1. Stupid-Face

    Stupid-Face New Member

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    Name for deadly alien.

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Stupid-Face, Aug 29, 2012.

    My space pirate storyline has a race of aliens (who are the villains) but they don't have the most original design but I basically made them to creep the readers out.
    Basically they have tall thin bodies completely black with no actual clothing (They're taller than a two story house lets just say) they have no nose or ears and only use their mouth for eating the aliens that my main character is. Their teeth are razor sharp as well as their claws and tend to eat the aliens by tearing their skin and muscles off and eating them in pieces.

    What I am struggling with is the name of the aliens, I know it's so much like the Slenderman (That was my inspiration as well as harvestman spiders) But I don't want to rip it off by say it's a Harvestman or something, if anyone can give me any advice on naming things like this, that would be a great help!
     
  2. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    Whenever I need to name something I usually look for ideas in the thesaurus - the one
    time when it can really come in handy!

    Since your aliens are slender, black and vicious - you could look up words like - slender, rod, scarecrow, black
    , tar, carnivore and then juggle stuff around, jam words together - Tar & carnivore = Tarvores - example.
     
  3. DanesDarkLand

    DanesDarkLand New Member

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    Could always use a non-English word that means something similar to your creatures. Rovdyr is Danish for carnivore. Grym is Swedish for cruel. Grymovdyr could be the word your looking for. Coined from two words with meaning, cruel carnivore.
     
  4. Stupid-Face

    Stupid-Face New Member

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    Thanks so much! :D These suggestions and advice are so helpful!! I shall go and create names now! Thanks!
     
  5. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Jeeves.
     
  6. Stupid-Face

    Stupid-Face New Member

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    Huh? o_O
     
  7. DefinitelyMaybe

    DefinitelyMaybe Contributor Contributor

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    Douglas Adams IMHO has excellent names for races of aliens, alien planets, and individuals. Not that I know anything about writing, but would looking through online wiki-style info listing DA characters etc. be of help?

    As another thought, could you make up names by putting together words that mean something, then switching consonants to get names that lose the original meanings but still maintain the sound. E.g. perhaps (for a DA type alien)

    Wrinklespurt has meaning, but switch "Wr" and "sp" to "G and "sl" to get Ginkleslurt.

    Not a name you might want to use if your space pirates are too serious. But perhaps the technique might work.
     
  8. luna claire

    luna claire Member

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    There's a lot of great advice already in the above comments. Whatever name you choose, though, make sure that is is readable. You don't want to trip up a reader with something like: Cwrtuztlb. Your aliens are scary sounding :). Good luck.
     
  9. Stupid-Face

    Stupid-Face New Member

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    Thanks for the advice everyone! :D I'm still trying think of a good name but the advice is really helping!
     
  10. Pheonix

    Pheonix A Singer of Space Operas and The Fourth Mod of RP Contributor

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    You could go the route of describing them to. There's an alien in Dr. Who that sounds very similar to what you've described yours as (I think its all based off the Slenderman) and it's called the Silence. Maybe no one knows what they're called, so they've made up a name in common language to describe their attributes or something like that.
     
  11. Stupid-Face

    Stupid-Face New Member

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    I love the Silence! It's one of my main inspirations for the image (not the whole forgetting them and stuff). :D It might be a good idea to do that, I think I should think of a word related to them and translate it, would that be a good idea?
     
  12. Volcre

    Volcre New Member

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    If they speak an Alien language, then you don't necessarily have to reveal their true 'alien names'. Maybe your human characters can't really converse with them and gave them some 'regular name' like the 'Harvesters' or something. Their true name could be left for later in the story if you so wish. The less your people know about them, the more ominous they become.
     
  13. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    ^^^^ Yes!

    Too often overlooked is WHO named them. Does the alien even have a spoken language in human hearing range? Has a human ever been close enough to inquire what they call themselves, and then returned to tell the tale?

    So we have Larry Niven's Pierson's Puppeteers, that look like "a three-legged centaur with two Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent heads" (Pierson was the starship crewman who first saw one and ran in terror back to the ship with that description). The enemy in Ender's Game were simply called Bugs based on their appearance. And what about the native Americans who were indelibly named Indians by confused European sailors.
     
  14. maidahl

    maidahl Banned

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    Why are names so hard? They define a relationship. It changes the way you look at someone, like when you change your avatar or moniker, but more so. :) Like when you call them Bugs or Buggies.
    Guy named Nincampoop is hard not to laugh at. He's begging for it. Guy named Jack is hottttt. You can cut Latin into your names that match the descriptions you mentioned. Make them instinctively remind us of what they look like to you.
     
  15. Tolsof

    Tolsof New Member

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    A trick that I like to do is look up names of Greek gods or something along those lines... Since your inspiration is based off of a spider maybe you can use the latin name or part of its Latin name?
    In the end the name is just an identifier of a character and you shouldn't worry about finding the perfect one. I mean the alien from the movie Alien is simply referred to as "alien"
     

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