
What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters - samclemens
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/02/08/what-kind-of-name-is-that/
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RodericDay
I read Brandon Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive" and "Mistborn" series, and I
couldn't stop thinking about how awkward the names sounded, from Kaladin to
Kelsier. It repeatedly took me out of the scene.

Meanwhile, the team behind Morrowind seemed to have an uncanny ability to
produce names that just felt completely right. Somebody responded to my random
thoughts on the topic with this very sound summary:

> _Morrowind 's names are a pretty remarkable achievement. I don't know who
> was responsible for it but whoever it was did a really good job of ripping
> off name "templates" from disparate languages, tweaking them enough to
> retain their associations but not their meanings, and then sticking with
> those templates across the board. Modeling the Ashlander names on Assyrian
> was a stroke of world-building genius._

> _Mistborn 's names, in contrast, never seem to have much purpose behind
> them. The templates are inconsistent and arbitrary, and convey no
> information to the reader. You have fantastical gibberish like
> vin/reen/camon, standard anglo names like dockson/hammond, bizarre nicknamey
> nouns like breeze/clubs/spook, and cod-french like valette renoux. It's a
> mess and it makes it difficult to figure out what this world is when there
> doesn't seem to be any natural way those names could have emerged in one
> culture. It's fucking weird._

> _That being said the only names I never liked in Morrowind were the Redguard
> names. I could never figure out what they were supposed to be doing._

~~~
emddudley
I am nearly finished with _The Way of Kings_. At first the names struck me as
odd, but then again lots of stuff did. Giant crustaceans? People with foot-
long eyebrows? Gem spheres used as both currency and lamps? Over time I got
used to the names.

Actually, I remember one part where Sanderson describes how in the Vorinism
religion symmetry is very important, and that the best names are symmetrical
or almost symmetrical, like Shallan and Urithiru. I thought that was super
creative!

~~~
noxToken
I think _The Stormlight Archive_ should get a slight pass on the oddities of
people, creatures and cultures. _The Stormlight Archive_ is aiming to be an
epic that is established in a world of disparate cultures and fantastic
creatures.

The idea is that culture is very centric to an area and its peoples. Once you
leave that area, even if it's only 2 or 3 days by carriage, you transition to
a distinct cultural shift. It's as if England and Japan were only separated by
100 miles, but you hit Egypt, Germany, Nigeria, Romania and Mexico along the
way. Thus you get a large homogeneous population with their status quo and
beliefs alongside markedly different people intermixed.

~~~
RodericDay
This is precisely why "Kaladin the Paladin" (he doesn't actually fit the
archetype, but it's close) takes me out of it. It's not that it's too weird,
it's that it's not weird enough.

Plus they call him "Kal". It's relying just as heavily as Morrowind was on
pre-existing expectations, just different ones (worse ones, imo).

------
munificent
There is a practical consideration worth keeping in mind with names: they
distinguish characters _from each other_.

I found One Hundred Years of Solitude virtually incomprehensible because it
features an enormous cast of characters whose names are all similar.

There is José Arcadio Buendía, José Arcadio, Arcadio, Aureliano José, 17 (!)
other characters named Aureliano, José Arcadio Segundo and José Arcadio (II)
(who is _not_ Segundo).

Aureliano Buendía, Aureliano Segundo and Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II)
(again, different dude from Segundo), and Aureliano (III).

Úrsula Iguarán, Amaranta Úrsula, and Amaranta.

Remedios Moscote, Remedios the Beauty, and Renata Remedios.

~~~
monk_e_boy
Oh God, you just reminded me. The first time I read Lord of the Rings (when I
was a wee kiddie) I got Sauron and Saruman mixed up and for 90% of the book
thought they were the same guy. It wasn't until they met I had that 'mind
blown' moment.

~~~
Eerie
Dude. Sauron and Saruman never met.

------
xioxox
Some of my favourite are the ship names in Ian Banks' culture series:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cult...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series)

They're all great, but here are some examples

    
    
      * Only Slightly Bent
      * God Told Me To Do It
      * Ethics Gradient
      * I Blame My Mother
      * I Blame Your Mother
      * Poke It With A Stick
      * Don't Try This At Home
      * Contents May Differ

~~~
vollmond
And on the other end of the spectrum, his drone and human names can be
impenetrable. I can never keep them straight, even within a given book.

~~~
edgesrazor
I can relate. I spent half of Player of Games just trying to internalize the
pronunciation of Jernau Morat Gurgeh. That aside, great book.

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searine
As a writer, I live and die by this site :
[http://www.behindthename.com/random/](http://www.behindthename.com/random/)

Pick an ethnicity and just hit random until something fits the character.

I usually don't use the exact name, but it puts me in the right neighborhood
of what I want. After that I can tweak it.

~~~
livingparadox
I started out generating names out of whole cloth, but eventually, it just got
easier to designate certain groups as using a certain ethnic set of names and
roll away. I run through the list instead of picking random, though, because I
like to imagine the people naming their children with intent.

------
tlb
'Absurdonym' is my favorite new word. It will come in handy when discussing
startup names.

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cgh
Thomas Pynchon is a great inventor of names. From "The Crying of Lot 49"
alone, we have:

Oedipa Maas

Wendell "Mucho" Maas

John Nefastis

Stanley Koteks

Mike Fallopian

...and so forth. Granted, the humour in "Lot 49" is a little more juvenile
than, say, "Against the Day".

~~~
dang
He is indeed a brilliant namer. I love Reverend Cherrycoke from Mason & Dixon.
It's so perfectly 18th century a name.

But if we're talking about The Crying of Lot 49 let's not forget Genghis
Cohen, subject of a public spat at the time!

[http://dangerousminds.net/comments/thomas_pynchon_punctures_...](http://dangerousminds.net/comments/thomas_pynchon_punctures_preposterous_plagiarism_accusation_1966)

While Pynchon's smackdown is devastating, I can't help but feel that he would
have written a better one in later years. Actually it would be better if he
had simply stopped at "that is another problem entirely". "Perhaps more
psychiatric than literary" is clever, but at that point he's bludgeoning.

~~~
cgh
Thanks for posting this. I had no idea this even happened. As you're surely
aware, in 1966, Pynchon was still only 29 (an incredible fact, at least to
me), so that might explain the lack of subtlety.

Another great namer was Mervyn Peake, author of the fabulous "Gormenghast"
series. From it, we have:

Lord Sepulchrave Groan

Fuschia Groan

Titus Groan

Steerpike

Swelter, the enormous chef

Dr. Alfred Prunesquallor

Mr. Flay

...and too many more to mention. Any lovers of literary, surrealist
grotesquerie should read this series.

~~~
dang
Oh yeah, Peake was brilliant too. I always lump him in with Edward Gorey.

The best namer by far, I think, is Dickens, at least for the comic style of
naming, which all these examples are. I wonder if it's harder to come up with
names for sad things.

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Terr_
I remember the introduction to Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, which explains (or
perhaps defends) the familiar names of not just alien characters, but their
measures and objects:

> Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that
> it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a
> language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you.
> Those words should be understood as mere equivalents of alien terms-that is,
> a conventional set of equivalents of the same sort that a writer of novels
> uses when he has foreign characters speaking with each other in their own
> language but nevertheless transcribes their words in the language of the
> reader. So when the people of Kalgash speak of "miles," or "hands," or
> "cars," or "computers," they mean their own units of distance, their own
> grasping-organs, their own ground-transportation devices, their own
> information-processing machines, etc. The computers used on Kalgash are not
> necessarily compatible with the ones used in New York or London or
> Stockholm, and the "mile" that we use in this book is not necessarily the
> American unit of 5,280 feet. But it seemed simpler and more desirable to use
> these familiar terms in describing events on this wholly alien world than it
> would have been to invent a long series of wholly Kalgashian terms.

> In other words, we could have told you that one of our characters paused to
> strap on his quonglishes before setting out on a walk of seven vorks along
> the main gleebish of his native znoob, and everything might have seemed ever
> so much more thoroughly alien. But it would also have been ever so much more
> difficult to make sense out of what we were saying, and that did not seem
> useful. The essence of this story doesn't lie in the quantity of bizarre
> terms we might have invented; it lies, rather, in the reaction of a group of
> people somewhat like ourselves, living on a world that is somewhat like ours
> in all but one highly significant detail, as they react to a challenging
> situation that is completely different from anything the people of Earth
> have ever had to deal with. Under the circumstances, it seemed to us better
> to tell you that someone put on his hiking boots before setting out on a
> seven-mile walk than to clutter the book with quonglishes, vorks, and
> gleebishes.

> If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says
> "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherever it says "hours," and "sleshtraps" where it
> says "eyes." Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make
> no difference when the Stars come out.

... Granted, this only works because they never meet other characters whose
"miles" or "gliizbiiz" need to be disambiguated.

~~~
ishigami
I thought the "problem" with Nightfall is not that Asimov used "human" words
instead of "Alien words", rather that there seemed to be almost one-to-one
correspondence between the Earthly things and Kalgash. Kalgashians act exactly
the same as humans on Earth(or rather 50s Earth) and have a concept of
newspaper :)

> If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says
> "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherever it says "hours," and "sleshtraps" where it
> says "eyes." Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make
> no difference when the Stars come out.

That reminds me of "How Things Are Made" from Rick and Morty:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE)

~~~
Terr_
I thought it was a wonderful parody of the How It's Made videos.

------
JackFr
Despite its great reputation, I found "The Day of the Locust" unreadable
because I couldn't move beyond a major character named Homer Simpson.

~~~
ry_ry
I had the same problem with Family Guy.

~~~
kbenson
That's sort of the point of satire. Family guy isn't just making fun of
current events and society, it's also making fun of it's source material and
the way _it_ makes fun of current events. Peter is Homer taken to the extreme,
such that when you question why Lois would stay with such an ass, you're
forced to consider the lesser, but still relevant case of Marge staying with
Homer (which to its credit the Simpsons have addressed a few times).

That said, Family guy really just used the template as a springboard, it's
more about the absurdity of life and our culture than the Simpsons, which
relies heavier on social commentary.

~~~
ry_ry
I dunno, i get family guy, but it's need to work for a reaction out of
progressively more jaded audiences lost its lustre for me in the end.

When you're just nodding along to the commentary I suspect satire is largely
wasted in a haze of confirmation bias.

Tl;dr family guy isn't funny anymore.

~~~
kbenson
Ah, well that could definitely be the case. I haven't watched it in a few
years.

------
filoeleven
One of the things I like about Gene Wolfe's writing is that he doesn't make up
words, and I believe that this extends to names as well. Severian, Vodalus,
Palaemon, Thecla, Dorcas are all names used in Book of the New Sun that
already exist in the historical record.

In Book of the Long Sun, at least in the city where the story takes place, the
men are named for animals or animal products (Silk, Horn, Musk, Remora), the
women for plants or plant products (Mint, Rose, Hyacinth, Mucor), and the
androids for minerals or other non-living things (Marble, Hammerstone).

------
Apocryphon
Is this the right comment thread to talk about how bad names are in Star Wars,
at least ever since... Episode II came out? And the names in the new trilogy
so far sound worse than even in the prequels.

------
gavinpc
It was good enough for Shakespeare. There's "Malvolio," the discontent from
_Twelfth Night_. "Horatio," the even-tempered observer in _Hamlet_. "Elbow,"
the drunken constable in _Measure for Measure_ , and "Dull," the slow-witted
constable from _Love 's Labors Lost_ (which also features the empty-headed
schoolmaster "Holofernes"). "Prospero," the artist-magician who makes all
right in the end of _The Tempest_. "Hotspur," the (actual) nickname of the
irascible warrior from _Henry IV Part I_ who could think of nothing but riding
his horse into battle. (Of course, that was a real historical name, but it's
no wonder Shakespeare latched onto it.) And who can forget "Mercutio," another
hothead, the short-lived hyperglot from _Romeo and Juilet_? Not to mention
"Posthumus," who all but dies to set right his folly at the beginning of
_Cymbeline_. And then of course, "Falstaff," also from _Henry IV_ , that great
monument to the art of deception.

Does anyone need to guess the profession of Mistress Overdone, Mistress
Quickly, or Doll Tearsheet?

Lesser characters: Shallow and Slender.

Not as sure what to make of Touchstone, Caliban (an anagram for "cannibal"?),
and Bottom.

Dickens was just imitating, and in many ways bettering, his master.

~~~
Semiapies
Bottom...was an ass.

------
vdnkh
I read a lot of scifi and have generally been impressed by the naming. I
dislike Cratylic names when they're trite but authors like Phillip K. Dick and
Gene Wolfe manage to pull them off. Neal Stephenson uses them humorously in
Snowcrash (the protagonist's name is 'Hiro Protagonist'). I can't say I'm a
fan of Asimov's names in the Foundation series - not Cratylic, just a bit off
sounding. "Bayta Darrell" doesn't give the same brain-feeling as "Severian" or
"Paul Atreides".

~~~
dsr_
Whenever Asimov was stuck, he would make a play on meaning in his names:

Preem Palver => Prime (First) Palaver (Speaker).

Hari Seldon takes the name "Chetter Hummin" => Cheater Human.

Dors Venabili => Gift of the Venerable

Bel Riose is simply Belisarius.

Ebling Mis has bad health (it ebbs) and then he misses the right answer.

~~~
StephanTLavavej
R. Daneel Olivaw was Chetter Hummin (and Eto Demerzel).

------
nataliam511
I'm curious as to whether or not parents put as much thought into naming their
own children as authors do with their characters. I suppose not, because
parents start with somewhat of a blank slate. Authors have to find a name that
encompasses a fully developed character, even if they are fictional and will
end up being less complex than a real person. It might be an interesting
exercise to name yourself and your friends now, and see if you can think of a
better name to suit them.

------
kough
If you're looking for realistic names, try the names of people you vaguely
remember from highschool. Or ask your friends for the names they remember from
their own highschool. Only works up to a poont, but something about each of
these names is perfect. Often they're too silly to seem made up. Here's one:
Chris DiJacklin. (If you're reading this, hi Chris!)

------
madaxe_again
When writing fiction, way back when, I'd just flip open a phone book, point,
and run with it.

------
charlieegan3
I have a friend that's writing a book and has this very problem!

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dang
Completely off topic, but the phrase "always an amusing resource for complex
issues" contains the wittiest act of hyperlinking I've seen in a while.

~~~
dredmorbius
Please stay on to... Oh. Well, carry on.

/me goes off to explore hyperlinking.

Why yes indeed, that is to ... um, um, _something_ for.

