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  1. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Fantasy Naming Convention...Required?

    Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by Link the Writer, Oct 19, 2017.

    So...something just occurred to me. The names of my fantasy, The Alkorian Legends, seem almost similar to real world-cultures. To wit:

    Japanese
    Mishu Jerni
    Kylu Irvinta
    Ameiu

    Germanic
    Lord Gregreo Valmorn

    Slavic/Eastern European
    Jelena Irvinta

    India
    Arjun Irvinta

    Middle-Eastern-ish
    Akeshia Valmorn
    Levola Valmorn
    Mylo Thaari

    Gaelic/Celtic(??)
    Kenthw Rennald*

    *That's what another writer told me, and when I told him that Kenthew is basically a cat-person with horns, and his race is Devonian, he implied that I'd need to do research to ensure I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes. Which led me to thinking...

    Is it required that there be some convention when naming your fantasy characters? Since my characters all seem to have somewhat real-world ties, should that mean their peoples should adopt the cultures (i.e., Gregreo's culture more Germanic, or Arjun's people more closely tied to India culture, customs and clothing?)

    The way I name my character is this: If it looks like it can be pronounced easily, it's good. But is it too...shallow if I do so? Shouldn't I expand more by doing research on the various cultures from which my characters seem to have their names derived? It could probably do well with helping me develop and enrich my fantasy and give me something to work on...

    I dunno... Your thoughts?
     
  2. Fiender_

    Fiender_ Active Member

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    I'm not sure how you'd be "stepping on people's toes". I suppose if you "invent" a name for a race or region that's already in use, that could be weird. But as long as you're relatively consistent within your own world (let's say all the people from one of your regions have lots of double vowels in their name, for example), and as long as you google your invented words every now and again to see if it's a real thing somewhere, you should probably be fine.
     
  3. IHaveNoName

    IHaveNoName Senior Member Community Volunteer

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    Using names from real-world cultures is a good idea - I do it, because it's much easier to come up with them (random name gens rock), and it adds more depth to the world - instead of everyone having the same "style" of names, the reader can see someone's name and say "oh yeah, he's from that nation". I wouldn't stress too much over the origins of said names, unless you want to tie them more firmly into the cultures. Michael Stackpole mixed and matched cultures in one of his books - French culture with Japanese names. As long as it's all consistent, people will be fine with it.
     
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  4. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    In my current WIP, I'm assigning a real-world nationality to each major fictional nation, for choosing names. Welsh for one group, Polish for another, English for one person, and Russian for another group. Then I'm giving the characters actual names from those countries.

    In a later draft, I'll be reconsidering each name--does it mean something freaky? Is it laughably popular in that culture? But this is my general strategy.
     
  5. Bellhammon

    Bellhammon Member

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    And I just realized I don't put much thought into naming my characters, I just name them what I feel.
     
  6. archer88i

    archer88i Banned Contributor

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    If the name is even marginally ok, you're fine. The character makes the name. A good example is "Geralt." I hated that name. Having now read the books, "Geralt" is the perfect name for Geralt.

    Use similar spelling conventions to group names by culture. A good cheat for this is to steal actual names from a given culture.

    Absolutely do not worry about pissing people off. If you are doing your job, that will be irrelevant. If you aren't, pissing people off is the least of your worries.
     
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  7. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Out of morbid curiosity, the latter part is...regarding to the book sales correct?
     
  8. archer88i

    archer88i Banned Contributor

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    No, not really. Here's the thing: if you write a compelling character, people aren't going to cry about the name unless they are people who were going to cry no matter what. If you fail to write a compelling character, giving your shitty character a great name is not going to help you any.
     
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  9. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Aight. :D Guess I have no worries, then.
     
  10. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Er, this was one of my "overthinking" moments, wasn't it? I should probably shut up, sit down, and write the damned thing -- to hell with the names.
     
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  11. K McIntyre

    K McIntyre Active Member

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    You can always change names later - at least before you publish. Start out calling him "Bob" and then later on, when he has proven himself to not be a "Bob" you can change it to "Rupert" or "Sue".
     
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  12. Jeremiah Windhelm

    Jeremiah Windhelm New Member

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    Just a quick thought; why did you pick "devonian" for the species name? I just ask because "devonian" immediately made me think of the Devonian Period right before fish moved to land. Just curious about that one.
    On your actual question, I think that naming conventions should be consistent, as has already been pointed out. Cultures tend to have consistent naming conventions and so it only makes sense to have them if you want your characters to sound like they come from real places. Like in the LOTR universe hobbits name daughters after flowers and boys after uncles. Thats why some names for boys are passed down for so long, and every single girl has a flowery name. Like Rosie, the girl Samwise marries, and their daughter, Elenor. It gives those characters and that world just a little bit more depth. I would say pick a few basic rules for your names and stick to them. J.K. Rowling does a pretty good job with her naming conventions. People either from the muggle world tend to have generally normal sounding names like Harry Potter or Dean Thomas, or people from the wizarding world tend to have more wizardy sounding names like Draco Malfoy and Albus Dumbledore and people who are sort of in between have names that appropriately sound in between like Hermione Granger and Tom Marvolo Riddle. So if you pick a few rules to keep your names consistent then you probably wont have any issues.
     
  13. EelKat

    EelKat New Member

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    I tend to match character names to culture, but their culture is not always the same as they ethnicity/race. Thus you often see characters of one race, with names of a different culture...

    For example, my main character Quaraun is from Inuvik, Quebec, so logic dictates he have a French name, right? But Quaraun is is Persian name. Why? Quaraun, a transvestite, also dresses like a Persian woman. He is a wizard who uses DiJinn magic (a Persian tradition). When he speaks of folklores and such, it's Persian ones, not French Canadian ones. There is nothing about him to indicate that he is of French Canadian heritage, and everything instead points to him being Persian.

    The reason for this, is because as a child he was kidnapped by a DiJinn priest, and taken to live in a temple in Persia. The priests changed his name to a Persian name. He was raised as though he was Persian. He was young enough, to not be able to remember his birth name, as an adult, but old enough to know these were not his real family. As an adult he goes looking for his birth family, but retains his Persian name and Persian lifestyle even after eventually returning to Quebec.

    In this example, the character is from one culture, but due to circumstances was raised in another culture, so you see a person of French birth, with the name and cultural traditions of his being raised by Persians.*

    Likewise another character in the same series, is of mixed race. His father is a Phooka (a type of Faerie) from the Jale tribe of Sepik River Valley in Papua New Guinea, his mother is half Japanese/half Polynesian Aswang (a type of Demon). However he identifies as Scottish and his name is: Gwallmaiic. Gwallmaiic is a Gaelic name. His family traveled across the world hunting Humans. When he was about 5 years old, one particularly harsh winter, the sick boy was unable to keep up with the tribe when they moved on. He fell behind and was left for dead. Left behind in Scotland, where he remained, and lived among the Scottish humans, taking a Scottish name and adopting their culture.

    And so, yet another example of a character of one culture who has the name from a different culture.*

    *The reason for this by the way comes from my own family's culture, originally being Persian and migrating to Scotland in the 1500s, later moving to Canada. My own family has a blended mixed culture of Persian, Scottish and Canadian, and you see me blending aspects of each of these cultures into my novels.

    So, you see, you can use a character with a name from a culture that does not match their race.

    There are many reasons why a character might have a name not matching their ethnicity. Perhaps English parents visited Japan and named their child a Japanese name in memory of the trip? Maybe a German character had an Indian great-grandmother and was given a Hindi name to keep a connection to that bloodline? Maybe the character changed his name in memory of his best friend who died? Maybe their parents just overheard the name one day and liked the sound of it, and there is no reason for it other then the mum thought it sounded nice.

    The point is you don't always have to have a character's name match up with their ethnicity. Heck, you don't even have to give a reason for it either.
     
  14. Amber13

    Amber13 Member

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    I don't think you're overthinking this at all; it's something I struggle with, too. I like the idea of picking a culture to base my fictional nations on (I've noticed Tamora Pierce does this to some extent, and it always made the world feel richer), and coming up with names is always a pain in the ass. My problem is just fitting in the names that I have made up and making sure they fit the character and the nation that I want.
     

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