Naming Revisited

Since I did touch on naming in the last post, I figured I'd get into it a bit more. Obviously over time, I've figured it's really tough to find the perfect name. And... I'm one to obsess over the name sounding and looking correct for whoever I imagine the character to be (personality wise, job wise, etc.)

On top of that, I really can't just leave a blank space where a name will eventually be placed. Oh I've tried it before, but leaving large underscored areas drive me nuts. So basically I know I've got to spend the time (sometimes hours) coming up with the name or I won't be able to work that story until I have the name.

It's not always character names. It's also book names and technology names. Also alien species names, alien foods, and alien worlds. I could go on and on for ages about different types of names.

I'm still working on a couple alien species names. Hopefully I'll figure it out in the next few days. One's a tad more important than the other since the character is about to be introduced. Yay mixing rhino's with pompoms and some other cool stuff. I know it sounds strange but it took nearly 200 words to work out the details.

And with that alien story, my rhino character might turn out to be a main player in a separate book down the road. Just need to introduce a few more characters that would play a large role in his book. But then again, it's a long way off. I only have just over 10k written in book one when it will probably be in the 50k + range.

So where do I figure out these names?

A lot of them I find through random name generators. Some I like a name and change, others I take half of one name and combine with half of another. Another source of inspiration is from ancient god/goddess names. Usually the minor ones. Once I find names I like, I tend to put them on a list for future reference down the road.

Back to my alien story, I used all three of the above. My main character is a hacker. Her name is Nikole but often goes by Niki. I saw a variation in a random name generator and it fit with my description of her. Her hacker name though is Nyx (a minor goddess of darkness). Her best friend, Rebecca or Becca for short is just something I came up with. The rhino alien (species name unknown) is going to be called Gnufie and I do have a god reason for such a funky name. Another random name generator modified name.

Well I'm ranting now, so I'll stop. Hope this helps someone with naming. It's actually my weakest point in writing... figuring out names.

xoxo Rachel/Indigo