[Discussion] Avril makes flowers blossom... - let's talk Character Names!

[Eleanor]

This topic needs no introduction. Have at it, everyone <3

Ok, on a more serious note, what are we talking about here? Nearly everything that concerns character names. Things like...
- their meaning: do you even care about it? Do you give your characters a name that fits their personality and story?
I sure do, I have examples of that, and really when I have a good idea for a character but not a name, my first impulse is to look up websites like Behind The Name or Nameberry to search up names based on their meaning. Obvious example? I have a somewhat shy trainer traveling around with a Flabébé, a flower fairy, who will hopefully blossom into a more confident version of herself during her journey... and the association is seamless. April, the month of blooming flowers! Make it Avril because French flair, Kalos, whatever.

- their sound: do you like when a name just vibes with someone, regardless of what it means? Do you name your characters that way?
I did that too! Arianne was named after an university colleague I barely knew, but that seemed to be sporty, confident, and generally nice to talk to. The name itself doesn't mean much in the context of my own character's story and personality but hey, I liked the sound of it, and the connection I made in my head did work!

- their seriousness: do you go for punny names, funny names, inside jokes and whatnot, when naming someone?
I admittedly don't, but I still have the perfect example, courtesy of Groc! Sunny Dey, Fire-type trainer who loves a certain Pokémon move and has a fiery personality to boot...

Let's go!

 

[Palamon]

For me, my names always follow a theme or convention. When I wrote my original novel, I had an entire naming world system where the last two letters in the first name were the same in the last name, and this was how it was for every single character in that world. Every single character, every single building, and pretty much everything else.

But, I always try to follow an extremely specific theme for all my characters. For my Genshin OCs, most, with a few exceptions follow the theme of having the name for an animal in a different language. With some exceptions in Yinlong which means silver dragon (although, we can argue dragons are a type of animal, so it still follows some convention as my other ocs. And Parisa, which means "fairy-like". Although, I guess we can argue these two still follow the same theme since they're mythical creatures. But I do have three that do not follow this convention at all, but are meant to be secret puns when translated into English. These names are "Liath Casur" which means "Grey Hammer" when you reverse it into Last name, first name order, "Garran Frama" (I'm too lazy to grab the accents right now) which means "Wood Frame" and Naofa Pictiur which means "Sacred Picture". I explained in full detail on these in the etymology of my Chimera Oc thread, though, so I'd rather people read up on the full etymology in there, when they get the chance, lol. (It's called Kory's big Chimera oc thread if anyone hasn't looked at it yet).

For last names, while I don't have all my characters with last names (since not all characters in Genshin have their last names public/known) in what I'm currently working on, but the ones that do, I have a hidden secret meaning behind all the ones with Irish last names. The words I used to make the last names are deliberate. They are Ingne (nail) Casur (hammer) Frama (frame) Pictiur (picture) it's supposed to have a secret meaning, that I don't know if I'll be writing a side story about it, but it's meant to spell out a secret sentence: Hammer a nail into the frame and the picture shall show the truth. But, most of the last names are meant to be literal or a pun. Not all my characters have last names, like I said. But the ones that do have a meaning behind them. But, some are puns, like Robin Truand being a secret reference to Robin Hood.

For sound, I do not put thought into that. But when making my panda oc, I vibed really well with the Chinese word for silver, which is "yin" and wouldn't step away from that. But, when thinking of names and liking how they sound, a lot of my names aren't usually names you'd want to give a real person. I strive to be a little bit more unique with how I name my characters, but this time, I tried to steer away from absolutely ridiculous ones like Eggshell for example when I wrote my novel. (2014 Kory wtf were you thinking), so I vibe much more with names that are unique. I'm the type of person who'd never give my character a generic name since I put a lot of thought into them. Or, I guess names that aren't all that common. For example, Yinlong has only been used maybe once in other media, so I feel like I'm one of the few who has a character with that name.

Almost all of my names are serious, but some are puns. Like I said above with Robin Truand is sort of a hidden reference to Robin Hood. I always put time, and effort into naming my characters and very rarely try to make them a joke name. While when I wrote my novel, some were names that weren't real words, and I'd never do that again. Those were just a bit ridiculous, but I'd never make a joke name. Puns, definitely. I do have a few that could be considered puns, I suppose. I have a few that have double meanings, as well, so, I'd like to think I put a lot of serious consideration into names so people will remember them, always.

 

[budube]

Re: meaning. I don't know if what I said in the wandering thread about naming characters after different people or different already existing characters counts. If it doesn't, then I can say I don't really care about meaning, but if it does then yea I do.

I'll explain in case it does count: Let's take for example NPC Maritza White from HS1. Her name's a mix of both vibe and Walter White's name, character she shares some traits with, like the obsession of keeping her space clean and organized + the occasional uncontrollable coughing (although in Maritza's case it's not lung cancer what she has) + both of them being incredibly smart (with the difference that Maritza likes pokémon biology over chemistry).

But outside of that, I don't like having themes for characters names, not even for their pokémon, I'm really bad at naming pokemon in general (I called my Lillipup "Dog"). Only theme I've done is Maritza's Pokémon being named after X-Men characters.

Re: vibe. This is the approach I take the most, I already explained three characters earlier and don't see a reason to explain Jo again, so I'll hop to my other HS1 main.

I didn't really know what to call Miranda. I knew she had to be called that, but for surnames I had nothing. Looked through different lists of surnames and found nothing. And then I thought "Lockhart". Did that surname exist at all? Idk + idc, I think it does, but whatever, Miranda Lockhart was so long and bad that I thought it fit the character perfectly. I could've actually done a Mario Mario and Luigi Mario thing and call her Miranda Miranda, but I don't think folks at an orphanage would do that nor her dad if that's how it works.

Re: funny or serious names. I looooove Ace Attorney, so punny names are actually pretty fun for me, but I'm not doing that at all because I'm really bad at puns. Only one I did was Ranger Susan, with her red hazmat suit and Impostor Ditto and ngl it was so dumb, I loved it. And I am so sorry for y'all that thought Fawkes the Braixen was a pun, I didn't realize it until y'all pointed it out, he was actually named after Guy Fawkes, that's why he had a hat and liked blowing shit up, except that he was actually successful at it, unlike the actual Guy.

 

[gimmepie]

As a general rule, I go for names that sound nice and make sense for the background of the character over names that have a deeper meaning or provide foreshadowing. My main reasoning for this is that, in reality, your name has jack shit to do with who you are as a person and I want even my fantastical stories to feel real and prescient. That being said though, if I'm really stuck on a name, I might look at names like these for inspiration.

A step further, I almost never use pun names because they tend to just feel silly. Not always, but most of the time.

That being said though, there is a character in my fic - a reimagined RP character - on here (that I really need to get around to updating) called Lauren Ipsum which is both a pun and a reference to her personal story. So I guess it's not a 100% steadfast rule even though it's something I generally avoid.

 

[Adam Levine]

Most of the time, I conceptualize a character first, then come up with a name based on the concept. I prefer to use names that are more tangentially than directly related to that concept. Here are a few examples:
1. Rika Pereniyev- This character is Russian, can turn into a parrot, is a fencer, and controls the wind. "Rika" is roughly derived from "rychlý," the Czech word for "quick," referring to the graceful quickness one could attribute to a fencer, or the speed of wind. This given name doesn't directly relate to her ability to control the wind, and its correlation to her overall character isn't too on-the-nose. Meanwhile, "Pereniyev" comes from "оперение," the Russian word for "plumage," referring to Rika's ability to turn into a parrot, as parrots (like all birds) have plumage. Maybe those familiar with Russian could see this correlation easily, but with a bit of adjusting it looks like a genuine Russian surname.
2. Myckey- This is a corruption of the name "Mickey," but also an anagram of "CMYK(ey)," based on the cyan-magenta-yellow-key black color model used in printing. This is in reference to Myckey's color scheme mainly consisting of cyan, yellow, magenta, and black. Anagrams are your friend when you're desperate for names.
3. Dilan Tarasco- "Dilan" comes from "dandelion," and "Tarasco" comes from the scientific name for the dandelion, Taraxacum; these are both references to his dandelion aesthetic. Since Dilan is Italian, I adjusted his name to look convincingly Italian.
As a side note, I prefer making up surnames as opposed to using surnames that exist in real life; it just makes my characters just a little more fantastical.

I definitely think my best name ideas come from non-English jokes, particularly Japanese ones. Kanji can be read in many ways, which makes naming characters a lot more fun, even when the names don't end up being that realistic, and even beyond that I can make some translingual puns. Since the following three examples are Japanese names, the surname comes before the given name.
1. Yari Minto- "Yari" means "spear" in Japanese, and "Minto" is "mint" transliterated into Japanese. Basically, this character's name literally translates to "spearmint" in English.
2. Kago Yuriari- This character is based on a basket star (a kind of sea star), and her name is derived from the scientific name of the basket star: Astroclades euryale. "Euryale" has been Japanized to make the name "Yuriari." Meanwhile, "kago" can mean "basket" in Japanese, reinforcing the basket star theme.
3. Kyūshi Kokoro- The surname Kyūshi comes from "九死," meaning "near death," which is tangentially related to Kokoro being a zombie. Her surname is actually written as "九四": 九 is the kanji for 9, while 四 is the kanji for 4, and Kokoro's design incorporates the numbers 9 and 4. "Kokoro" doesn't mean much in terms of her character, which I think is fine; I don't think every character's name needs to have a deep narrative meaning, and names can sometimes just be names their parents would realistically give them.

Sometimes, though, I'll come up with punny or otherwise silly names that the average English speaker can understand (as long as they're in certain circles). I don't put much thought into these, but I think them being funny suffices. Ace Attorney has opened my eyes to how captivating this sort of name can be (I love the name Luke Atmey so much).
1. Okizeme Ukemi (surname first)- "Okizeme" and "ukemi" are fighting game terms, and I just thought it was funny giving a character that sort of gimmick. Ukemi has parents whose names are also derived from fighting game terms: her father's name is "Shoryu," an obvious reference to the Shoryuken, and her mother's name is "Atemi," which means "parry" in Japanese.
2. Loveth Kraufsen- This character has an eldritch theme, and I picked the lowest-hanging fruit possible while come up with her name, which comes from H.P. Lovecraft, since, ya know, eldritch, cosmic horror, Lovecraft, you get the point.

And when I'm creatively bankrupt or want to come up with names for powers (thanks, JoJo), I'll make names that reference existing media, especially music, and especially less well-known music.
1. Jiāo Dōngfēng (surname first)- "Dōngfēng," when written in simplified Chinese, is "东风," which translates to "East Wind" in English. This references the song "Tong Poo" by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, as "Tong Poo" also means "East Wind" and can thus also be written as "东风." The surname Jiāo isn't that important.
2. Kawazoe Cherry (surname first)- This character's name is derived from of two members of the Japanese pop/rock band Lindberg: Tomohisa Kawazoe and Masanori "Cherry" Koyanagi.
3. Father Gentleman- You know which K-pop artist this name references.

 

[Venia Silente]

As a general rule I don't do naming theme "meanings" or "influences" (other than eg.: family line or patro/matronymic systems) that leak out-of-universe simply because in-universe in most universes names don't work that way. I don't know anyone since 1800 that names their children Lewis, Louis, Louise or Ludwig so that the children can follow a meta narrative and become in the future Emperor of France. Heck, "France" (or "Emperor") likely don't even exist in the setting. A character could name their child Ludwig because of the Emperor of France, but that requires both "France" and "Emperor" (as well as, arguably, the "of" relationship between them) to be / have been a thing in the setting.

Still, that doesn't mean I don't do names because of meanings or themes sometimes. It's those themes tend to be more insular in-universe and more related to the narrative position of a character than their narrative role. For an example of the latter Ravir Eisenhorth, my Rise to the Top RP character, comes from both ravir (French for to dazzle or fascinate, but also for to grab or seize) and hearth (where a fire is kept in a home). Since his position is that of a Champion in the universe he comes from, his name relates basically to the idea of introducing people to a new, more heated tier of adventure. For an example of the former Taverna, my Salamence OC in A Good Year to Rawr, was technically named as "third of your clutch" but he renamed himself Taverna following the in-setting's Bagon custom, which dictates once you achieve your Salamence body you take a new name following the ordeal you went through to become a Salamence or the one that first showed your strength as a Salamence. Since his first fight as a Salamence was taking revenge on a human military hit squad but as a mostly-wild he didn't know who or what those people were, he renamed himself after the tavern where he used to live as a Bagon and then returned to to win his first fight to the death as a Salamence.

For sound I don't really do much, other than trying to make my (mainline-esque) names sound as much Latin-American as possible. Hence many of them carry acute vowewls (á, é, etc) or -i, -a terminations. What I want to do is try to provide sound samples of how some of the names should be read, though not using my own voice. In the meantime I'm expecting to provide furigana-style pronounciation cues on some of my next stories so as to serve for verbal reading.