“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”
That’s what the Bard had to say about names in Romeo and Juliet. That’s right! I just went Shakespeare on you all! By the way, you’re supposed to know that “The Bard” means Shakespeare. It’s a thing.
I hate coming up with names. It’s not for nothing that Cyran goes unnamed in Tale of the Tinkerwood. Trying to find the perfect name for a character isn’t always as easy as it seems (unless you’re writing a biographical piece). Fantasy names are even harder. If you’re not careful you get gibberish.
Every so often I’ll brainstorm names and keep them for later use.
There are different ways I use to come up with names. One is to take a common name and play with it. Like Cyran was based on the name Cyrus. Another is just to throw sounds together (like Popkin). I use that one sparingly, because more often than not, the names I come up sound like they’re for a villain (Curse you, Horvath!).
With so many names out there, inevitably some of the names you “made up” turn out to be real. Cyran is apparently an unusual variant of the name Corin meaning “spear.” There was an American Idol contestant named Todrick Hall. And while on the subject of Idol, one of the Canadian Idol judges was Sass Jordan (but that’s more of a nickname…her real name is Sarah).
Some names are happy mistakes. Years ago, I mistook the name “Latara” for “Nektara” (they sound TOTALLY alike, I know).
Now I can also use the internet. Baby name websites are invaluable. You can search by origin (I’m partial to Celtic and Gaelic names).
Sometimes, your friends will come up with a name that you end up using even if you don’t spell it the same way (The Oonch!).
And then there are just names you dig, like Barnaby and Zoë (the umlaut is important).
Whichever way you go about it, once you start calling a character by a certain name, you soon find that you couldn’t imagine calling him by any other name.
- Cyran
- Sass
- Mouser
- Red Rich
- Barnaby
- Todrick
- Nektara
- Big Oonch
- Zoë
- Popkin
- Deema
- Copley