There’s a decided draw in my mind toward names. I find them intrinsically pleasing. God calls each of the stars by name, Adam was charged with naming the animals, down through the years billions of people have named their children, and now I get to name countless pets, characters, and places.
Before I started writing I was worried that when I grew up my children would have to have seemingly endless monikers so I could cram in as many delightful names as possible (Elizabeth Joy Emmeline Anne for instance). It was incredibly rewarding to finally have an outlet for all the beautiful names I’d come up with when I began writing. I’d pore over baby name books (I have nearly a shelf of them), look up meanings online, and spend way too much time making sure they fit the character perfectly.
I soon discovered that names are the bane of my writerly existence half of the time and the cause of great joy and happy dances the other half. My way of coming up with names has evolved into a rather quirky experience, especially when it comes to names for the fictional countries I’ve created.
The way I came up with the name for the first country I ever made up was by looking at the names of some missionaries who’s picture I had next to my bed some eight or so years ago. I thought their last name was the perfect title for a country and so incorporated it into the book. Only, I had no clue how to pronounce it and the first time I heard someone say it aloud I was disenchanted. So… I changed a few letters around and omitted a few more until I came up with “Turglar” which I promptly remembered by thinking of a turtle drowning and therefore gurgling as it sunk to a slow death on the bottom of a pond (don’t worry about telling me how unscientific that is). “Turglar” ended up being the main country in the Medieval-like series I wrote back in my teens.
Before I started writing I was worried that when I grew up my children would have to have seemingly endless monikers so I could cram in as many delightful names as possible (Elizabeth Joy Emmeline Anne for instance). It was incredibly rewarding to finally have an outlet for all the beautiful names I’d come up with when I began writing. I’d pore over baby name books (I have nearly a shelf of them), look up meanings online, and spend way too much time making sure they fit the character perfectly.
I soon discovered that names are the bane of my writerly existence half of the time and the cause of great joy and happy dances the other half. My way of coming up with names has evolved into a rather quirky experience, especially when it comes to names for the fictional countries I’ve created.
The way I came up with the name for the first country I ever made up was by looking at the names of some missionaries who’s picture I had next to my bed some eight or so years ago. I thought their last name was the perfect title for a country and so incorporated it into the book. Only, I had no clue how to pronounce it and the first time I heard someone say it aloud I was disenchanted. So… I changed a few letters around and omitted a few more until I came up with “Turglar” which I promptly remembered by thinking of a turtle drowning and therefore gurgling as it sunk to a slow death on the bottom of a pond (don’t worry about telling me how unscientific that is). “Turglar” ended up being the main country in the Medieval-like series I wrote back in my teens.
Today I thought I’d share with you some ways I’ve discovered to name fictional places:
1. Chose a country that is similar to the country you’ve created and then get on Google Earth and look up streets, cities, and landmarks from that county. Simply tweak a letter here or there and boom, you’ve got it.
2. Research your ancestors. If you have multitudes of Sylvia’s in your family tree, why not find a way to incorporate it into the book?
3. You could choose a word that summarizes the people group like “fierce” or “rich” and then look up the word in a different language. For instance in Javanese “fierce” is Galak, “Rich” is Rikas in Finnish, and Redimir means “redeem” in Catalan.
4. Take all the letters in your name (or a friends) and unscramble them. For instance my full name has the letters a-d-e-h-i-j-l-o-o-w-y-y, with those letters we could come up with Wiloo, Aidlow, or Loyad. (I’ve decided I come by the name-intrique honestly. While coming up with a name for their daughter one of my aunts and uncles combined their two names – Angela and Nick, and got Anika. Then they added an “I” to fit with the names of their other children, and ended up with Inika; a beautiful, and very unique, name.)
5. I find it quite fun to tie my different books together in nearly unnoticeable ways. Flip a character’s name around, chose a special word and then change the language, use a last name from one book for the name of a town in another, etc…
6. Listening to the people around you talking is a great way to come up with a name. Just drop a letter or two off of a fairly common word, and there you are. “Kios” is the name of the country where my Echoes series is located (the book I wrote in November). I came up with the name one day while church I was visiting was being dismissed and the pastor said something about the kiosk in the back. And yay, there the perfect name was.
7. Chose your favorite meal (or least favorite depending on what you’re naming) and mix and match. Like if you like lasagna and green beans and garlic bread you could name the people group “Laseenga.” (Okay, yeah, that was weird.)
It’s a two-way street though. Not only has my delight in names helped with my writing, but my delight in writing has also helped with my naming. Over the years I’ve had dozens upon dozens of pets, and some of them have had rather singular titles.
Take for instance some of the goats I raised with my brother we had Epilog, Prelude, and Synopsis. I named a sweet litter of kittens Booklyn, Smilie, Metaphor, and Onomatopoeia. My dog’s name is Novel, and my rat’s name is Autumn Genre. Names are so much fun and I’m thankful to get to work with them.
What are some of your favorite names? Or some of the names you’ve come up with?
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Today I had Josh (who’s pretty much a brother) help me choose the destination for our Around The World in Fifty-Two Weeks post, and the country is: Poland!
Noveltea 