World-Building Workshop ~ Ideas for Names

AUTHORS:

This is the sixth posting in this series.  To read the other postings, click here:

History of Your World

Crops & Creatures

Naming Your World and Choosing a Heirarchy

Terrain & Maps

Economy, Trade, & Money   

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IDEAS FOR NAMES

A lot of times when I get stumped on thinking of a name, I combine words. Literally. Like one of my city's names is "Tabrinth". I named it that because at the time, I had a cat named "Tabitha" and I'd just recently watched the movie "Labyrinth". Hehe. Not really rocket science, is it? :) But you might be able to do something similar.

Look in the phone book and combine names you find there for unique first names or surnames. Think of it this way. I just looked across my desk, and I saw a pencil and my printer. Combine them, and I have the name "Penter". Now, if I change up the spelling, Pinter, Pynter, Pentyr, Pintyr, Pintar, Pyntar... You get the idea. That could be a name for a creature, a city, a hero, a king...

But from "pencil" and "printer", I can also get Cilrin, Enin, Terpen, Rinen, Cipri, & Ilrin.

Let's see if I can do that again…  Okay, again on my desk, I see a novel and a camera.  Novera, Ovelca, Velmer, Merano, Lera, Cavel, Elcam, Rael…  It's really fun to do, and you can even come up with more words by scrambling the letters as well, not just pulling them from the words and adding them together.

But see how that works? It's what I do, and I've been complimented on my names more than once.  Not only that, but I've never really been stumped for a name in my world.  I guess it's my secret! :P

Good luck on your own names!

~~Becka

http://www.rebeccagoings.com