Pick up some different name books as well. Ethnic ones, or go on-line and you can find many different name sources, Gypsy, Italian, or any tiny group as well and come up with real names that have a “group” feel, but will be alien to your readers.

Keep in mind that male and female names often have a feel to them as well. Sandy, Mary, Jamie, we know female---or we assume so. Give your names a similar feel for different genders or classes to keep them feeling real.

Also, keep in mind what a name says about a character----Flobbsy would to me be a weak character— Where as Lankillen would come across as stronger and perhaps mean because of the connotation of the word “kill” in the name.

Your best bet is to keep them simple and keep the beginning sounds different and try not to rhyme them or the reader gets them confused.

I've tried, but haven't figured out where to find such a list. (I'd recommend the Summer Olympics for this, by the way, because you get more countries.)

Lists by country not only give you examples of that country's/culture's names, but they will be in all likelihood the more common names from that country/culture.

You can select from such a list and adapt the names you want--especially if you don't want them to be clearly from that country/culture--make them more pronounceable, shorter, etc.

Taking names from the same country/culture will make them seem to belong to the same culture in your story. They will fit together with each other.

And if you have characters from different cultures, using names from different real countries/cultures will make them clearly different from each other.

Hope that helps.

I try to use some variety in my names, I don't want all one syllable nams, like Tom Bill, Jill, Jane, Sam. that gets boring for me as a reader, so I don't do it in my writing.
I also try to tie characters from the same place together with how their names are spelled. for instance, four of my charaters are all from the same town so their names are: Perryn, Alyce, Brynna and Bylar.
Another thing OSC (i think) suggests is to start each major caharater's name with a different letter. i'm working on that.

If you don't want to make them up, a great resource for first names is baby name books or websites.

I cannot stand fantasy novels that use such names as:

Lord Kevin or Kelvin

Stanley the Knight, Ronald the Troll and so forth. Modern names sound ridiculous in this genre simply because now and again we have all met someone with that same name and it becomes synonimous with that person.

A good source of names can be the following works;

Beowulf, The Prose Edda, The Elder Edda, The Illyad, Tales of the Norse Gods, Spencers Fairie Queen and infact anything mythical or historical prior to the modern world.

My heart goes out (sincerely) to New World writers from the USA or from Australia. I am not being nasty here so please take this in the spirit that it is meant. It is so very difficult to write about a world that you have not experienced and when dealing with fantasy the old world is either Europe or the Mediterannean basin (ok there is South America and so forth but most fantasy stories are about Knights, Elves and Dragons etc). It is hard to describe the particularly macabre look of clouds scudding behind the crenelations of a castle and the eerie gleam of the moon on a cracked and ruined turret if you have no chance of ever seeing it. On the other hand we Europeans are handicapped when it comes to Science Fiction because we just dont move in those circles and it is not yet within our grasp to do so. Americans live with this kind of technological advance and it is imbeded into their psyche. I am not saying that New World folk CANT write Old world stories, or Vice Versa. All I am saying is that it is more difficult. Probably when it does work it is all the better because of the extra effort.

Anyway, back to names. Firstly decide which race this person is from and then decide which human race the fantasy race is closet akin to. Then look up some of their names.

Castle ruins have nothing to do with fantasy worlds. The ruins are what’s left of true castles, yes. But Dragons, fairies, and elves never roamed them.

And as to Fantasy---it does not have to be middle ages based. There are many other mythologies to base it upon.

Shawn

these both have a good mix of ethnic names, and fantasy sounding ones.

In regards to names, like Stanley the Dragon, (familiar if you are a Xanth reader) even the knights who say "ni" *gring at kwsni* such names have their own place in the fantasy genre.
If you are not familiar with the works of Terry Pratchett, then I recommend them as they are fantas-tic books, who's only crime is that they happen to be really funny.

Seargent Carrot, I salute you!

Every name has a place, and though the above doesn't really belong in a Tolkienesque Epic, Discworld has been made all the more colourful for the likes of him.

May the light of creation shine forever on the hearts of those willing to share it.

Fantasy is based on the fantastic—made up. I don’t need to sit in a castle ruin and sleep there to write about the night under the stars. There are stars here in the states as well---the rest is imagination. I can look at books and pictures and watch travel shows----are you saying then that any of the “New World” fantasy authors are no good? Or that any of the “Old World” SciFi authors should hang up their hat? How absurd.

What about anyone that has written anything in the ‘New World” about the United States? Maybe they know nothing because they have not been here long enough and the only good fiction would be written by Native Americans since we have been here so much longer?

I strongly disagree! You do not have to go to a place to describe a made up scene. Yes, people have read some of my stuff and said—“oh my gosh, you have the kiosk that sells Danner Kebabs down. You must have been to one.” Yes, I have. But I could have paged through a book and seen pictures of one and gotten the outdoor standing only tables down----or I could have been to New York and had a Kebab there to get the taste.

As to castles---not much to see in the ruins to give you any real idea of what it was like in that time—other than damp and cold. There are medieval fairs in the “New World” as well.

I think you are trying to establish something that makes no sense at all. The main character in my new book drives a Jag. Should I put him in a BMW because I have never driven a Jag, but drive a BMW? I don’t think so. I could put him in Ford, Chevy, or Fiat for that matter---but I don’t have to own one or drive on to get the meaning across.

While experiencing something may make it easier to describe---the saying write what you know should be amended to write what you know or what you can learn. And there is a wealth of info out there just for the taking.

Go ahead a let your new character drive a Jag. Don't put him in a Bimmer . . . unless you actually want him to get where he's going. ;-)

- Doc Brown
(Who knows a think or two about the reliability of British cars)

Stephen Donaldson made his publishing debut in 1977 with Lord Foul's Bane, first book in the high fantasy trilogy entitled The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It was named best novel of
the year by the British Fantasy Society . . .

Everyone has some valid points to make, but might I suggest they migrate out of this thread to the one I established, purely for the fact that discussion about Names has seemed to have gone completely out of the window.

I think that there is validity in both threads, so if we could just mosey on over there with the experience vs. imagination debate...?

I do agree with Heimdall on the fact that first hand knowledge makes it so much easier to make your writing (or acting in my case) easier, but... well I went on about that in...(puts on his best sales pitch voice)
Where is fantasy based? Thread.
So come on over and check out the great deals, we have to *urk*
Sorry, management was getting a little carried away...

O------kay.

Anyway, sorry for putting my hand up and breaking the flow of discussion, but a thread is a thread, and this ones about a-Namin', *ah-yuk, ah-yuk*

Though it may have been a European name, the creator of the Character, was Robert E. Howard, from Texas.

Describe Pluto----hmmmm, male hound dog. Brown, with whip thin black tail and lives with a mouse named Mickey. I think that fits with either Eruo Disney or Orlando Disney?

JK, sorry about taking all your points!

Dave, threads her become very convouluted at times. I know I spelled that wrong! Oh well--I am as I am.

Srhowen: Did you consider a Porsche 911 (or 928 or Boxster, depending on the year)? The 911 won't work if you need a back seat, but the 928 would (barely). A Porsche has an even greater testosterone/playboy connotation than the Jag with about the same snob level.

Need the back seat--and need a car with some size. So I went with the new full sized Jag. Though I could have went with the Bimmer and then done one of those full cover glossies that they do of authors now, that seem to place the author in the story. LOL

The character is a big guy---so the other cars would be a bit small seeming.

Conan: Nice setting, utterly ludicrous character. Nice first book, the ones after were ok but.... Read Of Thud and Blunder! You will see what I mean.

Describing a BMW without getting into one and having a look:

Things might go really well until you get a reader who drives one and if he/she knows better than you and it shows, your credibility will be lost.

The British Fantasy Society??? Who are they?
(ha ha ha)

Describe Pluto isnt irrelevant (or irreverant as I almost typed, its contagious!!!)
Its ok to describe it after research but one day Man may very well land there and if you have got it wrong!!!

It would have been fairer to say:
I will write about a day in Canterbury (I live there) You write about the same thing from sources on the internet. If we both have the same skill with writing I know which one will be more genuine and powerful. You cant beat visiting or living in a place to write about it. You can't beat first hand experience. Take Inspector Morse for instance. I like the character and the setting, rural Oxford but the plots are ridiculous! I know because I have first hand experience of doing that job. The plot is full of holes and the characters do things that would be utterly unlawful and counter productive. First hand experience will always prevail, always.

How fast can you take a corner, way weird, "I rented a car (Ford Taurus) and the first thing I noticed was the darned small steering wheel!" and so on.

So I reiterate---anything can be learned without actually doing it. The doing of it may make it easier---but it doesn’t grantee that every person will come away the same from it—so everyone’s description is going to be different based on personal experience.

Someone drove my car once---they got out and said, “How can you drive this thing! The steering wheel is too big, it steers too hard, and I got whiplash at the stop lights when I started out.” My opinion---yeah baby, it goes like a bat outa hell though.

So, even if you and your neighbor each wrote about the house on the corner you would describe it differently. Yes, when writing about somewhere you don’t know, you better be careful with the details or someone will point out that it is wrong---that’s an editors job and the copy editor to make sure your facts check out.

IMHO that is. Just to get people thinking as always,

Shawn

You were not completely wrong at all (Is that bad grammer? Ah well.) in saying that this is fantasy society with different names and completely different cultures than those we have on earth. At least, what I have down so far. I'm not sure how deep into the culture I want to go, especially since it's not a large part of the story, and I don't want to bore my readers.

Chris.

Have you thought about readers thinking the story to be shallow? Lacking in detail?