The name France came from the throwing weapon, Francisca, that the peoples (the Franks) in the region utilized in warfare to draw their future country's lines.

Name it after a weapon, or artifact of importance.

England is named after the Anglo-Saxons (a peoples) - "Ang"-land went to England.

Hi guys, this is my first post here at gamedev ^^
I've been working on my first game, and, just as in writing any story, I also have difficulty with names. And with English being my second language, albeit "native level", I think there are still some differences in how I perceive sounds. That may be an advantage or disadvantage, or maybe either, that it's just different.

At first, I just made up random names that sounded right, though some characters have had several name changes...

So I thought I'd visit some name definition websites, where they tell you a name's definition and possible/likely origins. There, I would select a name origin, say, Gaelic, then click on a random letter that I think my character's name should start with, click on an available name, then check the definition. Then I would see if the definition fits what I'd like my character to be. I'd then make my own variation of names based on that name, or mix names to get partial-real names, resulting in, I suppose, a fantastic name.

Just for fun, I'll try one now :D
I like Gaelic names because they feel like they fit into the medieval scene real well, and are not so typical from what we've already been exposed to, like "Aurthor".

"Allene" is a Gaelic female name, meaning "attractive", "peaceful", while "Cecelia" is another female name, meaning "blind". So.. attractive + peaceful + blind... perhaps a mix of the names might be "Aicelen", possibly a name fit for a princess who is either blind due to her attractiveness, or blind to her own attractiveness....

Also, I think that just as the name should sound right and has a ring to its tone for the ear, the shape of the name has a similar role for the eyes. I mean shape as in what the word looks like based on its composition of letters.

But naming places is a whole 'nother story for me ><! I dunno how :(

I tend you use borrowing as means of selecting names for place and people. Either using words or phonemes that convey a particular trait or characteristic that I want to associate with that person or place. Places and Organization tend to either have hard or lyrical titles. So I’d choose a title with 2 two to 4 words in it.

For an Empire name:

The Domain of Iron - Cold hard, imperial, strict.
The Exalted Order – Divine mandate, religious over tones, and deep on ceremony.
Masters or the Seven Winds – Expansionist, trade focused, navel forces.

I use www.babynames.com. There are a lot of interesting names off-the-shelf.

Very common names may not sound alien enough.

But you can easily run headfirst into banality by throwing together random syllables.

Mix in some random apostrophes and deem thyself Mediocretes.

You need to strike a balance between being so familiar that it doesn't sound alien enough, or being so alien that it has no "feel" or worse, looks like you threw together random syllables. Kt'Blath!

While there is a "search by definition" function on many sites, I only use it to arbitrarily narrow a pool. Nobody knows what names mean.

Searching by ethnicity is often a little useful when you realize that its already done so much that people have strong associations between types of names, competely independent of national or cultural stereotypes. Every notice how many "men in black" have English names like Smith, Johnson, Anderson? I dunno why, but the patterns are there. You can use them.

The characters in my current pet project are named Ada, Aldan Keen and Ranger Gus.

[Edited by - JoeCooper on April 1, 2010 5:11:58 PM]

Try to look into (present) Mongolian names. I love those, they're just insane:
Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj (aka Asashoryu, Yokozuna rank Sumo wrestler)
Munkhbat Davaajargal (aka Hakuho, Yokozuna rank Sumo wrestler)

Some South-East Asian names sound wicked too. Names of recent and ancient cultures can be a good starting point too. Or even names of places, just take a look at Pol Pot's life on wiki. Tons of cool names, which doesn't even sound Asian:

Prek Sbauv
Norodom Sihanouk
Sak Sutsakhan
angkar padevat

just some examples.

Wow, I have my read for tonight! I love those names.

Hey dude, why don't you just use cool sounding foreign words with meanings that coincide with your character's personality.


Eg: Sangre, means blood in spanish, he/she could be some sort of assassin, etc.

Personally I find anagrams to work really well. Just take a name or any other word and flip some letters. I was writing on a road trip once and got stuck on a name for a faction. I looked over to a liquor store and thought, ah-ha!, there it is, so I settled on "Qourli"

One way to do it would be to using a markov model to generate names. Here is one site that does it:

http://www.quick-name-generator.com/

I am sure with some googling you could find an appropriate algorithm, and then seed it with a mix of "normal" names and fantasy names and see what pops out. At the very least, it could give you some inspiration.

Allucaneet and Payasueet.

That's right! Taken from Brave Fencer Musashi! atleast the first one was anyway.

Actually You may already know this but try searching baby name registeries and mix and match words/names. For example if you are using japanese based you can reseach the meaning of te words and make your own names better. Sorry if that didn't help.