Writing Meme Day 3 - The Naming of Cats

[naomi_jay]

3.  How do you come up with names for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?

I have a baby names book tucked away somewhere, but I've had it so long I've exhausted it. There are a couple of websites I use regularly - Seventh Sanctum, which is just a generally excellent website for writers, and I think you should all go check it out, and 2000 Names, which has lots of annoying pop-ups, but also loads of unusual and cool names. I usually have an idea of what kind of name I want for a character before I start looking - like if I want a particular meaning or sound. I love Irish and Celtic names, and try to avoid anything too exotic if it doesn't fit the character's heritage or origin. 

AFTERLIFE is set in a fictional city called Shoregrave. I've no idea where that came from... I knew I wanted something that created an impression of gloom and darkness, so "grave" was pretty apt. Back in the day when I wrote high fantasy, I took towns and cities I knew and rearranged the letters to get my fantasy towns and cities. Looking back, it was a very inelegant way of doing things, as I ended up with very clunky, ugly names. 

(Google Chrome is playing up and won't let me copy and paste the other questions in here. Ggrrr. More tomorrow!)

Comments

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Seventh Sanctum is crack. I spent far too long in there just randomly clicking things. Pirate ship name generator? AM SO THERE.

I also find Behind The Name handy for etymology/meanings.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Behind the Name is excellent. And God, I waste so many hours on Seventh Sanctum generating vampire names and then constructing back stories around said names, and then never doing anything with them beyond think "that would make a cool story..."

[dwg.livejournal.com]

The more ridiculous the name, the better for these things. This is possibly how Amar Crystine Mordecant came into being. She's half-werewolf, half-vampire, and in my brain she's totally the Suest Sue Ever to Sue. If I ever went out of the way to write such a story, I'm scared that it might turn into a successful story that people love everywhere.