character_naming epitome of incomprehensibility I talked about this slightly with my early attempts at fantasy/sci-fi stories, fragments that can be seen in blue_jewel, telewa_the_blue_jewel, and from_the_turquoise_sea. Well, in my dolphin-cover notebook, started on July 26, 2002 if the inside cover is to be trusted, I have a page called "Interesting Names" and below that, the following: Aquezazalia names Zya- Zla- Zyma- Zimya- Mle- Vro- Zei- Cye- Niki- Nazru- -mar -mith -meth -ruk -mirel -vuk -vell -tir -sir Aers names Xeir- Drei- Mro- Mlez- Mlex- Smi- Syl- Bel- Bifki- Broksox- -el -em -alia -zia -wia -we -mishk -zrom -drelk -zrem -aef -aer -aesia -aers -waek -wik -mlira -lixie -zom -ina Names from the Bible M: Kadmiel, F: Hadassah, ...and that was all. Some of the name endings and beginnings were retrospective because I'd made up the names already. An early story has Mroliterz and Belina, spaceship-captain father and his daughter who ends up going to an Earth school and hides the third eye on her forehead behind her bangs. (It's the Star Trek school of designing aliens: take humans and alter a feature or two.) ... Now, as an adult, I have more sophisticated ways of coming up with character names. Right? Right?? For example...giving my protagonist's neighbour the last name "Bharati" because it "sounded like a name from India." I hoped it was. I wasn't sure. I was lucky! Not only was it "a name from India," but it also means "he/she/it carries" in Sanskrit, and Carol gets frustrated at the Bharati daughter carrying things up and down stairs when she's trying to get past. Carol's last name is Winter. Originally, the story had her going to the States for school and she was going to be called "Canadian Winter" by the other kids...or not called "Canadian Winter" by the other kids, but thinking that such a nickname would be funny - better than her status as a social nonentity. Now that she's staying in Canada, "Carol Winter" still works because of the meaning of "carol." Christmas Carol. Narnia. It's always winter but never Christmas. Actually, it's the start of Hanukkah today. So I'll go to Tamra, Carol's grandmother. Originally she was Tamara Van Dalen, her Dutch surname sort of like my grandmother's. When I decided she was Jewish, I needed a last name that could be Jewish. So I took it from the name of a former classmate: Kramer. (A quick search tells me it's also a common name in the Netherlands. Makes sense in terms of language families.) Why Tamara to Tamra, though? I liked the spelling and I reasoned that her mother Adeline would find it modern-sounding - Adeline wanted to dissociate herself from her mother, who was materially rich but abusive, and who liked flowery and fancy things. So along with her new name, Tamra got a whole backstory, not just "is Carol's grandmother and likes classical music." As for music, for a long time Carol's teacher was named Mrs. Britten. I had plausible deniability - I could say she was named after the composer Benjamin Britten - but it was really a pun on the name of my former teacher, Mrs. Scott. After a while that didn't seem fair, so I changed it to Mrs. Sully. Another teacher there is Mrs. Moon, so...another pun? Moon, sun (sully, soleil)? To sully is to dirty something, though, and Mrs. Sully is quite clean. Maybe she should get a different name. 231207 ... raze i think my finest work came out of inventing names for imaginary band members back when i first started making music. you had rick dalamna on drums, daniel stymie playing electric guitar, ferdie schnick showing up once in a while to contribute a bit of saxophone, and thomas larousage handling the string arrangements. those were good times. 240330 what's it to you? who go blather from