Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope
As an author, I try to stick to a few rules in naming...
1) If there is more then one "group/race/sub culture/etc" of characters in the book, then their names should reflect that grouping. That is all characters from a group should have same flavor. For example in my series there is a group of humans that live on a planet and are frankly fairly normal/average people.. they have names like Bill, Mike, and so on. There is another group of people that are a reptilian race and they have names like Zalith. I also have a group of aliens from a much more exotic place with names like Salsartazar, Mathorn and Korshalem. The intention is that you can tell when reading my books if you pay attention what culture a person is from by their name.
2) I keep main character names very easy read, pronounce and remember (at least to my own mind). For example the primary character in book one has the name Vydor.
3) I try to avoid names that are over used or well known such as Harry Potter or James Bond.
I have played with other languages to make names. For example in book 3 there is a fish that the characters eat that is considered to be a rare and expensive delicacy. I name it aupessi which if you know even a little Latin you can probably see what I did there...  |
As a reader, I appreciate an author taking the time to think things out like that.
One author who's naming of characters I've always enjoyed is Juliet E. McKenna. They are distinctive yet easy to associate with the character and where they come from. I also like her place names because they give the appearance of having some sort of historical/etymological connection to the land (and the fact that she includes a map).
