Author:
Jessie Oakshade, Name Guru ^_^
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Date Posted: 03:16:12 04/13/03 Sun
Posted this on the OOC board, but I figured it would be useful here too, so here it is. Any aspiring story writers, please read!!
I usually have little trouble trying to find a name, because I have little techniques I use so I can look around from where I am sitting, and find the perfect name for a specific character. I'll go through this in a little bit.
I LOVE Irish/Gaelic names, there really isn't a specific reason, but I find that most of them are very pretty. It just so happened I was bored and decided to search for some, and I found a terrific web site for names from many different cultures.
www.20000-names.com
It's also separated by gender, and gives the meaning for each name. The minute I started browsing the site, I thought of Lancepaw's activity "Name the Character", in which it helped a lot. ^_^ I was trying to put a Gaelic-based, or Yiddish-based name in there, but I couldn't resist the Irish names.
If anyone here's read the Sevenwaters trilogy, it is fascinating to know that "Sorcha" means intelligent, "Eamonn" means guardian(yeah, right), and "Darragh" means wealthy(another big surprise). (BTW, the Sevenwaters Trilogy are excellent books for a Redwall fan, written by Juliet Marillier. It starts with Daughter of the Forest. I warn people though, there are adult themes in all three.)
Anyway, if for some reason you decide not to browse the site, you can use my little technique. First of all, you can't avoid the fact that words are all around you, no matter where you are or look. If for some strange reason you are in a room with no words, then there MUST be items or things wherever you are. It's easier just to look at words though.
So, let's say I'm looking for a name for a female mouse. She's a healer, and she's against fighting and travels alone. Good female names usually begin with B, L, N, or S, and end with A, L, M, or N.
I look around the room I'm in and try to look for a word that has to do with my character's personality. I spot the word...."medical", on an encylopedia for medical treatments. You can just use this name by switching letters around and adding different ones and get "Madelan" or "Caldima". Interesting, no? But those are only relatively simple names. I look around the room again to find the word...."intelligence", from a book on artificial intelligence. Now, combine these two words. To combine them directly would result in "Mediligence" or "Intellical", which would sound rather odd for a female mouse, so we will have to change some letters and move some around as we did with "medical".
"Gen" from "intelligence" is a great segment for a female name, so we'll consider it. "Dica" from "medical" is interesting as well. Taking the letters from these two words and mixing them around creates a lot of pretty good word segments, so we'll make a list. Just make them short and simple, one or two syllables. Also, consider reversing segments.
Gen
Dica
Dima
Lida
Teli
Cali
Deme
Meni
Delan
Camed
Meli
Clem
Elan
Ginia
Len
Lian
That seems like enough, because the next step is easiest, and pretty fun too. Just combine two or three of the segments. If it doesn't sound right, you can always add a letter in there. For example, combining Meli and Lian. Mellian. It DOES sound a bit weird, so I substitute an "r". This results in Merian. Also, since she is a traveling healer, she needs a title, so she is most likely going to be Merian the Healer, or Merian the Traveler.
I used this technique for many characters from my story "If Rose had Lived", as well as "The Missing Saga Part One: The Makings of a Warrior". The main character in IRHL is Chrysanthemum, but it IS obvious I stole her name from a flower, mainly because her mother is Rose, also named after a flower. Jorell is a combination of names(which I forget), Dallum is a one-letter change from his father's name.
From TMS, Gareb Cairenn is an interesting name. Gareb is made from the basic foundation I use for a name: Five letters, with alternating consanants and vowels. Cairenn is an Irish name (surprise, surprise!) I dug up from an Irish names web site.
"But what about moles and hares and otters and squirrels and badgers?" you ask. "They have different names, pertaining to their abilities and nature." True, true. They're all still made up of word segments, and truthfully, they're easier to come up with than the name I previously showed you. Here are some popular word segments for each species:
Moles:
Paw
Durt
Burr
Bung
Till
Furr
Burt
Hares:
Paw
Ear
Dew
Tail
Scut
Bee
Wil
Dar
Leg
Lance
Wilt
Saber
Wind
Otters:
Paw
Tail
Sea
Root
Bar
Long
Gar
Scar
Wort
Rim
Rung
Tide
Squirrels:
Paw
Tail
Ear
Fir
Branch
Leaf
Twig
Elm
Oak
Badgers:
Paw
Blade
Stripe
Blood
Dark
Stone
Of course, these segments don't apply to every creature of the species, like Tungro of the otters, Boorab of the hares, Jukka of the squirrels, and Lady Merola of the badgers. But their names can be formed using my other technique. I have some names I made up in my spare time on my site:
http://www.geocities.com/redwalldatabase/books/misc/redwallnames.html
Most of them form the 5-letter format which I find hard to avoid. ^_^ It's easy, and creates satisfactory names.
If you have any questions or comments, just post them here.
~Jessie Oakshade, Name Guru
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Techniques to finding the perfect name...