When I'm creating a new character, no matter what genre I'm writing in, I like to start with the name. Names carry a lot of baggage, and it's not so much the way a name sounds but how it looks on the page that gives it personality. A name can be a great way to get to know a character, especially a fantasy character.
I find baby names books especially helpful for finding a great name that sparks life into a fantasy character. I prefer them to most of the fantasy name generators available out there because the resulting name has the same rhythm and cadences as the modern name, without the harsh anachronism of seeing a contemporary name in a historical or fantastic setting. Here's an example of one of my own name-tweaking sessions for my fantasy Zephyr's Awakening.
I started out with my trusty 35,000+ Baby Names, skimming the boy's name section until I hit Darren. Pretty modern, but already a fantastic cultural history from Bewitched (always a good idea to be aware of the cultural connotations when picking a name). Other suggested spellings: Darin, Daren, Derren.
I took the final suggestion, and with a short list of my own adjustments, ended up with the name that went on to inspire one of my favorite characters, Dheren (who in a nutshell is a tender, quiet, quasi-immortal soldier-priest with a deep, secret, and potentially lethal passion for a holy avatar--and a fondness for gardening).
The great thing about this system of name creation is most of the names you end up with are easy to pronounce (not always readily available in fantasy names) and each version conjures up a different kind of personality for your character. To help you get started recreating modern names for your fantasy characters, here's a short list of ordinary, familiar, and possibly boring names that have been given a little touch of the fantastic:
- Mairi
- Alyss
- Jeska
- Lehri
- Danne
If you have any recreated names you'd like to share, please leave a comment!
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