While worldbuilding for a future series, I devised naming conventions for people from each of the major countries in the world. Rather than throwing a bunch of unrelated names together, create groups of names with consistent vowel and consonant combinations. They can be different, but related. e.g. all people have two duplicated consonants followed by an 'a' for women and a single consonant followed by an non-a vowel for men at the end of their name as in Moretta or Berrodo It makes coming up with the names much more simple.

I go to the Fantasy Name Generator, set the Number to Generate to its maximum (25, I think), and keep pressing "generate," writing down ONLY THOSE NAMES that I like, until I have around thirty or so names.

Then when I do is pick a character in my novel -- and this is important, too, because I have to know the basic story I want to write as well as the principle characters (both major and minor), and I have to know their function in the story. Anyway, I take a character in my novel, knowing his basic role, and I look at the list, trying to find a name that "fits" him.

If I don't see one that fits, I'll do one of three things. (1) I'll go back the generator and start generating names until I find one. (2) I move on to a different character. (3) I take a couple of "almost names" and start fiddling with them until I create one I like.

Now here MY CAVEAT. So read carefully.

I am writing a practice novel! I have NO intention of trying to SELL this novel. My goal is to learn how to write a novel, how to carry a story arc across 500 pages, how to write description, how to build suspense, etc. Because I have no intention of trying to sell this novel, I have no qualms about using names I get from these on-line name generators.

So the question is this: What would I do if I intended to put he novel on the market?

Two things.

1. I would make a list of nouns or verbs that describe a particular character and play around with their individual syllables in order to find a name. The creators of the DRAGONLANCE novels did this with the character "Caramon," which comes from the phrase, "caring man." We also see this in the Harry Potter books with the character Snape (=snake).

I also have a collection of names and words that have just sounded interesting to me. They come from lots of different sources. Weird place names. Historical names. Names from various mythologies. Even some plant names.

I also have at least some naming conventions within my world. So names for characters from certain groups need to fit that convention.

When I need a name, if nothing suitable comes to me, I'll go through my list until I find something I like. Now, I rarely use these names exactly as they are. (And in the rare cases where I have, there's an excellent chance that the name will be changed.) But you can tweak them just a bit.

The name of one group in my trilogy started from the word Farallon, which is the name of a group of islands off the Northern California coast. I changed a consonant and it became Fasallon. The MC started from Vidar--a minor Norse deity. That became Vadar by changing a vowel. But people still thought it sounded too much like Darth somebody or other. So now it's Vatar. It may end up being Batar, but I doubt it.

Names are easy to change, so don't sweat getting it right at the beginning. It's just search and replace.

Generally speaking, I like a name to have two or three syllables. A few are only one syllable. And a few are four. But never more than four and those are readily pronouncable, like Miriada. (Which is actually sort of off of my name.)

quote:

---

How can those names that sound so good to the writer make the reader throw the book down because they cannot be pronounced?

---

First, there are two issues here, names that cannot be pronounced such as shaktrgus (too many consonants in a row) and those that are difficult to pronounce like Seracklen.

Unpronounceable names should be avoided, period. Difficult names are acceptable in moderation. But using 5 or 6 different such names in the first few sentences is enough to scare away the most avid SF or Fantasy fan. It's sort of like trying to surf a tidal wave or swim in an undertow.

In addition, as a general pointer about names: Try to choose names that are not confusing. Names that sound the same and look the same will be confusing to the reader, and should only be used if essential to the storyline. They are also difficult to read in a row, like "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

Seracklen Morallinen Royhellinen

quote:

---

I cannot find out how to create hundreds of names for a fantasy story that everyone who reads it can pronounce. How do we create the passion in a character's name and keep it pronounceable to everyone?

---

One other place I've used is baby name books and web sites. They are easily found with a simple search on the internet, and some allow you to look up names by nationality. I've also used mythology to find names of interest.

Hope this helps

TL

I proof read and spell check, and still post bloopers

Presumably in the rest of the story, you're going to use his first name to refer to him, so start out with that. You can give us his full name later, at an appropriate time. After we're comfortable with Seracklen.

It is the nature of fantasy, especially, that the reader expects unfamiliar names. Just not such a huge chunk right at the start.

One group might be named for their professions (Smith, Jones, Goldstein, Cartwright, etc)
Another might be named for who they are children of. (Oleson, Jakobson, )
One might be named for where you are from (Chang, London, Huston, York).
One might be named for land marks nearby, (underhill, stoneridge, Valley, Creek)
One might be named for dominant plants or star signs.

This just reminded me of an American Indian naming joke.
The son went to his mother and asked "How were we named?"
You were named according to what the first animal I saw was doing."
She smiled.
"That is why your youngest sister was named sitting dove. your youngest brother is named flying eagle, your older sister is named running deer, and your older brother is named standing bear, and you were named Wolf eating buffalo Dung. Why do you ask?"

quote:

---

The crown grew heavier with each passing year. When the Venerable Bodhidharma Mayhanayake Thero had--so reluctantly--first placed it on his head, Prince Kalidasa gladly relinquished the jewel-encrustedband of gold whenever court etiquite allowed.

---

personally, the problem isnt so much that the names are hard to pronounce as it is trying to find the right name.

right now I have a character (in the works) who is the genetic experiment of when a crazed necromancer fused human, ice drake, and dragon dna together in order to create a "super demon", the result was a magic resistant humanoid with perfect control over water and fire, to the point where neither thing would even attempt to hurt him. what do I name this guy? Icefire. (like I said, working name.)

http://www.tomlwaters.com/lang.htm

You may find some helpful suggestions there.

In that spirit I try to choose names that are relatively short and easy to say for the bulk of a story's use, even if the character has a longer "formal" name or title.

I have used name generators as seeds for names (though I modify even the results I like more often than not), as well as things like lists of old Gaelic names/words which provide older forms of modern names as well as some things more exotic sounding.

My favorite name came years ago -- Irulian from the words I rule. I liked it so much I bestowed it not only on an important character, but also on my first born daughter.

For example, for someone that's always doing dumb things: Take
juhm (Estonian for stupid) and tweak - Jumi