McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Aelioua-Name Syndrome
Dom:
So...I think it's a given that most people starting to write SFF for the first time have a bit of what I call "Aeloiua" (or any other word with lots of a's, e's, i's, l's, k's, and y's) syndrome. Where all the names have entirely too many vowels, strange puncutation, l's, and k's, and are attempting to look "elvish".
How did you guys get over it?
Or are you one of the ones that didn't have it to begin with?
I had characters called Kayla/Kayra (twins, of course), Anya, Aquaitine (I find it amusing Jim has characters in Codex Alera named "Aquitaine"...assuming I'm spelling that right...), Lance, etc. when I first started out. I was in middle school, so about 12 at this time.
Eventually I realized all my names sucked, so I turned to baby name books. Which got me really weird looks at the grocery store when I purchased those little baby name books when I was 16. "No, I'm not pregnant!"
Then I got tired of baby name books, because if I wanted the name "Jessica" I could find it by looking at the people I worked with, and turned to mythology.
And after that, I said what the hell, I'm going to make my own. I started this around when I was 20.
So now I take English words, and chop them into syllabls, then re-assemble the syllables into new names. I got Oginokomis, Bregomaw, Oriax, and a whole mess of others this way.
How do you guys pick names for your characters and places?
Tersa:
To pick first names for my characters I start thumbing through lists of names until something strikes me as "right." It usually works out that when I look up the origin and meaning of the name I chose it fits the character. If it doesn't, I pitch it and go back to the list. For surnames I do pretty much the same thing, only I pay more attention to the family's crest, coat of arms, and "motto" (if they have one) to make sure it fits the character.
Ex: Jacob (Jake) Bowen
Jacob- "May God Protect" or "Supplanter" depending on who you ask
Bowen: Crest colors are silver and green, with a stag with a trefoil around it's neck. Motto "Esse quam videri," which according to houseofnames.com translates to "To Be, Rather Than to Seem. "
A lot of this stuff fits Jake. Thanks to his being a magical prodigy he ends up supplanting people (which bothers him), he doesn't like to fight unless prevoked (the stag), he keeps striding forward and will keep doing so until he dies (perpetuity from the trefoil) and prefers to present him self exactly as he is rather than put up a front.
It takes a while and can be a lot of trouble to go to when I don't even know if a lot of this information is totally correct because I get most of it off the internet, but it's what works for me at the moment. :)
P.S. If anyone who knows Latin reads this, I would be forever greatful if you could tell me if the Bowen "motto" is translated correctly. ^.^
Kali:
If I remember correctly, and technically it was only last year that I was translating Vergil but damned if I could do it now, "videri" would be the present passive infinitive of "video, videre", to see. Passive of to see is to be seen, and in Latin that has the dual meaning of what we might say "to be seen as"... or in this case, "seem".
So... long answer short, yeah, I'm fairly sure "videri" translates as "to seem". That's the only tricky bit, the rest is straightforward and is correct.
Tersa:
--- Quote from: Kali on October 19, 2006, 06:41:16 PM ---If I remember correctly, and technically it was only last year that I was translating Vergil but damned if I could do it now, "videri" would be the present passive infinitive of "video, videre", to see. Passive of to see is to be seen, and in Latin that has the dual meaning of what we might say "to be seen as"... or in this case, "seem".
So... long answer short, yeah, I'm fairly sure "videri" translates as "to seem". That's the only tricky bit, the rest is straightforward and is correct.
--- End quote ---
Thank you. ^_^ Many virtual cookies for you. *Gives you a heap of chocolate chip cookies*
terioncalling:
Names mainly come at just random and they are usually vary random. But only if I'm writing fantasy, such as the story I'm working on now based in my fantasy world. Some name examples: Syndys, Zaelnaei, Klaeshii, Mrawth, Qwith Xaithor, Arraran Ristvuul, A’kail Moldrenke, and Ockbrim Shaestuul.
For regular names, I have a whole three lists of first names (male and female) and last names that I took from yearbooks and various and assundry other places. Few I've used are: Darien O'Connell, Ravyen Smythe, Halcyon Baxter, Harper Dannon, Emily Hart, and Dana Galloway
Also, Tersa, its really weird that I have a friend with that exact name.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version