Despite its great reputation, I found "The Day of the Locust" unreadable because I couldn't move beyond a major character named Homer Simpson.
I had the same problem with Family Guy.
What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
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Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#12There is a practical consideration worth keeping in mind with names: they distinguish characters from each other.
I found One Hundred Years of Solitude virtually incomprehensible because it features an enormous cast of characters whose names are all similar.
There is José Arcadio Buendía, José Arcadio, Arcadio, Aureliano José, 17 (!) other characters named Aureliano, José Arcadio Segundo and José Arcadio (II) (who is not Segundo).
Aureliano Buendía, Aureliano Segundo and Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II) (again, different dude from Segundo), and Aureliano (III).
Úrsula Iguarán, Amaranta Úrsula, and Amaranta.
Remedios Moscote, Remedios the Beauty, and Renata Remedios.
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#13As a writer, I live and die by this site : http://www.behindthename.com/random/
Pick an ethnicity and just hit random until something fits the character.
I usually don't use the exact name, but it puts me in the right neighborhood of what I want. After that I can tweak it.
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#14Thomas Pynchon is a great inventor of names. From "The Crying of Lot 49" alone, we have: Oedipa Maas Wendell "Mucho" Maas John Nefastis Stanley Koteks Mike Fallopian ...and so forth. Granted, the humour in "Lot 49" is a little more juvenile than, say, "Against the Day".
A couple of years ago, I happened to think about the baseball player Al Kaline, and it struck me that I would have rolled my eyes had I seen his name in one of Pynchon's novels.
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#15There is a practical consideration worth keeping in mind with names: they distinguish characters from each other . I found One Hundred Years of Solitude virtually incomprehensible because it features an enormous cast of characters whose names are all similar. There is José Arcadio Buendía, José Arcadio, Arcadio, Aureliano José, 17 (!) other characters named Aureliano, José Arcadio Segundo and José Arcadio (II) (who i…
I absolutely loved that book. I think the key is to not put it down... If you read it in a very short period of time, it's easier not to get mixed up.
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#16I read Brandon Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive" and "Mistborn" series, and I couldn't stop thinking about how awkward the names sounded, from Kaladin to Kelsier. It repeatedly took me out of the scene. Meanwhile, the team behind Morrowind seemed to have an uncanny ability to produce names that just felt completely right. Somebody responded to my random thoughts on the topic with this very sound summary: > Morrowind's…
I am nearly finished with The Way of Kings . At first the names struck me as odd, but then again lots of stuff did. Giant crustaceans? People with foot-long eyebrows? Gem spheres used as both currency and lamps? Over time I got used to the names. Actually, I remember one part where Sanderson describes how in the Vorinism religion symmetry is very important, and that the best names are symmetrical or almost symmetrica…
I think The Stormlight Archive should get a slight pass on the oddities of people, creatures and cultures. The Stormlight Archive is aiming to be an epic that is established in a world of disparate cultures and fantastic creatures.
The idea is that culture is very centric to an area and its peoples. Once you leave that area, even if it's only 2 or 3 days by carriage, you transition to a distinct cultural shift. It's as if England and Japan were only separated by 100 miles, but you hit Egypt, Germany, Nigeria, Romania and Mexico along the way. Thus you get a large homogeneous population with their status quo and beliefs alongside markedly different people intermixed.
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#17One of the things I like about Gene Wolfe's writing is that he doesn't make up words, and I believe that this extends to names as well. Severian, Vodalus, Palaemon, Thecla, Dorcas are all names used in Book of the New Sun that already exist in the historical record.
In Book of the Long Sun, at least in the city where the story takes place, the men are named for animals or animal products (Silk, Horn, Musk, Remora), the women for plants or plant products (Mint, Rose, Hyacinth, Mucor), and the androids for minerals or other non-living things (Marble, Hammerstone).
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#18I read a lot of scifi and have generally been impressed by the naming. I dislike Cratylic names when they're trite but authors like Phillip K. Dick and Gene Wolfe manage to pull them off. Neal Stephenson uses them humorously in Snowcrash (the protagonist's name is 'Hiro Protagonist'). I can't say I'm a fan of Asimov's names in the Foundation series - not Cratylic, just a bit off sounding. "Bayta Darrell" doesn't give the same brain-feeling as "Severian" or "Paul Atreides".
Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#19Some of my favourite are the ship names in Ian Banks' culture series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cult...
They're all great, but here are some examples
* Only Slightly Bent
* God Told Me To Do It
* Ethics Gradient
* I Blame My Mother
* I Blame Your Mother
* Poke It With A Stick
* Don't Try This At Home
* Contents May DifferRe: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters
#20When writing fiction, way back when, I'd just flip open a phone book, point, and run with it.