Damnit, damnit, damnit. I understand that naming while a project is still in its infancy (4 chapters and counting) is an ancillary concern, but it is REALLY ANNOYING when I go to the trouble of creating what I think is a unique fantasy-eqsue name only to find that it already exists for an obscure electrical company or something. I need some reassuring or a confirmation of my suspicions: Has anyone read a book with fictional names and locations that have actually been used in real life? I go and google "Baratheon" and "Casterly" and the results are universally related to George R R Martin. I tried to fabricate the names Altaris, Excallion and Parthena and I get random results on google out the wazoo. It's incredibly annoying.
I understand your frustration, I have the same problem. Usually I sit and create anagrams out of long words that might possibly pass for a fictional place name, be it town, city, country etc. Sorry I can't be of more help, good luck
I empathize totally with your frustration, many of the names I've come up with seem to already be in someone elses works, so I try going with names that start with the less than usual beginnings; q, v, w, etc. Failing that I will either hyphenate or use an apostraphe to prefix the name; Xor'Apel, Rk'Tone. Admitedly this is not unusual in todays writings, but at least it allows more room to play with.
Regardless, most people haven't heard of these companies. So why does it matter? A good name is a good name. Use it.
No offense, but I kind of hate this approach. It usually results in unpronounceable names, difficult-to-remember names, and names that look like the writer was just trying too hard.
I just googled a bunch of the names in my fantasy novel, and so far only one turned up any results. A middle school in texas has the same name as a country where lots of the action takes place. I'm still using it though, cause (I thought) I thought of it first.
If it's obscure, don't worry about it. Nobody's gonna notice and if they do, they probably won't care. Or maybe they'll think it's awesome? "Woah, my street has the same name as the kingdom in <insert title here>! Sweet!"
Just go with it, no one is going to care. That's for personal character names, that is. If you're writing about an evil fictional electrical company that conducts torturous experiements and it turns out that a real-life electrical company by the same name exists, they'd probably be a little PO'd.
Yes, this is a situation that has the potential to evolve into a somewhat stickey situation, but at the same time, this is why the use of a disclaimer was invented: Characters and places are purely fictious, any likeness to actual individuals or locations is purely coincidental.
