I have a terrible time naming fantasy characters, generally. While I want the names to be non-conventional and even a little quirky I have a horror of overused monikers (Hawk, Raven), names that are glaringly inappropriate to the culture, and those stereotypical and unpronounceable fantasy names that look like a bunch of random syllables smushed together and riddled with gratuitous apostrophes to look suitably implausible. I mean, elven. I especially hate names where the author has forgotten that words need vowels as well as consonants to be pronounceable by the average human reader, and those that are just plain ugly and sound like klingon swear words - Klfffkpjt! Shogologol! Oh yes, fantasy name generators will have much to answer for on the Day of Judgement.
E R Eddison named his characters with sumptuous eclecticism. He didn't always get it right, especially in The Worm Ouroborous, where one struggles mightily to take seriously swashbuckling characters with eccentric names like Gaslark, Goldry Bluszco and Spitfire. But when he did get it right, the results could be very pleasing indeed - names still unusual enough that his reader understood this was no common world of everyday folk, but not so bizarre as to provoke irritation or mirth. Especially successful was his extensive usage of exquisite and unusual names of Greek, Italian and French origin in the Zimiamvian Trilogy, where they fit perfectly into that fantastical setting.
Most fantasy authors forget, or don't consider, that personal names used by a race or society need not all have the same origination. Certainly people of one race/country will likely have names that distinguish them as such. But the personal names used in England today derive from very many different ancient and modern languages, not a single source. Why should it be any different in other worlds that aren't a single racially, linguistically homogeneous culture? (and that's another issue! but for another post....)
I've taken a leaf from Eddison's book, and while many of the names I've chosen for my fantasy characters (or they chose for themselves!) might look invented, they are either 'real' or close variations of real personal or place names from around this world. So while Mihai is a Gypsy name, Jaion is derived from the Basque female name Jaione, Caelum Kahani has a Latin forename and a Hindi surname, and my hara Maavah, Laois and Chamonix are named after, respectively, an island in the Maldives, an Irish county and a French mountain range. There's usually no agenda in the provenance of the names - all were chosen simply because they were uncommon, I liked them and they seemed to 'fit' the character. Talk about globalisation...
E R Eddison named his characters with sumptuous eclecticism. He didn't always get it right, especially in The Worm Ouroborous, where one struggles mightily to take seriously swashbuckling characters with eccentric names like Gaslark, Goldry Bluszco and Spitfire. But when he did get it right, the results could be very pleasing indeed - names still unusual enough that his reader understood this was no common world of everyday folk, but not so bizarre as to provoke irritation or mirth. Especially successful was his extensive usage of exquisite and unusual names of Greek, Italian and French origin in the Zimiamvian Trilogy, where they fit perfectly into that fantastical setting.
Most fantasy authors forget, or don't consider, that personal names used by a race or society need not all have the same origination. Certainly people of one race/country will likely have names that distinguish them as such. But the personal names used in England today derive from very many different ancient and modern languages, not a single source. Why should it be any different in other worlds that aren't a single racially, linguistically homogeneous culture? (and that's another issue! but for another post....)
I've taken a leaf from Eddison's book, and while many of the names I've chosen for my fantasy characters (or they chose for themselves!) might look invented, they are either 'real' or close variations of real personal or place names from around this world. So while Mihai is a Gypsy name, Jaion is derived from the Basque female name Jaione, Caelum Kahani has a Latin forename and a Hindi surname, and my hara Maavah, Laois and Chamonix are named after, respectively, an island in the Maldives, an Irish county and a French mountain range. There's usually no agenda in the provenance of the names - all were chosen simply because they were uncommon, I liked them and they seemed to 'fit' the character. Talk about globalisation...
