From the thousands of books I have read in my life, The definition of the name has no bearing to the reader. Modern education does not address such things and to the normal reader, a name is just a name. it is only when you get into the naming books that you even know what a name stands for. Otherwise, it is just some letters that go together as an identifier. A large number of parents search for a name that sounds right with their last names, and no other reason.
I had accumulated, from junk mail, a long list of names I could use. I separated first and last names, as they can be used in any combination. I would refer to that for a long time.
Recently, I am using a different tact. It is easier. it works too.
I simply decide what initial sound the name will start with, and then put the rest of the letters together so it can be pronounced and sounds good. I don't worry if the name is "spelled right" as names can be spelled in any way, especially if it is not our society. Since I am doing 30 a month, I will try to mix the names up, though soft letters and vowels tend not to be used very often.
It also helps that they are only going to be used for an hour writing session and never needed again. It would be a whole lot different if I was working for weeks or months with that name, In that case, I would want a name I really liked.
I also only use one name, not dealing with first and family names. I use names strictly to tell two people apart, rather than getting the reader confused as to who he is that is saying or doing something. I seldom name any other characters either. A single name can be the first or last name with equal ease.
My conclusion is that the name and the spelling, are not really important. It is better to have some consistency in the naming system within the community the character lives in. Having bob jones, tom smith, Jerry cartwright , and albert Baker, and then having someone named Buckaroo Bonzi, has to be explained in detail for it to be believable. Creating a logical naming system is more necessary than creating the names themselves.
For my different tribes I have used different backgrounds and keep it consistent ie one has names familiar in the UK, the others have names based in chinese, maori, african, and manx, then I tweak them to make them easier to say.
It is supposed to be slightly more accurate than a baby name book with meanings as well.
But within those, I mess the names up and move sounds and syllables around until I like it. Sometimes I just start making stuff up with no resources - you know, playing with sounds.
I agree that consistency is probably the most important thing. Another thing I try to do is to make sure that the audience can pronounce the name obviously on first read. I don't ever want my reader to get stuck on that. And of course, I don't want names to be too similar. I want each of the characters to be distinct and recognizable on the first pass.
Then later I go through and fix it when I come up with a cool name that matches the character.
I'm thinking maybe it's the history of it all...in most of my stories, a character would have been named somewhere between fifteen and fifty years before, perhaps somewhat casually...a place might be centuries before and need some meaning...and a planet could have been named tens of thousands of years before. And those names will then go through all sorts of linguistic changes in the time passing...
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Another thing I try to do is to make sure that the audience can pronounce the name obviously on first read. I don't ever want my reader to get stuck on that.
This is a good practice, but one I've not really followed. As a reader, names with weird spellings or difficult pronunciations have rarely (if ever) tripped me up or kept me from the flow of a story. When running across such a name, I simply memorize the visual image of the letter grouping (just like I would memorize an image), then link that pattern with the character's attributes as I would a name I would normally recall by how it sounds.
I'm not sure how unique this practice is, but I have often wondered how it came about within my mind. Maybe it's because right-brained people tend to perceive things in visual terms. It might even be a subconscious-driven self-defense mechanism against dyslexia; my mind learned to keep me from choking on unorthodox names by developing a new way to process such information.
Regardless of how it happened, it's clear to me that, when I write, the creative part of my mental process assumes that my alien names will be just as easily 'processed' by everyone else. Except...reading through some of the crits I've received since my start as a writer, that's definitely not the case. If I were to take a poll of my brain cells, the vast majority of them would undoubtedly question why readers (especially science fiction readers) have such an issue with unorthodox names. After all, the characters are aliens! They're going to have weird names...by the very definition of their existence! Besides...many of the names on our planet are not exactly easy for a portion of the population to pronounce? Still...in the same way I strive to compose comprehensible sentences and vivid descriptions, I am also making a conscious effort to keep the naming convention awkwardness to a minimum.
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