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Post by Rosie on May 29, 2005 17:56:25 GMT
I think the names you choose for your characters is so important.
Any old name just won't do, especially if you have your character's look and personality worked out in your mind.
I think the appeal of characters can have a lot to do with their names.
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Post by nyquil on May 29, 2005 22:22:32 GMT
Yes, you don't want to name the hero of your story Ed Snerdly, I guess when you could call him Rex Daring or Antonio Banderas.... did I type that out loud? Seriously, I know what you mean. Names are a large part of writing original fiction. I think the right name can help your reader picture the sort of character you have in mind, because I don't care how muscular and sexy you are, if your name is Ed Snerdly, you're a geek. Of course, Edward Snerdly might be a bit better, or it might just make him seem older? My apologies to anyone named Ed Snerdly who might read this post. Sorry, I'm feeling silly tonight. quil
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Post by eggowaffles on May 29, 2005 22:40:29 GMT
I find characters with bizarre names to be very endearing . This may explain why I seem to predominately read Victorian lit. and fantasy... It may also explain why all my original characters, who would probably prefer to have nice generic names and not the ones I spot on street signs, seem to hate me.
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Post by Lily on May 30, 2005 6:47:28 GMT
Yes, you don't want to name the hero of your story Ed Snerdly, I guess when you could call him Rex Daring or Antonio Banderas.... did I type that out loud? Seriously, I know what you mean. Names are a large part of writing original fiction. I think the right name can help your reader picture the sort of character you have in mind, because I don't care how muscular and sexy you are, if your name is Ed Snerdly, you're a geek. Of course, Edward Snerdly might be a bit better, or it might just make him seem older? My apologies to anyone named Ed Snerdly who might read this post. Sorry, I'm feeling silly tonight. quil I donĀ“t have something intelligent to add to that topic, but quil, that was hilarious.
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Post by lauring on May 31, 2005 20:03:00 GMT
Speaking of character names, the names Faramir and Boromir never carried any connotations for me until I saw the Lord of the Rings movies, but now, of course, they bring up all sorts of pleasant imagery. Does anyone else wish that the next Indiana Jones movie could be titled "Faramir Jones and the Mountain of Doom" starring David Wenham? I think Faramir Jones sounds like a very cool, heroic type, someone I'd like to get to know... I think I've read one too many fan fictions.... lauring
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Post by nyquil on May 31, 2005 21:30:58 GMT
Hehe, lauring, that sounds really familiar! I know I'd pay money to go see that a couple thousand times! ;D
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Post by Rosie on May 31, 2005 23:01:58 GMT
lauring, maybe you should do a crossover fic!
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Post by sweetbiscuit on Jun 6, 2005 16:45:20 GMT
I follow Nyquil's idea that a name has to be complimentary to the aspects you are trying to convey. Unless your intention is to have a character that contradicts their moniker (i.e. a warrior named Pansy) to further empathize their traits. I find the best resource is a baby name book or website. Most of my choices come from those. A few I have picked up from movies and TV. The strangest source I've used though is the mail I handle at work.
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Post by eggowaffles on Jun 6, 2005 19:45:11 GMT
I find the best resource is a baby name book or website. BabyNames.com used to be a favorite database of mine, until I realized that Faramir was conspicuously absent from their list of Tolkien names and all my irate e-mails pleading for his instatement were pointedly ignored . I mean, honestly... the word "Rohirrim" (which, incidentally, is not a character name) was on the list, but Faramir wasn't! (*seethes*)
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Post by Rosie on Jun 6, 2005 23:52:37 GMT
Slightly off topic, but I curse myself for not naming my daughter Farrah Mia. She on the other hand is ecstatic.......
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Post by nyquil on Jun 6, 2005 23:54:01 GMT
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Post by lindahoyland on Jun 7, 2005 0:29:00 GMT
I just make names up for my own characters, to begin with i asked another fanfic writer but now make up my own and so far have Elbeth,Mahrod and Lamrung plus one or two who are yet to appear !
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Post by shieldmaiden on Jun 7, 2005 3:50:17 GMT
Since I only write fanfic at the moment, I tend to be a real geek and take most of my original character names from Old English ones. At least, for the Rohirrim. And, incidentally, I can't figure out why on earth Babynames.com made "Rohirrim" a name. Especially since it's plural.
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Post by sweetbiscuit on Jun 7, 2005 5:38:48 GMT
Its also not easy to pronounce if you're unfamiliar with Tolkien. I like Alfabette Zoope: www.zoope.com/about/about_names.htmlThe other site I like, Alternika's Odomastikon, is down while its being moved to a different provider.
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StefaniaB
Short story writer
Belly Dancin' Gondor Babe
Posts: 113
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Post by StefaniaB on Jun 22, 2005 0:13:59 GMT
Speaking of the devil, can anyone recommend a web site with Tolkien names or Tolkien-esque names?
- Steff
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Post by nyquil on Jun 22, 2005 0:18:54 GMT
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laerien
Short story writer
Posts: 192
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Post by laerien on Jul 14, 2005 18:34:17 GMT
Some names I am going to use in my stories were taken from my Chemistry book. Of course I not talking about HCl or oxigen, but there are some script that sound well and I can imagine characters with those names.
Wonderful, what a boring lesson could do...
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Post by make_it_stop on Aug 1, 2005 18:23:53 GMT
Chemistry, now that would be an interesting source for names...Pipette? Actinide? Titrate? James Bond's little brother, Covalent?
I just finished reading "Eragon" and was a little taken aback to find that, mixed in with the fantasy names ("Saphira", "Galbatorix", "Sh'turgal") are names like Trevor, Martin, and Helen. What the --?
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Post by meaningofhaste on Aug 25, 2005 16:32:57 GMT
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Post by Raksha on Aug 25, 2005 18:27:06 GMT
You can go through the ROTK appendices and find a lot of great old names of Men, dwarves and hobbits; and at least in Gondor, they recycle the old Sindarin names a lot.
You can also go here:
www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.asp
The Encyclopedia of Arda, and click on whichever letter of the Alphabetical Indexes you like, and you'll find lots of names, and you can click on them and find out who they were if you don't already know. It's also a pretty good site, though I did catch them in a Faramir-related error once - which they corrected when I emailed them.
Finding female names is harder than male names, of course, unless you're dealing with hobbits...
Speaking of RL names, movie stars and others who stick odd names on their helpless infants really annoy me. Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple; there's Michael Jackson's son Prince Michael, Sonny & Cher who named their daughter Chastity (which would have been very suitable for a 17th century Puritan child!), and of course Frank Zappa calling his daughter Moon Unit or whatever. Just because you don't want your kid to have a common name doesn't mean you have to inflict the tyke with something that is just begging the other kids to tease about...
Neil Gaiman made fun of this practice in Good Omens, the funny apocalypse satire he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, when it's revealed that one of the main characters, an 11-year-old girl, was originally named Pippin Galadriel Moonshine by her then-hippie mother and now calls herself Pepper and has a temper to match.
RAKSHA
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