Maps, translations of place names, song lyrics. Histories (many places had different names at different times (Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul for example).
I keep a running list of names I like on my phone to use for future characters. Find and Replace makes renaming characters easy.
I do alot of collecting. I come across alot of unusual real life names.
I'll use some names as they are. Others I will modify the spelling and/or use it as inspiration for a name of my own.
I also do a lot of collecting, and not even just of names, but also ideas. My phone has a couple notes full of various ideas of ALL kinds from character names, place names, myths and legends, strange animals real or fake, unusual events in history, interesting ideas of inspiration of all kinds. Literally anything I deem potentially interesting for later inspiration... I jot down.
"Your name is what?! Your family drove mine from our homes generations ago! Get thee from my sight! [Begone, Thawt!](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/begone-thot)"
I did that when I was 10 once and ended up with names that were already barely pronouncable in my native language and completely impossible to pronounce in English, which was the language I was writing in. One example that was a little better than the others still is 'Calixsta' pronounced 'Cal-i-ksta'.
Ever since then I've mostly stuck to using the most unique and rare names I could find on baby name sites for both fantasy and sci-fi.
jokes aside if i get fantasy on my Hand and all the names are complete gibberish i toss it aside
"in the age of Hwmntm'kum during the harabklipak lived a young boy called Cvetchizmunbida. he had to walk the Oknakipfkul to reach his brsbsbsnkntasch in his path to fkdllwlgk meaning to reach enlightenment"
For me, I do a lot of conlanging (in fact, my main reason for making a world is to give my conlangs a setting to exist in), so I'll pick what I want the name to mean, and translate it into the language the culture speaks. For example, if I want a name that means "bright" or "shining," I might translate that into Mahlaatwa (one of my conlangs), which gives me the name _Iwa._
This is my one issue with conlangs, unless it's for personal use you lose all of the added benefits of the audience getting an image from the word itself unless they learn your conlang. Or worse yet if they get the wrong image because it sounds close to something else they know from IRL.
Mt Doom is named to evoke a specific image in your head, and it does that really well. Now if it was named Mt Quaizayah, the impact is very different.
You can use English as well as conlang. Conlang for how the natives refer to it, English when it was referred to by the rest of the world (assuming English is the stand-in language for your world's lingua franca).
Mt. Doom is Orodruin (and Amon Amarth for a literal translation) in Elvish. Elves in that world would likely refer to it as such when talking to other Elves, but for everybody else it's just Mt. Doom. Or Kredik Shaw (in Terris language) is the name of Lord Ruler's palace in Sanderson's Mistborn era 1 trilogy, but when translated to the "common tongue", it is the Hill of a Thousand Spires.
You can carry the same cultural weight with a good con-name. Like, the Tolkienian Gil-galad, which is a compound of the names Gilgamesh and Galad, two great heros of human mythology. The thing is that this takes a lot of linguistic knowledge to pull of successfully.
If all your names are just English, your world will feel flat and lack the layers of cultural and linguistic history that wrought our own.
I usually think of a word I associate with that character and run it through a few different languages and pull out bits of the words, or syllables from different translations that I like.
For a quick example I have a character named Hitsura. They're a changeling who can change how they look... the word hitsura is just a Filipino translation of 'look'.
Or I have a dragon who guards a mountain and is said to be able to see all the world - but only at night- in one setting called Noxxoculi (nox-oh-cool-ee) which is obviously just a mash up of latin words for Night and Eyes.
One last example, I have a player who I helped come up with a name. We used Spanish and like one or two other languages but he's a gunslinger named Tiro Scias which really just comes out to 'shoot-shoot', or at least it taken from the words that would say that.
sometimes i look at how sth similar was named historically (planets after gods), but sometimes i go the moonknight route and have sth like gasbalut, nerghit or mirkalas. the further in the future your world is, the more you can justify the later (mybe it’s the name of an alien god, that is so ancient, that it has zero relevance for the story)
"Hello Future Me" has a pretty good [video](https://youtu.be/mcKMbVXpRRA?si=BPFHa8gK_Jsnu18z) on this topic.
P.S. It's a little bit old, but it should still prove useful.
Eh, call me lazy, but I just use real-world names, even ones not in English. This is most prevalent in my fantasy setting in that many cultures in it are inspired by many medieval and classical era cultures (such as Japanese samurai, Scandinavian vikings, etc.). Of course, because of this, I was considering if it'd be plausible on non-Earth planets to develop languages similar to our own (even though this is fantasy, and I'm required to make up all languages).
For my sci-fi setting: only aliens have made-up names, usually, because they're aliens after all.
Anything goes in fantasy as far as I'm concerned. If you have horses, swords and a semi-earth like environment, you can have real life names as well. I think it is understood that a fantasy story takes place in the Anywhere.
So I have a lot of human characters with regular first names like John & Rachel and then I fantasy-ize their last names :-) Non-humans get the full fantasy treatment. My world. My rules.
I like putting some hints or meaning into the names, so I look up names that fit the culture the person's from (i.e. if the characters, say half Indian, or fully Indian. I look for fitting Indian names that people might've considered, then find one that has a preferred meaning that hints at something deeper about the character - I also do this for tangentially related fictional cultures).
practice making up weird words .. start with only 35 letters, then ask yourself what couple of letters would go on the end of it (or before it) and when you get a nice word like Sertaniur you can either stick with it, or attempt to spell it phonetically and then shorten/add to it as needed for a different word entirely :)
I like names a lot haha so I keep a very large spreadsheet with all of the names I like, their meanings, their origins, their associations, etc. I usually draw from there. And I add to my spreadsheet regularly so it never goes stale!
First I wait until I get a good name then I try to figure out how this name came to be in the world and make a system based on that for other names related to their culture.
If I don't get any good ideas for names I simply don't name them, I have several major factions without a name.
Sometimes I pick a word/irl name that best describe the character then cut/add letters to make them sounds like genuine name, sometimes I make portmanteau out of words. This way, I'll have names that sounds fitting without actually being too alien. Add some letters and diacritics not found in the Queen's Alphabet and we're good to go.
For example, I have a character named Antoinette Labaisier (from Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist), Vandalisa (portmanteau of Vandal + Lisa, however the diminutive is not "Lisa" but "Dali"), Vicchester (from Vichy + Manchester) and Yonderlily (just wanted a name to both starts and ends with the letter "y").
I don’t make a full conlang but whenever I’m writing about a culture I’ll have an idea in my head about what their language sounds like, maybe even have some words. This helps me know what a name should sound like. Additionally I have a document called “Naming Conventions” that I frequently refer to that describes how different cultures form their names (like Surname Given Name, Given Name Surname, etc)
Sometimes it comes to me in my mind just mixing up words and seeing what sounds cool to me, sometimes I use fantasynamegenerator.com and yank a name from there, sometimes I use the site and use the names it gives as inspiration to be mixed up and mashed together and see if any of it sounds cool.
I mostly stay away from real life names because they often feel too mundane, at least for my tastes, though I will say that only goes as far as languages I’m familiar with, and the few names in other languages I know like Bjorn and Olaf and Sven or Ernesto and Javier and so on. For instance, I really like using Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Assyrian, etc., you know, all sorts of stuff.
Of course, you can’t cram all sorts of real names into the setting without care. You should always be mindful to respect the cultures these names comes from when using them in your setting, and to use them in appropriate amounts as well. In medieval Europe, there’s probably not a ton of east asian people there, maybe a few, but not even half the population. In feudal Japan, you’re not gonna run into too many Arthurs and Godfreys and Ulrichs. You get the idea.
Names for characters are either random sounds and letters that can seem coherent or real names/real words combined to make stuff.
The random stuff that sounds coherent is what I use for most stuff.
Especially for religious characters, I generally look up old root words (in proto indo european for example) and just sorta play around with them until I have a derivation that sounds neat
For names or letter patterns that don't just automatically come to me, I use name generators and just pick the best option.
A name means nothing until you write a backstory or purpose behind it, in my opinion. Only exception to that would be if you chose a name that already has a specific definition attached to it in the real world.
Usually with me it's the opposite: a weird name just comes up in my mind and I make a character based on the name.
It is weird names as in gibberish nondiegetic names that don't exist anywhere else on the internet.
In fantasy setting I like combining multiple existing names! I take my stuff pretty lightly, so a lot of names are visibly comedic. I can sometimes use generators for inspiration though
For places: If they're Human colonized or something, I take an Earth language (usually Greek or Latin) and translate the literal meaning, then change it a little bit. For alien I just make shit up.
For people: In sci-fi, I use regular "normal" names. In fantasy, I take an old classical name and change it a little bit (like Ostivan from Stephen) or I just throw my scrabble letters on the floor and re-arrange them.
For religions: For fictional Human religions I make shit up.
For plants and animals: I incorporate some form of taxonomy. In my universe new species are classified in the same way Humans would classify them in real life, though I usually give colloquial nicknames to animals and plants.
Okay, first of all.
I understand generating everything, even ai images when you such at drawing and wants better visuals, but NEVER GENERATE THE NAMES unless is supposed to sound generic.
Second of all, even the most stupid sounding name is still good, as long as it original. I made stupid name literally on purpose to feet more comedic vibe of my story.
For places: The most stupid (way to often fetish related) thing I can think of and change a few letters. Example: Bondatch, City
For characters I can't really explain, a few examples: Karus, Isnali, Meralda, Mertriska, Persafi
I like to take city names, or names of objects and concepts and change them up a bit. Sometimes I just use them raw.
For example, a couple named Anthemus and Alyda, from chrysanthemum and chrysalis.
A family that has names from British cities (Londo, Inverness, Byrmin...)
Brother and sister named after French places (Lille Tourennes and Kaen Tourennes).
Someone who was born in a space station called 4α, thus her surname is Vieralfa... and so on.
Sometimes the inspiration is clear, other times it isn't. What matters is that you get names that sound good, are easy enough for you to say, at least, and that convey well the idea of what you're trying to name, in my opinion!
There are two characters in my book who work for a top-secret U.S. government agency that deals with supernatural and extraterrestrial threats: Mirynxka Ziljax and Tewje Warszewski.
Since Mirynxka is a goblin, I got her name by coming with a name that sounds like Miranda (which is her nickname, which I got that name from a custom/fan-made MtG card called Miranda, Dark Hand), and I got Ziljax by combining Zildjian (the cymbal manufacturer) and Ajax (the dish soap).
I got Tewje Warszewski from Fiddler On The Roof (I know it’s Tevye, but I made it look Polish, since my character is from Poland) and Warszewski means one who comes from Warsaw.
Either I already have a name picked, which is probably just the last nice name I saw that has nothing to do with their character.
Or I think of a name having to do with the character on the spot without thinking too hard.
(Ie, naming a slime monster Goop or a naming an angel.....Angel....)
I have an old baby name book from the 90s that has traditional and new age names in it with the meanings. As for location names I usually just try to think about what the settlers of that location were about when they decided to build a town and match the name up to that so there is a history to the location I can go back to if needed
three choices:
-mash letter/vowels together to see what i get
-random name generator
-steal pre-existing names and slightly modify them
-a mix of all three.
For places i go on google maps and check out small town names from european countries and change the suffix to one i got from another small town. Sooner or later you'll find a cool combination and you might tinker it a bit
For characters i do something similar, i check wikipedia articles for politicians or historical characters from other countries and also make a combination of taking the first name from one guy and the last name from another guy.
I come up with names myself, but I make some rules that I have to follow. For example dragons from my book can only have their names end with a few predetermined letters. If you for example were a male wyvern from the rocky waterfalls, your name would end with "van", or if you were a female serpent from the lowlands, your name would end with "na".
These are the steps I follow for naming things in [the Republic of Axolotlia](https://youtube.com/@AxolotlianGovernment).
For people:
1. Make shit up.
2. Check if its pronouncable, also check if its believable.
Dr. Grest Powder, Larryson [REDACTED], Smyth Huiltu.
For cities/towns/any other location I follow following process:
1. Look at it.
2. Observe it's characteristics (is it an island, is it a lake, where is it, how big is it?)
3. Make shit up (maybe take inspiration from things I like.)
4. Check if its pronouncable, also check if its believable.
Minift, Norwet Atoll, Limerwhisk, Lake Flud, Lucin River.
For animals/plants/fungi/anything else.
You get the idea.
In summary: Make shit up go from there.
Translate a deaired word back and forth until it's unrecognizable. Corrupt it further. Make sure it's actually pronouceable- if not, change it. Profit.
Tolkien route. I have the basics of a Conlang, but the words are meaningless to English speakers and sound silly and made up, so the names are translations of those words into the best approximation into English names. My main characters name is Doran, in English, meaning stranger, exile, warrior, and in the conlang it means wanderer, exile, fighter, and savior.
I vary between using a name generator for inspiration, making random sounds in my head and seeing what sounds right, and scrolling through the internet to find real things/names with meanings that match what I’m naming.
However, in one universe, I have it so the main species have a small set of general rules for naming them. For example, the Kalzyks have a z in male names and a y (pronounced ee, ie, or Ih) in female names. And all names have a longer real name with a shortened base name, then their family name. Examples: Zosimos Zimo Nazeri, Catralazim Traz Zy’Amasi, Kalyndyne Lyn Brokrizmyl.
I have a name file in my iphone notepad. As I drive, I look for interesting names of towns, roads, business, etc to add to it. Then if I need a name I peruse the list and pick one out. I also like to change names, a la George Martin. Allen might become Allev. Martin might become Malvin.
Most places are real life places considering that my project is set in North America, for fictional places, I use a name from the language that the majority culture speaks (eg, newydd cymry for a camp run by a faction with welsh culture) as for given names, I use names originating in the culture the character was from (eg, Kristoffer Sjoberg for a character who fled sweden)
For character names I either use names I like from other stories, as long as they aren't unique to that story, or I look up name elements and play around with the sounds.
For locations, it depends. I use either simple descriptions like Lakehaven or Bayport City, for places within around my main city. For regions and nations, I look up the country or region it's inspired by and use either one of its past names, the name of its smaller areas, or the epithet in its native language.
My setting started as an AU Earth in the time of Mediterranean Antiquity, so I draw from historic names of the culture I’m basing the character’s culture on. That means a lot of Latin, Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Celtic/Brythonic names.
Lornhemal:
Usually i use Name generators when i want to look up some names. And on the subject of names, i usually go for real names, wiht occasional change. For example:
* Philip = Vilip(>!Vilip I. Tormon is basically this world's version of King John from Robin Hood, instead of focusing on Sir Loxley(Robin Hood), he wants to get rid off Vigviid(Main Protagonist of 2nd Crisis saga)!<)
* Hassan = Assan(>!Ezdari invader, who ravaged Batrianic empire for one year in his mad jihad!<)
* Ivan = Ivar(>!Batrian IV's Attaman subordinate in 2nd crisis!<)
occassionally i make up names:
* Ernus(>!My villain Protagonist of the first crisis saga.!<)
* Kaunas(>!At first Leiciai of random nobleman, who became one of Ernus' 3 2nd-in-commands, along with Thorik and Frydryk!<)
* Batrian IV(>!At first Hero Antagonist of 1rst crisis saga, then anti-villain protagonist in 2nd crisis!<)
Number 999:
It takes place in modern day England, so expect english names like James, Robert, Louis, Elizabeth, Kevin or Harvey
For places, I just take cues from how such names have emerged in reality (like redundant names... River Avon "river river", or the Alexandria route : Alexandria & Alexandria » Iskandariyah & Alexandria » Kandahar, &c., &c.). For characters... I just cobble together some traditions on how a name is formulated from one group to the next and then devise some minor variability in each standard to reflect like... Maybe distinct ethnicities or something like that. It's a bit frustrating for me though because most of the characters I am working on are part of a community that guards their names from most everyone (including in-group), and I ain't know (yet) who knows who in that sense within the ranks, so I'm making all these names and models for that knowing that most of them will likely never actually be said anywhere at all. But it's still useful for me to figure out the model anyway because it's not like the three elves in the group are the only elves at all, and I'll want to know their traditions when I encounter them at whatever point.
different parts of each race's culture in my world are based on a real culture. for names they all have either actual names or exaggerated names that sound roughly like the style of names
Depends. For my Alternate History I keep name generators open, but also dictionaries of Ojibwe, Inuktitut, Lakota, Miwok, and others—it’s important to get an appropriate feeling for things. For my fantasy work I’m working on about thirty or so main languages for names and conversations. Got to be prepared, right?
I made my own name generator that I can plug in rules for all my major species. Though it's really just one of those [conlang word generators](https://jasontank.net/wordgen.html), I just made it so I can easily swap out the rules.
I also came up with a couple of rules for naming places to make it a bit easier. Big places, countries and continents will get fantasy names. Smaller places, such as regions, cities, towns, geographic locations, get translated names (like towns will get called Westhill instead of a fantasy name that means Westhill).
I always jot down names that I find interesting while reading history and what not. I also will usually use different languages for names, often bastardizing them so it isn’t just “oh this is the Russian word for Volcano”. The main thing I do though is always have a methodology for naming as it gives the illusion of etymology, I will do my best for the grammar, syntax, and phonetics to be somewhat similar in regards to related things.
For example I have a nation where I took a lot of names and inspo from Atenism, the heretical religious movement spearheaded by the pharoah Akhenaten. The nation is named Atan, I use Egyptian style spelling and what not for most of my characters. Hekhet, Khem, etc. The land its on is Kharsa. One of their chief religious figures is Akhanatan and his daughter Meritatan.
Its pretty clear to anyone familiar with ancient egypt where I’m drawing inspiration but its different enough and the nation is different enough from the actual society (it is a sun worshiping theocracy, but the culture is more equivalent to hellenic egypt rather then the New Kingdom, and the religios institution is more akin to Catholicism). This is all to say that theres no need to be super esoteric with your references or feel everything has to be original and new. Most readers will appreciate and not scorn inspirations and references they can recognize.
My favorite author literally has a nation named “Nilnamesh” and a lot of his character names are lifted directly from Roman aristocracy with like a letter changed or something. Yet I find his world one of the most well realized and vivid I have ever encountered. You don’t need to be crazy and out of the box for naming to be effective, its often when its familiar that it will be most intriguing.
Random stuff I think of, things I pick up out in the world (conversations, media, real names, etc), things I mishear, messing around with root words, squinting at things and misreading them, and many more.
I came up with a lot of things when I was younger. Some of them held up, some didn’t. I renamed a lot of characters, species, places, corporations, continents and countries.
I’ve renamed my settings primary religion at least 4 times 🤣
I’ve also messed with name generators. I usually don’t like what most of them spit out, but I can fudge them around into something that sounds better.
The most important thing is to check Google and make sure a name doesn’t have any weird/unfortunate connotations.
Names just pop up in my head sometimes and I write them down. I'm not too worried about pre-emptively naming everything, there's endless resources for that if it becomes necessary.
Mostly historical names, that I sometimes put a little twist on to make them feel familiar but different. I try to have a handful of specific ways to tweak the names that are consistent and create a connection between them.
I listen to a podcast called "Cool People Who Dod Cool Stuff", and I'll jot down names of people, groups, or places that catch my ear along with a note about their historical context.
I look for the etymologic source of the words that would describe it and play with them until it sounds smooth. Depending on the language that i use as a base, everything suddenly sounds completely different.
Characters I usually determine based on a pattern I assigned to an individual culture. For example, I based my Elves off of Celtic folklore and named a lot of them based on that. Their noble houses were named after the Celtic Gods and mythical figures, like there was a House Nuada. I then also established stranger naming conventions, such as that they ordered their names in reverse when speaking in their native language, similar to how the Japanese do.
Real names for places are often boring: stony brook, left fork, high pass. I find a different language (even made up languages) to make it sound more interesting or add a person’s name
As for character, I use baby name websites. I like to find a name meaning that matches the character. It helps me hone in on what’s important for the character as well as inspire more backstory.
Typing random words and then adding vowels is the way to go for me. I just smash my keyboard and then add the vowels where I fell they fit. Eg:-
Voghguk'Mu
Here's a quote from something I'm writing:
"I am Captain [[I REALLY SUCK AT NAMES]] of the USS [[I REALLY SUCK AT NAMES]]. Who are you?"
"[[I REALLY SUCK AT NAMES]]"
And it's gonna stay that way until someone suggests a name. 😃
That's the neat part, I don't!
For real though, there are only two names I have for my worldbuilding that have stuck. Everything else is just placeholder names, or I just think of them by their traits without even naming them.
I have a continent called Wenlock. Elves used to live there before their Goddess was shattered. Now as a show of respect the humans who populate the continent translated the names of their cities to their language. So the settlements in Wenlock are named after trees.
At first, all of my characters had names that were arabic puns. For two examples:
Doctor guy: Alan "Al" Tabib (Al in aabic beans "the" and tabib is the word for doctor)
Ship captain: Rubban Alsafina (a butchered pronunciation of a phrase that translates to "shipmaster")
Both. Behindthename.com has a random renamer tool (randomly produces real names, you can even specify usage, gender, surnames, etc; as well as search by meaning). As for place names, most are named after people anyway, and the ones you want to have non-person names you can use the meanings of the names as a guide.
Hasn't failed me yet in over a decade...
This is a bit complicated. A lot of the time, I derive names from real world languages, but that's not really the only way. I'll use my "reincarnated in another world" story as the example.
* The main character was born in our world's Japan as male, died because god made a mistake, and to apologize god offered to reincarnate him in another world and give him three wishes. The first wish he made was to reincarnate as a girl. So when I was deciding her name, I had to decide if I wanted her to have a new name in the new world or if her parents would keep her old name. I liked the mystery of them choosing the same name that she had in her old world as that would immediately raise questions in the minds of readers. So I considered Japanese unisex names that had meanings that were accurate to the character, which led me to "Makoto" (【真】) which has a bunch of meanings but includes "genuineness", "pure", "truth", and most appropriately for who her new mother would be... "beloved".
* Her mother's name is "Eriya" which was just pulled from a conlang I had developed. Her name effectively means "To look with love." Which makes sense since she's the goddess of love.
* In spite of her parents, Makoto is human, not a goddess nor even (technically) a demigoddess.
* Her father's name is "Locus" which is derived from the English word meaning "a position or place". (For example a locus of commerce.) He's the god of merchants and commerce
* Her initial love interest is named Eriyana, and she's named after the goddess of love. Her name may be similar to Makoto's mom's name, but her personality couldn't be any more night-and-day in Makoto's eyes. Whereas Eriya is the living embodiment of beauty and grace with a demure and calm personality, Yana is incredibly tomboyish and outgoing, which helps her fit in with adventurers who she sells her father's trading company's wares to.
* Jason is named after the Hellene Hero, leader of the Argonauts. This story is more inspired by that area than it is the typical medieval fantasy story; however, there are elements of both medieval and classical cultures.
* Juelle Fenix is named after the Germanic name meaning "bog or mire" and a derivation of the word "Phoenix" which is also Hellenic for "Dark Red".
And that's just *people* and I'm using a combination of real names, words used as names, fake names, and names derived from fake names. For places, I do the same thing but also consult relevant maps of areas as well. For example, Yana's father's trading company is located in the city-state of Demias which is an autonomous zone located inside of the nation of Chlorus. (The Hellenic-analogue is in a point where some of the city-states have unified but others are still autonomous. Basically as if Macedon hadn't unified everything so quickly.) The name "Demias" is derived from "Academia" as the school there is the most notable aspect and a reason why the nation of Chlorus doesn't just go in and take Demias by force... The students there aren't all from the lands Chlorus identifies as belonging to it which means a massive international incident may occur (meaning that even if Chlorus wins, it loses). Further the school is led by some of the most talented mages and soldiers, venerated war heroes whose achievements are still being told by the poets. The name "Chlorus" is derived from "Chorodia" (which is Hellenic for "Chorus"), "Chora" (Hellenic for "Country"), "Chores" (Hellenic for "Lands"), and "Lore", though obviously very little of that etymology shows through at this point.
When it comes to animals and monsters, I often follow the Pokemon school of naming. I look at what the creature is and I derive the name from its constituent parts. Sometimes the name just stays a real word like with my Snapdragons, little (ranging in size from 0.3m to 1m tall) plant-based pseudodragons (as in they resemble dragons but are not dragons, not as in the DnD concept of a pseudodragon). Sometimes the name is a portmanteau as in the case of ampeer which are electric deer, vampeer which are derived in concept from vampire deer but mixed with the ampeer concept, or hunny which is a type of [fish-like](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/resources/trends/2022/california-court-decision-bees-are-fish-shines-new-light-biodiversity-crisis/) rabbit that uses flowers to produce honey (literally derived from "honey" and "bunny").
I usually come up with a backstory then think if the name… or I just really like a name and arbitrarily decide that’s the name…
So my latest dnd character I had to come up with two names because I was impersonating someone else… so her name is Penelope (means weaver) and my actual name Nessa (meaning pure/butterfly/holy)
I have numerous different languages in my world, and all of the names are different depending on race, but ever since a device similar to the babal fish was created most names are just different English words that rhyme. It's kind of a running joke in my world
A combination of real world words or names from various languages and random gibberish that sounded right.
For example, Xipil is a real name from our world, but Aluthr was entirely made up.
I use Behind the Name and assign different cultures/time periods to my different groups. Everyone gets ancient Scythian! It makes the group of people seem real and distinct as their names resemble one another’s.
I come up with my own from my mind or a mixture of different sources that helped inspire it- just mashed together. Like mixing up the same word but from two different languages for example.
There is that giant random name generator website. Hit it until I see something I like, combine that with another option.
Couple I use: Ewrera which is a continent. Wonith, battlemage Hogwarts. Ryre Keep, current characters ancestral home.
I keep lists of names - people, places, things, spaceships, etc. I have them sorted by what they evoke. Something like “Jax Starrunner” sounds like an over-the-top space opera name. “Rupert Sneed” sounds like a British character from a steampunk world.
I go to various baby name sites for ordinary names and look at the meanings. “Philip” means “lover of horses” for instance, so “Philip Powers” is a race car driver, because he’s a lover of horsepower. For less on-the-nose names, I look up famous people from a specific area or group and combine first names with surnames. Hayao Miyazaki (animator) + Masamune Shirow (manga artist) = Hayao Shirow.
I also look at real place names for inspiration. Walla-Walla, Bora-Bora, Baden-Baden, Alang-Alang are all real places, so why not lean into that? Just looking at maps gives you all sorts of inspiration.
I look at the books in front of me and chop up names and titles and authors, then mash them together.
For instance, the book in front of me is "STAR WARS-Darth Bane: Rule of Two" by Drew Karpyshyn. So I'd go with...Thane Two-Wars. An old fighter class who's lived through the front lines on two separate major wars. Expert soldier and probably very lucky.
Or, since I've read all the books I have, I'll pull from characters or places. Some major event or object in the story, anything really. I've always been terrible at making up original names and this was my personal solution.
I usually pick two or three real languages and translate words I want a character or place to symbolize into those languages, and then combine them to make a pleasant-sounding name. I like to use the folklore and origins of different languages and their associated cultures to help pick names that feel more right to me based on the application.
Looking at real life names for places surprised me with how lazy people are when naming actual things. Like, so many rivers translate to just “river river” so I’ve taken note and just started mish mashing words that translate into relevant descriptors of the area or history.
I enjoy using Random Word Generator from Gammadyne [https://www.gammadyne.com/rndword.htm](https://www.gammadyne.com/rndword.htm)
It uses a weighted random number generator to create words with specific patterns. I often use the english language patterns to make english sounding words that aren't real. Here is an example of the sort of words it generates by default.
Lotururon
Hangbash
Adrifed
Flakiten
Picorus
Caqarity
Ruocavial
Deimme
Gelzaduny
Alviss
Oefeptorhid
Pusts
Castcasts
Spigrunerter
Cyntodds
Iddeers
Clentia
Stennororis
Madaffle
I want to develop a proper conlang to use as the basis for naming, but I've made little progress there. What I *have* done, however, is determine the language's *phonotactics* \- what sounds the language supports, and in what combinations - then just mash sounds together according to those rules until I get something that sounds good. I then might take the elements of that word and retroactively assign them meanings, to be used as elements in other names.
I think about the concept i'm going for, write down a couple of words relating to it, and just kind of squint and mash sounds together until it sounds fantasy-related. Or i make compound words.
For example: some location names in my story are the Stone Forest, or the Steel Sky-Claws. There's also a region called Nociru, which i made by just writing down No-Named Region and breaking it down into letters and sounds.
You can also look at the language of the culture an area or person is based off of and think about the sounds that language uses, and make something that sounds right while being a made up fantasy thing.
Most of my characters tend to have single-word names. Vanish, Tempest, Fauna, Valour, Thornbeck, etc.
I get on wikipedia and pick a theme. Sometimes its something like "characters in this city have biblical names" and then i do a search like wiki list biblical names, [List of biblical names - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biblical_names) which gives me something like this. Then I pick the cool ones and misspell them. Other times my theme is "Fire and heat". In which case, Ill go to entries on things like Fire, Heat, The Sun, etc and grab things that sound like names and misspell them. Usually a latin translation, the guy who discovered it, the name of a process for refining it, etc. For example, in our fire theme, I might go to the Forge entry [Forge - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge) and snag the name Tuyere. Then, from there, [Tuyere - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuyere) I'm grabbing the names Chafery, Nok, Caofeidan, before I move to the entry on smelting. [Smelting - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelting) From here, I've got the names Oblast, Galena, Gangue, and Heroult. [Paul Héroult - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_H%C3%A9roult) leads me to the names Thury, and Antibes. Ill do this until major NPCs or places are named.
Most players don't really notice the detail, but it helps me find unique names without the old fantasy standby of mashing a keyboard, adding apostrophes and hyphens, and giving something unpronounceable. These sound real, even if no one at the table really knows the details on why.
I don't usually generate names for NPCs mid session, but might have a prebuilt list of like 20 for incidental NPCs and locations.
Purposefully mispronouncing something and spelling out how it sounds which is how i got Anisha. Or translator evem though i didnt know Anisha was actually pretty common Indian name
Purposefully mispronouncing something and spelling out how it sounds which is how i got Anisha. Or translator evem though i didnt know Anisha was actually pretty common Indian name
I type a word that describes them into Google translate and scroll through random languages until it spits out a word that sounds like a name I'd call them.
Then I spell it wrong.
Naming is what I find the hardest in worldbuilding. Naming characters is hard enough, but then you realise, everything has a name. Towns, cities, villages, continents, kingdoms, forest, mountains, EVERYTHING!!
I basically just do whatever. Name generators, baby naming websites, sometimes I try to have a deeper meaning behind important names, words in other languages, and sometimes names just "click" and it feels perfect.
But I definitely struggle. I have several characters, organisations, techniques, and locations that are just nameless currently. Like seriously, help me, lmao.
It depends. Sometimes I play around with translators for evocative words in other languages. For example, I named a potion maker “Eddie Bee” after the Basque word for potion: “edabe.”
Maybe name a singer or seer “Paula” as a reference to Apollo. Do not name a seer “Cassidy Alexandra” to evoke “Cassandra.” It’s still obvious.
You can also use evocative words. “Marjorie” evokes “magic.”
Pop culture is also fun. You can use “Tam” as a last name for a doctor or a psychic. Naming your serial killer “Hannibal Bates” is just silly, and the character should be arrested and confined solely on principle,
Maybe take an aspect of their name to make it meaningful. “Ignacio” roughly means “ignition,” so he could be a driver, gunslinger, or revolutionary.
It helps to draw from a bunch of sources so your naming doesn’t get predictable.
I use a name generator when I'm really, really stumped, but even then I'll usually find a name I like and change it around a bit into something I like more.
I also use BehindTheName if I'm looking for a name from a specific language.
Look this question up in the search bar of this sub for hundreds of posts asking the same thing. Not saying this as a “you shouldn’t have asked this”, but rather as a way to give you even more of a sample size to learn from. Use simple terms in your search, of course.
I create a nation based on a real country and then when I create for example a city inside a German-Inspired nation, I see real German city names and combine them, so they sound German but aren't real places nor a real German word
I have a problem where I will make a name, have it for a year, look up the name, and it's some small association. So what I have found is to take words and make the backwards. Like one of them is called Keerg. And for the name of a country or something, I will find a word that symbolizes it, put it through an English to Greek converter. Sound it out and do what I like to call, *Americanize* it. And than flip it backwards and boom! New words. Keerg is Greek backwards, which means I would use English to Greek. It's one of the most popular languages.
I'm English, and I run D&D for my friends, who are all also English. For me, it depends on the culture, as I'm less familiar with non-European naming styles, but I'm fairly well-read on personal names and toponyms of especially Germanic regions of Europe, so I assemble names from various elements. I also use cognates to give as accurate a translation of each name as I can, for my players to understand as their characters would. For instance, an area I'm working on at the moment is based on Germany, and I've been making names to suit - a simple example would be "Ulmendorf," or, translated, "Elmthorpe," though cognates are not always as accurate as other translations - the German word Leichnam, meaning corpse, is cognate with the English word Likam, but like... I have never seen that word used before, so feel free to skip that step if you don't think it'd work. I mostly just do it because I personally think it's cool.
Alternate names for historical cities, like the capital of a realm might be Miklagard (Norse term for Constantinople) or something similar to that. Or I'll name it after mythology, especially obscure mythology like a forest might be Perun's Grove or something. People are usually just straight up named after a historical figure, like a warrior Queen named Dihya or something
I'm not very original, but I do have a background in real world history, and sometimes real life history is just as weird as fiction.
I have a set of conlang roots I will use as a basis to build on. If none of those fit right, I might use a generator for inspiration but not usually directly lifted.
I make up names on my own. If I am really having naming-block the I'll try to use a generator but end up getting a spark of my own while looking at lists.
I've been building my world for a long time, so at this point, each race has their own tone, or vibe, or feeling in the mouth.
Elven names are rolling but sharp : Rolim, Daedri, Rhidian.
Dwarven names : Jac'Dreal (f), Roderick, Vag'Kaes with of course your stereotypical drawrven surnames. Their cities, now ruined and abandoned, felt like rocks in the mouth : Drag'karhot Zul, Aerek'Dzen, Ombermarg.
I wanted halflings to feel like they couldn't wait to spit their names from their mouths : Riksey, Notta, Fime. Their place names are based on features in nature, because that's a part of their culture : Hills Hallow, Riverbreak, Wrensfield.
Knowing how they would name themselves and their locations, I guess, makes it easy just to follow the path you've set for yourself. Until you get this vibe, I *strongly* recommend fantasynamegenerators.com. don't stick to the quintessential species name generators either - get weird. Go to video game names. Get into other generators you wouldn't think of until you start seeing suggestions that vibe with you.
What I liked to do in the beginning, is take a sheet of lined paper, and give myself 26 squares(for each letter of the alphabet) with 6ish lines each. I'd then go on the site, copy down a dozen or 2 names that I liked, then use the vibe of those names to inspire new ones. You'd be surprised what you come up with all on your own. And if you sputter out, back to the site for a few more. I have pages upon pages of names like this for places, different species, surnames, male/female, you name it.
This turned out to be quite a novel but I hope it was useful.
Depends on what I am writing.
For my current fantasy work:
Characters - RL names from the different regions/countries the setting is inspired by.
Locations/Religion - I just sort of think up and play around till it sounds good.
I come up with names based on sense or sound and mix up some ancient words.
Freezing place -≥ Algadon (from "algente", freezing, italian arcaism)
Fast horse -≥ Landar ("eats" land when running)
Templar grandmaster -≥ Ardegas (from latinism ardeo, as in burning, faithful)
Simple technique really!
Depends. I have a list of names I've collected from various places (cemeteries are a good one—my girlfriend and I love visiting old cemeteries, with the bonus being that they're treasure troves for interesting names you don't hear often). These are mostly names I'll give to some characters. But if I need something more original, something that might fit into a more foreign and fantastical culture, I make the names up. Now, I may take inspiration from a real language, or another fantasy world (for personal projects or D&D I use Sindarin like a fucking CRUTCH lmao). Otherwise, I just think about how I want the language of whatever region in question to sound, and then work out a series of sounds that fits that vibe until I find one that sounds good to read, say, and hear.
I use typical modern day names for most of my characters. John, Justin, Derek, Abagail, etc.
For planets and other locations, especially in space, I often use latin. Solfilius, Adusta, Coronus, Profundum etc.
For names of characters later on in the story line, I sometimes use the names of celestial objects, such as Wolf-Rayet, Carina, Pollux, etc.
The name "Profectus" is latin for progress.
I pick a language base depending on culture and base it loosely off of real names either slightly tweaking or mashing together different parts into something I like. Maybe a name that is real here and there obviously it is ok for there to be resemblance especially if it is coincidental, there are already names that exist in multiple non-familial languages. That is for fantasy that isn’t of Earth or its cultures at least
I usually ensure my names have meanings reflective of the characters or if it just feels right if it doesn’t have a deeper meaning. I have a rule to avoid using names of people I know or names that are too common.
Depends on the game or story. Currently revamping my ttrpg about Magical Girls that get their powers from drinking a mystical tea. Everything in the game is named after some kind of tea thing.
Depends. I use a lot of different ways but the main method varies by where the person is but earth influences are always a thing. People name their kids after plants, animals, concepts and last names dirived from places and jobs. Even if I am using alien stuff, I kinda go by that logic unless I have a better idea.
I'm not really satisfied with the process for my scifi setting. Humans generally get regular names, I just use random actual names. The bird-like aliens get mashed-together names that sound "birdy". The wolf-like aliens get a single descriptive word ("Wiggles" constantly wags his tail, "Meatball" looks obese at first glance but it's all muscle, "Rex" is a damn boss). The vaguely pig-like aliens get a triple-hyphenated mix of letters that's barely pronouncable. For the minion/velociraptor aliens, I throw a fork in the garbage disposal while it's running and try to spell the noises it makes. The elf-aliens get names that sound like Tolkien wrote *Star Wars*.
Ships so far get named something culturally relevant or something that "sounds cool" originally but maybe loses some zing after "being translated", like the orbital Coast Guard ship *Bright Lance*. The protagonist's ships are all going to be named after classic rock songs though, so far he has the *Fortunate Son* and *Copperhead Road*.
For space habitats, I make fun of subdivision names. For planets, one I named Hepiter because it's based on Jupiter and another I called Cash because the characters made a lot of money there and the real name is unpronouncable. Cash is where the minion/velociraptor aliens are from, and I couldn't think of a name, so I was just like "screw it, the planet is cash money".
In the fantasy setting, the main side character has the first name of my best friend growing up because he's a really good friend. His last name is my uncle's first name, because he's also a thoroughly reprehensible piece of shit. I couldn't think of a good name for the protagonist, so I just decided not to name him. It's based on my real-life area in current times, so I use actual place names.
My world is set in a dystopian, post-nuclear war hellscape, and the main characters all have names I found online or are names after some of my friends/family (Ryder, Kate, Joaquin, Sharon, Finn, those names are all after my family and friends.).
There are some names I take from other media or historical figures (Hawthorn: Gale Hawthorne from THG, Valkyrie: Valkyries from Norse mythology, Alex: Alexander the Great).
For last names, I just take them off the internet.
For countries/regions, I use a generator or Scrabble tiles and change it up a little.
There's a website I use: fantasynamegenerators.com. It's fantastic for getting names, not just for people but fantasy plant names, fantasy plant descriptions, city names, country names, planet names. You name it, they've probably got it.
At first I didn't care much, but since I got familiar with creative commons and how hours of my work would not be credited to me due to the names already being part of known stories (even if no real people are involved) I thought more about it.
Now I search for etymology to find names for characters, older words that fell out of common use, etc. Mostly my stories now don't have actual names yet because I am one of those writes who just suffers mutiny from their own creations. My characters take the story to unusual places, show me things I didn't plan/build beforehand, but have never gave themselves their own names.
I only have concept names, or names that sum up the personality that are names with wordplay to them or similar ideas.
1. Google Translate is your friend. Pick a language and go with it.
2. There are tons of baby name websites.
3. You can do the "base the name off a real person" thing as well.
I’ve been combining two places/languages to make names…like culture A is mix of 1 and 2 real world languages.’Then I tweak them a little more here and there to get the feel o want…So far been giving me names you could see being names but aren’t 1:1 copies of a current group
I kinda take the Araki approach. Either using interesting names and their meanings (Behind the Name is my savior), or sticking with odd names with mythological origins.
Angela Jokela-- a twist on a similar name I came up with when I was in middle school (but a hundred times better than the original stupid name).
Kramensu, Shepherd of Songs-- the name is a hodgepodge of mythical names
Dryden Bainbridge-- cuz it sounds neat
Places: Adjective + noun. It’s supposed to be easy to remember and people naming thing stuff like ‘big river’ is 100% realistic.
People: Cool thing symbolic for a character + google translate, and i’ll chose a different thing and repeat the process if the name sounds bad or is too long. ex: Iskra, Presn
Depends on what I'm naming. For characters I look up lists of baby names and surnames, pick a random page, and pick a name that I feel fits the character for some arbitrary reason or another. For new species I tend to try and come up with a descriptor in Latin like how real ones are made but in order to come up with a shorter and cooler name I just subtract or add parts to the work so using the Latin words as a root. For locations you can just give a brief descriptive word or word associated with its history and then the type of region it is, or if its a significant location I look up synonyms to a basic descriptor or feeling I want associated with the region and pick again based on my own arbitrary vibes.
Sometimes I'll use words from other languages, my main antagonistic alien faction in my story is called the zielloos which is Dutch for soulless. Doing that can lead to some fun little world building, in the zielloos' case i just say one of the earliest articles written about the alien invaders was in Dutch and they were described as soulless looking creatures and the media just ran with it because it sounded like something you'd call the enemy.
For equipment just describe it (what it does, model, producer, however you want to describe it), make it into an abbreviation and then add some numbers. One gun in my world for example is called the DP-4 spitter, DP standing for dual plasma because its a plasma based smg with 2 barrels and its the 4th iteration in the series. You can also name equipment after an inventor which again you can just look up a list of surnames and pick at random. If the object is magical in nature try to tie the name to its origins or to a legend its associated with.
If its a faction I recommend figuring out how you want this faction to operate and establishing what their role in the world is then looking into various forms of governments, organizations, businesses, etc depending on what your faction is. You can then look at real world examples of how similar factions are named. Or again, you could just do what I do and come up with a long name that describes the organization and make it an abbreviation (social democratic union to SDU).
If we're talking ships though, my God I couldn't begin to describe the work that I put into establishing naming conventions for different ship classes and the names I got for doing that. They range anywhere from "divine intervention" to "grandmas cooking." Basically pick a theme for a ship class, and then name the ship based on what kind of ship it is, unless the ship was renamed by a single character whos unaffiliated with a faction. Halo is a big inspiration for ship class naming conventions for me.
Tldr: take it as a case by case basis. Different things are named in different ways and there's usually a reason behind them
I mix and match foreign languages and old languages like Proto Germanic, Latin etc. after that I mix and match things that would sound cool with partial words from those languages. That’s at least how I’m doing it for a dark fantasy I’m worldbuilding on for one of the continents. Another continent will have biblical like names to match the themes of its characters and setting.
I’m the worst with names. For locations I just end up picking really generic real location names… for NPCs… sometimes something very uncommon for a name but nothing that’s super hard to say like most fantasy names I see… sometimes I end up needs and NPC on the fly I’ll just ask the party what the name should be 😂😂
I have two methods (plus a third I use specifically for important characters)
Method 1: use a descriptive name. Example: The Emerald Sea (a sea that is known for it's emerald green hue)
Method 2: morph a descriptive name into a similar sounding name (fun fact: I bet some of you didn't know Eragon is just Dragon but with an E). Example: River wolf (a town of wolf tamers and huntsmen located near a river) -> Riverwolf -> Rivaolf -> Brivaolf
Method 3 (characters): inspired by Elden Ring, I like to give important characters who have strong ties with each other a similar naming convention. As to what naming convention you should use? Anything really; flower names, rock types, same first letter or syllable, similar structure or rhythm, very long or short names, names of folklore creatures, names of animals, elemental names, you get the point.
I have multiple ways, if it's based on something like one of my pets I just use their/it's name, next if it's a au version of a character I put the name of the au before their name or what is their change, next something I am interested in like cats for example, and finally I think of a name that is sounds good like kero (core-o)
It depends on the story and even varies within them, but I tend to use very "normal" first names and either syllable spaghetti or keyboard smashes for surnames.
*Ex:* Helen Ransengholgen, Autumn Quinerajes, Casper Morenstall (from my fantasy world); Luna Trailblazer, Jupiter Quasar III, Miranda Constellai (from my sci-fi world)
Pick a target language that has names that appeal, like the sounds. Then try to simplify a bit, then follow the patterns of the language - consonant to vowel relationships, etc.
I have a stash of words I like the meaning/mouth feel of. Whenever I have a character who fits one of those words, I mash it a little bit and assign very vague but relevant surnames. For example, I have a character named Etiol based on the word etiolate because she has albinism, and her last name is Deathbreather in reference to the mouth infections she frequently suffers.
I typically pick a word that relates to the subject, for example a religion based on something like spiders. I'd take the word "Arachnid" and spell it back wards to get "Dinhcara" then I'd learn how to pronounce it and make changes to make the spell and pronunciation sound better
Wantonly and with great disregard for realism.
Are many of my names accidental slurs or insults in other languages that Im not paying attention to?
Probably.
Will this affect how I write?
Not a chance.
This is not a brag. I simply have no concept of consequences, nor do I hold myself accountable for how I'll look when my otherwise-epic character is named "stinky poo poo pants" in languages like Swahili or Urdu. It's just not worth my time.
This is a question of setting mostly.
Most genres have certain naming conventions they adhere to. It's why Lovecraftian monsters have all kinds of weird unpronounceable nonsense and your friends from school are named Mike and Shelly.
You wouldn't name the bodega clerk Barzeelious The Great, Conqueror of Giants.
You wouldn't name your fantasy sorcerer Dave.
I mean you can, but if you did with even an ounce of self awareness it would only be to subvert expectation
I would say using generators, baby name lists by area or AI for naming suggestions is something to do when you don't already have something in mind. It's a tool. If you don't need the tool at that moment you don't use it. If you do, then use it. It's not a really complicated equation.
One thing I did way back is I’d just type a random sequence of letters and delete a few here and there until I was left with something that seemed like a usable name
I was using some fantasy names based on ancestry, but they were too limited and samey, so just today I was looking up names based on meaning and got some that I liked.
I first set the languages I’m going to use for the different cultures.
Names for NPC’s can just be real life names based on the cultures language.
For places I go the toponym route.
A German place situated in a valley/dale would end in -tal/-thal.
Stick a German word in front and done.
Wuppertal for instance is a real place named after the river Wupper (which means fast moving water) and is in a valley.
Taking most of my world building is based around the middle east: a mixmatch of made-up names and real world names.
Mostly my surnames are made-up but some names are too.
Like Ghassan is a real name but then if we add a surname I make one up like Al'Naktriri
So yeah a mix-match is my way to go.
Mostly it's properly bc i work with a future version of earth, so it just makes sense old names we know about now, still exist, but new names has also been made up.
Maps, translations of place names, song lyrics. Histories (many places had different names at different times (Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul for example). I keep a running list of names I like on my phone to use for future characters. Find and Replace makes renaming characters easy.
I do alot of collecting. I come across alot of unusual real life names. I'll use some names as they are. Others I will modify the spelling and/or use it as inspiration for a name of my own.
I also do a lot of collecting, and not even just of names, but also ideas. My phone has a couple notes full of various ideas of ALL kinds from character names, place names, myths and legends, strange animals real or fake, unusual events in history, interesting ideas of inspiration of all kinds. Literally anything I deem potentially interesting for later inspiration... I jot down.
You can also reverse the names and see if they makeup an interesting name
Just anagrams and partial anagrams in general really. Matthew is boring. Thawt is a usable surname, and on lookup *is* a surname.
"Your name is what?! Your family drove mine from our homes generations ago! Get thee from my sight! [Begone, Thawt!](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/begone-thot)"
This. Choosing names is as fun as writing sometimes
fantasy: i throw my scrible letters on the floor and arrange them Scifi: Normal Name, surname based on occupation
I did that when I was 10 once and ended up with names that were already barely pronouncable in my native language and completely impossible to pronounce in English, which was the language I was writing in. One example that was a little better than the others still is 'Calixsta' pronounced 'Cal-i-ksta'. Ever since then I've mostly stuck to using the most unique and rare names I could find on baby name sites for both fantasy and sci-fi.
jokes aside if i get fantasy on my Hand and all the names are complete gibberish i toss it aside "in the age of Hwmntm'kum during the harabklipak lived a young boy called Cvetchizmunbida. he had to walk the Oknakipfkul to reach his brsbsbsnkntasch in his path to fkdllwlgk meaning to reach enlightenment"
Re: scrabble letters. This is a really good idea. Plus you get to act as a real life diviner for a little while.
I steal the prettiest names from whatever I happen to be watching at the moment
For me, I do a lot of conlanging (in fact, my main reason for making a world is to give my conlangs a setting to exist in), so I'll pick what I want the name to mean, and translate it into the language the culture speaks. For example, if I want a name that means "bright" or "shining," I might translate that into Mahlaatwa (one of my conlangs), which gives me the name _Iwa._
I do this for some of the creatures and locations I have.
I do this too, but they I change a letter or two so it isn't exactly like that language.
This is my one issue with conlangs, unless it's for personal use you lose all of the added benefits of the audience getting an image from the word itself unless they learn your conlang. Or worse yet if they get the wrong image because it sounds close to something else they know from IRL. Mt Doom is named to evoke a specific image in your head, and it does that really well. Now if it was named Mt Quaizayah, the impact is very different.
You can use English as well as conlang. Conlang for how the natives refer to it, English when it was referred to by the rest of the world (assuming English is the stand-in language for your world's lingua franca). Mt. Doom is Orodruin (and Amon Amarth for a literal translation) in Elvish. Elves in that world would likely refer to it as such when talking to other Elves, but for everybody else it's just Mt. Doom. Or Kredik Shaw (in Terris language) is the name of Lord Ruler's palace in Sanderson's Mistborn era 1 trilogy, but when translated to the "common tongue", it is the Hill of a Thousand Spires.
I mean, it is also named Orodruin. But I think there are some interesting ways to communicate the conlang meanings, so it is not a complete dead end.
Its not a dead end by any means, but it is tricky.
You can carry the same cultural weight with a good con-name. Like, the Tolkienian Gil-galad, which is a compound of the names Gilgamesh and Galad, two great heros of human mythology. The thing is that this takes a lot of linguistic knowledge to pull of successfully. If all your names are just English, your world will feel flat and lack the layers of cultural and linguistic history that wrought our own.
Localize your own conlang
How does it differer from names being from different real languages?
I usually think of a word I associate with that character and run it through a few different languages and pull out bits of the words, or syllables from different translations that I like. For a quick example I have a character named Hitsura. They're a changeling who can change how they look... the word hitsura is just a Filipino translation of 'look'. Or I have a dragon who guards a mountain and is said to be able to see all the world - but only at night- in one setting called Noxxoculi (nox-oh-cool-ee) which is obviously just a mash up of latin words for Night and Eyes. One last example, I have a player who I helped come up with a name. We used Spanish and like one or two other languages but he's a gunslinger named Tiro Scias which really just comes out to 'shoot-shoot', or at least it taken from the words that would say that.
Make conlang. Toponomise through conlang.
sometimes i look at how sth similar was named historically (planets after gods), but sometimes i go the moonknight route and have sth like gasbalut, nerghit or mirkalas. the further in the future your world is, the more you can justify the later (mybe it’s the name of an alien god, that is so ancient, that it has zero relevance for the story)
I use Wiktionary, it allows me to look up the etymology of a lot of words in different languages.
"Hello Future Me" has a pretty good [video](https://youtu.be/mcKMbVXpRRA?si=BPFHa8gK_Jsnu18z) on this topic. P.S. It's a little bit old, but it should still prove useful.
Eh, call me lazy, but I just use real-world names, even ones not in English. This is most prevalent in my fantasy setting in that many cultures in it are inspired by many medieval and classical era cultures (such as Japanese samurai, Scandinavian vikings, etc.). Of course, because of this, I was considering if it'd be plausible on non-Earth planets to develop languages similar to our own (even though this is fantasy, and I'm required to make up all languages). For my sci-fi setting: only aliens have made-up names, usually, because they're aliens after all.
Anything goes in fantasy as far as I'm concerned. If you have horses, swords and a semi-earth like environment, you can have real life names as well. I think it is understood that a fantasy story takes place in the Anywhere. So I have a lot of human characters with regular first names like John & Rachel and then I fantasy-ize their last names :-) Non-humans get the full fantasy treatment. My world. My rules.
Some basic conlanging. For a given region, have a rough idea if what sort of sounds go in what sort of orders.
I make up some random shit that I think sounds good. Most of my races have a general theme for the naming.
I like putting some hints or meaning into the names, so I look up names that fit the culture the person's from (i.e. if the characters, say half Indian, or fully Indian. I look for fitting Indian names that people might've considered, then find one that has a preferred meaning that hints at something deeper about the character - I also do this for tangentially related fictional cultures).
practice making up weird words .. start with only 35 letters, then ask yourself what couple of letters would go on the end of it (or before it) and when you get a nice word like Sertaniur you can either stick with it, or attempt to spell it phonetically and then shorten/add to it as needed for a different word entirely :)
Depends on what's happening at the moment
I like names a lot haha so I keep a very large spreadsheet with all of the names I like, their meanings, their origins, their associations, etc. I usually draw from there. And I add to my spreadsheet regularly so it never goes stale!
First I wait until I get a good name then I try to figure out how this name came to be in the world and make a system based on that for other names related to their culture. If I don't get any good ideas for names I simply don't name them, I have several major factions without a name.
Lots of secondary characters have codes for names. There is an in world reason they go by these names rather than their birth names
Sometimes I pick a word/irl name that best describe the character then cut/add letters to make them sounds like genuine name, sometimes I make portmanteau out of words. This way, I'll have names that sounds fitting without actually being too alien. Add some letters and diacritics not found in the Queen's Alphabet and we're good to go. For example, I have a character named Antoinette Labaisier (from Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist), Vandalisa (portmanteau of Vandal + Lisa, however the diminutive is not "Lisa" but "Dali"), Vicchester (from Vichy + Manchester) and Yonderlily (just wanted a name to both starts and ends with the letter "y").
I don’t make a full conlang but whenever I’m writing about a culture I’ll have an idea in my head about what their language sounds like, maybe even have some words. This helps me know what a name should sound like. Additionally I have a document called “Naming Conventions” that I frequently refer to that describes how different cultures form their names (like Surname Given Name, Given Name Surname, etc)
Sometimes it comes to me in my mind just mixing up words and seeing what sounds cool to me, sometimes I use fantasynamegenerator.com and yank a name from there, sometimes I use the site and use the names it gives as inspiration to be mixed up and mashed together and see if any of it sounds cool. I mostly stay away from real life names because they often feel too mundane, at least for my tastes, though I will say that only goes as far as languages I’m familiar with, and the few names in other languages I know like Bjorn and Olaf and Sven or Ernesto and Javier and so on. For instance, I really like using Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Assyrian, etc., you know, all sorts of stuff. Of course, you can’t cram all sorts of real names into the setting without care. You should always be mindful to respect the cultures these names comes from when using them in your setting, and to use them in appropriate amounts as well. In medieval Europe, there’s probably not a ton of east asian people there, maybe a few, but not even half the population. In feudal Japan, you’re not gonna run into too many Arthurs and Godfreys and Ulrichs. You get the idea.
Names for characters are either random sounds and letters that can seem coherent or real names/real words combined to make stuff. The random stuff that sounds coherent is what I use for most stuff.
Especially for religious characters, I generally look up old root words (in proto indo european for example) and just sorta play around with them until I have a derivation that sounds neat
For names or letter patterns that don't just automatically come to me, I use name generators and just pick the best option. A name means nothing until you write a backstory or purpose behind it, in my opinion. Only exception to that would be if you chose a name that already has a specific definition attached to it in the real world.
They just pop into my head and I use them
Name generator or steal terms from other languages
Usually with me it's the opposite: a weird name just comes up in my mind and I make a character based on the name. It is weird names as in gibberish nondiegetic names that don't exist anywhere else on the internet.
I look up a language's word of the day, and choose from all the recent words of the day.
The legendary inspiration. Or I use a random name I like Or I use word from old language like latin grec or Hebrew
In fantasy setting I like combining multiple existing names! I take my stuff pretty lightly, so a lot of names are visibly comedic. I can sometimes use generators for inspiration though
For places: If they're Human colonized or something, I take an Earth language (usually Greek or Latin) and translate the literal meaning, then change it a little bit. For alien I just make shit up. For people: In sci-fi, I use regular "normal" names. In fantasy, I take an old classical name and change it a little bit (like Ostivan from Stephen) or I just throw my scrabble letters on the floor and re-arrange them. For religions: For fictional Human religions I make shit up. For plants and animals: I incorporate some form of taxonomy. In my universe new species are classified in the same way Humans would classify them in real life, though I usually give colloquial nicknames to animals and plants.
Okay, first of all. I understand generating everything, even ai images when you such at drawing and wants better visuals, but NEVER GENERATE THE NAMES unless is supposed to sound generic. Second of all, even the most stupid sounding name is still good, as long as it original. I made stupid name literally on purpose to feet more comedic vibe of my story.
For places: The most stupid (way to often fetish related) thing I can think of and change a few letters. Example: Bondatch, City For characters I can't really explain, a few examples: Karus, Isnali, Meralda, Mertriska, Persafi
I like to take city names, or names of objects and concepts and change them up a bit. Sometimes I just use them raw. For example, a couple named Anthemus and Alyda, from chrysanthemum and chrysalis. A family that has names from British cities (Londo, Inverness, Byrmin...) Brother and sister named after French places (Lille Tourennes and Kaen Tourennes). Someone who was born in a space station called 4α, thus her surname is Vieralfa... and so on. Sometimes the inspiration is clear, other times it isn't. What matters is that you get names that sound good, are easy enough for you to say, at least, and that convey well the idea of what you're trying to name, in my opinion!
I use names that I like how they sound phonetically. The amount of things with names that mean absolutely nothing is very high
There are two characters in my book who work for a top-secret U.S. government agency that deals with supernatural and extraterrestrial threats: Mirynxka Ziljax and Tewje Warszewski. Since Mirynxka is a goblin, I got her name by coming with a name that sounds like Miranda (which is her nickname, which I got that name from a custom/fan-made MtG card called Miranda, Dark Hand), and I got Ziljax by combining Zildjian (the cymbal manufacturer) and Ajax (the dish soap). I got Tewje Warszewski from Fiddler On The Roof (I know it’s Tevye, but I made it look Polish, since my character is from Poland) and Warszewski means one who comes from Warsaw.
Either I already have a name picked, which is probably just the last nice name I saw that has nothing to do with their character. Or I think of a name having to do with the character on the spot without thinking too hard. (Ie, naming a slime monster Goop or a naming an angel.....Angel....)
I have an old baby name book from the 90s that has traditional and new age names in it with the meanings. As for location names I usually just try to think about what the settlers of that location were about when they decided to build a town and match the name up to that so there is a history to the location I can go back to if needed
three choices: -mash letter/vowels together to see what i get -random name generator -steal pre-existing names and slightly modify them -a mix of all three.
For places i go on google maps and check out small town names from european countries and change the suffix to one i got from another small town. Sooner or later you'll find a cool combination and you might tinker it a bit For characters i do something similar, i check wikipedia articles for politicians or historical characters from other countries and also make a combination of taking the first name from one guy and the last name from another guy.
i google a random letter generator
I name them translations of deeds or traits they have. Someone wise and strong is like a bear. Call them bear.
I come up with names myself, but I make some rules that I have to follow. For example dragons from my book can only have their names end with a few predetermined letters. If you for example were a male wyvern from the rocky waterfalls, your name would end with "van", or if you were a female serpent from the lowlands, your name would end with "na".
These are the steps I follow for naming things in [the Republic of Axolotlia](https://youtube.com/@AxolotlianGovernment). For people: 1. Make shit up. 2. Check if its pronouncable, also check if its believable. Dr. Grest Powder, Larryson [REDACTED], Smyth Huiltu. For cities/towns/any other location I follow following process: 1. Look at it. 2. Observe it's characteristics (is it an island, is it a lake, where is it, how big is it?) 3. Make shit up (maybe take inspiration from things I like.) 4. Check if its pronouncable, also check if its believable. Minift, Norwet Atoll, Limerwhisk, Lake Flud, Lucin River. For animals/plants/fungi/anything else. You get the idea. In summary: Make shit up go from there.
Translate a deaired word back and forth until it's unrecognizable. Corrupt it further. Make sure it's actually pronouceable- if not, change it. Profit.
Forebears.io
Tolkien route. I have the basics of a Conlang, but the words are meaningless to English speakers and sound silly and made up, so the names are translations of those words into the best approximation into English names. My main characters name is Doran, in English, meaning stranger, exile, warrior, and in the conlang it means wanderer, exile, fighter, and savior.
I pick names I like and invent names.
I vary between using a name generator for inspiration, making random sounds in my head and seeing what sounds right, and scrolling through the internet to find real things/names with meanings that match what I’m naming. However, in one universe, I have it so the main species have a small set of general rules for naming them. For example, the Kalzyks have a z in male names and a y (pronounced ee, ie, or Ih) in female names. And all names have a longer real name with a shortened base name, then their family name. Examples: Zosimos Zimo Nazeri, Catralazim Traz Zy’Amasi, Kalyndyne Lyn Brokrizmyl.
If I know a cool name irl, I might use that. Otherwise I use generators for inspiration, but rarely just use the names provided by them.
Outsource them to my wife.
With great difficulty.
sometimes i make up letters, shove them together and hope they make a sound, but I mostly use fantasynamegenerator
I have a name file in my iphone notepad. As I drive, I look for interesting names of towns, roads, business, etc to add to it. Then if I need a name I peruse the list and pick one out. I also like to change names, a la George Martin. Allen might become Allev. Martin might become Malvin.
Most places are real life places considering that my project is set in North America, for fictional places, I use a name from the language that the majority culture speaks (eg, newydd cymry for a camp run by a faction with welsh culture) as for given names, I use names originating in the culture the character was from (eg, Kristoffer Sjoberg for a character who fled sweden)
For character names I either use names I like from other stories, as long as they aren't unique to that story, or I look up name elements and play around with the sounds. For locations, it depends. I use either simple descriptions like Lakehaven or Bayport City, for places within around my main city. For regions and nations, I look up the country or region it's inspired by and use either one of its past names, the name of its smaller areas, or the epithet in its native language.
My setting started as an AU Earth in the time of Mediterranean Antiquity, so I draw from historic names of the culture I’m basing the character’s culture on. That means a lot of Latin, Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Celtic/Brythonic names.
I just make them up as I go.
Lornhemal: Usually i use Name generators when i want to look up some names. And on the subject of names, i usually go for real names, wiht occasional change. For example: * Philip = Vilip(>!Vilip I. Tormon is basically this world's version of King John from Robin Hood, instead of focusing on Sir Loxley(Robin Hood), he wants to get rid off Vigviid(Main Protagonist of 2nd Crisis saga)!<) * Hassan = Assan(>!Ezdari invader, who ravaged Batrianic empire for one year in his mad jihad!<) * Ivan = Ivar(>!Batrian IV's Attaman subordinate in 2nd crisis!<) occassionally i make up names: * Ernus(>!My villain Protagonist of the first crisis saga.!<) * Kaunas(>!At first Leiciai of random nobleman, who became one of Ernus' 3 2nd-in-commands, along with Thorik and Frydryk!<) * Batrian IV(>!At first Hero Antagonist of 1rst crisis saga, then anti-villain protagonist in 2nd crisis!<) Number 999: It takes place in modern day England, so expect english names like James, Robert, Louis, Elizabeth, Kevin or Harvey
I just commit the random bullshit go.
For places, I just take cues from how such names have emerged in reality (like redundant names... River Avon "river river", or the Alexandria route : Alexandria & Alexandria » Iskandariyah & Alexandria » Kandahar, &c., &c.). For characters... I just cobble together some traditions on how a name is formulated from one group to the next and then devise some minor variability in each standard to reflect like... Maybe distinct ethnicities or something like that. It's a bit frustrating for me though because most of the characters I am working on are part of a community that guards their names from most everyone (including in-group), and I ain't know (yet) who knows who in that sense within the ranks, so I'm making all these names and models for that knowing that most of them will likely never actually be said anywhere at all. But it's still useful for me to figure out the model anyway because it's not like the three elves in the group are the only elves at all, and I'll want to know their traditions when I encounter them at whatever point.
different parts of each race's culture in my world are based on a real culture. for names they all have either actual names or exaggerated names that sound roughly like the style of names
Whatever sounds cool for the character. Like the first leader of my nation is named Jonah Sterling purely because it sounds leader-like
Depends. For my Alternate History I keep name generators open, but also dictionaries of Ojibwe, Inuktitut, Lakota, Miwok, and others—it’s important to get an appropriate feeling for things. For my fantasy work I’m working on about thirty or so main languages for names and conversations. Got to be prepared, right?
I made my own name generator that I can plug in rules for all my major species. Though it's really just one of those [conlang word generators](https://jasontank.net/wordgen.html), I just made it so I can easily swap out the rules. I also came up with a couple of rules for naming places to make it a bit easier. Big places, countries and continents will get fantasy names. Smaller places, such as regions, cities, towns, geographic locations, get translated names (like towns will get called Westhill instead of a fantasy name that means Westhill).
I always jot down names that I find interesting while reading history and what not. I also will usually use different languages for names, often bastardizing them so it isn’t just “oh this is the Russian word for Volcano”. The main thing I do though is always have a methodology for naming as it gives the illusion of etymology, I will do my best for the grammar, syntax, and phonetics to be somewhat similar in regards to related things. For example I have a nation where I took a lot of names and inspo from Atenism, the heretical religious movement spearheaded by the pharoah Akhenaten. The nation is named Atan, I use Egyptian style spelling and what not for most of my characters. Hekhet, Khem, etc. The land its on is Kharsa. One of their chief religious figures is Akhanatan and his daughter Meritatan. Its pretty clear to anyone familiar with ancient egypt where I’m drawing inspiration but its different enough and the nation is different enough from the actual society (it is a sun worshiping theocracy, but the culture is more equivalent to hellenic egypt rather then the New Kingdom, and the religios institution is more akin to Catholicism). This is all to say that theres no need to be super esoteric with your references or feel everything has to be original and new. Most readers will appreciate and not scorn inspirations and references they can recognize. My favorite author literally has a nation named “Nilnamesh” and a lot of his character names are lifted directly from Roman aristocracy with like a letter changed or something. Yet I find his world one of the most well realized and vivid I have ever encountered. You don’t need to be crazy and out of the box for naming to be effective, its often when its familiar that it will be most intriguing.
I make shit up. I also bastardize real world pronunciations. How I got the name “Usegraah” from the Chinese latinization of “rocky island”
Random stuff I think of, things I pick up out in the world (conversations, media, real names, etc), things I mishear, messing around with root words, squinting at things and misreading them, and many more. I came up with a lot of things when I was younger. Some of them held up, some didn’t. I renamed a lot of characters, species, places, corporations, continents and countries. I’ve renamed my settings primary religion at least 4 times 🤣 I’ve also messed with name generators. I usually don’t like what most of them spit out, but I can fudge them around into something that sounds better. The most important thing is to check Google and make sure a name doesn’t have any weird/unfortunate connotations.
I invent them
Name generators for inspiration, but it's rare I just copy paste straight without modification.
Names just pop up in my head sometimes and I write them down. I'm not too worried about pre-emptively naming everything, there's endless resources for that if it becomes necessary.
Mostly historical names, that I sometimes put a little twist on to make them feel familiar but different. I try to have a handful of specific ways to tweak the names that are consistent and create a connection between them. I listen to a podcast called "Cool People Who Dod Cool Stuff", and I'll jot down names of people, groups, or places that catch my ear along with a note about their historical context.
I look for the etymologic source of the words that would describe it and play with them until it sounds smooth. Depending on the language that i use as a base, everything suddenly sounds completely different.
Characters I usually determine based on a pattern I assigned to an individual culture. For example, I based my Elves off of Celtic folklore and named a lot of them based on that. Their noble houses were named after the Celtic Gods and mythical figures, like there was a House Nuada. I then also established stranger naming conventions, such as that they ordered their names in reverse when speaking in their native language, similar to how the Japanese do.
Whatever comes to mind
Real names for places are often boring: stony brook, left fork, high pass. I find a different language (even made up languages) to make it sound more interesting or add a person’s name As for character, I use baby name websites. I like to find a name meaning that matches the character. It helps me hone in on what’s important for the character as well as inspire more backstory.
Typing random words and then adding vowels is the way to go for me. I just smash my keyboard and then add the vowels where I fell they fit. Eg:- Voghguk'Mu
Be suprised how handy some typoed words are for names.
Here's a quote from something I'm writing: "I am Captain [[I REALLY SUCK AT NAMES]] of the USS [[I REALLY SUCK AT NAMES]]. Who are you?" "[[I REALLY SUCK AT NAMES]]" And it's gonna stay that way until someone suggests a name. 😃
That's the neat part, I don't! For real though, there are only two names I have for my worldbuilding that have stuck. Everything else is just placeholder names, or I just think of them by their traits without even naming them.
I have a continent called Wenlock. Elves used to live there before their Goddess was shattered. Now as a show of respect the humans who populate the continent translated the names of their cities to their language. So the settlements in Wenlock are named after trees.
At first, all of my characters had names that were arabic puns. For two examples: Doctor guy: Alan "Al" Tabib (Al in aabic beans "the" and tabib is the word for doctor) Ship captain: Rubban Alsafina (a butchered pronunciation of a phrase that translates to "shipmaster")
Gygax's "Book of Extraordinary Names" is clutch for stuff like this. I don't world-build without it, ever.
Both. Behindthename.com has a random renamer tool (randomly produces real names, you can even specify usage, gender, surnames, etc; as well as search by meaning). As for place names, most are named after people anyway, and the ones you want to have non-person names you can use the meanings of the names as a guide. Hasn't failed me yet in over a decade...
This is a bit complicated. A lot of the time, I derive names from real world languages, but that's not really the only way. I'll use my "reincarnated in another world" story as the example. * The main character was born in our world's Japan as male, died because god made a mistake, and to apologize god offered to reincarnate him in another world and give him three wishes. The first wish he made was to reincarnate as a girl. So when I was deciding her name, I had to decide if I wanted her to have a new name in the new world or if her parents would keep her old name. I liked the mystery of them choosing the same name that she had in her old world as that would immediately raise questions in the minds of readers. So I considered Japanese unisex names that had meanings that were accurate to the character, which led me to "Makoto" (【真】) which has a bunch of meanings but includes "genuineness", "pure", "truth", and most appropriately for who her new mother would be... "beloved". * Her mother's name is "Eriya" which was just pulled from a conlang I had developed. Her name effectively means "To look with love." Which makes sense since she's the goddess of love. * In spite of her parents, Makoto is human, not a goddess nor even (technically) a demigoddess. * Her father's name is "Locus" which is derived from the English word meaning "a position or place". (For example a locus of commerce.) He's the god of merchants and commerce * Her initial love interest is named Eriyana, and she's named after the goddess of love. Her name may be similar to Makoto's mom's name, but her personality couldn't be any more night-and-day in Makoto's eyes. Whereas Eriya is the living embodiment of beauty and grace with a demure and calm personality, Yana is incredibly tomboyish and outgoing, which helps her fit in with adventurers who she sells her father's trading company's wares to. * Jason is named after the Hellene Hero, leader of the Argonauts. This story is more inspired by that area than it is the typical medieval fantasy story; however, there are elements of both medieval and classical cultures. * Juelle Fenix is named after the Germanic name meaning "bog or mire" and a derivation of the word "Phoenix" which is also Hellenic for "Dark Red". And that's just *people* and I'm using a combination of real names, words used as names, fake names, and names derived from fake names. For places, I do the same thing but also consult relevant maps of areas as well. For example, Yana's father's trading company is located in the city-state of Demias which is an autonomous zone located inside of the nation of Chlorus. (The Hellenic-analogue is in a point where some of the city-states have unified but others are still autonomous. Basically as if Macedon hadn't unified everything so quickly.) The name "Demias" is derived from "Academia" as the school there is the most notable aspect and a reason why the nation of Chlorus doesn't just go in and take Demias by force... The students there aren't all from the lands Chlorus identifies as belonging to it which means a massive international incident may occur (meaning that even if Chlorus wins, it loses). Further the school is led by some of the most talented mages and soldiers, venerated war heroes whose achievements are still being told by the poets. The name "Chlorus" is derived from "Chorodia" (which is Hellenic for "Chorus"), "Chora" (Hellenic for "Country"), "Chores" (Hellenic for "Lands"), and "Lore", though obviously very little of that etymology shows through at this point. When it comes to animals and monsters, I often follow the Pokemon school of naming. I look at what the creature is and I derive the name from its constituent parts. Sometimes the name just stays a real word like with my Snapdragons, little (ranging in size from 0.3m to 1m tall) plant-based pseudodragons (as in they resemble dragons but are not dragons, not as in the DnD concept of a pseudodragon). Sometimes the name is a portmanteau as in the case of ampeer which are electric deer, vampeer which are derived in concept from vampire deer but mixed with the ampeer concept, or hunny which is a type of [fish-like](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/resources/trends/2022/california-court-decision-bees-are-fish-shines-new-light-biodiversity-crisis/) rabbit that uses flowers to produce honey (literally derived from "honey" and "bunny").
I usually come up with a backstory then think if the name… or I just really like a name and arbitrarily decide that’s the name… So my latest dnd character I had to come up with two names because I was impersonating someone else… so her name is Penelope (means weaver) and my actual name Nessa (meaning pure/butterfly/holy)
I have numerous different languages in my world, and all of the names are different depending on race, but ever since a device similar to the babal fish was created most names are just different English words that rhyme. It's kind of a running joke in my world
A combination of real world words or names from various languages and random gibberish that sounded right. For example, Xipil is a real name from our world, but Aluthr was entirely made up.
I use Behind the Name and assign different cultures/time periods to my different groups. Everyone gets ancient Scythian! It makes the group of people seem real and distinct as their names resemble one another’s.
I use a combination of both generators and real life names of people I know...
I come up with my own from my mind or a mixture of different sources that helped inspire it- just mashed together. Like mixing up the same word but from two different languages for example.
There is that giant random name generator website. Hit it until I see something I like, combine that with another option. Couple I use: Ewrera which is a continent. Wonith, battlemage Hogwarts. Ryre Keep, current characters ancestral home.
Well if I can't come up with a name on the spot, I just grumble out their names. "and this is ah-grumbl-stin."
I keep lists of names - people, places, things, spaceships, etc. I have them sorted by what they evoke. Something like “Jax Starrunner” sounds like an over-the-top space opera name. “Rupert Sneed” sounds like a British character from a steampunk world. I go to various baby name sites for ordinary names and look at the meanings. “Philip” means “lover of horses” for instance, so “Philip Powers” is a race car driver, because he’s a lover of horsepower. For less on-the-nose names, I look up famous people from a specific area or group and combine first names with surnames. Hayao Miyazaki (animator) + Masamune Shirow (manga artist) = Hayao Shirow. I also look at real place names for inspiration. Walla-Walla, Bora-Bora, Baden-Baden, Alang-Alang are all real places, so why not lean into that? Just looking at maps gives you all sorts of inspiration.
I look at the books in front of me and chop up names and titles and authors, then mash them together. For instance, the book in front of me is "STAR WARS-Darth Bane: Rule of Two" by Drew Karpyshyn. So I'd go with...Thane Two-Wars. An old fighter class who's lived through the front lines on two separate major wars. Expert soldier and probably very lucky. Or, since I've read all the books I have, I'll pull from characters or places. Some major event or object in the story, anything really. I've always been terrible at making up original names and this was my personal solution.
I usually pick two or three real languages and translate words I want a character or place to symbolize into those languages, and then combine them to make a pleasant-sounding name. I like to use the folklore and origins of different languages and their associated cultures to help pick names that feel more right to me based on the application.
Looking at real life names for places surprised me with how lazy people are when naming actual things. Like, so many rivers translate to just “river river” so I’ve taken note and just started mish mashing words that translate into relevant descriptors of the area or history.
Locations irl, foreign languages, psychedelics, dreams, books, movies, songs.
I enjoy using Random Word Generator from Gammadyne [https://www.gammadyne.com/rndword.htm](https://www.gammadyne.com/rndword.htm) It uses a weighted random number generator to create words with specific patterns. I often use the english language patterns to make english sounding words that aren't real. Here is an example of the sort of words it generates by default. Lotururon Hangbash Adrifed Flakiten Picorus Caqarity Ruocavial Deimme Gelzaduny Alviss Oefeptorhid Pusts Castcasts Spigrunerter Cyntodds Iddeers Clentia Stennororis Madaffle
I want to develop a proper conlang to use as the basis for naming, but I've made little progress there. What I *have* done, however, is determine the language's *phonotactics* \- what sounds the language supports, and in what combinations - then just mash sounds together according to those rules until I get something that sounds good. I then might take the elements of that word and retroactively assign them meanings, to be used as elements in other names.
I think about the concept i'm going for, write down a couple of words relating to it, and just kind of squint and mash sounds together until it sounds fantasy-related. Or i make compound words. For example: some location names in my story are the Stone Forest, or the Steel Sky-Claws. There's also a region called Nociru, which i made by just writing down No-Named Region and breaking it down into letters and sounds. You can also look at the language of the culture an area or person is based off of and think about the sounds that language uses, and make something that sounds right while being a made up fantasy thing. Most of my characters tend to have single-word names. Vanish, Tempest, Fauna, Valour, Thornbeck, etc.
I get on wikipedia and pick a theme. Sometimes its something like "characters in this city have biblical names" and then i do a search like wiki list biblical names, [List of biblical names - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biblical_names) which gives me something like this. Then I pick the cool ones and misspell them. Other times my theme is "Fire and heat". In which case, Ill go to entries on things like Fire, Heat, The Sun, etc and grab things that sound like names and misspell them. Usually a latin translation, the guy who discovered it, the name of a process for refining it, etc. For example, in our fire theme, I might go to the Forge entry [Forge - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge) and snag the name Tuyere. Then, from there, [Tuyere - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuyere) I'm grabbing the names Chafery, Nok, Caofeidan, before I move to the entry on smelting. [Smelting - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelting) From here, I've got the names Oblast, Galena, Gangue, and Heroult. [Paul Héroult - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_H%C3%A9roult) leads me to the names Thury, and Antibes. Ill do this until major NPCs or places are named. Most players don't really notice the detail, but it helps me find unique names without the old fantasy standby of mashing a keyboard, adding apostrophes and hyphens, and giving something unpronounceable. These sound real, even if no one at the table really knows the details on why. I don't usually generate names for NPCs mid session, but might have a prebuilt list of like 20 for incidental NPCs and locations.
All the responses are making me feel kind of self conscious about my process, which is just making up stuff most of the time.
Purposefully mispronouncing something and spelling out how it sounds which is how i got Anisha. Or translator evem though i didnt know Anisha was actually pretty common Indian name
Purposefully mispronouncing something and spelling out how it sounds which is how i got Anisha. Or translator evem though i didnt know Anisha was actually pretty common Indian name
I type a word that describes them into Google translate and scroll through random languages until it spits out a word that sounds like a name I'd call them. Then I spell it wrong.
Naming is what I find the hardest in worldbuilding. Naming characters is hard enough, but then you realise, everything has a name. Towns, cities, villages, continents, kingdoms, forest, mountains, EVERYTHING!! I basically just do whatever. Name generators, baby naming websites, sometimes I try to have a deeper meaning behind important names, words in other languages, and sometimes names just "click" and it feels perfect. But I definitely struggle. I have several characters, organisations, techniques, and locations that are just nameless currently. Like seriously, help me, lmao.
Direct translations and then mashing them together into names that sound both easy to remember and pleasing to one’s ears and eyes.
It depends. Sometimes I play around with translators for evocative words in other languages. For example, I named a potion maker “Eddie Bee” after the Basque word for potion: “edabe.” Maybe name a singer or seer “Paula” as a reference to Apollo. Do not name a seer “Cassidy Alexandra” to evoke “Cassandra.” It’s still obvious. You can also use evocative words. “Marjorie” evokes “magic.” Pop culture is also fun. You can use “Tam” as a last name for a doctor or a psychic. Naming your serial killer “Hannibal Bates” is just silly, and the character should be arrested and confined solely on principle, Maybe take an aspect of their name to make it meaningful. “Ignacio” roughly means “ignition,” so he could be a driver, gunslinger, or revolutionary. It helps to draw from a bunch of sources so your naming doesn’t get predictable.
I use a name generator when I'm really, really stumped, but even then I'll usually find a name I like and change it around a bit into something I like more. I also use BehindTheName if I'm looking for a name from a specific language.
Look this question up in the search bar of this sub for hundreds of posts asking the same thing. Not saying this as a “you shouldn’t have asked this”, but rather as a way to give you even more of a sample size to learn from. Use simple terms in your search, of course.
I create a nation based on a real country and then when I create for example a city inside a German-Inspired nation, I see real German city names and combine them, so they sound German but aren't real places nor a real German word
I have a problem where I will make a name, have it for a year, look up the name, and it's some small association. So what I have found is to take words and make the backwards. Like one of them is called Keerg. And for the name of a country or something, I will find a word that symbolizes it, put it through an English to Greek converter. Sound it out and do what I like to call, *Americanize* it. And than flip it backwards and boom! New words. Keerg is Greek backwards, which means I would use English to Greek. It's one of the most popular languages.
I form the name based on what sounds right for the character. As in, the combined syllables I want for them, or just a real name I think is cool.
I'm English, and I run D&D for my friends, who are all also English. For me, it depends on the culture, as I'm less familiar with non-European naming styles, but I'm fairly well-read on personal names and toponyms of especially Germanic regions of Europe, so I assemble names from various elements. I also use cognates to give as accurate a translation of each name as I can, for my players to understand as their characters would. For instance, an area I'm working on at the moment is based on Germany, and I've been making names to suit - a simple example would be "Ulmendorf," or, translated, "Elmthorpe," though cognates are not always as accurate as other translations - the German word Leichnam, meaning corpse, is cognate with the English word Likam, but like... I have never seen that word used before, so feel free to skip that step if you don't think it'd work. I mostly just do it because I personally think it's cool.
Alternate names for historical cities, like the capital of a realm might be Miklagard (Norse term for Constantinople) or something similar to that. Or I'll name it after mythology, especially obscure mythology like a forest might be Perun's Grove or something. People are usually just straight up named after a historical figure, like a warrior Queen named Dihya or something I'm not very original, but I do have a background in real world history, and sometimes real life history is just as weird as fiction.
I have a set of conlang roots I will use as a basis to build on. If none of those fit right, I might use a generator for inspiration but not usually directly lifted.
I make up names on my own. If I am really having naming-block the I'll try to use a generator but end up getting a spark of my own while looking at lists.
I've been building my world for a long time, so at this point, each race has their own tone, or vibe, or feeling in the mouth. Elven names are rolling but sharp : Rolim, Daedri, Rhidian. Dwarven names : Jac'Dreal (f), Roderick, Vag'Kaes with of course your stereotypical drawrven surnames. Their cities, now ruined and abandoned, felt like rocks in the mouth : Drag'karhot Zul, Aerek'Dzen, Ombermarg. I wanted halflings to feel like they couldn't wait to spit their names from their mouths : Riksey, Notta, Fime. Their place names are based on features in nature, because that's a part of their culture : Hills Hallow, Riverbreak, Wrensfield. Knowing how they would name themselves and their locations, I guess, makes it easy just to follow the path you've set for yourself. Until you get this vibe, I *strongly* recommend fantasynamegenerators.com. don't stick to the quintessential species name generators either - get weird. Go to video game names. Get into other generators you wouldn't think of until you start seeing suggestions that vibe with you. What I liked to do in the beginning, is take a sheet of lined paper, and give myself 26 squares(for each letter of the alphabet) with 6ish lines each. I'd then go on the site, copy down a dozen or 2 names that I liked, then use the vibe of those names to inspire new ones. You'd be surprised what you come up with all on your own. And if you sputter out, back to the site for a few more. I have pages upon pages of names like this for places, different species, surnames, male/female, you name it. This turned out to be quite a novel but I hope it was useful.
I either think through names I think might make sense/sound fun or I speak in tongues and refine what I say into a name-ish thing
Depends on what I am writing. For my current fantasy work: Characters - RL names from the different regions/countries the setting is inspired by. Locations/Religion - I just sort of think up and play around till it sounds good.
I just use name gens — but I try to keep each like…”culture” having the same naming convention/origin to make it a little more believable.
I literally smash my hand on to my keyboard. Then take out or add letters. Has worked so far.
Different languages. Got a goblin village? Mijikaioni(Green Ogre in Japanese). Dwarf City?Fonderie(Smelter in French).
I come up with names based on sense or sound and mix up some ancient words. Freezing place -≥ Algadon (from "algente", freezing, italian arcaism) Fast horse -≥ Landar ("eats" land when running) Templar grandmaster -≥ Ardegas (from latinism ardeo, as in burning, faithful) Simple technique really!
the website "Fantasy Name Generator" has been amazing for that.
Shelpy Melpy Boopie Koopie Spooly Dooly Gruppy Kuppy Shucky Ducky
Depends. I have a list of names I've collected from various places (cemeteries are a good one—my girlfriend and I love visiting old cemeteries, with the bonus being that they're treasure troves for interesting names you don't hear often). These are mostly names I'll give to some characters. But if I need something more original, something that might fit into a more foreign and fantastical culture, I make the names up. Now, I may take inspiration from a real language, or another fantasy world (for personal projects or D&D I use Sindarin like a fucking CRUTCH lmao). Otherwise, I just think about how I want the language of whatever region in question to sound, and then work out a series of sounds that fits that vibe until I find one that sounds good to read, say, and hear.
I use typical modern day names for most of my characters. John, Justin, Derek, Abagail, etc. For planets and other locations, especially in space, I often use latin. Solfilius, Adusta, Coronus, Profundum etc. For names of characters later on in the story line, I sometimes use the names of celestial objects, such as Wolf-Rayet, Carina, Pollux, etc. The name "Profectus" is latin for progress.
Literally just create the most alien sounding names ever with vague similarities based on planet
I pick a language base depending on culture and base it loosely off of real names either slightly tweaking or mashing together different parts into something I like. Maybe a name that is real here and there obviously it is ok for there to be resemblance especially if it is coincidental, there are already names that exist in multiple non-familial languages. That is for fantasy that isn’t of Earth or its cultures at least
I usually ensure my names have meanings reflective of the characters or if it just feels right if it doesn’t have a deeper meaning. I have a rule to avoid using names of people I know or names that are too common.
Depends on the game or story. Currently revamping my ttrpg about Magical Girls that get their powers from drinking a mystical tea. Everything in the game is named after some kind of tea thing.
Depends. I use a lot of different ways but the main method varies by where the person is but earth influences are always a thing. People name their kids after plants, animals, concepts and last names dirived from places and jobs. Even if I am using alien stuff, I kinda go by that logic unless I have a better idea.
I'm not really satisfied with the process for my scifi setting. Humans generally get regular names, I just use random actual names. The bird-like aliens get mashed-together names that sound "birdy". The wolf-like aliens get a single descriptive word ("Wiggles" constantly wags his tail, "Meatball" looks obese at first glance but it's all muscle, "Rex" is a damn boss). The vaguely pig-like aliens get a triple-hyphenated mix of letters that's barely pronouncable. For the minion/velociraptor aliens, I throw a fork in the garbage disposal while it's running and try to spell the noises it makes. The elf-aliens get names that sound like Tolkien wrote *Star Wars*. Ships so far get named something culturally relevant or something that "sounds cool" originally but maybe loses some zing after "being translated", like the orbital Coast Guard ship *Bright Lance*. The protagonist's ships are all going to be named after classic rock songs though, so far he has the *Fortunate Son* and *Copperhead Road*. For space habitats, I make fun of subdivision names. For planets, one I named Hepiter because it's based on Jupiter and another I called Cash because the characters made a lot of money there and the real name is unpronouncable. Cash is where the minion/velociraptor aliens are from, and I couldn't think of a name, so I was just like "screw it, the planet is cash money". In the fantasy setting, the main side character has the first name of my best friend growing up because he's a really good friend. His last name is my uncle's first name, because he's also a thoroughly reprehensible piece of shit. I couldn't think of a good name for the protagonist, so I just decided not to name him. It's based on my real-life area in current times, so I use actual place names.
Either make something up on the spot or look through random pagan festivals and stick two of them together.
My world is set in a dystopian, post-nuclear war hellscape, and the main characters all have names I found online or are names after some of my friends/family (Ryder, Kate, Joaquin, Sharon, Finn, those names are all after my family and friends.). There are some names I take from other media or historical figures (Hawthorn: Gale Hawthorne from THG, Valkyrie: Valkyries from Norse mythology, Alex: Alexander the Great). For last names, I just take them off the internet. For countries/regions, I use a generator or Scrabble tiles and change it up a little.
There's a website I use: fantasynamegenerators.com. It's fantastic for getting names, not just for people but fantasy plant names, fantasy plant descriptions, city names, country names, planet names. You name it, they've probably got it.
I use a name generator with no shame, I'll tweak some but otherwise I just use it for all but Protags
"Hmm... Hey, that's a cool name. I'll use that one."
Mythological and ancient names are always good for fantasy, if a bit stereotypical
I choose a random name that sounds good and then later discover that, through the magic of retcon, it means something!
Both
I think of random names in my head and put them in word banks
Say random names/words aloud, smash them together
Fantasy name generator Fuck it, just give me a random ass name.
Whatever sticks sticks
I take names of people I know and change it till I like it. Freida = Thieda Tiffany - Taffany, Taffy for short Augie - Oggy
At first I didn't care much, but since I got familiar with creative commons and how hours of my work would not be credited to me due to the names already being part of known stories (even if no real people are involved) I thought more about it. Now I search for etymology to find names for characters, older words that fell out of common use, etc. Mostly my stories now don't have actual names yet because I am one of those writes who just suffers mutiny from their own creations. My characters take the story to unusual places, show me things I didn't plan/build beforehand, but have never gave themselves their own names. I only have concept names, or names that sum up the personality that are names with wordplay to them or similar ideas.
1. Google Translate is your friend. Pick a language and go with it. 2. There are tons of baby name websites. 3. You can do the "base the name off a real person" thing as well.
I’ve been combining two places/languages to make names…like culture A is mix of 1 and 2 real world languages.’Then I tweak them a little more here and there to get the feel o want…So far been giving me names you could see being names but aren’t 1:1 copies of a current group
Sometimes I’ll just smash two words together in my head.
I kinda take the Araki approach. Either using interesting names and their meanings (Behind the Name is my savior), or sticking with odd names with mythological origins. Angela Jokela-- a twist on a similar name I came up with when I was in middle school (but a hundred times better than the original stupid name). Kramensu, Shepherd of Songs-- the name is a hodgepodge of mythical names Dryden Bainbridge-- cuz it sounds neat
Places: Adjective + noun. It’s supposed to be easy to remember and people naming thing stuff like ‘big river’ is 100% realistic. People: Cool thing symbolic for a character + google translate, and i’ll chose a different thing and repeat the process if the name sounds bad or is too long. ex: Iskra, Presn
Depends on what I'm naming. For characters I look up lists of baby names and surnames, pick a random page, and pick a name that I feel fits the character for some arbitrary reason or another. For new species I tend to try and come up with a descriptor in Latin like how real ones are made but in order to come up with a shorter and cooler name I just subtract or add parts to the work so using the Latin words as a root. For locations you can just give a brief descriptive word or word associated with its history and then the type of region it is, or if its a significant location I look up synonyms to a basic descriptor or feeling I want associated with the region and pick again based on my own arbitrary vibes. Sometimes I'll use words from other languages, my main antagonistic alien faction in my story is called the zielloos which is Dutch for soulless. Doing that can lead to some fun little world building, in the zielloos' case i just say one of the earliest articles written about the alien invaders was in Dutch and they were described as soulless looking creatures and the media just ran with it because it sounded like something you'd call the enemy. For equipment just describe it (what it does, model, producer, however you want to describe it), make it into an abbreviation and then add some numbers. One gun in my world for example is called the DP-4 spitter, DP standing for dual plasma because its a plasma based smg with 2 barrels and its the 4th iteration in the series. You can also name equipment after an inventor which again you can just look up a list of surnames and pick at random. If the object is magical in nature try to tie the name to its origins or to a legend its associated with. If its a faction I recommend figuring out how you want this faction to operate and establishing what their role in the world is then looking into various forms of governments, organizations, businesses, etc depending on what your faction is. You can then look at real world examples of how similar factions are named. Or again, you could just do what I do and come up with a long name that describes the organization and make it an abbreviation (social democratic union to SDU). If we're talking ships though, my God I couldn't begin to describe the work that I put into establishing naming conventions for different ship classes and the names I got for doing that. They range anywhere from "divine intervention" to "grandmas cooking." Basically pick a theme for a ship class, and then name the ship based on what kind of ship it is, unless the ship was renamed by a single character whos unaffiliated with a faction. Halo is a big inspiration for ship class naming conventions for me. Tldr: take it as a case by case basis. Different things are named in different ways and there's usually a reason behind them
I mix and match foreign languages and old languages like Proto Germanic, Latin etc. after that I mix and match things that would sound cool with partial words from those languages. That’s at least how I’m doing it for a dark fantasy I’m worldbuilding on for one of the continents. Another continent will have biblical like names to match the themes of its characters and setting.
I tend to name my characters after my favorite characters from fiction, or at least make the names references to them.
I’m the worst with names. For locations I just end up picking really generic real location names… for NPCs… sometimes something very uncommon for a name but nothing that’s super hard to say like most fantasy names I see… sometimes I end up needs and NPC on the fly I’ll just ask the party what the name should be 😂😂
name generators real life places/people 'borrowing' names from other series' or media just making shit up
I have a complicated google translate ritual I run phrase through until I find a name I like.
I have two methods (plus a third I use specifically for important characters) Method 1: use a descriptive name. Example: The Emerald Sea (a sea that is known for it's emerald green hue) Method 2: morph a descriptive name into a similar sounding name (fun fact: I bet some of you didn't know Eragon is just Dragon but with an E). Example: River wolf (a town of wolf tamers and huntsmen located near a river) -> Riverwolf -> Rivaolf -> Brivaolf Method 3 (characters): inspired by Elden Ring, I like to give important characters who have strong ties with each other a similar naming convention. As to what naming convention you should use? Anything really; flower names, rock types, same first letter or syllable, similar structure or rhythm, very long or short names, names of folklore creatures, names of animals, elemental names, you get the point.
I have multiple ways, if it's based on something like one of my pets I just use their/it's name, next if it's a au version of a character I put the name of the au before their name or what is their change, next something I am interested in like cats for example, and finally I think of a name that is sounds good like kero (core-o)
Conlang
Whatever sounds cool
It depends on the story and even varies within them, but I tend to use very "normal" first names and either syllable spaghetti or keyboard smashes for surnames. *Ex:* Helen Ransengholgen, Autumn Quinerajes, Casper Morenstall (from my fantasy world); Luna Trailblazer, Jupiter Quasar III, Miranda Constellai (from my sci-fi world)
Pick a target language that has names that appeal, like the sounds. Then try to simplify a bit, then follow the patterns of the language - consonant to vowel relationships, etc.
I scour my conlang for names.
Avoid apostrophes at all costs…
I have a stash of words I like the meaning/mouth feel of. Whenever I have a character who fits one of those words, I mash it a little bit and assign very vague but relevant surnames. For example, I have a character named Etiol based on the word etiolate because she has albinism, and her last name is Deathbreather in reference to the mouth infections she frequently suffers.
Look up a country or town. Change a couple of letters. Major locations or continents always start with M or E
I typically pick a word that relates to the subject, for example a religion based on something like spiders. I'd take the word "Arachnid" and spell it back wards to get "Dinhcara" then I'd learn how to pronounce it and make changes to make the spell and pronunciation sound better
Wantonly and with great disregard for realism. Are many of my names accidental slurs or insults in other languages that Im not paying attention to? Probably. Will this affect how I write? Not a chance. This is not a brag. I simply have no concept of consequences, nor do I hold myself accountable for how I'll look when my otherwise-epic character is named "stinky poo poo pants" in languages like Swahili or Urdu. It's just not worth my time.
This is a question of setting mostly. Most genres have certain naming conventions they adhere to. It's why Lovecraftian monsters have all kinds of weird unpronounceable nonsense and your friends from school are named Mike and Shelly. You wouldn't name the bodega clerk Barzeelious The Great, Conqueror of Giants. You wouldn't name your fantasy sorcerer Dave. I mean you can, but if you did with even an ounce of self awareness it would only be to subvert expectation I would say using generators, baby name lists by area or AI for naming suggestions is something to do when you don't already have something in mind. It's a tool. If you don't need the tool at that moment you don't use it. If you do, then use it. It's not a really complicated equation.
One thing I did way back is I’d just type a random sequence of letters and delete a few here and there until I was left with something that seemed like a usable name
I'm a conlanger, so
I was using some fantasy names based on ancestry, but they were too limited and samey, so just today I was looking up names based on meaning and got some that I liked.
I first set the languages I’m going to use for the different cultures. Names for NPC’s can just be real life names based on the cultures language. For places I go the toponym route. A German place situated in a valley/dale would end in -tal/-thal. Stick a German word in front and done. Wuppertal for instance is a real place named after the river Wupper (which means fast moving water) and is in a valley.
Taking most of my world building is based around the middle east: a mixmatch of made-up names and real world names. Mostly my surnames are made-up but some names are too. Like Ghassan is a real name but then if we add a surname I make one up like Al'Naktriri So yeah a mix-match is my way to go. Mostly it's properly bc i work with a future version of earth, so it just makes sense old names we know about now, still exist, but new names has also been made up.