Naming Your Character

[Waqas]

Alrite, enough of those fantasy name generators. Am I saying they are bad? No, but there are other ways to get a great name for a character you are about to make.

The easiest way to do this is by looking at foreign words. If you know a foreign language, think of a nice name or a word that describes the character, and if you want, give it a fantasy twist.

The Latin List (Method 1 of 2)

Another recommendation, however, is to use old Latin words. Most of us speak English here, and English is based on a lot of Latin. You can use your friend, Google, to find lists of Latin words, but here's a great list I found:

http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass//frivs/latin/latin-dict-full.html

Now, let's get to an example. Let's say this certain character in the game I am making is a thief, having a major lust for power and money.

Well, the word for thief in Latin is "furs." That doesn't sound like a thief to me! Now, look for some other words that could possibly describe a thief.

Greedy: avarus
To steal: corripio
By stealth: furtim
To rush in: influxum
Concealed: absconditus

Avarus wouldn't be too bad of a name for a thief, and neither would Corripio. But what if I don't like any of the names that describe my character? Combine them.

Corriptus, a combination of corripio and absconditus, sounds great for a thief. Now, this is one way of making names, but upcoming is the second way...

Names from the Real World

Yes, that's right. The real world, a place that has nothing to do with the fantasies of RPG Maker XP. This method can be used for naming cities or towns, as well.

Let's say I had a hero growing up in this town. Now, I could think of this really serious name, but why not use a name in the real world?

Just like in Zelda: Majora's Mask. The Skull Boy's two fairies and named Tatl and Tael. Tatl Tael!

Back to the hometown thing. Looking at recent news, I can remember the attention on Saddam Hussein's execution. In Iraq, there's a city known as Tikrit, and that city would sound nice for a hero's hometown.

Now, why use names of things in the recent news? Because when you do, the player playing your game will soon realize your method and find the game more interesting.

 

[arcthemonkey]

Unless you're intentionally going for symbolism, I think naming you character with words that describe their personality is a bit, I dunno, lame. If symbolism is actually important for them, and you have a compelling reason to use said symbolism, then go ahead.

While this is an ok exploration of the topic, I don't think having such strict or telling methodology for naming characters is the best thing to do. I mean, sure - it's great to be able to life words from real life. One of my big RM2K projects had a character named Seattle Fresia. I didn't name her this based on any notion of what the words mean, I named her this because I thought the combination of words made a good name.

In Stealing Glory, naming characters was based entirely on what I thought the characters names should sound like, rather than trying to instill unecessary meaning into their names - while still trying to match the character. The main character's name was originally going to be Griffon, but as the character evolved I decided it didn't sound right anymore. He became Asher Luc D'Andross, which not only did I like the sound of and the way it moves across the tongue, but I thought it sounded like the perfect pirate name, while also reflecting indistinctly the character I meant to present. The same general process was applied to Captain Charles Lucan. I gave him a name that sounded right for the mature gentleman pirate. Dia Karnov, AKA Black Rose followed suite, being more secretive and devious, hence the nickname, but also being a brash alcoholic hotty of a pirate - Dia Karnov just sounded right. Finally, my villain arised through a name I was familiar with from a client where I work, and I lifted part of his name to create Morocz D'Gammon. I just thought it sounded evil, and fit right in with the theme.

I don't think that even the process I went through in that project was necessary. More often than not I give names simply onh impulse. Names like Gavin Mileah, Magnar Zev and Aine Madhavi which I went with simply because they were cool names and were the first thing I thought of for the characters.

Again though, using symbolism and appropriating meaning to names can be, well, appropriate. I've been trying to right a book for about forever about a character named Cassandora Pierce, whose name was liften straight from Greek mythology and represented her character perfectly. A project I never got far with for RMXP, choosing instead to go with Stealing Glory was largely by definition almost entirely symbolic. The two main characters, a married couple named Brennan and Allegra Amrit had names taken for their meanings. Every character in the project had names with a meaning, although I didn't lift them necessarily from foreign words. While I did at the beginning of this warn against such a process, it was an intrinsic part of the story and theme.

My point in all this is that there are dozens of ways to create names for your characters, and no single one is the right one. I think it depends largely on the project and how you wish to go forward uniquely with the characters. You don't even have to use the same method for every character in a project.

Just some things to think about.

 

[Cheeze]

An easier way is to use the Hero name input...Then use "\n[(Hero number)]" so the gamer can name the chara....Ex for putting the name in...\n[1] (That would be arshes)....So yeah...

 

[kaidus]

The sounds of words is by far more important than their meaning. 9 out of 10 people won't understand the meaning, but a lot of people will base their impression of the character on the name. The sound of the word should associate with the personality, otherwise the player will not be able to fully absorb and appreciate the character.

However, I have used some of the methods you suggested in the past. I used several foreign dictionarys for various names. It's a bad idea to become dependant on it though, for the reasons I stated above.

 

[Anonymous]

Despain wrote a pretty good article on names a while back.

Apologies if linking to it breaks any rules, I don't like just copy/pasteing tutorials and I feel this will help people.

 

[ScriptKitty]

Behind The Name has always been useful for me. If I feel like looking for something meaningful, I can put a specific meaning in the search engine and find names with that meaning. I can also look up names alphabetically, by language/religion/mythology/roots, browse lists of popular names or lists of names occurring in royalty, or just give the random name generator a try.

 

[Mercutio]

I usually go by names in the certain time line. Like if I make a game back in medevil(sp) times I google for names in those times. I likes to keep it reals yo :yes: lol.

 

[Flaepru]

I don't follow naming guides or other stuff. I like the Fantasy Name Generator to generate my names, or the Gerador de Nomes Aleatórios, a brazilian program that creates random names =P

 

[cerberus]

Well,I guess you already knew this but most of FF characters' names have meanings,like "Squall","Tidus"=has to do with water and tides,"Yuna"=moon,i think in a japanese language(not the one we know,but rather a coast-like one)...in the end i think naming your chars with meaning isn't wrong but is a nice thought,but don't over do it...

 

[~R~]

mine idea to name the char is really easy:
the name is "?" and i let the player chose the name

 

[Jason]

Damn right ~R~ !
Besides, it's pretty stupid having a Main character be a man called Biggertus (Just a random name, Lol), or a Woman called Wiggywowowamma (WTF, Lol), Because some people may find that sexist if a Boy plays a game and finds it's a woman, they might not like it (visa versa), So giving them free choice of name, and even Job and Sprite (I made a system on this) will make the game better for the people who are playing it. Remember, there's nothing better on an RPG than choices. If you like, you could even make multiple endings to the game depending on what you do. (That last sentance was kinda off-topic, But I hope you know what I'm getting at).

But anyways, Let's think positive, some people might actually find this useful, while others (I think most of us, Maybe not) might not find it useful at all, It's all down to opinions, so even if you don't like it and aren't going to use it, atleast give him/her credit for what they've done, I mean, there's so many people who don't credit people for what they've done, just because THEY don't like it, or because they've already thought of it, How the f**k does the person who wrote it know that someone else has already done it ?!, I think you should all edit your posts and credit him/her for the effort put into it.

Waqas, I've read through it, it sounds interesting, but it's just not my cup of tea (Not really my thing), But nice work !

 

[kaze950]

I like to have names that mean something, but are actual names. I love the website http://www.behindthename.com. I sometimes use names out of myth aswell. Like, in my game, the main character is Orpheus Flamel, the first and last name of two different mythological figures. The other main character has a name that means something, but just sounds like a cool name to me: Wolfram Black.

As for other characters, I go with names that are real names, but mean something, and sould pretty good. Here are some examples:

Rebecca Crowley
Balder
Vincent
Hiawatha (An America-Indian inspired character)
Jia (An asian-inspired character)

 

[Dreamland]

how do you post threads?!?!?!?! I really want to but i don't know how
would you think the name "Elvander" (El-van-der no It's not "Elevander"-_- thank you) it's the name of the main character in my game







my game is "Elvander and the Lost Jewels"XD

 

[windsaver]

There is another way...
Just type your first name in google and the first word you see with 3 to5 letters will be put in it and take out its last letter

E.G: Ustan
Are
Ustar
Artan