la_marquise (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_marquise) wrote2010-07-19 05:26 pm
la_marquise) wrote2010-07-19 05:26 pm
Entry tags:
Metrics and memeage
New words: 1087
First new line: Hyfaidd said, ‘Once thing more.’
An unexpected fire, and an edge of a quarrel. Things are hotting in up in both senses.
Writing meme day 3: How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
Ah, now this is a good one, because names matter hugely to me, and they have to match. One thing I really hate in fantasy is when characters' names seem to be completely random, with no cultural linking or similarities. I find that almost disrespectful, as though difference is somehow ignored or seen as irrelevant. So my own names have to have the right feel for whatever culture I'm writing in/about. Merafien names are usually Latinate in feel, Lunedithin names need to feel p-Celtic (Welsh/Breton style) while names from Tarnaroq have an Anglo-Saxon texture. In the early 90s I spent a year working on a hand-list of Welsh royal documents and as a result I spent a lot to time reading mediaeval charter, close, fine and court rolls, and I got into the habit of noting down names that struck me as interesting for some reason or another, be it sound, shape or spelling. I take a certain number of the names I use from those sources, sometimes re-spelling or adapting them. So Thiercelin is from Tiercelin and Miraude from Meraude. Iareth is a 12th century Welsh spelling of the Biblical name Yaphet; Kenan is way Welsh Cynan tended to be spelled in Latin texts; Quenfrida is my reworking of Old English Cwenfrith. Oh, and Thiercelin's surname du Laurier is a Dumas reference (it's the name Planchet uses when he's involved in the Paris Fronde in Twenty Years After) Some names are all my own work -- Valdarrien, for instance, but they have to fit the overall feel or I end up changing them. Same with the names in Grass King, where I have two old French names (Jehan and Aude), a group that are meant to feel tonal (but not specifically Chinese -- I wanted them to feel like they come from a wholly different type of language -- Sujhien, Lienye) and another that feel like Latin (as opposed to the Latinate Merafien type) -- Marcellan, Yelena, because they come from an older form of the modern Merafien language.
With The Drowning Kings, the aim is to keep the names comprehensible, since many people find Welsh names -- especially Old Welsh names -- difficult. So when possible, I'm using the shorter ones -- Owain, Idwal. Some of the historical characters have challenging names -- Hyfaidd -- but those I can't change.
It's too hot, and I have eaten too many crisps. Sigh...
First new line: Hyfaidd said, ‘Once thing more.’
An unexpected fire, and an edge of a quarrel. Things are hotting in up in both senses.
Writing meme day 3: How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
Ah, now this is a good one, because names matter hugely to me, and they have to match. One thing I really hate in fantasy is when characters' names seem to be completely random, with no cultural linking or similarities. I find that almost disrespectful, as though difference is somehow ignored or seen as irrelevant. So my own names have to have the right feel for whatever culture I'm writing in/about. Merafien names are usually Latinate in feel, Lunedithin names need to feel p-Celtic (Welsh/Breton style) while names from Tarnaroq have an Anglo-Saxon texture. In the early 90s I spent a year working on a hand-list of Welsh royal documents and as a result I spent a lot to time reading mediaeval charter, close, fine and court rolls, and I got into the habit of noting down names that struck me as interesting for some reason or another, be it sound, shape or spelling. I take a certain number of the names I use from those sources, sometimes re-spelling or adapting them. So Thiercelin is from Tiercelin and Miraude from Meraude. Iareth is a 12th century Welsh spelling of the Biblical name Yaphet; Kenan is way Welsh Cynan tended to be spelled in Latin texts; Quenfrida is my reworking of Old English Cwenfrith. Oh, and Thiercelin's surname du Laurier is a Dumas reference (it's the name Planchet uses when he's involved in the Paris Fronde in Twenty Years After) Some names are all my own work -- Valdarrien, for instance, but they have to fit the overall feel or I end up changing them. Same with the names in Grass King, where I have two old French names (Jehan and Aude), a group that are meant to feel tonal (but not specifically Chinese -- I wanted them to feel like they come from a wholly different type of language -- Sujhien, Lienye) and another that feel like Latin (as opposed to the Latinate Merafien type) -- Marcellan, Yelena, because they come from an older form of the modern Merafien language.
With The Drowning Kings, the aim is to keep the names comprehensible, since many people find Welsh names -- especially Old Welsh names -- difficult. So when possible, I'm using the shorter ones -- Owain, Idwal. Some of the historical characters have challenging names -- Hyfaidd -- but those I can't change.
It's too hot, and I have eaten too many crisps. Sigh...
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I wish I knew language/s better.
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When I ran out of those, Andrew Stephenson adapted a random die rolling program so it generates random names from a very small "batch" file I edit so I can choose how many syllables, and how they are formed and everything like that. It does a page of 100 and checks for duplicates. I still have to Edit them to what I want as some are impossible to pronounce! I have a file for each of my races. :)
I also have the Master file and an easy explanation on how to use it, with examples from Andrew I can mail you.
Plus through SFWA, I got this, http://ebon.pyorre.net/ It is a pretty good random name generator and prolly exactly what you need. :)
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In the world I'm writing now, they don't form names like we do. Each person is known by his or her [current] profession or job title and the city of his or her origin (with one or two exceptions) with a name picked simply because the person doing the naming likes the sound of it. That combination of name plus city-state is unique because [magically] anyone of the same name won't be accepted during the naming ceremony. There are fashions. People born in Cinross often have long and complex names, for instance Botanikii, Cojimacepi, Altlialmolon and Tsamatli. Rulers are known by the courtesy 'Lord' or 'Lady', though that translation is very rough.
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