I am in the middle of a piece of writing. In it there are two secret organisations, one good and one bad. I am terrible at thinking of names, and it took me forever to even get the names for the main characters. I know that the idea of the secret organisations sounds cheesy, but I really need the name to sound the opposite of cheesy for the story to work. I could also do with a name for a 'base' or 'HQ' of one of these organisations. I have come up with one idea for this (Coldlake or Blacklake) but I don't think that they are quite right. Again, I need the name to sound realistic, and not as though it has come out of Cartoon Network because I feel that the idea sound like it has! Can anyone help???
Well first of all have a look at different real-life organisations. Use this to start off - http://listverse.com/2007/08/27/top-10-secret-societies/ If you are after something a little more sophisticated and "cool", I suggest a one-word name, such as Tripadis, or something like that. I think one-word names also sound more mysterious. But if you are after more of a sentence-long organisation name, check these places out - http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=sfgovernment http://random.zebby.org/orders4/index.php http://www.darnay.com/iec/features/conspiracy/ (This one if for making conspiracies, in case that helps you at all in your story) http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Secret_Society_Name (This is possibly the best one; just refresh the page if you want more) Hope this helps you on your way!
I love books with secret organizations, doesn't sound cheesy to me at all. What genre & audience are you writing for? That might help choose names? Acronyms are popular in real life (if you could call ASIO, CIA and M15 secret...) Maybe their names could somehow reflect their purpose? Or a hint about what they are all about? Good luck, sounds like fun.
Help me help you. What are these two organizations dedicated to doing? What's their purpose in life. That might help in getting names that feel right for them. Um... No. They both scream of X-Men and Alkali Lake. Secret orgs may well keep it as simple as possible. Something as nondescript as home comes to mind. It maintains anonymity and makes for an unusual twist on an innocent word, especially if it's the HQ of the baddies.
Or it can be something that at this point sounds non-sensical, like Freemasons. How many of the members are actual masons by occupation? Sounds like you want to write seriously about something you consider cheesy. How does that work? Besides, sometimes those names can be pretty cheesy, so what? 'Skulls & Bones'? Hah! But that's still more awesome than cheesy. Imo. If you explained why your secret org was called 'Stilton Cheddar', the name could still fly. It could be something like, 'Iron Hand of Black Death' and still work. Anyway, I think you'll get that special feeling when you come across the right name. Just make a list and then one by one drop names off it. Just make sure you don't use this naming process as a procrastination tactic Your orgs can have silly working names for the time being.
The masonic lodge of ...... DOOM.... (does the Gurr doom song) doom doom doom doom doom doom doom... fine that was cheesy... but cute nonetheless....
When looking for names, I have started browsing maps and sooner or later my eye will alight on a name of something (town, river, mountain, field, forest) that gives me just what I need (sometimes with a little modification). Hope this helps as an idea. I also like "Coldlake". Isn't that also the name of a Canadian Air Force Base?
Here are some ideas that I came up with, so I was wondering what you thought. are they any good? The Circle ('good guys') - symbolising the never ending struggle against Genesis. They will be a more modern group. Genesis ('baddies') - giving the impression that they are a religious group (which they are), from the beginning of time (very old). - also includes irony; they will probably kill a lot of people. Your reply was very useful, and it did help me a lot. thanks
In my opinion, those names sound fine. They're a little cliché, but if that's what works best for your story then use them. Genesis sounds especially good.
