RP/Writing Meme: 3
Aug. 1st, 2010 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meej3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
... It depends.
First I have to know what kind of culture the character belongs to, so I can pick both appropriate phonemes (most important) and meanings (not as important to me as it used to be; I am of the same mind as Butch: "names don't mean shit"). For example, in Perfect World, I am playing contemporary Japanese characters, so I did some research to find some given names that I liked the sound of, and then ran them through Google a few times to make sure that they were of an appropriate age-period so I'd get the right connotations. Pro tip: naming a Japanese girl 'Hanako' for this or last generation is somewhat like naming her 'Mildred'.
For Graycloakland, it's the same deal. First I have to decide what kind of culture these people have, how they decide names - if it's matroclinic, use-names, nested names, long lineage-reflective names. Then I have to decide how their language feels about vowels, and about name-endings, if they indicate gender or status.
The Graycloaks have a vaguely Sanskrity feel to their language, so those are the phonemes and constructions I turn to. Yamadharma, Sudhara, Devi, Dita, Meghana, Weeshkal, Charya. Their own clan-name is Dhaumradana, so every Graycloak will have that as part of his name somewhere. If she's in charge of a city, that will be part of her name, and if she performs another function for the clan, that's going in there too, as well as any personal epithets. Por ejemplo, during the time of Dion and Rill, the city-lord of the city-state Vainazika is Andarainne, disciple of Asha and Yamadharma; she is also the Magician of the clan, and she is called, in her own person, the White, for her peculiar shape of magic. Therefore her full name is Andarainne Arjunadhvaja Mayavin lini Asha lini Yamadharma tanartin Vainazika Dhaumradana (Andarainne, the White-Silver [bannered], the Magician [Weaver], she who honors Asha, she who honors Yamadharma, the Autocrat of Vainazika, Graycloak).
Most Graycloaks are simply [name] Dhaumradana. (Then there's Suriandra Raj, who is only, ever, Suriandra Raj, even three hundred years later.)
For their place-names, I choose significant terrain markers, because Graycloaks are not terribly imaginative. There's the (ruined) (rebuilt) city Girprasdha, which is on top of a great big butte that they call Table Mountain. ('Girprasdha' is cobbled-together 'Table Mountain'.) Their great big holy city is called Pura by them ('Pura' is just .. 'city'), but 'Pandemonium' by everyone south of Graycloakland, because there is a legend that the city at the roof of the world was exploded by demons, and that when Kairos walked through it, he heard the noise and clamor of them. Most non-Graycloaks do not believe that Pura actually exists.
For the matriarchy of Adroa, I've chosen flowery names, 'pretty' names (or at least ones that I think are pretty), flavored by both archaic English and bits of Yoruba. (... yes. I know.) Their towns are called things like Rosehaven or Terratal or Maidgard or Queensgard. For the Adroanzi, those who actually live on the sacred mountain of the Adroa sanctuary, I've tried to go with a uniform name-ending: 'ras' for mans, 'et' for ladies. There are exceptions - Sara is a woman, and so is Jerusha; Dionket is a man - but mostly I've tried to make them as uniform as possible to subtly suggest that Wyanet's got them in a lockstep.
... Well, you see how it goes. I try to find out about the community someone belongs to before I give him a name. That way he either fits better, or stands out in an acceptable way.
Place names are a lot of fun; it tells you how people think about their environment, how they relate to the world, how they perceive shapes, how they are influenced by what they see and what they share space with. :D
... It depends.
First I have to know what kind of culture the character belongs to, so I can pick both appropriate phonemes (most important) and meanings (not as important to me as it used to be; I am of the same mind as Butch: "names don't mean shit"). For example, in Perfect World, I am playing contemporary Japanese characters, so I did some research to find some given names that I liked the sound of, and then ran them through Google a few times to make sure that they were of an appropriate age-period so I'd get the right connotations. Pro tip: naming a Japanese girl 'Hanako' for this or last generation is somewhat like naming her 'Mildred'.
For Graycloakland, it's the same deal. First I have to decide what kind of culture these people have, how they decide names - if it's matroclinic, use-names, nested names, long lineage-reflective names. Then I have to decide how their language feels about vowels, and about name-endings, if they indicate gender or status.
The Graycloaks have a vaguely Sanskrity feel to their language, so those are the phonemes and constructions I turn to. Yamadharma, Sudhara, Devi, Dita, Meghana, Weeshkal, Charya. Their own clan-name is Dhaumradana, so every Graycloak will have that as part of his name somewhere. If she's in charge of a city, that will be part of her name, and if she performs another function for the clan, that's going in there too, as well as any personal epithets. Por ejemplo, during the time of Dion and Rill, the city-lord of the city-state Vainazika is Andarainne, disciple of Asha and Yamadharma; she is also the Magician of the clan, and she is called, in her own person, the White, for her peculiar shape of magic. Therefore her full name is Andarainne Arjunadhvaja Mayavin lini Asha lini Yamadharma tanartin Vainazika Dhaumradana (Andarainne, the White-Silver [bannered], the Magician [Weaver], she who honors Asha, she who honors Yamadharma, the Autocrat of Vainazika, Graycloak).
Most Graycloaks are simply [name] Dhaumradana. (Then there's Suriandra Raj, who is only, ever, Suriandra Raj, even three hundred years later.)
For their place-names, I choose significant terrain markers, because Graycloaks are not terribly imaginative. There's the (ruined) (rebuilt) city Girprasdha, which is on top of a great big butte that they call Table Mountain. ('Girprasdha' is cobbled-together 'Table Mountain'.) Their great big holy city is called Pura by them ('Pura' is just .. 'city'), but 'Pandemonium' by everyone south of Graycloakland, because there is a legend that the city at the roof of the world was exploded by demons, and that when Kairos walked through it, he heard the noise and clamor of them. Most non-Graycloaks do not believe that Pura actually exists.
For the matriarchy of Adroa, I've chosen flowery names, 'pretty' names (or at least ones that I think are pretty), flavored by both archaic English and bits of Yoruba. (... yes. I know.) Their towns are called things like Rosehaven or Terratal or Maidgard or Queensgard. For the Adroanzi, those who actually live on the sacred mountain of the Adroa sanctuary, I've tried to go with a uniform name-ending: 'ras' for mans, 'et' for ladies. There are exceptions - Sara is a woman, and so is Jerusha; Dionket is a man - but mostly I've tried to make them as uniform as possible to subtly suggest that Wyanet's got them in a lockstep.
... Well, you see how it goes. I try to find out about the community someone belongs to before I give him a name. That way he either fits better, or stands out in an acceptable way.
Place names are a lot of fun; it tells you how people think about their environment, how they relate to the world, how they perceive shapes, how they are influenced by what they see and what they share space with. :D
