PoC Name generators

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Rachel Udin

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Because, seriously, I want to strangle people for making name generators with all the names coming from Europe.

So the long of it was that I need a Korean name generator for this project I'm doing. I can't think that fast with name combinations. So I looked for one online and the name combinations were limited and I had no idea where they got the names from.

The name dictionaries for Korean names are lame. (Yes, that includes Behind the name) because there is no Hangeul (Korean writing) or any idea of what the Chinese characters are/could be.

I've been fussing with this since about 7:00am without eating. (I'll edit later for stupid mistakes after I eat)

So I looked up the code and fricking built one myself.

The results so far: http://www.asian-fiction.com/koreannamegenerator.html

(I'll do a male name generator too.)

Also ones that will make up names by random and give the name meaning with it by gender. (No guarantee it'll have the correct meaning)

I took the names from real names. And the family names from Wikipedia.

I've tried to look up specific ethnicities of names before and wanted a generator that gives the name meanings with it too, but I've always had trouble. Thus I thought this thread would be useful for others who have similar thoughts. Anyone have a good Japanese/Chinese name generator that gives legit names with their meanings? Also other countries with the actual spelling/in the native glyphs?
 
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Amadan

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That's pretty cool, though what I see is this:

차 (Cha) 車 - cart

For Japanese names, the best reference I have is O'Neill's Japanese Names.
 

lolchemist

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I remember my Korean friend telling me that all Korean surnames come from this one poem and that there are only about 250 Korean surnames total but I could be remembering this wrong... Anyway, good luck!!
 
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Rachel Udin

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If you're using Safari, it's not going to work. It'll work for IE 9 and Firefox. (Mac too) 'cause it's using language detect settings. And Safari is really bad about certificates.

References =/= generators. Looking specifically for generators....

I got 286 Korean surnames. (If counting by Chinese character). Does not include clans.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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I started making my own lists of male and female names from news items from every country available years ago. It wasn't for writing, just roleplaying games, but I didn't like my own ignorance.

I found the Olympics to be a remarkably good source of names, especially for females from Africa and the Middle East, who almost never otherwise show up named in news stories.

The only problem with this is I really don't have a grasp on how common the names given are, and I miss subtleties of naming conventions. I may be naming characters after someone with a distinctive and immediately recognizable name in his or her own country for all I know. If there are special ethnic distinctions or special rules for male as opposed to female names, I probably miss them. For a private game that may be passable, but I would not dare use this method for serious fiction without researching a lot more first.

I look at some of the "European" names in Japanese and Korean manga that I have ("Siddough" apparently sounded enough like a romantic hero's name to at least one person), and wonder just how "off" our fictional eastern-sounding names sound to their ears.

A name generator is a very helpful thing to attempt. I hope it works out.
 

Rachel Udin

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It helps that I'm Korean and I'm familiar with the naming conventions for Korea. Such as generational names, but still, I have trouble thinking without boxing myself using the same sounds over and over.

Making a name generator for Korean names isn't too difficult for me based on that, as long as I do notes about what is an isn't common.

Sheer number of names that can be generated from my generator is 175032. I'm pleased.

Japanese names are a bit trickier for a variety of reasons, but it can be done. (There is no pattern to the popularity of names over time, unlike Korean conventions and occasionally parents will combine their names for their child's name.) You just need to research the name after to make sure it fits.

And Chinese names seem to vary on group/region, but I would like a generator anyway. One that gives the characters and the meaning/Pinyin (Canto/Mandarin).

One based on all of the Indian regions, I know would be fairly impractical. (You can do one for Sanskrit, but even given names are regional)
 

kuwisdelu

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Japanese names are a bit trickier for a variety of reasons, but it can be done. (There is no pattern to the popularity of names over time, unlike Korean conventions and occasionally parents will combine their names for their child's name.) You just need to research the name after to make sure it fits.

Just name everyone Yamada Taro.

(Are there as many ways to write Korean names as there are ways to write Japanese names?)

ETA: It is hilarious when weeaboos try to give themselves Japanese names and write them with kanji.
 

Susan Lanigan

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I am just a nerd, but that is rather cool, Rachel :)

I'll have to start writing about Koreans now just to have an excuse to use it.
 

Rachel Udin

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I finished the South Korean Male Name generator as well. I'll do the North Korean one later. I got over 850 separate Male names. And I typed in the hangeul for all of them. TT That's 217600 name combinations. Oh Yes! Finally what I wanted. A few names here and there for the given name have hanja, but it's a bit hard to find specific hanja, thus it's a bit difficult to find meanings for the names. (Add to that Koreans tend to favor certain meanings in the first or second position of the Given Name and it gets messy.)

I added a few notes to a few names such as "common" or specific dates to the line as well, which makes it easier on writers.

=P Yay, I can generate names without thinking too hard. I also organized the file so I can add and find names quickly.

I couldn't find a decent Japanese one online. Despite there being this great resource called ENamDict which has a database of 738596 names all put into an XML file ready to mine. The only tricky part is the definitions. Which it doesn't have listings for.

It *does*, however, sort male, female, and given names as well as pure surnames and unsorted names. One would have to filter for the other names (company names, etc)

Since I don't know how to sort XML files properly so I can make a table out of it, ummm.... I'm going to ask a friend to help sort the XML file so I can get rid of the extraneous information and then sort the names.

And then I'll have to define the names one by one using Rikaichan. TT

Of course, if someone did this already, I'd be grateful to just do the link. I can dream, can't I?

I'd also like resources on other name generators, such as Arabic, Farsi, etc...I had a hard, hard time coming up with Thai names, for example.... And Chinese names. But unlike Korean and Japanese names I don't have enough resources for that to pick up on patterns, etc.

I dream of being able to pull names a lot more easily for the average writer.
 
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kuwisdelu

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If I wanted to come up with Japanese names, I'd just type random hiragana or random kanji and then check if it's a name. It both helps and hurts that there are so many ways to write the same name.

〜 蛙
 

Rachel Udin

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But that takes thought, effort and people who don't know Japanese (language) often don't know how to make a proper name.

=P If you take enam dict, then it's not so painful. romaji, kana, and the provided names are there. The trouble is the definition of the names. *grins*

Personally, though I work from meaning backwards.

Just trying to make less excuses for not writing PoCs... though I still advocate doing it correctly.
 

kuwisdelu

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But that takes thought, effort and people who don't know Japanese (language) often don't know how to make a proper name.

=P If you take enam dict, then it's not so painful. romaji, kana, and the provided names are there. The trouble is the definition of the names. *grins*

Well the name dictionary I use draws it's data from ENamDict, too. I just type in romaji and it'll list any names with matching readings.

I'm not really the kind of person who finds name generators helpful, though, so...
 

J.S.F.

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Kuwi,

I wonder how many people outside of myself and some others know what "kimochi warui" means?:D (Try spelling it this way--キモイ--'kimoi', which means the same thing except it's more colloquial. Younger people tend to say it with more emotion as opposed to 気持ち 悪い or it's Hiragana cousin).

Anyway, for Japanese names and kanji meanings, Rachel, hit me up if you need help. Last names for me are pretty easy unless it's something unusual, but first names--especially men's names--have always given me trouble. You could try Babylon or Google 'Japanese baby names'--that might help a little.
 

Chris P

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I found the Olympics to be a remarkably good source of names, especially for females from Africa and the Middle East, who almost never otherwise show up named in news stories.

The only problem with this is I really don't have a grasp on how common the names given are, and I miss subtleties of naming conventions. I may be naming characters after someone with a distinctive and immediately recognizable name in his or her own country for all I know. If there are special ethnic distinctions or special rules for male as opposed to female names, I probably miss them. For a private game that may be passable, but I would not dare use this method for serious fiction without researching a lot more first.

RE: Olympics--I used to do this too, until I found out it's not uncommon for an athlete to compete for another country (or at least it was at one time; I don't know if they've changed the rules or not).

And you are spot on about subtleties in naming. Here in central Uganda, the family name indicates clan. The family name Ssegawa, for instance, is only used within the monkey clan, and a person is forbidden from marrying within their clan. This used to be by law, but now it's only by convention.

The only way I can think to get around getting a name wrong is to find a beta reader who knows the culture. Fortunately with the internet this is easier than it used to be, but still not easy.
 

kuwisdelu

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Kuwi,

I wonder how many people outside of myself and some others know what "kimochi warui" means?:D (Try spelling it this way--キモイ--'kimoi', which means the same thing except it's more colloquial. Younger people tend to say it with more emotion as opposed to 気持ち 悪い or it's Hiragana cousin).

The character in my avatar specifically says 「気持ち悪い」。 It's the last line of End of Evangelion.

It's a reference. ;)

(I left it in romaji since some people may know the quote but not be able to read the hiragana or kanji.)
 

J.S.F.

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Kuwi, see you have me at a disadvantage. Never watched Evangelion so the reference is lost on me. My kids have been watching it since they were four and are practically experts. Never got interested in it...but Ultraman rocks.
 

Rachel Udin

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Kuwi,

I wonder how many people outside of myself and some others know what "kimochi warui" means?:D (Try spelling it this way--キモイ--'kimoi', which means the same thing except it's more colloquial. Younger people tend to say it with more emotion as opposed to 気持ち 悪い or it's Hiragana cousin).

Anyway, for Japanese names and kanji meanings, Rachel, hit me up if you need help. Last names for me are pretty easy unless it's something unusual, but first names--especially men's names--have always given me trouble. You could try Babylon or Google 'Japanese baby names'--that might help a little.
Thanks. I'm going to use Rikaichan, though, to get the meanings on the fly so it goes faster. (It's a plugin for Firefox) =P I still am waiting for my friend to help with parsing the XML file though. I want to see if I can put it into a table or something... I might have to database it if I can't parse the XML that way.

=P I hope my kanji isn't that rusty, though.

I'm also noting the names as more or less common as I go as well. Suzuki. =P

=P It'll block some idiocy from using name generators.

I also want to add hanja possibilities to Korean names (thus finding the meanings), but I'm having trouble finding one that lists all of them.

I found one that lists some of them, but then the ones used for my Korean name and my brother's Korean name were missing... so I knew that was wrong...
 

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The thing about name generators is, as others have mentioned, most name generators don't take cultural nuance into account. I try not to use them.
 

Rachel Udin

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XML file is parsed. I'm taking out names from enamdict that are clearly not Japanese names. (I wish there was an entry for country of origin, but that makes me sound ungrateful)

I asked my friend to help with filtering out the majority of the names. The unclassified names, place names and historical names. The file, however, has some errors in classification. So I'm just removing those outright. And I'll have to database it because the file is HUGE. (15.7, with removed names so far).

Then I'll be adding meaning, frequency notes, Also dates (If it was more popular at a certain date), and to the top put in stuff about how Japanese names work/naming myths. As well as where I got the names and the things I did to the file. Because I really dislike having a name generator without being able to find where the list came from.

I've been debating taking the celebrity list off of Dramawiki as well for both male and female names. That may help a little on the frequency of names. (Which will cover the last 60 years).

Mostly I'm using these generators for background characters where they need to be named, otherwise my character looks like a crass person who can't remember her coworker's names, but they are only passing through. (Still working on the washing over so people don't think naming that person is important.) I'm also trying to establish she has good memory... so it kinda got hard. (Sorting through Dramawiki was too hard and took too long)

For main character names sometimes I take weeks of putzing around and researching to make sure the name is on target.

For minor characters, where I'm trying to make a passing mention, a name generator is useful. I can't spend 2 weeks on a name and trying to figure out what the meaning of the name is when they are just passing through. =P

Name generators without cultural notes are pretty much useless. Name generators without the name meaning are also pretty much useless. =P Trying to circumvent both. 'Cause I sincerely need both.
 

Kim Fierce

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I have never used a name generator. For The Divide, I just tried to look up various sites that listed both first and surnames from Africa, India, and different Hispanic ones as well. There are hardly any European surnames in the entire book, except my MC Serenity Blackwater.

Her friends' last names are Delgado, Amaya, Cheyenne, and Garcia in book one.

A name generator sounds interesting, I'll have to take a look!
 
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