How do you come up with names?

[Ai-chan]

I've been thick in the weeds with coming up with names for characters, places, etc. for my fantasy world Treyidal.

Just curious, how do y'all come up with names? Do you do what I do most of the time and just smash sounds together, do you assemble some underlying rules? Or do you go full Tolkienesque conlang and make a language with grammar and history?

Allow Ai-chan to introduce you to one of the very first threads on scribblehub where Ai-chan provided the Syllabel-based Name Generator for free. Even Ai-chan uses this to this very day. Using this name generator, Ai-chan can get 205,962,976 combinations for 5 syllable names. Ai-chan wanted add the feature for meaningful Japanese and Chinese names as well, but since nobody was interested and Ai-chan didn't have need for it, Ai-chan didn't bother.

https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/author-tools.22/

In the case of mermaid names, maybe

Yamaw
Yaewa
Agesa
Yosu
Iwo
Nayon
Chisu
Fuma

 

[bananapink]

G-Google... >//////<

 

[MoodyFoxCat]

I came up with mine through many things, generators, searching on the internet. Sometimes I get ones that just stuck out of sudden in my head as if it was from a memory, and it sounds well to hear too

 

[Kilolo]

i'm still waiting for someone to share a recommended name generator site, honestly.

 

[Milk.Milkan]

When dere s a need to write da name - me write something random.

 

[bigbear51]

i'm still waiting for someone to share a recommended name generator site, honestly.

Well, for anyone here writing a story with Japanese characters, like myself, I find this site to be pretty good. A random generator and I can click on the name to see the meaning if that matters to you. Personally for me, meaning has gotten less important the more I've written. As long as it sounds good and isn't too long since I'm going to be writing them over and over then it's good for me.

Japanese Name Generator | Over 1 Billion Name Combinations & 100 New Names Every Hour

Explore over 1 billion Japanese name combinations with kanji meanings, updated every hour with 100 new names. Customize by gender, initials, and specific text using the Japanese Name Generator at JapaneseNames.info.

japanese-names.info

 

[Daitengu]

i'm still waiting for someone to share a recommended name generator site, honestly.

Fantasy name generators. Names for all your fantasy characters.

Countless generators for countless names. Some say it's the best fantasy name generator site around, which is very humbling to hear.

www.fantasynamegenerators.com

Got everything from Zelda and Tolkien to Halo and Eve online.

Sure D&D might not have say, merfolk, but you can RNG up something similar with the DC Atlantians, or Zelda's Zora name generators.

 

[WasatchWind]

i'm still waiting for someone to share a recommended name generator site, honestly.

There is the site donjon that has name generators, as well as map generators and many other fun things.

 

[Saileri]

My mind just spews names like a generator but with filters and causality. Tell me the first letter and I'll get you tens of them. Add some backstory or something about the chara and we'll go even deeper.

 

[ddm]

If it's a name from a Japanese light novel, I'll use japanese name generator Because there's a naming pattern specifically designed for light novels, the generated names sound more fantastical, such as [田村 宵嵐狼]

 

[VanVeleca]

Sometimes I come up with the name first and then the character follows after, other times I come up with the design first and then I look up baby name websites and search for names that are unique-ish

It definitly helps looking up names from 80s or 70s, or even before then, lots of names that you barely see anymore but still sound decent. Also, it helps searching for baby names from a specific country depending on where your character comes from or by what culture your fantasy world is inspired by.

Places are the most difficult for me to decide on, I want to make it unique but still recognizable in some way. Like with "McTonsils", you can already imagine it's supposed to be a fast food place because it's name is similar to a certain clown owned chain.

 

[Sylver]

I don't know who went fishing for this post, it's 5 years old cx but hey I'll contribute, why not?

It depends on the genre you're writing for. Modern time period means modern day names. Sci fi means getting creative with the spell and pronunciation. Fantasy names can be drawn from Dungeons & Dragons roleplays.

You have name generators if you want something quick, or you can get creative on the spot. If you want to be fancy and create a name with meaning and purpose, do a bit of research I to Latin wording and have fun coming up with something new

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I use [insert name here] until I can come up with one that fits their personality. Sometimes that is 100+ pages in and sometimes it is page 3. Also, baby name makers are great.

 

[Ararara]

I don't know who went fishing for this post, it's 5 years old cx but hey I'll contribute, why not?

A bot @ddm . Account made same-day, posting on ancient threads, putting links in their msgs

 

[Dawnathon]

A bot @ddm . Account made same-day, posting on ancient threads, putting links in their msgs

I only see one msg from them which is even weirder than spamming

 

[Elmir_Arch-Ham_of_Omega]

I'm all over the place when it comes to thinking up names.

• Ingrid: Main character, magical girl. A name for a pretty girl. In reality she's a rough brawler.
• Star Lily: Ingrid's previous magical girl alter-ego. Ironic name for above reasons.
• Philia: Name means "Love". She's an amoral psychopath.
• King Fish: Philia's callsign. Also Vladimir Makarov's.
• Star Lotus: Philia's previous alter-ego. Lotuses bloom on filthy water, or in Philia's case, on a sea of casualties.
• Terragalia: It's a joke on how JRPG worlds are Terra-something or something-Gaia.
• Latuca: Philia's legal name post-isekai, from the warrior princess from Clock-Up's Kuro no Utahime.
• Kvaris and Retem Enthana (she normally goes by Kinu): Wolf-girls named after the ice and desert towns in PSO2 NGS. Interestingly, their callsigns over the radio are inverted. Icy Kvaris is Anubis while Fiery Kinu (Retem) is Amarok (ice wolf). Incidentally, Kinu is the name of a character from Kabuki Clash that summons a fluffy familiar.
• Amaduscia Enthana: Father of the aforementioned two. Named after the volcanic planet in PSO2 (NGS is the sequel).
• Iohann: Name of the fluffy sheep cleric. It's just a respelled Yohann i.e. John. I picked it because it sounded biblical when using that archaic form. Her callsign is Prophet, less to do with her being a priest and more as a nod to Crysis.
• All orcs have hilariously mundane earthly names like "John Smith" instead "Draggar Bonecrusher"
• Zefir Aargrove: Reincarnator reborn as a cat boy. His seemingly un-creative name "Zefir" is a contrast on his unfortunate old name "Dick Wood"
• Zardos: the minotaur proctor. Named after Sean Connery's eponymous speedo-wearing swordsman character.
• Peanut: she's a mushroom and I didn't want her to sound too fungal.
• Selphie: A dryad. Selfie = Self photo = photograph = photo = light. Plants need light.
• Ser Kevain of House Connoir: A stork-folk with a deep voice. A reference to Kevin Conroy, voice of Batman.
• Yog-Zolom: Iohann's Nyx Fish familiar. Yog- is obviously from Yog-Sothoth as it lives in the abyssal depths of the deep ocean. -Zolom is a reference to Final Fantasy's midgarzolom enemy given its long body. In case you're wondering, Nyx Fish are magical beasts; flying, air-breathing intelligent fish. Resembles a Siamese fighting fish twice the size of an arapaima.
• Whipcrawler: Selphie's parasitic seeds launched from her wooden gun. zombifies enemies and turns them into vine-whipping thralls. It is an ironic reference to a humorous exchange in the video game "Homeworld'" where two generals were arguing over "fleet of small ships vs a few capital-class ships". Whip-crawlers were said to be dexterous creatures with multiple tentacles and unparalleled coordination while those in my novel are clumsly zombies that can only follow simple commands.
• Suika,: Selphie's callsign. Named after the oni from the Touhou Project whose horns look like branches, which is the basis behind my idea for how dryads look like i.e. elves with antler-like head-branches.
• Johnny: Selphie's pumpkin monster familiar. Named after Kohaku's fire-breathing piranha plant in the Melty Blood games.
• Viel Yulga: "Viel Matoi" from PSO2 is the corrupted version of the character Matoi, "Yulga" is a play on the "Yuga" variant of hyper-corrupted enemies. Ironically, Viel is a pacifist.
• Elion-Nosco: Elzelion AKA Street Fighter's Gill's fursona (two-toned dragon with fire and ice powers), "Nosco" as in Nosgoth from Legacy of Kain. Elion-Nosco is the "Bad Kingdom(tm)". Storywise it's "Elion-Nosco" due to it being a union of two powerful kingdoms, from a meta level it's a play on Elzelion having a blue and red half.
• Freid: A kingdom whose lamellar armor heavily resembles Mongol design. I picked the German-sounding name Freid because of Dschingis Khan.
• Celestial Breaker: Just one of the many possible translations for Akuma's Kongo-koku Retsu Zan.
• Tephrans (anagram of "panther") are sapient quadruped giant cats. They're stereotyped wearing Egyptian-styled jewelry and holding high positions of power, such as being guildmaster. All their names sound like something a crazy cat lady would name their cat like Tibbles, Mittens, and Purrington.
• Felmoon: Sheep-folk. Based on the Moon Clan demons from Diablo. Iohann is a felmoon. The goat-folk are called Jodoves because Jove = Jupiter = Zeus and when Zeus was an infant he nursed from a goat.
• Elrei Veles XII = King of Veles. Literally it's "El Rey"
• "Misshaku Kongo: Meifunomon" - One of Ingrid's special moves. Name was inspired from Akuma's design which in turn drew from the from the guardian Nio statues found in Buddhist temples. The first part is named after one such deity. Meifu No Mon literally means "Gates of Hell" which is references the effect of this ability.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Fantasy name generator if they are throwaways.

Baby name and meanings if they are important enough.

Ps. I would like to state that I unironically name the first important bad guy as Badrick.