Or, Naming Your Avatar OC’s: Beyond Baby Name Lists
Naming an original character in any fantasy setting can be a tricky business. Do you use a real name? Do you make one up? Either way, it has to sound like it fits into the established world - but you don’t want it to sound too similar to the names of canon characters, either. In this post, I will offer an analysis of canon names of major and minor characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, looking for discernible patterns in the names of each of the fictional cultures of that world, and offer some suggestions based on my own experience for how to choose or create names for original characters in that world.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using a “baby name list” for inspiration or even taking a real name from one of the cultures the show is based on and using it. But since the fictional cultures of the show are not complete carbon copies of real cultures, just picking a name from a list of Inuit or Japanese names won’t always give you one that actually fits in with the Avatar world. And maybe you’ve seen enough Water Tribe OC’s named Nanook (I’m guilty of this one myself) and want to get a little more creative. In that case, welcome to the advanced OC naming class.
i think a big reason why i enjoy the zukka fanbase significantly more than any other atla shipping-specific fanbase is because nobody in there is wasting time trying to convince anyone why it was secretly canon. like, this is a ship that is pretty much exclusively limited to unpacking these two characters, exploring how their personalities complement one another, and talking about what the post-war universe would look like. nobody is sitting here trying to tell you why, like, suki was secretly toxic and sokka was in love with zuko the whole time. idk. y'all are vibing and chilling and that's why it works