Hello all! I've recently posted a few names from my story, and it was suggested that they were hard to pronounce and that could make it difficult for the reader. So after much thought and deliberation, I've decided to change my hard-to-pronounce names. When I looked at them objectively, I realized they could be misinterpreted in several ways and I don't want that.. =( So!! I have a few ideas for some names, and I'm curious what you think of them. If they're too strange or too hard to pronounce or even too simple, I'd still appreciate the feedback. =) Eilinora Adene Tith Naida Lila Echo And I was also interested in the name Soil (or some variation of spelling -- Soyl, Soyel, Soiel) for my Earth Goddess character.. But I was worried it'd be too... I dunno.. weird to name an earth goddess Soil. What do you think? Thanks for reading! Lea
I would check out naming conventions. For instance I focus in alick, nor, dor, riel, and erian. Eilinora? So Ei-li-nor-a? Ad-en-e T-ith? I mean they are creative but very difficult to actually speak or read. Also Echo? Is this a Science Fiction? If not, I would choose a new name, because thats not really meant for anything else.
I played WoW with a Naida, nobody had any particular trouble pronouncing it. These all look good, but I think I would stay away from "Soil". If for no other reason then the phrase, "I soiled myself." Not something you want your reader to associate with a character.
Eilinora is a bit odd in my mind. It's too reminiscent of Eleanor to work as a fantasy name, and too off to count as a variant spelling IMHO. I like all the others, and Soil, too, though. Maybe you could change Naida to Nadia? Just a thought.
Eye-leh-nor-uh Ay-deen or Ay-deen-uh depending on whether or not I want an A at the end Tith... One syllable The novel I'm writing is a fantasy, and Echo would be the name of a goddess, so it didn't seem too weird to me.
That's exactly what I was worried about with the name Soil. I just thought it could seem ethereal and cool if I spelled it right. Thanks!
What makes a character interesting isn't his name but what he does. Yes, you don't want a name that obviously doesn't fit. But aside from that, I think a character's name is far less important than what you build into that character. Consider such famous (and infamous) people as these, and ask yourself how much of their color and interest resided in their rather ordinary names: Jim Jones George Jones Ted Williams John Williams Hank Williams Willie Mays Anne Frank John Glenn Joe Louis Floyd Patterson Bobby Knight Willie Nelson Rick Nelson Bonnie Parker Ron Howard Ben Carson Johnny Carson Charlie Watts Bill Gates Betsy Ross Dick Clark Ben Franklin John Adams Tom Jefferson Bobby Jones William Blake Henry James Robert Burns John Milton Robert E. Lee Jeff Gordon Billy Graham John Roberts Clarence Thomas Harry James
Too kooky IMOHO. Maybe if you still want to have some connection to earth why not look at other words - Clay, Terra, Loam.. or examine some foreign words or folklore.
Echo definitely belongs to Sci Fi. Though there are some things you can do with it from a Fantasy standpoint. Right off the top of my head, Echo could be a young girl traumatized by the death of her parents, abuse, witnessing something she shouldn't have, and as a result can only repeat the last word another character says. Thus is incapable of stating her true name and is since called Echo...just a thought. Soil or any different spelling seems a bit too on the nose for an Earth goddess. Though I suppose you could say that soil, as in dirt, was named after her. I would play around with the names of other gods/goddesses that are associated with the Earth. Cybele, Gaia, hell maybe even Pele. It's up to you in the end though it is your story.
Honestly, call them what you want. Your characters could be called Henry, Echo or Eilinora, it's up to you. As long as you don't call them "Shitmouth" or "Ra-hano'hok:arath"
Thanks everyone! I decided against Soil or any form of it. It sounded too weird when I tried to put it in a sentence. I also got rid of Echo, but maybe I'll save it for a rainy day. I've come up with an ideal list of new names, and again, I'd like your opinions. I just want to make sure they are easier to pronounce and won't confuse people too much. The genre I'm going for is New Adult Fantasy, and all of the names I'm listing are for Gods and Goddesses, so they're supposed to be a little kooky. And I wanted to keep them cohesive, so they're all pretty similar. That was the intention. Here they are! Anana Naida Udiya Erion Lila Oran Dor Aeron Scylla Oeric Eilinora I'm pretty happy with them this time around. They're a little more plain than they were before, but I feel they'll do the job effectively. A lot of them also have meanings related to their character, too, so that's fun. Now I just have to get used to entirely new names. Thanks again!
You do know that Echo was a nymph in Greek mythology, you really can't ask for better fantasy. There is no such thing as a name that belongs to a certain genre, you can call your character whatever you like. Maybe I wouldn't call a dwarf CL4P-TP, or an elf R2D2, now that would sound out of place.
Yeah I know, I was merely stating that the name sounded more Sci Fi than Fantasy. Certain names from mythology sound more Sci Fi nowadays, examples Chronos, Atlas, Hades, Perseus, Poseidon and Medusa all sound like names for Starships rather than fantasy characters and that's just the Greek ones. The second part is merely an idea on how they could be called Echo. As a parent naming their kid Echo would be roughly the same as someone naming a kid Narcissus. Unless of course those names are common in their world which is why I put the third part about "It's up to you in the end though it is your story".
@Lea Brooks I just wanted to let you know that I really like the name Tith. But I agree with @David K. Thomasson names are merely handles for characters, and though you should put some thought into the names it isn't what ultimately defines your character (obviously).
I think there is a psychological effect for writer and reader if they choose names that are appropriate for the role or reason. Dante is my MC. Dante means enduring. He becomes a living archive of past lives. I can't imagine calling him William or Arthur or Leonard.
Yeah, I liked Tith too. But I'm going to use it as a city name instead of a character name. I know. But I like it. Exactly! I've always been really particular with choosing my names because they seem to have a better effect for me if they mean something. Names to me have a certain "feeling" about them, and if the name doesn't "feel" like my character, then it doesn't work. I'll spend just as much time trying to find a good name as I will actually writing a story. It's pretty important to me. lol
Now, if I could just get FD9 (which uses MS' TTS) to pronounce it correctly. I remember my soundblaster card from over a decade ago had text-to-speech and it allowed me to rework pronunciations of trouble words. MS packages its own and it doesn't have half the capability of technology over a decade old.
For me, if you come to think of them as *real people* (or whatever they are, fairies, gods, whatever) then you chose the right name. Although, I do imaging how other characters say each character's name and I like to come up with a bunch of nick-names too, just in case. I love all the names on your second list except the first one, Anana. Reminds me of Banana. Ooooo, I have a Dante character too, he's Italian/American.
Oh no, I didn't even notice that. lol Maybe I'll add an N. Ananna doesn't seem so banana-ish. I have nicknames for all my other characters (my non-God/dess characters), but I feel that nicknames for the God/desses is too... I dunno.. disrespectful maybe? The rest of my characters all have pretty normal names: Evan, Emma, Maia, Ansel. I just wanted to get those God/dess names right because they need a certain magical aura about them. Thanks again everyone!
Evan is an MC of mine in a short story I am writing. Out of sheer curiosity, what role does he (I presume?) play in your story?
Oh, Evan... lol He's my MC's brother, and he's kind of the anti-hero of my story. He's very hard-headed and quick to anger. He doesn't like to follow orders, so he tries to lead.. but the direction he's going isn't the direction everyone else wants to go. He's very caring, so he's always trying to take care of everyone else and make sure they're alright.. But he has a goal that he wants to accomplish, and he doesn't see anything else but it. "Screw everything else" almost. lol Anna is a little plain.. But I like Anaali! I might try that for a while and see how it works. Thanks! ^-^
The name isn't really important, as long as it's not bad. Take for example how popular the Inheritance series has become, even though the time spent on the MC's name was 3 seconds (he changed the D in Dragon to an E... Eragon. Brilliant. You invent a "language" and settle with that as a name?)
