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Real life last names are often based off physical descriptions (Brown, White, Young), occupations (Smith, Cooper, Farmer), locations (Newtown, Underwood, Churchhill), or lineage (Davidson, MacArthur, O'Connor). This is because they originally were just a way to differentiate people with the same first name. "Jack, son of Connor" became "Jack O'Connor", "David the smith" -> "David Smith". A fantasy book could use occupations, locations, descriptions, etc that don't exist in real life as the basis for some of their last names.
Great advice.
Rias Gremory from Gemory; Teresa de Larsenberg from Larsenberg; Vegeta from Planet Vegeta.
@@FindingMomo2317 With Vegeta this goes even further, as it's also the name of the dynasty (his father and persumably grandfather also wore the name of the planet, which begs the question: Did they name themselves after the planet? Did the planet's name change with the name of the dynasty? Is "Vegeta" as a name for the dynasty actually an exonym coined by Frieza and Vegeta sr. just adopted it as name for his son? Also I love how all Saiyan names relate back to Vegeta in being vegetables. With Frieza, the usurpator being named after a place to store vegetables in. Toriyama did great work with creative naming.)
And you can aways play with contraction and fusion. The same way some towns and places get named. Sometimes it will be ugly as hell. But its trial and error (and lets be honest, some surnames are ugly)
I belive Voldemort is a combination of three french words: ”Vol” meaning flight, ”de” meaning from/of and ”mort” meaning death. So Flight/Escape From Death. Pretty fitting. Also, the ”t” in ”mort” should be silent, but according to Rowling the audiobooks made the slip and the name stuck as we prononce it now.
Vol means the act to fly (for a bird for example) or to steal but not to run/escape in french though, so "vol de mort" can't be translated to "escape from death" but maybe it's what the author intended and she got confused. As a french kid reading the book the name always seemed a little weird to me, but she also called Voldemort's followers Death Eaters ("Mangemort" in french) so doesn't make a lot of sense either. Fun fact, in french Draco is called Drago and Snape is called Rogue and I can't understand why they changed their names
James Jonah Jameson
Oh yeah, the editor of the newspaper in Spiderman. Nice alliteration!
Wait-I misremembered it: J. Jonah Jameson. The J is John.
@@Bookfox And let's not forget his son's name: J. Jonah Jameson, Jr. :)
5:32 When you said "Reverse the first and last name", I was thinking of the book, "Holes". The main character is named Stanley Yelnats III. Everyone in that family liked how their last name was "Stanley" spelled backwards.
I was inspired by Gravity Falls in the episode featuring "The Duchess Approves" starring Stirley Stempleburgiss as The Duchess, and Grampton St. Rumpterfrapple as "that irascible coxswain" Saunterbloggett Hampterfuppinshire (gowns by Pepé). Not only is it hilarious to quote, it says pretty much all you need to know about the movie.
If nothing else, it kinda got me out of a rut. I had a character name I thought would be funny (a talking panther named Salifidactilomu-Terrisnadica-Nappinoptrica-Tommisan) and struggled for years with the thought that it was a stupid name, and no self-respecting author would use it (I was, like, ten. Still dealing with a lot of issues from that time period).
And, I mean, it *is* kind of an obnoxious name to write out every time, but, you know, sometimes you need permission to be obnoxious and go from there.
I have a character named General Leonel Barrett Mathias Henderson-Little but everyone refers to him as Leo
Love it, actually
I'm a big fan of anagrams just as a starting point, best way to make up convincing sounding words
I still maintain that a boring name can work.
I recall a world-famous super spy that was named after a bird watcher.
I always think of this when considering plain names.
My husband and I have a joke about how "Jones" works with every silly word you can think of. Now, a character in my current WIP is a big-hearted hillbilly named Cornbread Jones.
Ooooo, I LOVE Cornbread as a name. And yes -- Jones always works. Except for Spock.
I accidentally named a character in a short, serialized story with my pen name and a reader commented "Seems a bit self-inserty" but actually I just love that name so much I used it twice lol
Best option:
Keyboard mashing and changing a letter or two here and there.
I did this and got "King Wader" from kjinj;ng wasdrdfs
I thought that the smoking X-files character was also called Cancer Man... 🤷
Great video!
Yep! And his real name was C.G.B Spender but idk if they ever found out his full name, keeping with the mystery aspect
4:33 Another alliteration: Hiccup Horrendus Haddock III from the "How to Train your Dragon" books. Here is also captures a personality. It is supposed to sound scary and imposing, which is ironic since he is not that.
love this. “the kid” from Blood Meridian came to mind when you mentioned avoiding proper names. thanks for making this! super helpful & enjoyable to watch!
In my Realm series there's a mix of fantastical (Androcles, Theoderick) and traditional (Isabella, Anthony) names. Since it's a world where magic exists, and the Seven Deadly Sins have corporeal form, but it's also about finding your strengths I felt it made sense.
I was just thinking "Theoderick" sounds very familiar to me, and looked it up.
There was a king of the Ostrogoths in the 5th and 6th century who is spelled "Theoderich" in German, apparently in English he's transcribed as "Theodoric". I heard about him in a history class. Just wanted to let you know, in case that's interesting to you. 😊
Good luck with your book!
One of my favorite character names is Otherguy Overby, a character who shows up infrequently in Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder series.
This was a really fun and informative video. Thank you!
My first name is one of the most common Irish surnames. My father was inspired by Michael Sullivan (and Paulo Massadas), a Braziliian composer. I do like my name.
You forgot the Wizard of Oz, whose full name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs (OZPINHEAD).
Also Daenerys Targaryen’s laundry list of titles: Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains. (I stole this idea for a D&D character as he racked up accolades; he eventually became Grixis Geargrinder, First of His Name, King of the Goblin Mountain, Tamer of Beasts, Master of Illusion, Creator of Realms, Hero of [someplace I’ve forgotten], Titles, Titles.)
And sorry, but I have to correct some pronunciations: PER-sih-vull, BAL-tha-zar, de LY-ull.
Maybe that’s where RWBY got Ozpin’s name from.
I have a list of names that I add onto from time to time. When I need to name a character, I go through the list and pick a few that sound good togeather, tweak them, and add any nesacary titles. Titles are one of my favorite ways to make my character's names more interesting because as an artist they can help guide clothing coices as well.
Superb, concise, sensible, superior vision of what you do - above all, honesty pleasantly shared. My regret is that I watched all. Now, onto your website
My favorite long character name: Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (Percy from Critical Role/The Legend of Vox Machina)
You can also give characters a meaningful name in another language. Like calling someone posh Poepjes or someone who works with water Dijk or a mason de Steen.
Great info. And thanks for mentioning Rin Tin Tin! Love that dog.
There is a name in a childs book called holes and the main characters name is Stanley Yelnats and yelnats is stanley backwords. the make a it a big important plot point and stuff as well
My favorite is Neal Stephenson’s main character in Snow Crash: Hiro Protagonist.
When my friends and I create names for our characters in fantasy roleplaying games, we say them aloud to the group, then invite everyone to ridicule them as much as possible. If your name sounds like a thrush cream, this is the point to find out, not three adventures in to the story. Names that withstand the mocking remain, otherwise it's back to the drawing board.
'Vagena' would not have passed this test!
Ha ha. I like the mockery test.
I love hyphenating names southern double names :-)
I’m good at choosing first names but not last names and for detective story’s that’s kinda important😭
I like using historical names, like I have a texan his last name is last name "loving", from oliver loving
Oh, that's a really good idea. Just mine names that already existed!
@@Bookfox and in another story I have a punk singer, he uses a stage name so I chose his stage names last name is "savage" I based it off Sid vicious
@@rockbandnyI hope the punk’s first name is Adam :)
@@bencressman6110 Lawrence
One crazy name I came up with is MacFarland Andros Cumberland Daniels. He'd go by "Mac".🙈
My favorite anagram: Mother-in-law = Woman Hitler. 🤣
One of my favorite characters in a game I used to play was *José François LaQuoix Saotome.* We had a running gag where we added additional names later on to extend his full name, but *José François LaQuoix Saotome* was the best.
I hate thinking up names, so I use baby name generators, choose a letter and find a name with the meaning I'm going for.
I used to make up names kinda as a hobby and one of my all time favorites was Elpert Honing, never intended to use it for anything but it’s stuck with me forever
That is a good name. I feel like I get a sense of his character just from the name.
Excellent. I’ve never seen this topic on a video before.
Glad it was helpful!
Has anyone read Saki? (HH Munro)
His way with a name was sublime:
Loona Bimberton
Bertie van Tann
Mrs Quabarl
Crispina Umberleigh
Clovis Sangrail
Sir Lulworth Quayne
Constance Broddle
The Chillworth boy
Cornelius Appin
Comus Bassington
These are off the top of my head because they stick so well.
And let's not forget the great divinity:
Sredni Vashtar.
You just called me out so hard with the thumbnail. My protagonist's name is Wendell 💩
Not that there's anything wrong with Wendell! I actually love Wendell Berry, the writer.
@@Bookfox He's an underdog. So a sucky name is only fitting ;)
I loooove alliteration. I would give every one of my characters alliterative names if it wouldn’t make the entire thing sound like a farce. One of the main characters in my WIP won the honor of being the alliterative character in the book with the name Reeve Ravencroft.
Sophia Samantha Smith's best friend's name's Noah Oji Park Quesnel Rulan Stuart (his initials are N.O.P.Q.R.S.)
Draco also means snake
Most of the main characters in Jackie Chan movies are named, yes, Jackie.
There’s even one in which he challenges a band of thugs and they ask him “Who do you think you are, Jackie Chan?” 😂
Horace Hieronymus Hoover - occult detective
My protagonist's name is Terio Ioria F’in-eta.
His last name is simply pronounced Fineta lol but my brother looked at it and said "I dont even know how to pronounce that"
I am portuguese and so happy to see you referencing José Saramago in your video! Proud fan here!
In my writing, my characters names are based on the middle names of friends and family. None of us are really using them anyway.
I clicked on this because of the thumbnail.. my son’s name is Caspian and I hate -ayden names. I’d love to hear your explanation on why Jayden is better than Caspian 🥴
Honestly, I picked interesting names at random. My nephew's name is Caspian and I actually think it's great.
As soon as I saw Jayden circled I was like, “What?! Only if you’re the most unimaginative mom of the 00s.”
@@imaginepageant right 😭
@@imaginepageant 😂😂😂😂
Craz?... Eyela? Leen? (My OCs)
1:05 What does he say here? “The ones in [blank]”
Inherent Vice
@@jeffreycarroll3631 Thank you so much!
Stanley Yelnats Is a palindrome and had always stood out to me
MY NAME IS IN THE TITLE
I have a list of characters made.
This video only seems to comment on some names commonly found in English-speaking countries (European names mostly), perhaps because it's focused on English-language writing. Many cultures have interesting or meaningful naming conventions, like Xhosa and Zulu names being made of virtually any noun or verb, Portuguese surnames having up to six words, Chinese surnames being written with a single character, and in some Arabic-speaking places, mothers being called "mother of (name of eldest son)" instead of her given name. If you have characters from many countries you can have more distinct names, rather than limiting yourself to the Engpish-speaking world.
1:38 no thanks
Reverend John Fox, meet Rabbi Yonatan Fuchs.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
I think descriptive names are great for nickname, for any name aquired later in life. But as birth names... no. I think Jo Rowling is the perfect example of how not to do it. Because no parents in the world would name one of their kids Petunia and the other Lilly. Hand they named one girl Lilly and the other one Rose and Rose would have beenc nicknamed Petunia by all her friends because that fitted her more, would she resent that name but it just stuck so much she can´t do anything about it... that would have been greart story telling via names, but like that it´s just... no.
Petunia and Lily aren't as bad as names like Nevaeh, Chardonnay, and "Abbygail" (literally spelled that way).
This sounds like a list of methods for coming up with names that just sound made up.
I don't like alliterative names as much, I see them as gimicky and only fitting in a handful of circumstances. But than again my own name is an alliteration and it leads to someone getting one of the names wrong EVERY TIME. Conservative US politicians didn't help it that much either *coughs*. But because of this I was adviced against a pen name. Apparently people LOVE alliterative names *lol*
I personally have a knack for Given-Midle-Family and giving a nice rythm to these (my detectives are called Andrew Richard Montgomery and Edward Gregory Bell respectively), but then proceed to only use their last name in the books as a reference. I also believe you can do a lot with rythm, in terms of what association the reader will have with a character. And along with the rythmic names I will give an advice I once found at a website for baby names: If you're last name is short, choose a longer given name and vice versa, so the name can flow. Or like Billy Joel once said "Bill Joel is rather short. Like a doorbell." He didn't want his stage name to be Billy, but it just sounded better.
Oh, and I like the idea with the anagrams, probably use this one for fantasy names specifically.
I just use random name generator
First comment :D Really found that helpful.
Dickens: Master Bates.
So many mispronunciations … I had to stop watching.
Please put some kind of warning if you are going to feature disturbing film clips in your video. I just clicked on this video to see what you had to say about names and you completely without warning played a clip of an adult in a fit of rage graphically caning a child and it was EXTREMELY disturbing.
McMonkey McBean