big soft moose submitted a new resource: Fantasy Name Generators - 1100 name generators and other useful tools Read more about this resource...
I was actually quite sceptical but the site is actually quite amazing. Is it known how they generate this stuff?
name generators generally work off randomly matching two or more databases for first name/surname ... some fantasy ones work off randomly generating a number of syllables from an overall database of phonemes
That specific site tells you on each generator how they 'came up' with each set or style of name. Unless you mean 'the exact process the computer uses to achieve the stated goal', in which case...no idea. lol
On fantasynamegenerator, at least, every single individual generator tells you what pieces the names are constructed from. Sometimes it's baby name lists, sometimes it's syllables, sometimes it's actual names from history/mythology/relevant fiction.
I founded it a bit vague when it comes to fantasy names. For example "This generator randomly combines pre-defined vowels, consonants and specific ends to create names which resemble those of real demons." I wanted to know how they came up with the pre-defined vowels.
I see. Well, 'real demons' probably means Christian demons, unless I'm thinking of the wrong generator and there's a Hindu/Egyptian/other generator that uses (what Christians would refer to as) pagan demons. So that generator would be trying to come up with names that feel or sound like 'demon names'. Most Christian demons (and Diablo angels, and other similar races) use what I think of as 'Greek vowels'--Tyrael, Mephistopheles, Balthazar (I'm not immediately familiar with non-Greek or Indus Valley languages using 'alth' and 'azar', especially not at the same time)...does that make any sense? I guess I just take that for granted. I've never really struggled with racial names (or more accurately, coming up with names that 'feel' like they fit a verbal stereotype). So if you tell me that 'Boromir' is an elven name, I'm going to tell you that it's not, because that's not how Tolkien's elves built their names. Or if you said that a proto-Germanic couple named their daughter Moira. No, no they didn't, unless they knew/of an Irishwoman named Moira and named her after that person. Moira isn't a German name. I suppose that my problem is that I don't understand your problem. Most fantasy races have certain elements that are common to their language or naming conventions, and the name generator tries to emulate those conventions.
My main problem is I'm shit with language Anything I see and read I like to approach with (scientific) reasoning. I don't have a feeling with names really, if you told me Boromir as a Demon/Elf/Human/ or even a bloody species, I will take it because that's how it's named.
Ah. So we're coming to this generator from completely opposite directions, which leads to the confusion. I see the problem now, I guess. You're talking to the girl who submitted a ticket in Lord of the Rings Online because one of the quests had the English plural instead of the Dunedan plural. Naming conventions is something that's...just always come easily to me. Give me a set of vowels and I'll go nuts. Is there still a question here or is this just a conversation now?
Gad asked a question. I wasn't sure if I'd answered it and we'd progressed to conversing about the nature of names, or if s/he was still confused.
