a question of names

[BeccaPrice]

Originally Posted by crich70

I think you are thinking of Schist. When I was in middle school and we studied geology for science class some of my classmates had a field day with the word as it sounds quite close to another word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schist

yeah, I refuse to name a character shist. On the other hand, there's Micaceous which might make a good counselor/advisor.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

I could see King Greywacke.

It's a good name. I like such names: for people who are less knowledgeable, it's just a name, but for people who know what a Gargoyle is *and* know that Greywacke is a type of stone, the name adds some extra flavour to the story.

[BeccaPrice]

I can see getting my gargoyle names from this list.

Now - I need a good list of wizard-type names, and some for the human kingdom.

Then, of course, I'll need to figure out how to flesh out the 3500-word telling into a novel.

[Katsunami]

With regard to the gargoyles: you might think about mailing the author of that site, to ask if you can include the pictures in a glossary. For people who are reading on a tablet, they can actually see how the gargoyles look like.

For other names: try this. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons name generator, by Wizards of the Coast. Can be set to generate names for any combination of class (ranger, wizard, cleric...), profession, race, and sex.

Name Generator

If you search Google for "Fantasy Name Generator", you'll find lots of other options.

I've been thinking of names for characters in my story, and was choosing names based on Greece, Russia, Iceland, and so on, but I think I may actually go for fantasy names too... I don't like "real" names of our own world too much in fantasy stories, I'm afraid. But that realisation ame after thinking up and writing 10 passages or so...

[VydorScope]

One thing to keep in mind is that names should be grouped. So all the names of characters from the same culture in your world should have a theme that unites them.

[BeccaPrice]

That's good advice.

for my gargoyles, I have King Greywacke. Micaceous Gabbro Kimberlit Hornfels. I may include a link to that web site in an afterword.

I like the name Stefin for one of the human characters, either the king or the cobbler. I don't have a clear vision yet of what the human culture is like, and I know that's gotta come before I come up with any names (prince, knight, king's youngest daughter, brave cobbler, at the least. And if I have a youngest daughter, I need oldest daughters too. And to plot out the romance between the brave cobbler and the youngest daughter.

This writing of a novel is *hard* - I much prefer my fairy stories. It's not my fault that the gargoyles want more.

[VydorScope]

I have in the past just put placeholder names in until I come up with something. For example in Enemy of an Enemy I had the key characters named Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John (the names of the first four books of the Christian New Testament). Later I went back and gave them new names when I had them. That frees you to focus on the story. A simple find/replace in any word processor fixes them later.

Just a thought.

[BeccaPrice]

I could do that, although for me naming something is part of learning it's characteristics.

King Stefin would rule differently than a King Steven or a King Stephen. It took us close to a week after he was born to settle on a name for my son (of course, there were not only my husband and I in that discussion, but his birth mother as well, and she had... ideas for naming that were different from ours.).

Also, I'm horribly reminded of the fantasy novel I read once where the male god and female god started out being X and Y, and half way through the novel wound up having those names reversed. No search and replace would have caught that!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

One thing to keep in mind is that names should be grouped. So all the names of characters from the same culture in your world should have a theme that unites them.

I know. That's why I first chose to do names based on real names found in real countries, but I don't like it. Therefore I'm going to generate lots and lots of names, pick the ones I like, and then change them in such a way that each group has its own sort / type of name.

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

Also, I'm horribly reminded of the fantasy novel I read once where the male god and female god started out being X and Y, and half way through the novel wound up having those names reversed. No search and replace would have caught that!

*Eyes pop out*

I hope it was intentional? If not, then that's a book-breaking mistake.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I know. That's why I first chose to do names based on real names found in real countries, but I don't like it. Therefore I'm going to generate lots and lots of names, pick the ones I like, and then change them in such a way that each group has its own sort / type of name.

I did that once. Its hard for me, because I need to grow the character first. Names have power, they represent things and come with expectations. Names like the famous Tim the enchanter only works because it was a comedy. In general readers expect (often unconsciously) a characters personality to match their name. So a "Rouge" would not work as name for a law abiding by the rules character, in general. A powerful creature/person should have a powerful sounding name.

Of course all rules are made to be broken, just make sure you understand what you are breaking and are doing it intentionally (i.e. Tim)

[crich70]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

That's good advice.

for my gargoyles, I have King Greywacke. Micaceous Gabbro Kimberlit Hornfels. I may include a link to that web site in an afterword.

I like the name Stefin for one of the human characters, either the king or the cobbler. I don't have a clear vision yet of what the human culture is like, and I know that's gotta come before I come up with any names (prince, knight, king's youngest daughter, brave cobbler, at the least. And if I have a youngest daughter, I need oldest daughters too. And to plot out the romance between the brave cobbler and the youngest daughter.

This writing of a novel is *hard* - I much prefer my fairy stories. It's not my fault that the gargoyles want more.

One way to expand the story to novel length is to have 'side stories' to inter-weave into the story line. Someone had to have the idea to steal the talisman in the 1st place and there had to be a source of the threat against the human kingdom as well. Maybe one of the human characters is in cahoots with the invaders, and of course the wrong one is suspected of it. Or maybe there is friendship between the children of the two groups (human and gargoyle) that is threatened by the adults stubborn pride. Any number of side stories could be inter-woven to expand the story I'd think.