....REALLY needs a name.... I was hoping with every fiber of my being that a name would eventually come to me or I would stumble across something that would ring so many "awesome name" bells in my head that I would use it, but nothing has come up and I've given it months of time. So now I'm coming here. Again. The villain of my Demon Story is a bit...eh, complicated, I guess. He's the current king of the Demon race and as such he's mostly known by his simple title of "The Demon King". The guy himself is a cat demon and as such has some powers unique to cats/cat demons, such as being able to copy another demon's abilities just by seeing it. His demon form is a huge black cat. He strongly detests Humans both because of the misdeeds done to innocent Demons in the past and present and for the fact that his family was killed by a group of unremorseful Humans when he was a child. And because he hates them so much, he strives to eradicate the whole race, which has resulted in the current war. However, even though he wants to eventually see Humans disappear, he believes in a rather twisted way of punishment before death and so he will often take human slaves and hostages, use/toy with them, then kill them. He has connections to several other important characters, one of which is a main character. He lies, is a master of manipulating people (somewhat akin to a cat, I suppose) and is so scarily strong that he has been able to remain The Demon King for over 3,000 years (new kings are typically decided upon through a series of battles every 1,000 years). Now, I contemplated just having him referred to by his title for the whole story since it seems no fitting name is coming to me, but this caused some problems. Because there will be some plot vital parts of the story where he HAS to have a name other than his title. But what name? I don't know >____<. I looked all over for any name with meanings ranging from: evil, noble, cat, demonic, royalty, ruler, king, dark and power. While I did find some interesting names, none of them truly sounded right for how he looks in my mind. Anyone have any ideas on what I should do or any name suggestions?
There are databses of Biblical names available online, you could try searching one of them. I do that sometimes when I need something interesting. "My name is Legion, for we are many."
Maybe Dracula backwards? Alucard, or Alucardo? How about using latin words in a combination that describes his character? Felidemo? (Cat-demon?) Or maybe make him have a name that doesn't sound evil at all? Irony is always nice. EDIT: Or you could just make up a name that "sounds" like the guy's description to you, if you know what I mean. That's what I usually try when I make up names. I may think of some more later. Silverman
Have you tried looking up your saints? I know it must sound odd, but a lot of those fellows have some fairly strange names. My personal favorites are still St. Abakerazum and St. Rufus. Alright, the Rufus one isn't strange, just sort of funny. Oddly enough there are a few St. Rufus'... I think, I'm a terrible Catholic. Either way, best of luck
I'm going to have to agree with the suggestions of using biblical names. The latin pitch made me think of the Greek epics. I mean there are so many names in the Illiad it's kind of hilarious. So-and-so smote so-and-so, and all that jazz.
You could check out the names of demons from various religions for inspiration. Try looking up Dictionnaire Infernal and The Lesser Key of Solomon on wikipedia. Maybe you don't want to use the name of an "existing" demon, but it might serve as inspiration.
@Silver: Good idea, except some other vampire/demon has already used "Alucard" as his name. I could use latin.....but "Felidemo" sounds really.....weird......and italian..... *sigh*I would try to make a name up for him but here's the thing: while I may be decently good at making names out of thin air, it's an entirely different ball game trying to make a name for someone whose very name in the story makes other characters curl up in fear. @Joen: Hmm, that's a good idea....I looked at Solomon's list some time ago (for a different reason), maybe there's a demon in there who appears as a cat.....but my one problem with the list is that none of the names have pronunciation keys with them.
Have a google of "seventh sanctum" and have a play with the name generators (especially the Darkness/Evil one).
@Rob: I looked at it and played around with it but.....it wasn't very effective. A lot of the names they make are just random garbled letters that I don't know how to pronounce and for their "Angel/Demon Name Generator" they don't even distinguish between the two. The "Cat-Being Name Generator" just.....kinda found words and meshed them together into unfit and random names. But thank you for trying at least.
Heh, I agree. The word just came to me then. As the the one that makes people curl up in fear, maybe it does not sound so bad to us until you let the readers figure out why they fear the name? Such as indirectly telling what he has done to them and they associate the name with fear or evil? (Such as what Attila the Hut had done to the Romans.) Silverman
Kirvee, I think you're using the name generators wrong. Don't just use the names they give you, look at them and see if there's something you like. My warrior culture called the "Ailar" came out of a name generation exercise where a friend and I decided that ending with "-lar" was a good idea, and that two syllables tended to sound rough enough. Just write names down, dozens of them, until you figure out the direction you want. Or use a star wars name generator and find something you like. We won't name your villain for you and nothing will give you the perfect name- you need to choose something.
@B-Gas: I don't know how to use name generators because I never use them. Mostly, I find a meaning I want and look for words meaning it that make a good name. And I'm not asking for him to be named for me. I'm asking for suggestions since I'm at a loss now as to what to do with his name.
When it comes to demon names, biblical is always a good place to go, and as for Dracula backwards that’s just lazy but why do anything like this at all, why not be different and give him a normal name like Bob, that way it could be more chilling! (ok so I may not be serious about the last point, unless you are writing a comedy, then Demons with normal human sounding names work)
My suggestion is to not try so hard for a cool name. Often, the seem contrived. They seem like ear candy (??) for the writer. When I read a name that seems perfectly cool for a character, it often throws me off. I would maybe sift through some of the historical names here to get an idea of some medieval names to spark your interest. I realize you don't want such a character named Marc or Dave but also want to be sure that the name feels in context to the story and the kind of history it could have had.
Just going through a list of theological demons I found 'Valefar' to be a powerful name. He is a duke in Hell who convinces others to steal, which is a trap, and later betrays thieves by sending them to the gallows. Coincidentally he is a lion with the head of a man. Other names he goes by are Malaphar, Malephar, Valafar, Valefor.
Of demon names, Samael is my personal favourite. It has losts of tradition, and could almost pass for a familiar name.
Funny. I looked up the historical Vlad Dracula on this site and found this sentence in his description: History lessons have come to this? Having to remind people that vampires are fictional? Cursed Twilight and Buffy...
Ooh, "Valefar" (and some of those variations) sound nice. Any idea how they're supposed to be pronounced? Because I read it as "Vah-leh-far". @Agreen: Ehh, Samael sounds like a super common name, though. I've heard it used too many times, I believe. @Horus: Wow....that is sad....it's all Twilight's fault.
That's how I pronounce it too. It's a guess but it sounds better than "vale-far" and I assume most would pronounce it that way instinctively anyway.
Have you tried looking in baby names books??? there's some really cool names in some of them. What if find, is don't look at the meanings so much, listen to how the name sounds. It's highly unlikely your readers will be looking through baby names books to find out what your characters' names mean.
Expanding on that, babynames.com is a great sight that allows you to narrow your search between region and sex. I use it every time I need a forien name for a character.
You could name your villain Bast (the cat goddess in Egyptian mythology), though he's a dude. You could give him a regular sounding cat name. Maybe name him after a famous cat in literature.
@Yarn: Yes, in fact I have about two baby name books that I use sometimes. I know the likelihood is small, but I always find it intriguing when an author names a character and their name has something to do with the character's personality, history or situation. @Roland: Actually, I have thought of naming him after a god, because that seems so fitting in my head, but I'm not sure which one to name him after. But I do have some old Mythology dictionaries to look through.
