Names are a critical part of a character, as they draw the eye and catch the readers interest. They provide the theme to the character, and often define his primary characteristic. The names also need to fit the setting. Using Japanese names in an Aztec setting throws the reader out, and causes them to be distracted from the thread of the story. Names should add to the character, and add to the mystique of the plot, not detract.<\/p>\n
For me and The Four Part Land, the speech of the setting is from the Gaelic language tree. It’s referred to in the story as the ‘high language’ or the language of naming, whereas most of the daily speech is in traders tongue or the low language. This allows me to drop in names and have characters fit without having to muck about giving English translations for most things. (Side note: do provide translations where it matters to the story, no point confusing the reader with a name that means something and is never explained). It also allows me to use very basic defining characteristics, especially for minor characters. The lookout is called Eagle, an insulting commoner is called Donkey (or Ass), and a sergeant is called Soldier. Yet, when these basic English words are translated into another language (in my case, usually Welsh, sometimes Manx or Cornish), they suddenly became exotic and interesting, through the power of translation. Here’s a basic example: the word Spear becomes Thryferwch, and a character known for his ramrod straight back and focused sense of purpose. If you’re ever having trouble coming up with a character, pick a random word or two, toss it into the translator, and build a personality on what comes back. It’s a wonderful way to quickly generate small characters.<\/p>\n
For translation, I just have a few online translators bookmarked, and run a word or two through them and see what comes out. I pick the result that I like the most, and off I go, the character has his name, or the place its descriptor.<\/p>\n
Please note that this mostly applies to fantasy or science fiction writing. Otherwise, the names usually end up sounding like they don’t quite belong. I know the information is a bit unorganized, but I hope it helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Names are a critical part of a character, as they draw the eye and catch the readers interest. They provide the theme to the character, and often define his primary characteristic. The names also need to fit the setting. Using Japanese names in an Aztec setting throws the reader out, and causes them to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[35,34,6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-16","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":280,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=280","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"Names and Places","date":"September 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So, after sitting around for a little bit, I've completed the mapping process for the next book in The Four Part Land. It's the second book in the Tarranau series, and will take place in a land called L\u00e6ccan. The book itself is tentatively titled \"L\u00e6ccan Waters\". Each of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tarranau"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=80","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":1},"title":"An Anthology Proposal","date":"April 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Update #2 (July 1st 2011): This proposal is alive and well as SplinteredLands.com Edit: There has been a lot of discussion of this idea in the comments, so please read them as well as the main post. So, I've been mulling the idea of doing a 'shared world' anthology of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":449,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=449","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 3","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1\u00a0-\u00a0Part 2\u00a0-\u00a0Part 3\u00a0-\u00a0Part 4\u00a0-\u00a0Part 5\u00a0-\u00a0Part 6 So over the course of the series, I've looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect both a magic system and a setting, and how Style and Powers shape and define that magic system. Now I'm going to examine Magical Interaction and Items and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":437,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=437","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":3},"title":"Stealing the Setting","date":"February 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"You want a believable setting, don't you? So steal it. No, not from some other author, from the world around you! Yes, the world outside the window. It's a beautiful earth, and there's lots of strange and fantastical places, and many of them haven't been used as inspiration, even to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=25","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":4},"title":"Pushing Ahead","date":"November 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"So, for those who are fans of The Four Part Land, there's some good news on the horizon: I've already begun work on the second book in the setting, tentatively titled Unfolding a New Continent. As the name might suggest, it goes into a little more of the background of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":454,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=454","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":5},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 4","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1\u00a0-\u00a0Part 2\u00a0-\u00a0Part 3\u00a0-\u00a0Part 4\u00a0-\u00a0Part 5\u00a0-\u00a0Part 6 Over the course of the series, I've looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect a magic system and a setting, how Style and Powers shape and define that magic system, and finally how Magical Interaction and Items and Artefacts impact the setting and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}