how do you make up fantasy names?

satyesu said:

I'm specifically thinking about characters', but other help is appreciated.

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For me, it's one part research into the genre and one part names that are simply fun to pronounce.

Baby name books that have lots of alternate spellings.

For place names, I use anagrams of real cities and swap syllables around until it sounds right.

I ususally go look at a name etymology website and choose something for the character based on the meaning, and then I'll maybe change it slightly to make it sound more like a fantasy name, if I need to. For instance, I chose my protagonist's name of Micah because it's a bit androgynous and it means "in the manner of god" which relates to a theme I have running through the books.

I don't like having really "out there" names, though--no characters called Mh'heeninala'ani here. Some other examples of names I use in my quasi-steampunk novel are: Aenea, Drystan, Elena, Ceren, Esti, Gytha, Bottle (it's a nickname), etc. For my characters from other lands I choose names from whatever culture I'm somewhat basing them on: Zeki, Kato, Zuri, Dani, etc. Oviously I like two syllable names, hmm. I should mix that up a bit more.

Lots of hyphens and apostrophes.

But seriously, they just pop into my head as I need them.

Since one of my countries is based on Africa I keep wanting to give someone a name with ! in it to denote the click of the Bushmen language, but I think it'd be too jarring for the reader.

For fantasy names, I try to make them easy to remember and easy to pronounce at a glance. I usually try to avoid names that sound European since that's a cliche.

Names in my current science-fantasy WIP: Jaya, Raahi, Kindu, Taymor, Tenias, Merrik

lauralam said:

Since one of my countries is based on Africa I keep wanting to give someone a name with ! in it to denote the click of the Bushmen language, but I think it'd be too jarring for the reader.

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Sadly, I would agree. I was told by beta readers that the "ö" in a character's name "Björn" looked affectatious and I should change it to a regular "o." And that's a name that's fairly familiar and European! (And technically spelled incorrectly with a regular "o" as in "Bjorn.") Bleh.

Ardent Kat said:

I was told by beta readers that the "ö" in a character's name "Björn" looked affectatious and I should change it to a regular "o." And that's a name that's fairly familiar and European! (And technically spelled incorrectly with a regular "o" as in "Bjorn.") Bleh.

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Sometimes I use real world names, or use them with a twist. Sometimes I take the name of something that's inspired me, or interested me, and twist that a little too - for instance I have a city of Estovan, which is a twist on a character's name from the Left Hand of Darkness(Estraven).

Has to be nice and easy to 'see' how it's pronounced. Though I was once told by a reader that 'Hilde' was too hard...

I work off the cultures I've set up. For something with a Terran human cultural base, I have no problem with 'regular' names like Bill, Adam, Alys, or Terise. There's a far-future Persian flavor to some of it, so one of my characters has the name of Shahjahan Sardis, though he goes by his English first name, Lyton. Other characters are non-human, and have completely different names. I try to keep them from being too complex, but I'm not going to hold my readers' hands, either. If I can say 'Aksenna', I figure the readers can, too.

The one thing I get worried about when making up names is that I'll inadvertently come up with something that's a real word in another language. Periodically, I do searches to make sure I didn't accidentally reinvent something embarassing.

For one culture I based the names, culture and language partly on Welsh and partly on Native American. A few twists here and there to make them suitably different. Though not all that different in parts - there is a point in my first chapter where I have the MC swear in Welsh. He says 'bastard son of a bitch' but only someone who knew Welsh would know that. Incidentally, I don't know Welsh (well, I learnt how to say 'no littering' or Dim Ysbriel from reading signs) but I do know a lot of people who do know it...

I also used the name Ysbriel for a character name at one point. Not for writing but for an RPG character. It was supposed to represent his father's opinion of him - he was worthless rubbish cast aside.

The trouble with that sort of thing is that it can grate a little on those who know that culture or language really well. I personally wince when reading some of the slightly changed names in Game of Thrones (Eddard for Edward, Rikard for Richard etc) though this does not make me cringe as much as the use of the word Ser for Sir.

Baby name books are an invaluable resource for writers and roleplayers (though my wife asked some pointed questions about why I had one on the shelf when we first met... wrong conclusions drawn...) and there are many sites out there with lists of baby names specific for different periods of history and different cultures (I found a Viking one once when looking for ideas for a name for a Viking character).

As for blatant fantasy names (like Arachi, Deval, Hrosta etc) I tend to try to think of sounds that fit together and then think how to make them into a word. It sometimes takes a while to get the right combination but sometimes you can get away with twisting an existing word or name until it is unrecognisable - say shuffle words around, move syllables, add extra words and so on. Perhaps try cutting out some cards with letters on them (or getting some alphabet shapes that children use or letter fridge magnets) and moving them around (perhaps picking some at random and shuffling them to try to make a name). Its one way of potentially tapping the subconscious creativity into giving you some ideas.

The use of 'Ser' for 'Sir' is an much older variant than Martin. I took it into the future, using 'Sero / Sera' as a human honorific. It's simple, and it works.

A lot of my names have some from simple typos.

Oh, I really liked Martin's slightly-twisted names like Eddard and Jaime. They're atypical, yet easy to pronounce, and they come across instantly as somebody's name.

Given how many things--not just people--have made-up names in fantasy, I find Martin's approach helps me keep track of which jumble of letters is associated with which person/city/object.

It depends. For one of the fantasy worlds I'm creating, I take English words and then use a simple algorithm to modify the letters. Then I play with the result a tiny bit to get something a little more natural sounding. This way everything in that particular universe will sound like the same language.

Otherwise I try to go with names that will be easily remembered, fun to pronounce, and haven't been done to death (note: try). As a rule, I try to avoid putting hyphens or apostrophes or any kind of grammar in the middle of a name, because as a reader, that's always thrown me for quite a loop and pulled me right out of the story.

Ardent Kat said:

Merrik

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Not sure if you even need this, but "Merrik" is a great name. Out of the ones you listed, this is the one I would remember if it were a character in something. It's a name I would quickly associate with a title or author. If you ever decide to change any names you're using, don't change this one. - Reader perspective.

It may be older but it still annoys me. Some of the names work but others don't. For me it seems too close and I prefer to see something more different in fantasy.

Usually I make up the basics of a fictional language (esp. grammatical structure and phonetics) before I make up names that come from that language.

If there are apostrophes or special characters in them, it's because the language I made up has some sounds that are nonexistent in English. I mean, in our "real world" those aren't there because they look nice either... If they are used, they mean something.

Okay, that sounds complicated.

I thought about their personalities while juggling syllables.

Energetic, dynamic, funny and the main character: Vynen.

A little serious, awesome, aggressive: Rophen.

Smart, sarcastic, determinant: Anara.

I'm lucky enough to be writing about a culture that has homogenized, so the names don't have to fit each other. I go with a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic names, and often just the first pronounceable word that I can make up.

Like senka, I start with the language, or at least its phonetics. Problem is that I have too much fun with it sometimes—currently, I've got a race of chracters whose language includes two click consonants and a vowel length distinction, and it carries through into their names (interacting with a protag who speaks something much closer to English, so I can toss in the odd pronunciation note, but it's still proving . . . interesting).

If you use Scrivenir - there's a name generator tool on there that I use - is that cheating? lol.

Anyway I just pick and choose ones I like, changing it a bit to find the proper cadence.

You can use ancient names, or you can take existing names and add suffixes, prefixes, or jam a letter somewhere in between to create something new.

I rarely make up names. Since I write multicultural fantasy,I use names from Asian,African,Native American and Celtic cultures.