, Juan Santiago, were taken from his parents, as he is the oldest child of Juana and Jose Santiago. His siblings took some of his father's names too: Jose Manuel, Josefa (Pepita).
Carmen is born on 17-th of July, the feast of Santa Maria del Carmen.
Maribel (Maria Belen) is the daughter of Maria Salome... exactly like for the mercenary's name, you can see a pattern. And the same with her siblings.
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