# What's in a name?



## Digitalpotato (Oct 2, 2009)

Yeah yeah I know, cliche topic name. I'm having some trouble for a character name for a kind of lycanthropish dude. So maybe you guys will have some suggestions...


I'm just looking for something rather North American, and either wolf or coyote for the species if that helps.


----------



## Atrak (Oct 2, 2009)

Okay...sometimes for a good name, you take a feature/characteristic of the character, find a fancy word that describes it, and then make it into a sort of pun.

i.e.: Wolves are sometimes described as feral and deadly.
Pheral
Ded Lee


Also, you can take the name of the species and modify it, by shortening, lengthening, or changing some letters around.

i.e.: For a coyote...
Coty (or Cotie)


----------



## Digitalpotato (Oct 2, 2009)

I've considered naming him something like Cody and then being identified as a Coyote, he just facepalms and says "Very very very funny, fate!!!"


----------



## Stratelier (Oct 3, 2009)

Aside from the lycanthropic aspect, what kind of character is he?  If he's a normal American human "except for _that_", he'd probably have a normal American sounding name.

...whatever passes for "normal" these days....


----------



## Torrijos-sama (Oct 3, 2009)

Adolph? Ralph? Randy? Randolph?


----------



## Kender3421 (Oct 3, 2009)

Her, use this. It's called Behind the Name. Doing this, you can look into where the name came from, what it means and if it is masculine or feminine. I use this and it's sister site, behind the surname, to figure out all my character names.


----------



## Volpino (Oct 3, 2009)

A lot of my names are an inside joke. So I might name a character that hates snakes after a herpetologist. 

Nice site btw, Kender. I think I'll be wasting a lot of time there.


----------



## Kender3421 (Oct 3, 2009)

I have used that site for at least a year or so now and that's how I come up with all my characters. If you like that, go to links and click on behind the surname to come up with last names.


----------



## Volpino (Oct 3, 2009)

That's a nice tool. I usually don't have much trouble with character names, but I still don't have a name for my fursona. Volpino Paladino is a description, not a name.


----------



## Digitalpotato (Oct 3, 2009)

Stratadrake said:


> Aside from the lycanthropic aspect, what kind of character is he?  If he's a normal American human "except for _that_", he'd probably have a normal American sounding name.
> 
> ...whatever passes for "normal" these days....




Well, he's basically someone who winds up changing a lot, I'm thinking he'd be solitary, which is why I thought Coyote maybe. 


Thanks Kender, that's a nice site actually!


----------



## Kender3421 (Oct 3, 2009)

Not a problem, I thought that might come in handy.


----------



## Atrak (Oct 4, 2009)

Also, you can right the name backwards. Just a little trick I like to use  .


----------



## Kender3421 (Oct 4, 2009)

Lets see...
Conner = Rennoc
I like that. Might use that as the main character for my new series.


----------



## Derricklesters2009 (Oct 4, 2009)

George... period.


----------



## Atrak (Oct 4, 2009)

George doesn't strike me as a wolf or coyote name...


----------



## Volpino (Oct 4, 2009)

I know a coyote named "Ralph Wolf"


----------



## M. LeRenard (Oct 4, 2009)

I've been planning a story for NaNoWriMo, and so to develop the names for the characters in that one, I came up with species, looked up the French name for that species, then did a little word play on the French name, translated it back into English, and then came up with a close enough word that would also work as a name.
So for example, one of the main characters is a cricket.  The French word for cricket is 'grillon'.  Grillon has the word 'grille' in it, which is the third-person form of the verb 'griller' which means 'to grill' or 'to burn'.  So I called this guy Scorch.  And I picked cricket as the species, because through a similar process, I came up with the name Cricket for my main character, so I thought it would be funny.

So you can come up with a lot of ways to name a character.  Get creative and have fun, huh?  Maybe you know another language so you could use my method for this guy.  Or just play around with English words.  Whatever.


----------



## Mojotaian (Oct 5, 2009)

Find alternatives to the word and mix things up and add sounds.
Here's an example

Making of one of my main characters - Banaeros Rosaeos

Thought of the idea of a poisonous rose, because he was attracting (not looks) but sinister and hard. (so, something that lured, but killed).

So I look up poison. Synonym is Bane -

So... Banerose? But that's just a first name. It stuck for a while.

Eventually I separated it...

So Bane and Rose... I liked S sounds, so I SOMEHOW came up with

Banaeros Rosaeos

Look at Thesaurus' and dictionary's, even use words from other languages... IF u cant make ur own...


----------



## Stratelier (Oct 5, 2009)

atrakaj said:


> George doesn't strike me as a wolf or coyote name...


Does it even _have_ to?

Think about it.  If you have a reader who is nerdy enough (only warning: do not click link), the first thing they'll start doing once they hear your character's name is speculating on what will happen to them _based on that name_.  If you give a character, especially your main, a name that is obviously/overly symbolic, it might spoil some foreshadowing.  Of course, an average person may or may not -- but if even _they_ do, you may need to re-think your character.

Of course, symbolic names are a lot easier to spot in retrospect than they are at the time....

You may just want to stick with a "normal" name that is not based on an obvious plot element in your story.  Reminds me that when I wrote my 2008 Nano novel (excerpt), a major story element was that the main character became (almost) lost in a forest at night and (nonetheless) transformed into the body of a fox.  Another character who went looking for him was affected too (turned into a wolf).  The characters' names?  "Brian" and "Mark".  Perfectly ordinary names.

So if you're stuck on the MC's name there are several ways to go fishing.

1: Names chosen by a particular meaning, like how Rowling named Sirius Black after the "dog star".
3: Names chosen by their phonetic qualities, by how it _sounds_ when spoken aloud.
4: Nicknames -- which to be fair is a whole topic of its own accord.  Many nicknames originate because the original name sounds too archaic, foreign, or complicated to say out loud (such as "Levi" <<= "Leviticus") so they're given something different.  If you had a character named "Melvin", the name alone could make him such an easy target for gradeshool bullies that he might grow up preferring "Mel" or "Vin" (maybe even "Vinnie") with threats of hatred/violence/etc. for anyone (outside of close friends or family) who addresses him by legal name.

For that matter, you could almost forgo their legal name entirely and introduce them by a nickname if your story lends itself to that.

Okay then, I have one suggestion:  "Kyle".  It's a perfectly ordinary name with a decent sound to my ears.  It doesn't necessarily mean anything on its own, it just snapped to mind because it rhymes with like the "kai" in "coyote".


----------



## Atrak (Oct 5, 2009)

> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *atrakaj*
> 
> 
> ...


 
You misunderstand. I don't mean to be symbolic, necessarily, I just mean a name that sounds like it should belong to a carnivorous creature.

Also...


> Think about it. If you have a reader who is nerdy enough (only warning: do not click link), the first thing they'll start doing once they hear your character's name is speculating on what will happen to them _based on that name_. If you give a character, especially your main, a name that is obviously/overly symbolic, it might spoil some foreshadowing. Of course, an average person may or may not -- but if even _they_ do, you may need to re-think your character.



I am nerdy enough to  . In fact, that's the first thing I think about: the symbolism. I like to use symbolism for really important names in my stories, but not the kind you mean, per se. Mine are more vague, and hint more about the character's personality, rather than foreshadowing events to come. My name and title, for example.

I am Atrakaj Doppelganger, the Inimically Mimical.

Inimical means original, while mimical means copycat. I am an original copycat. I take things, ideas, names, etc, and change them, making them my own. See my sig  .My name also symbolizes this. Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia. I like the sound of Jakarta, but there were already people who used that name, so one day, by a completely random series of events, I thought, "Atrakaj. Huh, I like that." I took a name and wrote it backwards, making it my own. No one else uses my username, as far as I know, and I've used it on many sites.

My last name is also symbolic. Doppelganger: a copy. If someone has a saying or way of doing things that I like, I subconciously start copying them, but in a slightly different way. When I was in middle school, I didn't really laugh. I giggled. Yes, I admit it, I giggled. Then, in ninth grade, I started laughing like my best friend, who had a loud bellowing laugh, followed by snickering  . I didn't do it on purpose, I just did it. I do the snickering separate, however, and my laugh is somewhat deeper than his was.

Heh heh. I think I'm starting to get a rep of someone who talks about random stuff a lot  . But it's all connected. It's not completely random. I am just doing what I do best: free typing.

Anyway, I guess the gist of what I just typed is that a name can be symbolic without giving away the plot. Exhibit A: *points to self* . I seriously doubt you can't predict me  , except for general things, like the fact that I don't like hurting people, and jerks annoy me.


----------



## Stratelier (Oct 5, 2009)

atrakaj said:


> You misunderstand. I don't mean to be symbolic, necessarily, I just mean a name that sounds like it should belong to a carnivorous creature.



"Should" being a matter of judgement, of course.  The pivotal question being, what is the main character's _identity_?  In their own opinion?  Were they always a were-shapeshifter or did it suddenly "start" happening to them?  Where does Chapter 1 fall relative to this?  How are they introduced to the reader?  _That_ is probably the most important consideration -- the reader's _first impression of your character_.


----------



## Atrak (Oct 5, 2009)

> The pivotal question being, what is the main character's _identity_? In their own opinion?


 
That pretty much agrees with my previous post  . That part AFTER the second quote  .



> _That is probably the most important consideration -- the reader's first impression of your character._




For minor characters that only appear once or twice, I totally agree. For major and recurring characters, however, I don't like that. I like my readers to read the description of the character, then they see the name, and have to actually *wonder* how he/she got that name. For example:



> She unsheathed her claws, the wicked points glinted from reflected moonlight. She gazed at her prey, her ivory fangs gleaming in a feral grin as she stalked steadily closer. There would be no escape for him this time. She would make sure he was gutted and dead. She would take his head to her master, leaving the cadaver here to rot. She gathered her legs beneath her, and pounced.


 
Most people see that, and get the *impression* that she is dangerous, deadly, and lithe, and might expect her name to be something like that. If she was an important character, however, as it looks like from this excert, I would not name her Feral, or Lithe, or anything like that. I would name her something that is symbolic of her past, or her hidden nature. Here's another exert:



> Her tail twitched as she leaned back against the trunk of the tree, her right leg dangling from the branch. She looked sadly at the moon, which was just a sliver, and recalled another night when it had been like that, so many years ago...
> Disjointed images flashed through her mind of that night. She watched, only a passenger as her memory-self acted out her part. Her memory-self was only a kit, maybe seven years old, as she ran laughing through a field. The memory jumped. Now she was swimming in a small, secluded lake, her mother watching her lovingly from the bank. Another jump. She was sitting at the dining table, laughing with her family as she devoured the bloody leg of some animal her father had hunted that day. She shifted ahead to where her mother was tucking her in. Her mother licked her cheek and went back down from the loft, but only after whispering a soft I love you. She snuggled into the covers, her belly full and her whiskers clean. She was happy...
> _*BANG*_! She jolted upright, got tangled in the covers, and fell with a soft _whump!_ to the floor. She disentangled herself from her blanket and tiptoed to the door. She cracked it open, looked down at the floor below, and beheld her parents being subdued by a pack of wolves. She growled softly as she watched her parents trussed like some kind of...of...*prey*.
> A large grey wolf walked up to her parents, his back to her. He asked them something, his voice too low and guttural for her to make out. Her father shook his head, and the wolf became angry. His hand shot out, and his claws buried themselves into his throat. Her mother started screaming. The alpha nodded to a wolf standing behind her, and he promptly snapped her neck, cutting off her cries of mourning.
> The sight made her wimper slightly. The pack leader froze, and slowly turned. His gaze turned upwards, and his single yellow eye looked into her terrified face. He grinned ferally.


 
Now you don't think of her as some dangerous, mindless killer, do you? She is deeper than she first appeared. I would place myself in her mother's pawprints, and think about what *she* would name her daughter.



> Tears fell down her face as remembered her mother's last words to her, when she was snug in bed. "I love you, my sweet Draumur.


----------



## Duality Jack (Oct 5, 2009)

I like to find Nordic names and Slavic names that are extinct


----------



## Poetigress (Oct 5, 2009)

atrakaj said:


> I would place myself in her mother's pawprints, and think about what *she* would name her daughter.



Keep in mind, though, that when a parent names a child, they're dealing with essentially a blank slate, and any child will grow into their name. When you name a character, though, you have to consider all the connotations that make a name sound "right" for a person with those particular traits you've chosen. So while thinking about what your character's parents would name them can be a good way to worldbuild (considering what names mean in their society and so forth), I don't know if I'd trust it as a way to come up with a particular name. Plenty of people in the real world have traits and identities that go against the stereotypes their names bring to mind. You don't always have that luxury in fiction of saying "well, it happens that way in real life"; everything in your story, including character names, needs to aim toward the effect you want. So I think it can be interesting to play against the obvious, and certainly I agree that for major characters, you should consider the entire identity of the character and not just what you want the reader's first impression to be. But it's also possible to take it too far in the other direction and name a character something so out of step with their nature that it comes off as jarring to the reader (or worse, unintentionally comical).

Overall, I think Stratadrake broke it down very well. I would especially emphasize considering how the name sounds--hard sounds, soft sounds, number of syllables, rhythm, etc. Also, keep in mind that some readers read names phonetically instead of by sight, so if you name a character Ixosnwx, you risk tripping up people who need to figure out a way to mentally pronounce that instead of just recognizing the grouping of letters. (And you might also regret it if you find yourself doing readings later on.)


----------



## Stratelier (Oct 5, 2009)

atrakaj said:


> Most people see that, and get the *impression* that she is dangerous, deadly, and lithe, and might expect her name to be something like that. If she was an important character, however, as it looks like from this excert, I would not name her Feral, or Lithe, or anything like that.


...because given her introduction/description such a name would be redundant.

Right.



> I would place myself in her mother's pawprints, and think about what *she* would name her daughter.


Good point -- no, *very* good point.  IRL, the responsibility of naming falls on the parent, and they have to do so with little knowledge of what the child will grow up to be.

Hate to use the term "method acting" here, but it does sort of fit.  If you want your MC to have a "normal" or "everyday" name, then take a minute to imagine how the parent would've named the child and why.


----------

