About a month ago I wrote about figuring out names for my new series, something I always struggle with. But these aren’t the only names I need to work on. Stories use names all the time—for characters, for places, for companies and businesses, and (especially in tales that don’t take place in our contemporary world) for different objects. These names need to work in the story-setting, too. They can’t be so outlandish that they’re hard to read (unless that’s the point of them, in which case the reader will most likely skim over them). But make them too ordinary, too familiar, and there’s the risk of having the setting feel flat.
I try to come up with names when I’m planning. But as I write the first draft I introduce different characters and places, and have characters interacting with devices that need names. I don’t want to stop the writing flow, so I use placeholders, then work on names in the edit. It’s why my first drafts have characters labelled as [**BulkyThug**] and places called [**HomePlanet**]. The symbols around the words? They make it easier to spot what needs changing later.
But how do I come up with names? I use a few different techniques.
I write in Scrivener, and it has a very handy Name Generator. This, as the name suggests, spits out lists of potential character names. The results can be tightened by sex, start and end letters, and first and last name origins. So I can select names for a female character with a French first name and Aboriginal last name, starting with the letter ‘E’.
This Name Generator also has a ‘First Name Meaning’ tool, which I’ve used quite a bit. I’ll type in a characteristic (’strong’, ‘fair’), and it will throw out names that have some connection to the word. For instance, the Indian name ‘Baldev’ means ‘Strong god’. I’ll take this as inspiration—if I have a strong character, or one others look up to, I might call them something like Badev or Balde.
Having a particular group of people with ‘similar’ names can help give the illusion of shared identity, too. In my Shadows and ShadowTech series many of the names came from the Name Generator, and I’d specify Celtic first names and Greek second names. From the list provided I then chose names I didn’t think were too common. So I ended up with names like Piran Remis, Brice Carras and Keelin Ziko.
I sometimes use mythology for inspiration. I’ll search for characters and places related to a particular mythology, then use them as a basis for places or objects. The various craft names in Shadows and ShadowTech all come from Greek mythology. So my bulky cargo craft are Hermes, after the Greek god messenger. I also have the Proteus, named after another Greek god. Weapon names were similarly inspired. The flamethrower weapon in the books is a Charon. Charon transported dead souls into Hades on his ferry, but the word can also mean ‘fierce brightness’.
I’ve started using Google Translate more often now, translating words that have some meaning to the character or place into various languages, and taking inspiration from the resulting words. I find that using less Western European languages gives less familiar words, which adds a certain ‘alien’ feel—handy when writing sci-fi. And by sticking to one particular language for related names or places helps give a sense of connection—the names sound less random.
I’ve recently been naming planets and moons in one of the solar systems in my new series. After a bit of playing about I settled on Russian as the language I’d use for these. This star system is the home system to one of the characters, and the Russian for ‘home’ is ‘dom’. But this system is politically divided, with a great deal of friction. The Russian for ‘splintered’ is ‘raskolotyy’. I combined these two words in different ways, and eventually settled on the system being called ‘Raskodom’.
The terraforming of one of the planets in Raskodom has been a great success, and this character enjoys walking in nature, enjoying the open skies, at peace with himself. Russian for ‘open’ is ‘otkryt’, and ‘paradise’ translates as ‘ray’. So this planet is ‘Oktray’.
Are these translations accurate? I’ve got no idea. And it doesn’t matter—the ‘meanings’ behind these names are purely for me as I write these stories. The translations, accurate or not, are only for inspiration.
In this new series I’m exploring different naming conventions for characters too. I have a natural bias towards ‘first name/middle name/surname’, with the surname being used in more formal settings—a result of the culture in which I was brought up. But different cultures have different naming conventions. And in the distant future, when humans have spread throughout the galaxy, why would names all revert to ‘first name/middle name/surname’?
One of my characters is normally referred to as Hastaff, but his full name is Ekala Hastaff Bodesa. How did I get this name? Bodesa comes from ‘Boseda’, an African name (meaning ‘child born on Sunday’, although that’s not relevant to the character). Hastaff is an alteration of Harstad, a Norwegian surname (according to Scrivener’s Name Generator). And Ekala comes from ‘kuqala’, a Zulu word meaning ‘first’. Hastaff is the first child of his parents.
I decided that Hastaff is his ‘family name’—it is his lineage, and in the culture he comes from bloodlines and families are important. Bodesa is his intimate name, used only by those close to him—it would be an affront if someone were to refer to him as ‘Bodesa’ in a business or professional setting. And ‘Ekala’ is more of a title (remember it means ‘first’, so it is almost a description given by the parents). Most of the time this character is referred to as ‘Hastaff’, although in formal settings, or where there are other Hastaffs, he is Ekala Hastaff.
Having sorted that out, I can then use this naming framework for other characters coming from the same planet or star system.
Let’s have another example. This character is known as Prav, but his full name is Djar-kah Prav Dorsan. All parts of the name were inspired by Hindi words—Djar from ‘darjee’ (meaning ‘tailor’), kah from ‘kaala’ (meaning black), Prav from ‘parva’ (meaning ‘festival’), and Dorsan from ‘do’ (meaning ‘two’). And the naming convention? The lineage name (family name) is Djar-kah—black tailors (the ‘black’ part could refer to colour, or possibly means that the family were cast out at one time). Dorsan (from ‘do’, meaning ‘two’) simply says that Prav was his mother’s second child. And Prav was the name his mother chose (because in this culture it is the mother who has ultimate say over the name—and a great deal more—of her offspring). In this case, her second child came during a festival (which annoyed her, because she had to miss so many of the festivities!).
This name also fits the character. He’s something of a chameleon, at home in all kinds of situations. People warm to him naturally. You know the phrase ‘the life and soul of the party’? This would be Prav.
So, a few ways I work on names. It takes time and effort, but I enjoy it. And in exploring similar roots for related names, as well as using different naming conventions for different characters, I’m able to build a more cohesive story-world.
Although I wish names came easier to me. Then I wouldn’t have to go through my drafts, changing all those [**FrustratedWriter**] placeholders.
This post is the latest in a series I’m running on Substack, chronicling my work on this new project. If you’d like to read these posts as they appear, please consider subscribing for free.
TW Iain 