Jump to content

nid help wid names...

piterdevries

By piterdevries
in General

 Share

Recommended Posts

exatreide

exatreide

Posted
Posted

Jenkins is good, as long as he dies. Everytime the name Jenkins is in anything he dies. I'm pretty sure every single red shirt had Jenkins in some part of his name..

Which is probebly why I never met anyone nammed that in real life.

piterdevries

piterdevries

Posted
  • Author
Posted

heres the story: theres a powerful emperor who has 2 children (ages 22 and 19 both are guyz) the older one sets up an assassination attempt and at the same time spreading false information about his brother. the father dies, the younger one gets blamed and his brother ascends to the throne. he brings his younger brother to a power reactor in which he leaves him there and blows the place up. the younger guy wasnt killed but lost his identification of being a member of the royal family. he was banished from their city and stays in the wilderness.. the older guy, now emperor, is being manipulated by his own cyborg assisstant and forces him to banish all of the poor, low class,and middle class people in his empire. the banished guyz join sides with the younger guy and wages war against the emperor (his own brother)... they attack the city, and the younger guy chases the fleeing emperor to a small laboratory in which where they both ride a space ship.. the younger guy smashes the controls and is killed by his older brother. but the ship's direction is locked to the black hole....

so uh, give me some help with names:

the younger guy (protagonist)

the older guy (antagonist)

their father

a smuggler leader

a space pirate

a cyborg

Jack Leaf

Jack Leaf

Posted
Posted

Well, in my own scifi world I tend to name all Imperials with names of Romance origin. For example, Honorato Nemo, Achilles (using too many myth names is silly) Corwin, Garcia, Armanno, etc. However, I'm not sure if this fits your setting.

I would still suggest to stick with names that are real or resemble real names. It's all right to get wild in scifi and fantasy stories, though that depens on what are the characters' relations with Earth, if any.

Dante

Dante

Posted
Posted

Depends on the kind of impression you want to give. Names can hold meanings and connotations of their own, as well as just sounding cool. Even names in current use (Thomas, Lucy, Robert) can mean something, especially if they are placed out of context in some other universe. And if you use names from famous historical personalities (Nero, Adolf, Lincoln) then you have to consider what comparisons could be drawn.

Personally I like esoteric names. Valen, Vail, Lachlan, Lucretia, Morganna, Dalziel; that kind of thing. But only certain people would have names like that. Those who would wish to have a low profile would go for a common name, and those with little patience would almost certainly shorten something like Morganna to Morga, or whatever.

Ok, the site I actually use when I want to go name trawling is this one. It's better than the one I linked above. Much better. Only didn't give it before because I'm lazy and didn't really care. The great thing about this site is that it has a search function. Search by letter, popularity, country of origin, meaning (especially useful), gender... Wonderful tool. So there.

My own suggestions:

The younger character is the protagonist, and therefore you probably want the reader to empathise with him. So in this case a name that people will recognise is probably a good idea, but not one with any immediate overtones. Daniel perhaps. The same would apply to the father.

The antagonist needn't have a fanastically otherwordly name, but it might benefit from being different to his brother or father, perhaps having a different country of origin. Lucretius, Ivan, Malcolm...

Smugglers and pirates are wild cards. Their personality would dictate their name, as more than likely they will have changed it at some point. They might make it especially showy (Melancton), or blunt (Logan).

Cyborgs would depend on plot. Would this cyborg have chosen their own name? If so, as with the smuggler/pirates the name would depend on the personality. If not, who gave it to them? A company making more than one would be likely to use numbers (Default 082), while an organisation making only a few would give special names (among the most common being Adam and Eve). Unless of course this cyborg had parents that gifted a name, in which case do you want this character to be liked or disliked?

I'm not saying that names like Daniel immediately cause people to like characters while names like Ivan have the opposite effect. That's silly. I happen to have a mild dislike for my own name, but that doesn't stop me from liking other people with it (it does stop me from ever using it on one of my characters). What I am saying is that names aren't just arbitary labels. Thought regarding their background and meaning must be taken into account.

Davidu

Davidu

Posted
Posted

Geto-Dacian names: Burebista, Decebal(us), Oroles, Rubobostes.

Geto-Dacian places that can be used as names: Sarmizegetusa, Apulum, Potaisa, Tibiscum, Napoca, Drobeta

You'd better use your imagination, really, and invent names.

Dante, that site has only two romanian names... and we don't use any of those.  ;D

Romanian names: Rares, Petru ( form of Peter), Ion and Ioan ( from of John, Johann), Dan and Radu (slavic names), Mihai, Marius, Cosmin

Family Names: Basarab, Brancoveanu, Stancu (me!!! ;D), Cantacuzin(o) ( bysantine origin)

Mihail

Mihail

Posted
Posted

Fancy names, Greek names, and eccentric names are good for people of high standing in the community/government. So are Russian names, except the short ones(Vasya, etc.)

Short American/English names are good for the regular person on the street, since it's hard to imagine a nobleman whose name is Joe and a middle-class working man whose name is Theodoros Matthias. I, personally, dislike using names used in the modern world(Joe, Jack, Lucy, Bob, etc.) in science fiction stories, simply because they feel out of place. I like random, rare names or ones that I have modified/ made up. For example, I like that name Rihael(From Mihael).

Anyway, I'm starting to drag on here. Use names which you like, these are just my ideas. :)

Jack Leaf

Jack Leaf

Posted
Posted

Your thinking is too English. Royal people indeed need a little more extravagant names than "Joe" but certainly this doesn't mean that suddenly Russian or Greek names are perfect for this purpose. Think about a Russian reader reading and seeing that all the normal people have English names but suddenly everyone in high position is Russian.  ::)

It's just like all those American movies with German antagonists.

Dante

Dante

Posted
Posted
Dante, that site has only two romanian names... and we don't use any of those.  ;D

Perhaps then they are listed under a different country of origin? Romania hasn't been around forever.

Dante

Dante

Posted
Posted

Ion and Marius are in there... as celtic/gaelic and latin origins respectively. The others aren't, but they're mostly silly anyway. :P

MrFlibble

MrFlibble

Posted
Posted

I guess the name choice should heavily depend on the cultural background of the imaginary world of the story, especially if it is sci-fi. Name points to the origin of a person, to some extent, so it would be wise to think about where do the cultural/historic roots of the characters ascend (um... roots that ascend...).

Another option is to get a co-writer who will be responsible for such things as names ;)

Davidu

Davidu

Posted
Posted

Off topic: MrFibble, I've seen the movie "The 9th company" made in 2005. I enjoyed it very much. Good to see that the russians still do great movies.  ;D

Ellinas

Ellinas

Posted
Posted

;D

Ion/Ioan have biblical background. Marius is latic, but I doubt anyone else is using it today.

Only Ioan has biblical backround. I think it means something like the one who gives light?

Ion means Ionian.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.