words have meaning and names have power
Jul. 17th, 2009 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardI promised this a long time ago, so let's get down to it. Let's talk about names.
I have two main sources. One of them is this website, which I love a lot and which I'll get back to in a minute. The other source is the television.
Wait, you say, but that makes no sense. How do you take names from the television? Why would you do such a mad thing?
When I was writing my sci-fi original two years ago, I picked up the habit of writing down the surnames (and sometimes first names) of the actors, writers, producers, etc., of all the TV shows and movies I watched. (This is also why I'll recognize unlikely people who have worked on the same shows or movies by name alone, even if I can't recognize their faces. For example, Tahmoh Penikett, who I knew was in Dollhouse but didn't know what character he was. Note the first name. Note Tahmoh Pevensie, Lucy's daughter.) I did this because my novel had a lot of extraneous secondary and tertiary characters and I needed to be able to grab a surname at random off a list and throw it out there, and I figured that Hollywood was as good a place as any to demonstrate diversity in American names. This is why, if you look at my notebooks from last year, the last couple pages in the back have nothing on them but lists of names all the way down.
When I started writing Narnia last year, I kept the habit -- actually, I went through a couple of different naming websites and wrote down fantasy names that caught my eye, and that's where a lot of the early names in my fic come from (Louhanna, Saidi, Natare, Belgarion, Shoushan, Lasci, Bebhin, etc.). I stopped doing that as too much trouble and for a while there I lost the habit (I actually stopped handwriting, to be honest, and was writing straight on my laptop for a while), but at some point in time, I think after I was at Tulane, I saw an interesting surname somewhere, probably on a TV show I was watching, and had to find a piece of paper to write it down. And I kept up the habit -- I now use loose paper instead of the back of my notebook -- and instead of what I was doing when I started this, looking for average names that aren't too out there, I tend to look for something that sounds right -- unique enough that it could pass as a first name rather than a surname. Right now, the first page of my naming notes (on a Newcomb Alumnae Association notepad!) looks like this:
Some of the crossed-off names you may recognize. *dryly* (Others are marked off because they've been used in the original.) Some of them are variations of fairly common names -- Arielle, Kiersten -- that I like because of the way they look or sound. Some of them are being saved specifically for members of the Royal Guard, because the Guard has a specific sound to their names. (Jenica, Nandi, Hatosy, and Guiry are probably on that list, though not necessarily.) I am actually pretty good at not writing down the same name twice, though you can see I did that twice on this page -- actually, three times, looking at the back, "Hatosy" has already been used. It's also kind of interesting because you can tell what I've been watching at any given point in time. (Dollhouse in the first, Weeds in the second, The Unit in the third, Life in the fifth, just what I can eyeball. On the back, Lost, Sanctuary, and BSG -- hey, did you know that Rekha Sharma was in one episode of Sanctuary as well as being in BSG? I went to write both names down for BSG and then saw I'd already written it down, though before I started watching BSG.)
When I'm picking names from these lists, I consider a couple of things: the sound of the name, the character or location where it's being used, and the surrounding names. Remember I mentioned that some of them are specifically being used for the Guard? The Guard has a very specific "sound" in my head, and that's further distilled by species. I wouldn't use a "tiger name" for a leopard, a lioness, or a jaguar; however, I can't explain why very coherently, because it's mostly be feel/sound. (I also keep fairly substantial notes to try and keep track of people. Unfortunately, I need to update these notes.) Guard names tend to end in "-i" or "-ie" sounds, but not necessarily, with "-a" names coming in next. (There is also a faint chance I might also use a different feel for naming members of the Guard who serve different principals -- interestingly, most of Peter's and Susan's Guards are female, while Edmund's and Lucy's are primarily male so far.)
Generally, I try not to pick non-Narnian character names from these lists. (I can only see three non-Narnian characters -- there are a number of the Junior Pevensies on this list, as well as a scattering of the Shoushani gods from Four Things Greater -- on the first page I do if I'm handwriting and don't have access to the internet to use my other main source, Kate Monk's Onamastikon. It is even odds whether I'm going to pick location names -- that's something else I do by sound and feel -- from my lists or from a name site.
I mentioned this website ever. It is the best naming website out there. It doesn't give you name meanings, but I figured out a long time ago that if you try and pick names by meaning, you never get anything written. More often, what you want is something that sounds right and feels right and which you can pick out fairly quickly so you can go back to the actual writing process. And the Onamastikon is great for that, because it divides names up by region.
There are a number of countries and territories in my Narnia that are mash-ups and/or derived from countries in our world -- Anskettell = Scandinavia, Natare = France, Shoushan = Italy, etc. -- and ninety-nine percent of the time I'm going to take names from there. When I was writing "Four Things Greater", I had the Western European page open in another window and was going back and forth between the France and Italy pages -- usually picking medieval first names, then going through the surnames to see what sounded right. I try not to use names that are so common that they'll throw you out of the story. (This is one of my issues with Phillip the horse's name in LWW movie canon. None of the other Narnian characters have European names, so why does he?) Interestingly, I actually have (movie) canon basis for this, since the PTB were using Spain as a basis for the Telmarines, so I took that and ran with it. When I'm picking names for Dust, for example, I usually (though not always; I can expand on this if you'd like) use Spanish/Telmarine names, even for nonhuman characters (Baldesca, Ourente, Arnau, Prejun), but this partially depends on what I think their class/social standing, ethnic origin, etc., are. Sometimes, I use surnames for first names, if I think they sound right.
A couple of times, I named characters, then gave them an origin, and I try to write around that. Fiorenza Paolucci, for example, and Osumare Seaworth (who is Terebinthian by origin, although his ship is Alvaradan). Rather than use really common names, I try and look for variations that sound right -- Natascha rather than Natasha, Eddard rather than Edward, although I think that might have been one of the times I ripped off GRRM. *cough* (That is another way I get names. Occasionally I turn around and stare at my bookshelves and try and figure out a name that sounds right from someone else's novel. Seaworth, Greywater, and Greyjoy (surnames from the Golden Age) both come from GRRM, Beka Confesor's first name is from Tamora Pierce, there's a Red Company sergeant named Mathia Harper (taking two differnt sergeants' names from BSG and Bernard Cornwell -- Sergeant Mathius from BSG and Patrick Harper from Cornwell), Mayfair from the Red Company is from (god help me, it was a moment) Anne Rice, and so on.
Canon gives us a handful of Narnian, Calormene, Telmarine, and Archenlander names, so I try and take those and run with them, extrapolating from origin. The Narnians are actually the hardest; those ones I mostly go by sound and I divide it up a lot by region and species. The Calormenes I tend to use Middle Eastern names, but I think when I first started writing Dust, I meant to start out with Hindu names -- Bahadur is Hindu. (I have a slight problem of not always remembering where I got names if I don't have to look them up very often.) When it comes to the Telmarines, I use movie canon, like I mentioned before. Archenlander names are Welsh-ish. I do try and keep names from a country or a region sounding like they all come from the same place. (Dust-era Cair Paravel is a slight exception, because I decided it would be a port city, with a lot of foreign immigrants, and therefore has a melting pot of names.)
I do have a lot of name books, but I don't use them very much for writing fantasy -- I used them much more often when I was writing originals set in this world and this time, but for period stuff, it's more common for me to use the Internet.
The other naming website I use, though not as often, is this one (which, yes, I know it's for naming dogs) has many, many links to naming lists. Lists are good, because you can look at a lot of names and find what feels right. It really is about feel and sound more than anything else.
If any of y'all have questions about specific names or just questions in general, feel free to ask away!
I have two main sources. One of them is this website, which I love a lot and which I'll get back to in a minute. The other source is the television.
Wait, you say, but that makes no sense. How do you take names from the television? Why would you do such a mad thing?
When I was writing my sci-fi original two years ago, I picked up the habit of writing down the surnames (and sometimes first names) of the actors, writers, producers, etc., of all the TV shows and movies I watched. (This is also why I'll recognize unlikely people who have worked on the same shows or movies by name alone, even if I can't recognize their faces. For example, Tahmoh Penikett, who I knew was in Dollhouse but didn't know what character he was. Note the first name. Note Tahmoh Pevensie, Lucy's daughter.) I did this because my novel had a lot of extraneous secondary and tertiary characters and I needed to be able to grab a surname at random off a list and throw it out there, and I figured that Hollywood was as good a place as any to demonstrate diversity in American names. This is why, if you look at my notebooks from last year, the last couple pages in the back have nothing on them but lists of names all the way down.
When I started writing Narnia last year, I kept the habit -- actually, I went through a couple of different naming websites and wrote down fantasy names that caught my eye, and that's where a lot of the early names in my fic come from (Louhanna, Saidi, Natare, Belgarion, Shoushan, Lasci, Bebhin, etc.). I stopped doing that as too much trouble and for a while there I lost the habit (I actually stopped handwriting, to be honest, and was writing straight on my laptop for a while), but at some point in time, I think after I was at Tulane, I saw an interesting surname somewhere, probably on a TV show I was watching, and had to find a piece of paper to write it down. And I kept up the habit -- I now use loose paper instead of the back of my notebook -- and instead of what I was doing when I started this, looking for average names that aren't too out there, I tend to look for something that sounds right -- unique enough that it could pass as a first name rather than a surname. Right now, the first page of my naming notes (on a Newcomb Alumnae Association notepad!) looks like this:
Elsey Simcoe Arkin Chaidez Wirth Tombol Tancharoen Chambliss |
Alpay Jenica Contner Maulik Pancholy Safchik Zisk Darbinyan Chidi Kavi Labner |
Kiako Feig Kohan Kohan Khaja Calamer Teffaha Kavita Gemmill Mamet Lobato Kewley Farid Hemky Madera Nandi Thyre Lukasz |
Hatosy Medlin Chulack Mashriqui Monti Lartigue Guiry Genet Kapelos Tamala Gerrit Grae Callan Armyan Breen Anil Arielle Csolty Pohlad Vahan Chiate Faison Baruchel |
Kiersten Aldis Micheaux Tonye Sabara Matheny Mayim Studi Sharta Kamran Pasha Siravo Keleghan Dinan Gradie Cambas Timidae Zahn Trieste Cambor Imbeau Leirer |
Some of the crossed-off names you may recognize. *dryly* (Others are marked off because they've been used in the original.) Some of them are variations of fairly common names -- Arielle, Kiersten -- that I like because of the way they look or sound. Some of them are being saved specifically for members of the Royal Guard, because the Guard has a specific sound to their names. (Jenica, Nandi, Hatosy, and Guiry are probably on that list, though not necessarily.) I am actually pretty good at not writing down the same name twice, though you can see I did that twice on this page -- actually, three times, looking at the back, "Hatosy" has already been used. It's also kind of interesting because you can tell what I've been watching at any given point in time. (Dollhouse in the first, Weeds in the second, The Unit in the third, Life in the fifth, just what I can eyeball. On the back, Lost, Sanctuary, and BSG -- hey, did you know that Rekha Sharma was in one episode of Sanctuary as well as being in BSG? I went to write both names down for BSG and then saw I'd already written it down, though before I started watching BSG.)
When I'm picking names from these lists, I consider a couple of things: the sound of the name, the character or location where it's being used, and the surrounding names. Remember I mentioned that some of them are specifically being used for the Guard? The Guard has a very specific "sound" in my head, and that's further distilled by species. I wouldn't use a "tiger name" for a leopard, a lioness, or a jaguar; however, I can't explain why very coherently, because it's mostly be feel/sound. (I also keep fairly substantial notes to try and keep track of people. Unfortunately, I need to update these notes.) Guard names tend to end in "-i" or "-ie" sounds, but not necessarily, with "-a" names coming in next. (There is also a faint chance I might also use a different feel for naming members of the Guard who serve different principals -- interestingly, most of Peter's and Susan's Guards are female, while Edmund's and Lucy's are primarily male so far.)
Generally, I try not to pick non-Narnian character names from these lists. (I can only see three non-Narnian characters -- there are a number of the Junior Pevensies on this list, as well as a scattering of the Shoushani gods from Four Things Greater -- on the first page I do if I'm handwriting and don't have access to the internet to use my other main source, Kate Monk's Onamastikon. It is even odds whether I'm going to pick location names -- that's something else I do by sound and feel -- from my lists or from a name site.
I mentioned this website ever. It is the best naming website out there. It doesn't give you name meanings, but I figured out a long time ago that if you try and pick names by meaning, you never get anything written. More often, what you want is something that sounds right and feels right and which you can pick out fairly quickly so you can go back to the actual writing process. And the Onamastikon is great for that, because it divides names up by region.
There are a number of countries and territories in my Narnia that are mash-ups and/or derived from countries in our world -- Anskettell = Scandinavia, Natare = France, Shoushan = Italy, etc. -- and ninety-nine percent of the time I'm going to take names from there. When I was writing "Four Things Greater", I had the Western European page open in another window and was going back and forth between the France and Italy pages -- usually picking medieval first names, then going through the surnames to see what sounded right. I try not to use names that are so common that they'll throw you out of the story. (This is one of my issues with Phillip the horse's name in LWW movie canon. None of the other Narnian characters have European names, so why does he?) Interestingly, I actually have (movie) canon basis for this, since the PTB were using Spain as a basis for the Telmarines, so I took that and ran with it. When I'm picking names for Dust, for example, I usually (though not always; I can expand on this if you'd like) use Spanish/Telmarine names, even for nonhuman characters (Baldesca, Ourente, Arnau, Prejun), but this partially depends on what I think their class/social standing, ethnic origin, etc., are. Sometimes, I use surnames for first names, if I think they sound right.
A couple of times, I named characters, then gave them an origin, and I try to write around that. Fiorenza Paolucci, for example, and Osumare Seaworth (who is Terebinthian by origin, although his ship is Alvaradan). Rather than use really common names, I try and look for variations that sound right -- Natascha rather than Natasha, Eddard rather than Edward, although I think that might have been one of the times I ripped off GRRM. *cough* (That is another way I get names. Occasionally I turn around and stare at my bookshelves and try and figure out a name that sounds right from someone else's novel. Seaworth, Greywater, and Greyjoy (surnames from the Golden Age) both come from GRRM, Beka Confesor's first name is from Tamora Pierce, there's a Red Company sergeant named Mathia Harper (taking two differnt sergeants' names from BSG and Bernard Cornwell -- Sergeant Mathius from BSG and Patrick Harper from Cornwell), Mayfair from the Red Company is from (god help me, it was a moment) Anne Rice, and so on.
Canon gives us a handful of Narnian, Calormene, Telmarine, and Archenlander names, so I try and take those and run with them, extrapolating from origin. The Narnians are actually the hardest; those ones I mostly go by sound and I divide it up a lot by region and species. The Calormenes I tend to use Middle Eastern names, but I think when I first started writing Dust, I meant to start out with Hindu names -- Bahadur is Hindu. (I have a slight problem of not always remembering where I got names if I don't have to look them up very often.) When it comes to the Telmarines, I use movie canon, like I mentioned before. Archenlander names are Welsh-ish. I do try and keep names from a country or a region sounding like they all come from the same place. (Dust-era Cair Paravel is a slight exception, because I decided it would be a port city, with a lot of foreign immigrants, and therefore has a melting pot of names.)
I do have a lot of name books, but I don't use them very much for writing fantasy -- I used them much more often when I was writing originals set in this world and this time, but for period stuff, it's more common for me to use the Internet.
The other naming website I use, though not as often, is this one (which, yes, I know it's for naming dogs) has many, many links to naming lists. Lists are good, because you can look at a lot of names and find what feels right. It really is about feel and sound more than anything else.
If any of y'all have questions about specific names or just questions in general, feel free to ask away!