1. Ommonite

    Ommonite New Member

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    The Second Female

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Ommonite, Aug 31, 2008.

    There are few stories that feature more than one prominent female character. in my novel trilogy that I'm working on, I have, since its original conception, had a second female to play as a friend to the first female, love interest to second male, and to show another culture of the world in the group.

    Immediatly upon her creation, this daughter of the ruler of the 'rebel' group has plague me in one location that prevents creation of any other location to be plagued about;

    Her name. They stink, every idea I've had. Nathema, Jumaeu, Neona, Neora, Abelia, all aweful names. The only good name I can think of is Virlomi (lovingly taken from Ender's shadow and sequels) but her love interest and the Han Solo of the story (read and review my excerpt in the novel section to learn a great deal about him) is named with a V name, and it would just seem to, blaw.

    I've added so many Neo- words to my built in dictionary and I'm being frustrated. She just has to be in the story and although she is only int he last three chapters of book one I feel a need to give her a name now!!!!

    I can't really say much about the character, though she has a bond with the female Ditaganist and the male tritaganist and will not die.

    Help, seventh sanctum and babynames.com have only supplied me with duds!!!

    wow, that sounded out of character for me, didn't it?
     
  2. Palimpsest

    Palimpsest New Member

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    Have you tried behindthename.com? If your world has similar mythologies as here, you could check Wikipedia for the list of lesser-known deities and traditional personifications of things.

    That's where I got my character's name, Keyris (combining the names of the lesser death-deity Keres and the spirit Eris that flew out of Pandora's box.) She's a warrior, and gave me a hard time. I had looked up the meaning of "sword" in several other languages: "Brandr"... Brandy? Brenda? "Hjorrdis"... um, no. Katana? Has the right bite, but reminds me too much of a character from an old Street Fighter movie or something... the one with her twin sister or someone named Jade, but my memory's definitely fuzzy.

    If the first letter's the only problem, maybe you could just change it without changing the feel of the name too much: Zirlomi, Yrlomi, Lomirv?
     
  3. Callum

    Callum New Member

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    Hey Ommonite, thought i would try and help you out after you greeted me in my welcome thread ;)

    As for character names, i agree with Palimpsest. Combining or sampling parts of names from inspirational or mythical beings often presents you with an excellent character name. Also, you kind of need to make sure that the name you decide upon fits your characters looks AND personality. If you don't, its difficult to connect with a character. For example, imagine if Harry Potter was called Boris Gorgachov, it just doesn't work.

    Because you have not revealed anything about what the character looks like, what there main personality attributes are etc. its difficult for me to suggest any names, but my favourite from the list you supplied in your post is 'Neona' :)
     
  4. Ommonite

    Ommonite New Member

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    Thanks cal, yeah, I know i didn't describe her much. She is 17 at the start of book one, 20 in book 2, has brown hair, uh... i forget, since I never really had much about her.

    And Palimpsest, I did actually find that site later on, but didn't have enough time to look into it that much. But i do know that there is only ONE J in grek mythology, and it is not a name for this girl.

    Oh... I love Yrlomi, but its an awkward spelling.
     
  5. Aurora_Black

    Aurora_Black New Member

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    Don't worry about the spelling of the name too much, you'll always have readers pronouncing things diferently.

    A little random story for you: I read a book with a Sergeant that would make any trooper who mispronounced his name do endless amounts of chores. His name was Ndoci, and throughout reading this book, I failed at ever coming up with the right one.

    Yrlomi sounds like an awesome name though, i'd stick with it.
     
  6. Ommonite

    Ommonite New Member

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    You know what.

    I am!!!!
     
  7. architectus

    architectus Banned

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    What is wrong with Neona, or Neoma? I like it better than the V name. I cannot even remember it and I just saw it.
     
  8. Ommonite

    Ommonite New Member

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    this is an old discussion, and I've already chosen a name. The problem was that I simply didn't like the way Neona sounded.
     
  9. architectus

    architectus Banned

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    Yeah I see you went with Yrlomi, and although it looks cool, I have no idea how I would pronounce it, so I would have to train my brain to say something when ever I saw it. When I come accross odd names like that in a novel I make up my own name. In my heade I would probably just say Lomi when I saw Yrlomi.

    I am not sure how many readers like me do not enjoy names that are hard to pronounce though. Xnleopal.
     
  10. Ommonite

    Ommonite New Member

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    Yeah I know what you mean. Reason #35 why I hated Eragon, I had to give a code name to everyone.

    but yeah, it is simply "ear" and "lomee" put together.

    (sorry to offend anyone, to each his own when it comes to Eragon, and I do not hate numbered reasons for hating it.)
     

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