What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters • Hacker News Board

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#21

Post by RodericDay » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:32 PM UTC

noxToken wrote: post #16

emddudley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is precisely why "Kaladin the Paladin" (he doesn't actually fit the archetype, but it's close) takes me out of it. It's not that it's too weird, it's that it's not weird enough.

Plus they call him "Kal". It's relying just as heavily as Morrowind was on pre-existing expectations, just different ones (worse ones, imo).

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#22

Post by dang » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:39 PM UTC

cgh wrote: post #7

Thomas 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".

He is indeed a brilliant namer. I love Reverend Cherrycoke from Mason & Dixon. It's so perfectly 18th century a name.

But if we're talking about The Crying of Lot 49 let's not forget Genghis Cohen, subject of a public spat at the time!

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/thomas_pynchon_punctures_...

While Pynchon's smackdown is devastating, I can't help but feel that he would have written a better one in later years. Actually it would be better if he had simply stopped at "that is another problem entirely". "Perhaps more psychiatric than literary" is clever, but at that point he's bludgeoning.

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#23

Post by kbenson » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:42 PM UTC

ry_ry wrote: post #11

JackFr wrote: post #2

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.

That's sort of the point of satire. Family guy isn't just making fun of current events and society, it's also making fun of it's source material and the way it makes fun of current events. Peter is Homer taken to the extreme, such that when you question why Lois would stay with such an ass, you're forced to consider the lesser, but still relevant case of Marge staying with Homer (which to its credit the Simpsons have addressed a few times).

That said, Family guy really just used the template as a springboard, it's more about the absurdity of life and our culture than the Simpsons, which relies heavier on social commentary.

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#24

Post by Kalium » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

RodericDay wrote: post #4

I 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 think this person managed to both hit upon and miss a key point.

> It's a mess and it makes it difficult to figure out what this world is when there doesn't seem to be any natural way those names could have emerged in one culture. It's fucking weird.

I think that's the point. There's nothing natural about that culture. It's very much artificially imposed over what had been a set of distinct and different cultures. The apparently nonsensical naming is traces of that showing.

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#25

Post by ishigami » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

Terr_ wrote: post #5

I remember the introduction to Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, which explains (or perhaps defends) the familiar names of not just alien characters, but their measures and objects: > Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you. Those words shoul…

I thought the "problem" with Nightfall is not that Asimov used "human" words instead of "Alien words", rather that there seemed to be almost one-to-one correspondence between the Earthly things and Kalgash. Kalgashians act exactly the same as humans on Earth(or rather 50s Earth) and have a concept of newspaper :)

> If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherever it says "hours," and "sleshtraps" where it says "eyes." Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make no difference when the Stars come out.

That reminds me of "How Things Are Made" from Rick and Morty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#26

Post by danielvf » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:49 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #12

There 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…

Try Hiwaiian history some time. With only twelve letters in the alphabet, and every important persons name starting with a K....

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#27

Post by Terr_ » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 6:57 PM UTC

ishigami wrote: post #25

Terr_ wrote: post #5

I remember the introduction to Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, which explains (or perhaps defends) the familiar names of not just alien characters, but their measures and objects: > Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you. Those words shoul…

I thought the "problem" with Nightfall is not that Asimov used "human" words instead of "Alien words", rather that there seemed to be almost one-to-one correspondence between the Earthly things and Kalgash. Kalgashians act exactly the same as humans on Earth(or rather 50s Earth) and have a concept of newspaper :) > If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherev…

I thought it was a wonderful parody of the How It's Made videos.

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#28

Post by Apocryphon » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 7:03 PM UTC

Is this the right comment thread to talk about how bad names are in Star Wars, at least ever since... Episode II came out? And the names in the new trilogy so far sound worse than even in the prequels.

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#29

Post by cgh » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 7:04 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #22

cgh wrote: post #7

Thomas 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".

He is indeed a brilliant namer. I love Reverend Cherrycoke from Mason & Dixon. It's so perfectly 18th century a name. But if we're talking about The Crying of Lot 49 let's not forget Genghis Cohen, subject of a public spat at the time! http://dangerousminds.net/comments/thomas_pynchon_punctures_... While Pynchon's smackdown is devastating, I can't help but feel that he would have written a better one in later years.…

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea this even happened. As you're surely aware, in 1966, Pynchon was still only 29 (an incredible fact, at least to me), so that might explain the lack of subtlety.

Another great namer was Mervyn Peake, author of the fabulous "Gormenghast" series. From it, we have:

Lord Sepulchrave Groan

Fuschia Groan

Titus Groan

Steerpike

Swelter, the enormous chef

Dr. Alfred Prunesquallor

Mr. Flay

...and too many more to mention. Any lovers of literary, surrealist grotesquerie should read this series.

Re: What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters

#30

Post by livingparadox » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

searine wrote: post #13

As 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.

I started out generating names out of whole cloth, but eventually, it just got easier to designate certain groups as using a certain ethnic set of names and roll away. I run through the list instead of picking random, though, because I like to imagine the people naming their children with intent.