The Name Thread

Superfluous Crow · December 02, 2011, 01:18:28 PM

Red Night?
I don't know if I like Dark Red as a name to be honest, since it already has a pretty set meaning. It doesn't lend itself as well to being evocative.

Kindling · December 02, 2011, 01:42:44 PM

I know what you mean, but in a way that's what I liked - the bluntness of it. I think I'm already starting to go off it, though :P

Not sure about Red Night either, makes it sound like it's about vampire communists or something (which it's not, unfortunately)

EDIT: So, I'm swinging back towards Dark Silver due to a lack of anything better, possibly with Blood of the North as a subtitle...

O Senhor Leetz · December 05, 2011, 05:05:47 PM

I'd advise against subtitles. I don't think they're nessecary, and I personally hate long, drawn out fantasy names. Something short like Dark Silver or Dark Red seems, I dont know, more modern and less Gygax.

Superfluous Crow · December 07, 2011, 06:04:15 AM

To prove that I am in fact still working on a setting I wanted to involve you guys in some naming troubles I have had lately.
The problem lies with my races, so it's pretty central (in my opinion anyway) that I get them right.
The central region of the setting draws on slavic and russian naming conventions, with some fantasy embellishments, for the most part, but most of these races have their own languages and therefore their own names. It goes without saying that there will probably be a hundred nicknames and slurs for the races, but I am looking for the "official" names by which they will be referred to during my writing.

Humanoid Races

Melhune [mel-hoon']: Nightmarish but intelligent and empathic nocturnals notable for their lack of eyes and gaunt hairless figures. Their central culture is based around aesthetics and hedonism. Name is from (one of) their own language(s) and should sound both slightly sinister and slightly sensuous.
Yghreb [y'greb]: Primitive nomadic adaptive shapechangers. Native to Besmakia (the linguistically slavic region), but have their own language. Hence the language should bear resemblance to the region while still seeming "unique". I imagine they speak a hard, guttural tongue.

Other Sapient Races

Urmannanganal [ur'ma-nang-ga'nal]: Hulking, immortal and tranquil beasts. They live forever, are almost impossible to kill, and can go into long hibernations. Their name is supposed to sound alien, melodic and convey an idea of infinite patience (mainly by virtue of being hellishly long). As a linguistic point of reference, I used malay/indonesian and Filipino (Tagalog) which gives us monsters such as the Manananggal/Penanggal and the Pontianak. The Urmannanganal are admittedly not as insanely terrifying. An inuit influence wouldn't be bad either.
Chelm [tjelm]: Currently the name I'm the least happy about. The Chelm are intelligent insect hive-creatures taking vague humanoid shapes. Very pious by nature, but have no inherent language of their own since they arise seemingly spontaneously and learn language by listening in on the cultures surrounding them. Are met with disgust or mystical respect depending on where you go. Was considering using the hebrew name Chenya as a base since it literally means "grace of god" which I felt appropriate, but I don't want to use an unmangled personal name. Alternatively, they might have a "word name", using one of their human-given nicknames to refer to themselves. Was considering Magisters since I imagine them having official positions in the countries where they are more accepted. Their old name was Swarm Gods which I feel is a little too blunt, although I can definetely still see them being referred to as such.

I am at the moment reasonably content with the first three, but I would still like to hear your thoughts. The last one bugs me a little, but with enough positive feedback I might use it.
As another point of reference their old names were Melek, Moshrayah, Urluq and Swarm Gods. They were a little too short, similar and typical in style, so I decided to revamp them.
Humans will just be called humans. The common term for all the above races (humans included) is the Ilk.[/list]

O Senhor Leetz · December 07, 2011, 06:16:59 AM

What about Malighine? Malhune? I think Mal- would work better than Mel-, as mal, at least in my eyes, means "bad" in Spanish and something like mal means bad in most Romance languages.

Urmannanganal is a good one, keep it.

As the Chelm are instect and thus very alien, what about something grammatically impossible like Ch' or Ch'l. ?

Superfluous Crow · December 07, 2011, 06:42:27 AM

Not a fan of Malhune. Mal- seems a little more coarse than mel- and I feel like the double e both makes it sound better and makes the pseudolanguage behind it seem more consistent. Or is that just me? Malighine is pretty cool though, feel like that should be used for something. Hmm, torn between Malighine and Melhune (sadly Melighine just doesn't seem right). As another consideration their aesthetic culture probably means they have a very well-developed language with lots of phonemes.

The problem with giving Chelm an insect name is that they don't have a language. Or if they do, it only has a single word, since they are (still, if you remember the old write-up) born with knowledge of the near-unpronounceable name of their god Tchekhryszebh. Aside from the inborn faith they don't even have a common culture for the most part. So they are more likely to have a human-given name.

O Senhor Leetz · December 07, 2011, 07:19:37 AM

Ok, if the Chelm have a have a human, i would imagine it is most likely a word. This is a terrible example but im sure youll get the idea, Bugs or Buzzers (something to do with bug science like thorax or carapace would be much cooler).

Superfluous Crow · December 07, 2011, 10:19:46 AM

I know what you are getting at, and those are definitely good slurs and nicknames for them, but I don't relish the thought of referring to them as Buzzers when talking about them in my official capacity as setting writer. :p

Does Yghreb work well enough? I had a lot of trouble coming up with a name for those guys.

O Senhor Leetz · December 07, 2011, 11:34:59 AM

Quote from: Superfluous Crow
I know what you are getting at, and those are definitely good slurs and nicknames for them, but I don't relish the thought of referring to them as Buzzers when talking about them in my official capacity as setting writer. :p

Does Yghreb work well enough? I had a lot of trouble coming up with a name for those guys.

Hhaha no Buzzers is terrible! But there are lots of fun insect words that could work. What about looking up what "fly" means in Slav or Bulgarian or Ukrainian or something.

Yghreb works great for me.

Across the board, I like your new round of names much more than they old.

O Senhor Leetz · December 08, 2011, 03:46:48 PM

Alrighty, now I need some help. Long story short, I need a good name for a group of primal, fundatmental gods for Arga. I've divided religions into three basic categories: (the primal gods), the Mysteries, and the Hero-Cults. Considering the Mysteries and Hero-Cults are not made up words, I want to use a real, somewhat common word to describe them. I'm leaning toward the Archaic or even the Hoary, but nothing is really sticking.

Ideas, gang?

Ghostman · December 08, 2011, 03:59:16 PM

Uh, pantheon?

Or if they are associated with a place, they could be named after that place (such as the Olympians)

O Senhor Leetz · December 08, 2011, 04:03:38 PM

Quote from: Ghostman
Uh, pantheon?

Or if they are associated with a place, they could be named after that place (such as the Olympians)

Well, the thing is they are not a Pantheon. I'm writing up an Arga religion topic at the moment, which will hopefully explain alot.

Mason · December 08, 2011, 09:31:04 PM

Primal gods....something earthy sounding, old-short and sweet. A word primitive peoples would pronounce...two syllables or even one.

Nomadic · December 08, 2011, 09:36:48 PM

Quote from: Sarisa
Primal gods....something earthy sounding, old-short and sweet. A word primitive peoples would pronounce...two syllables or even one.

Primevals, Foundations, The Forces?

Xathan · December 09, 2011, 12:18:39 AM

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