Celleri-kun's Obnoxiously Long Guide to Names
It's universally understood that names have power. There are divinatory formulas based on the number of letters in a person's name, there are spells that require the caster to know the true name of the target, there are even names that can only be given to certain people. That's why it's important to choose a name that is both appropriate, dignified, and above all, reasonable.
The problem with a lot of character names is that people are so focused on making that character unique that they start right away with a name that no reasonable person would ever have--- or, more commonly, a name that no reasonable person would ever give their child. There are a lot of things that can make a name implausible, or even just silly, so let's take a look at them individually.
Choosing a name for a character is the same as making a first impression on a roleplaying board. It's the first thing the admins will read when they review your application and it will decide how seriously they're going to take that character, and (usually) it will be the first thing other players see when they look at any of your posts, because it's usually going to be your forum username. Your character's name is the first insight the forum gets to your character's race, personality, and your value as a roleplayer, so do yourself a favor and don't screw it up staight out of the gate.
NAME MEANINGS
The etymological meaning of a name (such as Lachlan being "Warrior of the Lake" or Laila meaning "Dark beauty") is not as important as the hundred of other factors that go into what a name means to other people. Very few people actually go to the trouble of looking up a name on Babynamesworld to find out the meaning of RPG character names; don't waste your time choosing an etymologically appropriate name if there's an alternative that will feel better on your character.
Some people are extremely elitist about this kind of thing, and won't name characters any name that has a meaning contrary to how they envision the character.
A name as simple and common as Keith, which has an initial hard-K sound and a smooth, long-e and ending -th sound, is short, and phonetically resembles the kind of stab-and-draw motion of a knife going into something and then cutting easily through it. It's a shame that it just means "forest".
Something a bit more exotic and sweet sounding, Emlyn, is soft all the way through, with short vowel sounds, a feminine -lyn ending, and of such mild, gentle vocalization that you barely have to open your mouth to say it-- not something you would attribute to a name with a Latin root meaning "rival".
The question is, which name makes for a better antagonist? The one with the violent sound and the mild meaning, or the mild name with the antagonistic meaning? It's really a matter of personal choice, but unless you expect everyone else on the board to be able to understand the in-joke you're making (or take pride in their being unable to understand), the sound of a name should be more important than its etymology.
More on this later.
INAPPROPRIATE NAMES
It's been my experience that the worst offenders of this particular character creation crime tend to be female characters, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. Some genres carry certain typical naming trends and language origins, and outside of those genres those names might not work. Some regions have names that are unique to that location, or the culture that lives there-- for instance, you will probably never find an Irish woman named Oksana, or a Ukrainian woman named Padraigin, and a man named Jorge will probably never be mistaken for a Japanese transfer student. A character for a Sorcerer Hunters-based game named Nonpareil wouldn't be that unusual, but if Nonpareil went to an all-boys Portuguese boarding school, it would be a different story altogether.
This is especially true in modern storylines, where the handiest excuse on the planet is "My character's parents were hippies/anime fans/Tolkien readers/creative/inordinately cruel people". In a sea of Speshul Names, The other common excuse? "I thought the name was cool."
THESE ARE BAD EXCUSES! Very few people are cool enough to do stuff "because it was cool" and still come off as cool to other people, and most of those people don't roleplay on the Internet. Moreover, "cool" is relative, and giving your character an allegedly cool name is not necessarily going to be cool to the people who have to type it. Don't name your character something "cool" before you name them something "appropriate".
Be aware of your genre and setting when you choose a name! Here's what I mean-- let's play a simple game that most of us will remember from ditto sheets in elementary school. Match the figures in list A to the figures in list B
A. Eugene-Francis Pennyfeather the Third
B. Killtusk the Charging Gorebludgeoner
C. Ichiro Nakamura
D. Kandee Vanderbilt
E. Ludmilla Baginski
F Glindrwyth Starwhisper
G. Gertrude Steinhauer
H. Cameron-Hunter Johnson
I. Johnny "No-Thumbs" Di Cosino
J. CashMo'Nae
1. Vapid Heiress
2. World War II Widow
3 Imperious Hereditary Academic
4. Kendo Student
5. Fifth-Grade Boy
6. Level 17 Barbarian
7. Protestor at the Velvet Revolution
8. Hip-Hop Icon
9. Inept Mob Enforcer
10. Elven Priestess
(It should be noted that CashMo'Nae Stevenson is actually a little girl who was injured in a shooting in Fort Worth this past April; my prayers go out to her, both for the tragedy of her injuries, and her name. She'll get over those graze wounds and terror with time, love, and counseling, but she'll be CashMo'Nae forever.)
Do you see what I'm getting at? Names carry a hundred other meanings besides the one you'll find on Babynames.com.
George Carlin, may he rest in peace, had a very interesting piece on names in his book Brain Droppings that illustrated exactly what I'm talking about. Google Books has it conveniently available, too! (I had a link here, but t won't fit the format; just go to Google Books and search
for Brain Droppings) Page 21, A Name By Any Other Name, details certain trends and concepts in naming that, while humorous, completely illustrates my point about trendy and indicative names.
FANDOM NAMES
Fandom names are even worse, used outside their own fandom; naming your character after another character is the height of unoriginality in an RPG. Even if the name is a fairly common one in its own cultural context, naming your character after a popular character in a TV show, book, or movie is just bad business; even if you stumbled across the name without ever reading the work the more famous character is from, in the minds of the other players the connection has been made, and there's nothing that will change that. For instance, there might be lots of Kagome's running around in Japan, but there's only one famous Kagome in anime in general, and your Kagome is probably not going to stick the way Rumiko Takahashi's Kagome did.
This means your Malfoys, your Blacks, your Zabinis, your Ichigos, your Amaltheas, your Sasukes, your Gaaras, your Uzumakis, your Alucards, your Sephiroths, your Leonharts, your Strifes, your Dantes, and the hordes of other names that belonged to iconic characters before, or more prominently than, yours. Again, that's not saying that you couldn't be perfectly justified in having a character named Sirius Malfoy, but it should be obvious why you shouldn't.
And another thing: Cain, Cane, Kane, Kain, Kaine, and all the variants on this name, taken primarily from the story of Cain and Abel, is a bad idea for a character name. This is particularly relevant to certain vampire myths who cite Cain as the first vampire. Cain is also a frequently used "evil brother" name in the sea of formulaic Japanese RPGs and is possibly the most overused antihero name in gaming today. This concept can also be applied to other figures of Biblical evil, in particular names like Damien, the alleged son of the devil, Lucifer and its variants, fallen angel or demon names like Azrael or Iblis, and basically anything that ends in "-iel" or "-ael" that isn't Tolkien-related. Use with caution.
MELODRAMATIC NAMES
At this point I'd like to call attention to the "use dramatic words to make a name" school of character creation. I shouldn't really need to elaborate too much on this to make a point, but the simplest description I can give for this phenomenon is the "cheesy gothic" trend. Cheesy gothic names carry a rich blend of "tragic name meanings" and "allegedly dark-poetic words strung together". Here's a list of words that, if assembled to make a character name (especially a surname), will tell everyone:
I AM THIRTEEN AND BEING REALLY PRETENTIOUS IS THE HEIGHT OF COOL.
Soul, dark, blade, talon, blood, shadow, bane, moon, night, shade, raven, spider, corpse, pain, anguish, claw, death, dead, angel, demon, Heaven, Hell, and wing. These words should never appear in your character's name. We can all do better than "Darksoul Angelbane".
This is most often accompanied by the "Mythological Name", where the characters name is taken from some kind of classical mythology, most often Greek, Roman, or Egyptian, because those are the most readily available and require the least amount of research. Popular mythological names include Pandora, Persephone, Artemis, Hades, Cronos, Osiris, and Anubis. My only advice regarding these names is that these are the names of powerful figures and gods in their own context; if you really feel your character deserves the name of a Roman Goddess, you should choose very carefully.
SUPERNATURAL CREATURE NAMES!
If you're playing a character that doesn't have remarkably humanoid mouth and vocal chord structure, or lives in a non-vapor environment, it might be worth considering the differences in language they might have that would influence naming trends in their societies.
Werewolves might have more gutteral, growling sounds in the names they choose for themselves, or perhaps names that have strong F, R, L, and V sounds because they're easier to make with a strong, canine tongue and snout.
Mermaids might have long-u sounds and o-sounds, vowel heavy names that would carry through water, perhaps resembling whalesong to a degree.
Cat-people might have names that end in long-o sounds and "-au" or "-ieu" sounds, the way a cat mewls or meows.
For a society that communicates through telepathy or empathy, they may name themselves after feelings or colors that their parents or peers associate with them. (One game I played in actually forbade new players from naming their characters, instead allowing the other players to name the new character depending on how he or she interacted with the others.)
The possibilities are endless and really up to the player, and of course an ordinary name is probably fine too, but it's important to keep that sort of thing in mind.
SPELLING
Keep your spelling simple. Exchanging vowels for other vowels (like "i" for "y") or adding extra consonants may not change the pronounciation of the name, but having to read jumbled smatterings of alphabetical carsickness is basically going to make you look like a douche. This is usually the domain of ignorant parents who want to condemn their children to an endless stream of "Am I saying this right?" questions and too much time spent on the "Name" portion of job applications, but I see it often enough in RPG forums to mention it here.
Catherine and Kathyrynne are not the same name.
Nor are Cameron and Kammryne and Camrun or
Madison and Maddysin, or
Devon and Divounne and Devvyn, or
Jackson and Jakzun and Jaxxonne.
Catherine, Madison, Devon, and Jackson are probably all well-adjusted people.
Kathyrynne probably likes pink and talks on the phone too much. Camrun is probably a slack-jawed, knuckle-dragging neanderthal. Maddysin is destined for a career in pornography, Divounne is on her way to a modeling contract, and Jaxxonne is a contender for a transvestite beauty pagent crown.
These things matter. Pay attention.
ZOUNDS! SOUNDS!
For those among us who prefer to make up our own names, it helps to have a grasp on what certain sounds bring to mind. For example:
GL-sounds suggest beauty and light; glamour, glitz, glide, glisten
FL-sounds suggest jerky motion-- flap, flop, flip, fling, flit, flack
GR-sounds suggests toughness or strength- grit, gravel, grind, gristle
SL-sounds suggests going down or back-- slide, slip, slouch, sluice, slant, and can be derisive or otherwise negative in words like sleaze and slime.
-DLE sounds are just straight-up funny-- doodle, poodle, fleedle, muddle, befuddle, puddle
It's important to consider the sound of individual syllables as well as the entirety of the name. If you're trying to put together a name from the ground up, it's absolutely vital. Consider words that have the sounds you're assembling together and see how they feel when you say them, the kind of pace and timbre your voice takes. It'll go a long way to helping you define your character with their name.
FINAL WORD
If you absolutely insist on giving your character a Very Special Unique and Interesting Cool Name, at least consider the idea that most people who know that character probably don't call them by their full weird name if it's longer than two syllables. Nicknames become your friend at that point, and there's really no rules as to what a nickname can be, apart from answering the "What stuck?" question.
However! As a caveat, the phrase "Her name is Sylvirramadawna Blacksoultalonwing" but her friends call her SILLY!" isn't helping you. Keep in mind that if it's a nickname worth mentioning, it's a nickname the character goes by because people have been calling them that for ages, to the point where in their minds, it IS their name.
Also keep in mind that the character's backstory friends are probably not going to be in the game you're playing, so a phrase like "but her her friends call her (some other name)" is nearly meaningless. That's like saying "His name is Orville Pigdicker, but his mom calls him PUDDIN' CHEEKS." This is especially true for rude or derisive nicknames. "Her name is Shawna Mandango, but her friends call her Dickface." Not only are those friends clearly assholes, they're also not in the game, so hopefully Dickface's tragic past can remain in the past where it belongs.
The best example of this is the title character in a book called The Great Gilly Hopkins. Gilly Hopkins shares a couple of qualities with some roleplaying characters-- she gets bounced around in foster homes, has anger issues, and has an absent flower child mother who gave her a Tolkien name-- Galadriel-- that nobody could live with, including Gilly herself. In the book, however, she grows into the name, introducing herself as Galadriel (a beautiful, regal name) only after she's developed over the course of the book and taken steps to grow up.
Sometimes there's no name you can give a character to fit them-- they just have to earn it.
(Written by Celleri-kun, for use on the internets, intarweb, innanetz, and intertubes. Go nuts, just keep my name on it.)
