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NAMING YOUR CHARACTERS
Posts
halibabica
View playlists
Closeauthor=Shadowtext link=topic=1644.msg26145#msg26145 date=1217727543Fhqwhgads...
I really hate the types of names that come out of name generators. They perpetuate exactly the wrong kind of names--the ugly ones that are often too long and sound like....well like someone just threw a bunch of random letters together.
I usually end up doing one of three things when naming characters: picking a normal name at random, changing an existing name slightly, or naming them directly after a character from something else. I'm also prone to making names that relate to the character by how they're pronounced. For example, Phat T. = fatty (a big tough guy), Foh-Gii = fogey (an old man).
For some reason, I have a really terrible time picking last names for characters, which is why most of mine don't have any (and what ones that do haven't been revealed yet). I'll have to play at the game of naming a bit more so my names don't suck too badly.
Darken
3952
author=Feldschlacht IV link=topic=1644.msg25933#msg25933 date=1217578461
I just make up shit.
Shadowtext
120
author=halibabica link=topic=1644.msg26217#msg26217 date=1217760571With last names, I tend to just borrow them from authors, artists, directors, performers or even fictional characters I enjoy, (or in the case of villains, sometimes the ones I hate) or who are thematically appropriate. So like I've got Simeon Adams (last name from Douglas Adams), Alyson Yeats (W.B. Yeats, with whom I have a love-hate relationship), Prynn Thatcher (named for the lead character from A Knight's Tale), and Willow Dawkins (named for Jack Dawkins, the Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist).
For some reason, I have a really terrible time picking last names for characters, which is why most of mine don't have any (and what ones that do haven't been revealed yet). I'll have to play at the game of naming a bit more so my names don't suck too badly.
Those characters are all basically modern humans in Urban Fantasy settings, though, so I don't know if that works as well for High Fantasy or Science Fiction.
An interesting technique, although one that should be used in small doses, is using a naming convention--this shows up a lot in anime, but it's hardly the only place you see it. You set some sort of rule (though probably not explicitly in the work itself) that all characters who have Trait X or belong to Group Y are named after....well whatever. Have a bunch of characters named after fruit, or classical composers, or german numbers, or tribes of Israel or something. It can make finding names a lot easier....it's got a danger to it, though, in that if the audience recognizes that you're using a naming convention it can A.) destroy their suspension of disbelief, B.) clue them in to plot twists that occur later on (like an enemy whose name fits in with the naming convention of the heroes), or C.) make a work seem silly.
A and C can be gotten around if the work actually is fairly silly, or if there's an in-universe reason for it. Like if all the characters are using fake names and the naming convetion is spelled out-in universe, there's no reason that would break disbelief, and depending on the convention used, wouldn't seem all that silly.
It's an idea to play around with, but not haphazardly.
Euphorian
80
I just go with whatever comes to mind, which ussually is the making shit up thing, and then justifying/modifying it later. Other times, it's things that make sense with the characters, for instance-
An ice mage- Name is Hale, for Hail.
Wind mage- Seth, from the Egyptian God of wind and darkness Set/Seth (or something like that)
Nature mage- Iris (the flower)
Water mage- Brook (as in a river)
Antagonists-
Cain (meaning chaos, of course)
Solis (sounds like Soulless)
Prince Rylyn Lionheart (Lionheart family history buffs should know)
And then for the plot of my game in particular, I have a lot of biblical names, Cain included. Adam, Eve, Mary, Joseph. Fun stuff, yeah.
An ice mage- Name is Hale, for Hail.
Wind mage- Seth, from the Egyptian God of wind and darkness Set/Seth (or something like that)
Nature mage- Iris (the flower)
Water mage- Brook (as in a river)
Antagonists-
Cain (meaning chaos, of course)
Solis (sounds like Soulless)
Prince Rylyn Lionheart (Lionheart family history buffs should know)
And then for the plot of my game in particular, I have a lot of biblical names, Cain included. Adam, Eve, Mary, Joseph. Fun stuff, yeah.
For first names I have a list of names sorted by language/culture. Game areas are given one category of names and people from that area get names from that list. The more I like a name, the greater importance the character with that name has.
I have one exception to this method. One area that I want to sound more forgein than the rest so I take some words, some of which describe the character, translate them into another language, then try and form a name with the result (with a few other changes).
Last names are more of a mess. I've got rules for last names based on where the character is from. Example: One area uses Arabic names (it is also a desert arent i creative) so I looked on Wikipedia for Arabic naming rules and used what I understood sans some extra stuff (X bin Y, or X son of Y). For the good ol' FirstName LastName, LastName is my "Don't care enough" method of mashing keys and trying to form a good name out of it that goes with the style of the first.
General names, like nation/city/location names I don't really follow any rules. For some areas I take names of existing/ancient locations and change them a bit. Other less important places do the "Don't care enough" method again.
I have one exception to this method. One area that I want to sound more forgein than the rest so I take some words, some of which describe the character, translate them into another language, then try and form a name with the result (with a few other changes).
Last names are more of a mess. I've got rules for last names based on where the character is from. Example: One area uses Arabic names (it is also a desert arent i creative) so I looked on Wikipedia for Arabic naming rules and used what I understood sans some extra stuff (X bin Y, or X son of Y). For the good ol' FirstName LastName, LastName is my "Don't care enough" method of mashing keys and trying to form a good name out of it that goes with the style of the first.
General names, like nation/city/location names I don't really follow any rules. For some areas I take names of existing/ancient locations and change them a bit. Other less important places do the "Don't care enough" method again.
Blitzen
3253
I use my knowledge of ethnic phoenetics to come up with names that sound like real names but aren't, and will fit well within the cultural atmosphere of my game.
Either that or yeah I make shit up.
Either that or yeah I make shit up.
I just make them up. As long as it sounds good.
Some people go for some super symbolic thing, but it's usually bullshit. Looking up names at an etymology website doesn't make them unique.
Some people go for some super symbolic thing, but it's usually bullshit. Looking up names at an etymology website doesn't make them unique.
For me names aren't the most important thing about a character but I'm not a person to give just the most generic name ever.
Blitzen
3253
Haha, most of the time when I play the game I rename the main character Steve, and it has no bearing on the quality of the game.
Names are just identifiers. You'd eventually give your own "functional" names to the most important parts of the gameplay if they weren't named for you (or were named ridiculously).Example: no one who has played FF8 the first time pronounced Quetzalcoatl properly and it quickly degenerates into something like "Fuh fuh fuh go bird!"
Names are just identifiers. You'd eventually give your own "functional" names to the most important parts of the gameplay if they weren't named for you (or were named ridiculously).Example: no one who has played FF8 the first time pronounced Quetzalcoatl properly and it quickly degenerates into something like "Fuh fuh fuh go bird!"
Shadowtext
120
author=Blitzen link=topic=1644.msg26347#msg26347 date=1217879101I did. But I studied the Mayan and Aztec gods in Spanish classes, so it wasn't the first time I'd encountered the name. You think Quetzalcoatl is difficult, try Huitzilopotchli.
Haha, most of the time when I play the game I rename the main character Steve, and it has no bearing on the quality of the game.
Names are just identifiers. You'd eventually give your own "functional" names to the most important parts of the gameplay if they weren't named for you (or were named ridiculously).Example: no one who has played FF8 the first time pronounced Quetzalcoatl properly and it quickly degenerates into something like "Fuh fuh fuh go bird!"
Bear
0
author=Shadowtext link=topic=1644.msg26384#msg26384 date=1217898779author=Blitzen link=topic=1644.msg26347#msg26347 date=1217879101I did. But I studied the Mayan and Aztec gods in Spanish classes, so it wasn't the first time I'd encountered the name. You think Quetzalcoatl is difficult, try Huitzilopotchli.
Haha, most of the time when I play the game I rename the main character Steve, and it has no bearing on the quality of the game.
Names are just identifiers. You'd eventually give your own "functional" names to the most important parts of the gameplay if they weren't named for you (or were named ridiculously).Example: no one who has played FF8 the first time pronounced Quetzalcoatl properly and it quickly degenerates into something like "Fuh fuh fuh go bird!"
Or Cthulu, for that matter. Or the name of the Greyhawk insect god (Nrrrrrr'uuuc?)
Having names that fit together well within the setting adds a sense of depth and realism to it. Giving characters names that have plot/character significance is something that has been done in other art forms for centuries (e.g. Raskolnikov, which is taken from the Russian for "schism"), and it can provide additional clues to the overall meaning of a character or plot element (if your objective is to craft a deep, intricate story).
Blitzen
3253
That's the inherent difference in crafting names for games and for stories, however. In the most mechanical video games, names are identifiers and have little else to do with the game. For example, anyone who plays Tetris knows the peices, but it is not nescessary that they have names, because the player has an idea of the properties of the piece without having to have it labelled. The pieces, although without names or shapes that exist in the real world, become symbols and thus the player gives them an IMPLIED meaning through thier interaction with them.
When it comes to CHARACTERS, they are essentially units of your game mechanic, in this case the basic RPG Mechanic structure. Any meaning you give them, ie names or graphical uniqueness that doesn't serve a discretlely function purpose, in an IMPOSED meaning. This means that you actually TAKE AWAY some oppourtunity for the player to be creative and attribute thier own meaning to those objects. An example is your typical RPG cast, where the characters are funtional representations of the stats they represent. Let's say you have a tank-style character, and as a designer you put the title of Knight on it. What you have actually just done is LIMITED the interactive experience by applying a label rather than no label. While the player could have attributed to the lableless object any value that they wished, you as a designer had gone ahead and done it for them.
It all depends what you are trying to do as a game designer if you think this is a good thing or not. Sometimes it is nescessary for identification purposes (ie the player needs to know which object is a KEY style object and which is a LOCK style object in order to progress in the game). Or, if you're designig the game with the aesthetic as vital to the gameplay experience, then it will play a huge role in your presentation.
Personally, I would think that the best games are the ones where you can take away the atmospheric elements and be left with something that is still a hell of a lot of fun. There is still a creativity in good design that can exist without an aesthetic focus. That being said, themes and aesthetics help differentiate your design if it is similar to others, to the point where it develops to become a mechanic in itself that differentiates it from other designs.
I'm not taking either side of this dialectic, but keep this in mind when you are designing your games.
When it comes to CHARACTERS, they are essentially units of your game mechanic, in this case the basic RPG Mechanic structure. Any meaning you give them, ie names or graphical uniqueness that doesn't serve a discretlely function purpose, in an IMPOSED meaning. This means that you actually TAKE AWAY some oppourtunity for the player to be creative and attribute thier own meaning to those objects. An example is your typical RPG cast, where the characters are funtional representations of the stats they represent. Let's say you have a tank-style character, and as a designer you put the title of Knight on it. What you have actually just done is LIMITED the interactive experience by applying a label rather than no label. While the player could have attributed to the lableless object any value that they wished, you as a designer had gone ahead and done it for them.
It all depends what you are trying to do as a game designer if you think this is a good thing or not. Sometimes it is nescessary for identification purposes (ie the player needs to know which object is a KEY style object and which is a LOCK style object in order to progress in the game). Or, if you're designig the game with the aesthetic as vital to the gameplay experience, then it will play a huge role in your presentation.
Personally, I would think that the best games are the ones where you can take away the atmospheric elements and be left with something that is still a hell of a lot of fun. There is still a creativity in good design that can exist without an aesthetic focus. That being said, themes and aesthetics help differentiate your design if it is similar to others, to the point where it develops to become a mechanic in itself that differentiates it from other designs.
I'm not taking either side of this dialectic, but keep this in mind when you are designing your games.
maladroithim
1495
author=Shadowtext link=topic=1644.msg26255#msg26255 date=1217794779
An interesting technique, although one that should be used in small doses, is using a naming convention
Because I am a music student I was driven completely insane by Eternal Sonata and could not keep track of who was who because everything was named for a musical term.
demondestiny
889
Naming Characters actually comes very easy to me. Since i like to play a lot of games such as Final Fantasy and Valkyrie Profiles i usually go for more japanese names. Sazuka, Iris, Shogan, Vain. Those are quite common names that i like to use in my games.
Shadowtext
120
author=demondestiny link=topic=1644.msg27616#msg27616 date=1219146711Just as a note, it's generally a bad idea to go with primarily Japanese names on your characters unless you're actually making the game in Japanese or the setting itself either is Japan, or is heavily based on Japan. It's jarring, especially if you don't speak Japanese and end up giving characters names that break suspension of disbelief for people who actually speak Japanese (or even just know enough Japanese) because it doesn't work as a name.
Naming Characters actually comes very easy to me. Since i like to play a lot of games such as Final Fantasy and Valkyrie Profiles i usually go for more japanese names. Sazuka, Iris, Shogan, Vain. Those are quite common names that i like to use in my games.
And it just screams "otaku." Nothing wrong with being an otaku, but you don't want to beat people about the face with it either.
I first base a character on someone I know, mainly if they're an important character. If they're an unimportant character, then I won't bother. Then, I take their name, and play around with it. Since my games tend to take place in a modern time, I will go by what would sound like it'd fit in here.
So, say my friends name is Robert. I went Robert -> Bob -> Bill -> William, so the character that is based off of him is named William. Or I may use their middle name as their first name, and find a new middle name and last name. Maybe something that comes to mind that relates to it. So, another one of my friends name is Samantha, so for the character, I took a name that started with S and picked Sabrina (she also has a relative that's named this).
Otherwise, as is in the case of Paradise Blue, I look up names that would be used in a certain area. So, Portuguese and Spanish names are most frequent there, although some English names also show up in occassion. Some place names and expressions are also in Portuguese too.
There are times where I use a random name generator, but I won't ever pick stuff like "Fantasy names" "Elven names" or crap like that. I will not have a character named H'rol or anything with a ' in the middle of their name. I personally think that's stupid and every generic fantasy writer and their grandmother uses it. For fun, sometimes i'll mix names of cultures that generally don't mix, so I could have a name like Pontius Xiang and stuff like that. But this is really rare and I only do it to be silly.
The last type I use is stuff like "Robin M. Blind" "Jim Pansey" and others that have some sort of meaning that directly relates to the character and is also silly ("Hugh Jass" should be a well known one, though I wouldn't use it). It makes the already non threatening bosses even more silly.
So, say my friends name is Robert. I went Robert -> Bob -> Bill -> William, so the character that is based off of him is named William. Or I may use their middle name as their first name, and find a new middle name and last name. Maybe something that comes to mind that relates to it. So, another one of my friends name is Samantha, so for the character, I took a name that started with S and picked Sabrina (she also has a relative that's named this).
Otherwise, as is in the case of Paradise Blue, I look up names that would be used in a certain area. So, Portuguese and Spanish names are most frequent there, although some English names also show up in occassion. Some place names and expressions are also in Portuguese too.
There are times where I use a random name generator, but I won't ever pick stuff like "Fantasy names" "Elven names" or crap like that. I will not have a character named H'rol or anything with a ' in the middle of their name. I personally think that's stupid and every generic fantasy writer and their grandmother uses it. For fun, sometimes i'll mix names of cultures that generally don't mix, so I could have a name like Pontius Xiang and stuff like that. But this is really rare and I only do it to be silly.
The last type I use is stuff like "Robin M. Blind" "Jim Pansey" and others that have some sort of meaning that directly relates to the character and is also silly ("Hugh Jass" should be a well known one, though I wouldn't use it). It makes the already non threatening bosses even more silly.
author=Shadowtext link=topic=1644.msg26384#msg26384 date=1217898779author=Blitzen link=topic=1644.msg26347#msg26347 date=1217879101I did. But I studied the Mayan and Aztec gods in Spanish classes, so it wasn't the first time I'd encountered the name. You think Quetzalcoatl is difficult, try Huitzilopotchli.
Haha, most of the time when I play the game I rename the main character Steve, and it has no bearing on the quality of the game.
Names are just identifiers. You'd eventually give your own "functional" names to the most important parts of the gameplay if they weren't named for you (or were named ridiculously).Example: no one who has played FF8 the first time pronounced Quetzalcoatl properly and it quickly degenerates into something like "Fuh fuh fuh go bird!"
Im from mexico so i dont have problem with tha words jajajajja ;D but the problem is that my english is not so good.
Euphorian
80
author=demondestiny link=topic=1644.msg27616#msg27616 date=1219146711
Naming Characters actually comes very easy to me. Since i like to play a lot of games such as Final Fantasy and Valkyrie Profiles i usually go for more japanese names. Sazuka, Iris, Shogan, Vain. Those are quite common names that i like to use in my games.
The other problem with foreign names, Japanese especially (at least for me), is with the longer ones, I start having trouble remembering the Atsushis from the Suzukis From the Kyosukes and the Shimarus, and it all just becomes muddy.
Or maybe I'm just bad with remembering names. That could be it, actually.
I tend to use Greek or Norse mythology - sometimes even Egyptian. There's usually a correlation between the character and the deity/figure, as well. For example, from Pimp:
Master of (his own) fate, through the player's actions and choices, affects the fate of others - Moros Styne
Young man who, based on player input, may develop a Messianic complex - Raphael Greyheimr
Leader of a powerful faction the tried to dominate the weak but was defeated - Xerxes Rodgo
For most games, if it's modern, the character's surname will often reflect their country of origin. For example, you know Raphael Greyheimr was raised by a religious, Germanic family.
Master of (his own) fate, through the player's actions and choices, affects the fate of others - Moros Styne
Young man who, based on player input, may develop a Messianic complex - Raphael Greyheimr
Leader of a powerful faction the tried to dominate the weak but was defeated - Xerxes Rodgo
For most games, if it's modern, the character's surname will often reflect their country of origin. For example, you know Raphael Greyheimr was raised by a religious, Germanic family.
