#&& naming

[silvermoon424]

For the purposes of this poll please just stick to birth names! I'd like to do another poll for names people chose themselves later in life.

[writingwithcolor]

Naming International POC Characters: Do Your Research.

This post is part of a double feature for the same ask. First check out Mod Colette's answer to OP's original question at: A Careful Balance: Portraying a Black Character's Relationship with their Hair. Below are notes on character naming from Mod Rina.

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@writingraccoon said:

My character is black in a dungeons and dragons-like fantasy world. His name is Kazuki Haile (pronounced hay-lee), and his mother is this world's equivalent of Japanese, which is where his first name is from, while his father is this world's equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. He looks much more like his father, and has hair type 4a. [...]

Hold on a sec.

Haile (pronounced hay-lee), [...] [H]is father is this world’s equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. 

OP, where did you get this name? Behindthename.com, perhaps?

Note how it says, “Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. Check marks indicate the level to which a name has been verified.” Do you see any check marks, OP? 

What language is this, by the way? If we only count official languages, Ethiopia has 5: Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, & Tigrinya. If we count everything native to that region? Over 90 languages. And I haven't even mentioned the dormant/extinct ones. Do you know which language this name comes from? Have you determined Kazuki’s father’s ethnic group, religion, and language(s)? Do you know just how ethnically diverse Ethiopia is? 

~ ~ ~

To All Looking for Character Names on the Internet:

Skip the name aggregators and baby name lists. They often do not cite their sources, even if they’re pulling from credible ones, and often copy each other. 

If you still wish to use a name website, find a second source that isn’t a name website. 

Find at least one real life individual, living or dead, who has this given name or surname. Try Wikipedia’s lists of notable individuals under "List of [ethnicity] people." You can even try searching Facebook! Pay attention to when these people were born for chronological accuracy/believability. 

Make sure you know the language the name comes from, and the ethnicity/culture/religion it’s associated with. 

Make sure you understand the naming practices of that culture—how many names, where they come from, name order, and other conventions. 

Make sure you have the correct pronunciation of the name. Don’t always trust Wikipedia or American pronunciation guides on Youtube. Try to find a native speaker or language lesson source, or review the phonology & orthography and parse out the string one phoneme at a time. 

Suggestions for web sources:

Wikipedia! Look for: “List of [language] [masculine/feminine] given names,” “List of most common [language] family names,” “List of most common surnames in [continent],” and "List of [ethnicity] people."  

Census data! Harder to find due to language barriers & what governments make public, but these can really nail period accuracy. This may sound obvious, but look at the year of the character's birth, not the year your story takes place. 

Forums and Reddit. No really. Multicultural couples and expats will often ask around for what to name their children. There’s also r/namenerds, where so many folks have shared names in their language that they now have “International Name Threads.” These are all great first-hand sources for name connotations—what’s trendy vs. old-fashioned, preppy vs. nerdy, or classic vs. overused vs. obscure. 

~ ~ ~

Luckily for OP, I got very curious and did some research. More on Ethiopian & Eritrean naming, plus mixed/intercultural naming and my recommendations for this character, under the cut. It's really interesting, I promise!

Ethiopian and Eritrean Naming Practices

Haile (IPA: /həjlə/ roughly “hy-luh.” Both a & e are /ə/, a central “uh” sound) is a phrase meaning “power of” in Ge’ez, sometimes known as Classical Ethiopic, which is an extinct/dormant Semitic language that is now used as a liturgical language in Ethiopian churches (think of how Latin & Sanskrit are used today). So it's a religious name, and was likely popularized by the regnal name of the last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie (“Power of the Trinity”). Ironically, for these reasons it is about as nationalistically “Ethiopian” as a name can get.

Haile is one of the most common “surnames” ever in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Why was that in quotes? Because Ethiopians and Eritreans don’t have surnames. Historically, when they needed to distinguish themselves from others with the same given name, they affixed their father’s given name, and then sometimes their grandfather’s. In modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, their given name is followed by a parent’s (usually father’s) name. First-generation diaspora abroad may solidify this name into a legal “surname” which is then consistently passed down to subsequent generations.

Intercultural Marriages and Naming

This means that Kazuki’s parents will have to figure out if there will be a “surname” going forward, and who it applies to. Your easiest and most likely option is that Kazuki’s dad would have chosen to make his second name (Kazuki’s grandpa’s name) the legal “surname.” The mom would have taken this name upon marriage, and Kazuki would inherit it also. Either moving abroad or the circumstances of the intercultural marriage would have motivated this. Thus “Haile” would be grandpa’s name, and Kazuki wouldn’t be taking his “surname” from his dad. This prevents the mom & Kazuki from having different “surnames.” But you will have to understand and explain where the names came from and the decisions dad made to get there. Otherwise, this will ring culturally hollow and indicate a lack of research.

Typically intercultural parents try to

come up with a first name that is pronounceable in both languages,

go with a name that is the dominant language of where they live, or

compromise and pick one parent’s language, depending on the circumstances.

Option 1 and possibly 3 requires figuring out which language is the father’s first language. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned national ubiquity of Haile, you will have to start from scratch here and figure out his ethnic group, religion (most are Ethiopian Orthodox and some Sunni Muslim), and language(s). 

But then again, writing these characters knowledgeably and respectfully also requires figuring out that information anyway.

~ ~ ~

Names and naming practices are so, so diverse. Do research into the culture and language before picking a name, and never go with only one source.

~ Mod Rina

[dunmeshistash]

Dungeon Meshi Adventurer's Bible - Naming Notes.

Transcript on ALT and my own observations under the cut.

The part about half-foot names made me a little confused when I first read. But basically it works as "FirstnameLastname Fathers(z)" so chilchuck's daughter Meijack would be Meijack Chils(z), first name mei, last name jack and family name Chils(z)

English isnt my first language so I'm not sure if "last name" sounded like "surname" for anyone else. But thinking about its more like a compound first name? (Something like "Anna Sophia"?)

Here's the original page for half-foot names, I believe it says "前名と後名" which google says is "before name" and "after name".

Another note is that I just remembered Senshi is warrior in japanese reading that note, like sailor senshi (is from where I remembered). Common tongue is japanese, should be obvious since its a japanese work but the realization was very amusing to me.

[writing-with-sophia]

20 Victorian-era names for girls

Adelaide: Derived from the Germanic name Adalheidis, meaning "noble" or "of noble birth."

Beatrice: Derived from the Latin name Beatrix, meaning "she who brings happiness" or "blessed."

Charlotte: Of French origin, meaning "free" or "petite."

Clara: Derived from the Latin word clarus, meaning "clear" or "bright."

Edith: Derived from the Old English name Ēadgyð, meaning "prosperous in war" or "blessed."

Eleanor: Derived from the Old French form of the name Aliénor, meaning "bright," "shining," or "light."

Florence: Derived from the Latin name Florentia, meaning "flourishing" or "prosperous."

Genevieve: Derived from the Old Germanic name Genovefa, meaning "woman of the race" or "tribe woman."

Georgiana: Feminine form of George, meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker."

Harriet: Derived from the French name Henriette, meaning "home ruler" or "ruler of the household."

Isabella: Derived from the Hebrew name Elisheba, meaning "God is my oath" or "devoted to God."

Josephine: Feminine form of Joseph, meaning "God will add" or "God increases."

Lillian: Derived from the Latin name Lilium, meaning "lily" or "pure."

Matilda: Derived from the Germanic name Mahthildis, meaning "mighty in battle" or "strength in battle."

Penelope: Of Greek origin, meaning "weaver" or "duck."

Rosalind: Derived from the Germanic elements hros, meaning "horse," and lind, meaning "soft" or "tender." But the meaning later changed to mean "lovely rose", from the Latin rosa lindaI.

Victoria: Derived from the Latin word victoria, meaning "victory" or "conqueror."

Winifred: Derived from the Old English name Winefrið, meaning "friend of peace" or "blessed peacemaking."

Prudence: Derived from the Latin word prudentia, meaning "foresight" or "wisdom."

Clementine: Derived from the Latin name Clemens, meaning "merciful" or "gentle."

More names

[unbfacts]

Ishi was the last known member of the Yahi, a subgroup of the Yana people in California. Yahi customs forbade individuals from speaking their own name without another Yahi’s introduction, so Ishi stated he had no name. Anthropologists named him "Ishi," meaning "man," as his real name was never revealed.

[creation-help]

Finnish words that i think would make cool names

Note that these aren't "ordinary" names and would probably be better suited to more fantastical settings. But you do you, of course! They're just not "name" names.

Salama (A bolt of lighting)

Arkisto (The archive)

Kivikko (a stoney area)

Ranta (coast/beach)

Murto/Murska (break/crush (or break-in for the 1st word)

Rahka (it's a dessert)

Ohto/Otso (olden word for bear)

Mesi (Nectar)

Vaiva (ailment or bother)

Tahto (Will (like the emotion))

Sopu (A sort of word for peace that indicates a sense of general agreement - like the opposite of discord)

Salaisuus Or Sala (Secret)

Seura (company of another person. Not like. The business type of company)

Lento (flight)

Kajo (a word for the subtle leftover shine of light from far away, such as the sunset)

Nappi (button)

Mylly (mill)

Karkea (coarse)

Putous (water) fall)

Musta (black)

Kuu (moon)

Aura (plough)

Ps. Please tag me if you end up using these for ocs, I'd love to see

[yehoria-offical]

Did you know that like literally every country in europe calls our galaxy The Milky Way,

Except For Ukraine

In Ukraine it's The Chumak's Way. A chumak being someone, who transports salt(and sometimes other goods) over extremely long distances on bull-drawn carts.

The Saltcarter's Way

[itzyinstagram]

YUNA FOR NAMING

[the-reverii]

▸ DARK ACADEMIA CHARACTER NAMES.

━━ ✰ masculine.

⭑ atlas

⭑ charles

⭑ dominique

⭑ edward

⭑ francis

⭑ dorian

⭑ henry

⭑ lucien

⭑ remus

⭑ reyes

⭑ rowan

⭑ vincent

━━ ✰ feminine.

⭑ adrienne

⭑ anastasia

⭑ adaline

⭑ anya

⭑ aurora

⭑ blair

⭑ carmine

⭑ charlotte

⭑ clementine

⭑ daphne

⭑ estelle

⭑ evangeline

⭑ evelyn

⭑ felicity

⭑ fleur

⭑ florence

⭑ josephine

⭑ lenora

⭑ lynette

⭑ lyra

⭑ madeleine

⭑ octavia

⭑ ophelia

⭑ pandora

⭑ penelope

⭑ selene

⭑ zephyra

some of the names may be used for either masculine, feminine, or androgynous characters, i just compiled them in the two categories. if you have any ideas to add, feel free to comment them and i'll do my best as to add them!

[starryslyii]

Me, naming characters:

First MC: Thoughtfully researched, meaningful, and symbolic

Side character: Named after my lunch

[todayontumblr]

[halleehalfgallon]

my niece (4 years old) made a lovely mess of her watercolor set. I gave each color the first name that came to mind and so should you

[dunmeshistash]

Is Yarn Floke - the only named female gnome character? It's so sad that we don't have any info about gnome names And don't have enough named gnomes to see the naming pattern properly

I think so, she's the only female gnome character in the gnome page

Only trend I can see in gnome names is that they're all pretty short (4 to 5 letters long)

Not so fun fact the official english changed that last Gnome's name, his name is Null

Tansu Floke (タンス・フロッカ - Tansu Furokka)

Yarn Floke (ヤーン・フロッカ - Yān Furokka)

Holm Kranom (ホルム・クラノム - Horumu Kuranomu)

Null Milchain (ヌール・ミルチェン - Nūru Miruchen)

The other thing I noticed from the katakana is that they are all 3 sounds long? It's been years since I studied kana and I'm really rough but if I remember right the ー means a continuation of the last sound? so ヤーン Yaーn would be sounded out as Ya-a-n ? If that's the case then yeah all of them are 3 sounds long so short names. (In japanese 'n' is a sound by itself so ta-n-su)

In our sound division it's different more like Tan-su, Yarn, Holm, Null

The only one with two sounds is Tansu is that right? I've been out of school for a long time idk anything anymore.

Idk what I'm getting at, Yarn and Null have names that are words in English but not Tansu and Holm?

Uhn google says this about Tansu

Tansu (箪笥) are traditional Japanese mobile storage cabinets. Tansu are commonly used for the storage of clothing, particularly kimono.

and Holm

There are numerous islands containing the word holm, mainly in northern Europe. In many cases the name is derived from the Old Norse holmr, meaning "a small and rounded islet".

Holm is also a surname apparently? like for people in our world?

I'm not getting anywhere with this but I hope these random things help somehow👍

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Marine biologists named a trout "Osborne" and it became a meme with everyone saying, "TROUT, AM I?"