Names! What are they good for?

1. Names! What are they good for?

   #1

   I was just wondering if any of you had some way of coming up with names for things. Things in fictional worlds, names that don't have to represent the thing directly.
   
   Like for a world, I spell stuff backwards. Like Eru'Tan - which is nature! Or H'Trae - Earth. Got any methods for that kind of thing? Let's here it!

2. Names! What are they good for?

   #2

   when trying to come up with character names I use this to help me
   Random Name Generator
   usually mixing first and last names, adding letters and such. I made up Andimia by combining a common male name Andy and made if more femanine with the 'i' and added the name Mia to it which I got from Pulp Fiction (Mia Wallace) and put them together.
   Names for cities are harder. I sometimes use the names of area towns because they're strange enough as it is like: Lincolnshire, Mequon, Wapaca, Zion. sometimes I switch a few letters around, add a noun to the end or something. there's also this. it makes up words and such.
   Random word Generator

3. Names! What are they good for?

   #3

   What I usually do is combine random words together, sometimes even three. I made the name Zentinach, the name for a birdlike race, from detergent, soap, and something else I cant remember. I was reading a science book in school. I first got the word Dentinach, then replaced the 'D' with a 'Z'. Just combine random words till it sounds right, it gets boring and repetitive, but is worth it.

4. Names! What are they good for?

   #4

   For my new world Byrlothia, I've invented a few words to have different meanings. They can be added to most any word to modify it. For example:
   Prefixes:
   Pah - false or not (pah-magi = false-mage)
   Tal- true or real (tal-magi = true or real mage)
   Uln - an honorific for the leader of a human tribe (Uln-Trusk = Tribe leader Trusk)
   
   Suffixes:
   Sit(pronounced seet) - Honorific for the wise-woman of a human tribe (Rallia-sit = Wise-woman Rallia)
   
   
   Its not too tough to develop something like this. You just have to remember to be consistant. If you use the same word as both a prefix AND a suffix, you run the risk of making the word system extremely confusing.

5. Names! What are they good for?

   #5

   What I've been doing for Ageratos, since I draw most inspiration from Bronze Age and Classical nations and histories, I look at maps of old Greece and Turkey and Italy and Persia, read archaeological magazines, and gather cool-sounding names. The names of the main nations are almost all either the name of a kingdom in Roman-era Turkey (Mysia, Carmania, Pamphyna, Arachosia, etc.) or totally made up to sound similar.

6. Names! What are they good for?

   #6

   I borrowed the idea my parents had for naming their children--I use names from the Bible. Thus I have "Midian" for the name of the world, "Stryfe" for the name of one of the deities, et cetera.

7. Names! What are they good for?

   #7

   I used a random name generator or just pick a name by looking at it and seeing if it suits, hope this'll help:
   
   First names
   
   and, Last names

8. Names! What are they good for?

   #8

   The more involved bit for naming is to have names from the same culture, kingdom, race, etc. be easily distinguishable from those of other cultures, et al. That is, the players should be able to tell right away if (insert name here) is from a certain culture, or at least be able to make an educated guess if needed.

9. Names! What are they good for?

   #9

   The more involved bit for naming is to have names from the same culture, kingdom, race, etc. be easily distinguishable from those of other cultures, et al. That is, the players should be able to tell right away if (insert name here) is from a certain culture, or at least be able to make an educated guess if needed.

   
   
   Yep that's true, names can be used as a way of telling what nationality a character is or where the character originated from and anyway, having two characters with similar names would confuse people.

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