Naming question for the authors

[Woomer]

Apologies if this kind of thing has been asked before. I've followed the board for a long, long time, but haven't posted anything since the Great Reworking a year or so ago.

I was rereading the DS9 Gateways novel a few days ago and I was reminded of the use of "Treir" for TerriO, as well as the later use of Osborne's World, as an in-joke by KRAD.

Do any of you authors have any meaning behind the names of places or species that must be created for your works? I don't mean necessarily named after specific people, but I'm just curious as to the reasoning (if any) behind the nomenclature. Thanks!

 

[Dayton Ward]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

 

[Woomer]

Ha! Somehow I expected that. Good answer, Dayton.

 

[Geoff Thorne]

Yes.

 

[Woomer]

Ohhhhh, you authors!

Nah, I'm just glad you even noticed and replied. I should have realized that it might have been a little personal.

 

[David Mack]

Pick a few names and Google them. See what comes up.

 

[HIj'Qa]

There's the K'vin Hegemony [Kevin Ryan]
the Daavi't [Peter David]
ordovers [John Ordover]
Klingon Lt Krad
I think there's some disease or syndrome name Ward-Dillmore.

All the characters in my SNW story had their RealLife inspirations' initials turned into their names [SK = Eskay]

 

[Lonemagpie]

Sometimes it's someone I know, or a fannish reference, or just something I like the sound of, or a combination of first and last names I think will look good on the page, or sound right in the character's language, or...

 

[LightningStorm]

Pick a few names and Google them. See what comes up.

Heh, yeah, and in some cases don't do this while at work.

 

[JD]

Yeah, we all learned that a month or so ago.

 

[Woomer]

Is it sad that I got that one immediately, while I was reading Destiny? No Google necessary, I had a very clear idea of what that particular bridge officer looked like.

Well done, David.

 

[Greg Cox]

I like to work Pacific Northwest names into my Trek books: Puyallup, Nisqually, Duwamish, etcera, just because I think they sound cool. And sometimes I'll just see an interesting name and think, "that would make a good planet or starship."

Like "Solanco." Around here, that's a common abreviation for "South Lancaster County," but it struck me as a good starship name, so . . .

Typos make good alien names, too. I once misspelled Claudia "Caludia" and decided that would make a good alien name someday. So I scribbled it down onto an index card and stuck it in a file!

 

[Stevil2001]

I struggled with coming up with human-settled planet names in my original fiction. I didn't like it when they just had "space names" (who would ever call a place Melankosa VII?) but the "Earth" names that popped into my head just seemed too familiar and dull (New Washington, ugh). So I adopted a policy of hitting the random article button on Wikipedia and naming the planet after the first proper noun that came up. It works well. (Stary Dwór. I like that.)

On the other hand, I love giving my human characters "space names" that have nothing to do with real names, simply an improbable collision of syllables. "Renn Delvenek" indeed.

 

[LightningStorm]

On the other hand, I love giving my human characters "space names" that have nothing to do with real names, simply an improbable collision of syllables. "Renn Delvenek" indeed.

You know, I've always wondered if anyone did this. Because I always thought if I were making up names that's what I'd do. Just take some syllables and put them together and see how they sound.

 

[Trent Roman]

So I adopted a policy of hitting the random article button on Wikipedia and naming the planet after the first proper noun that came up. It works well. (Stary Dwór. I like that.)

I'm terrible at naming characters and have been doing that for a while for sci-fi, contemporary and sometimes even fantasy shorts, although I'll often make a few searches before I find something that 'sounds right' for the setting I'm looking for. (Historical fiction, obviously, wants stricker naming patterns).

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Stevil2001]

^ I do it for character names if I'm at a total loss, but I'm more picky with those and will often tweak what I get. For place names, though, I generally make a rule that whatever comes up first gets used no matter what.

 

[William Leisner]

On the other hand, I love giving my human characters "space names" that have nothing to do with real names, simply an improbable collision of syllables. "Renn Delvenek" indeed.

You know, I've always wondered if anyone did this. Because I always thought if I were making up names that's what I'd do. Just take some syllables and put them together and see how they sound.

I tend to do that with aliens that have established naming patterns, like Tellarites and Andorians. Where I have more freedom, it can run the entire spectrum from straight Tuckerization to random sounds, and all points in-between.

 

[David R. George III]

I occasionally will use the names of friends, family, and others as the basis for names in my fiction, but most of the time, I simply create names that I like. It's something for which I seem to have a facility, meaning that when I need a character or place name, I can almost come up with something very quickly. For example, if I'm in the middle of penning a scene and there suddenly comes a need for some background character to have a name, I often don't even have to stop writing; I merely settle on a name as I write. Of course, I have no idea whether readers like the names I use, but overall, I'm pretty satisfied.

I virtually never craft in-jokes, for which I don't much care. Yes, they can be fun, but they also tend to pull me out of a work when I'm reading, and so I don't want that to happen to my readers.

 

[JD]

A few months back, when I decided to actually try to write my own original story like I've been wanting to for years, I used a website that has names from around the world and what they mean. The story is contemporary sci-fi, so I wanted to make sure that the names and stuff were as authentic as possible.

 

[Christopher]

^Yeah, for human characters, I try to be careful with the research when it comes to non-Western names, so I don't give characters gender-inappropriate or misformed names. The problem is that it's easier to find sites and books listing multicultural given names (for baby-naming purposes) than surnames. For one of my original SF stories, I got the lead character's surname from a library book about African authors and poets.

Otherwise, I'll often choose character names based on wordplay, anagrams, and free association games. I often use partial Tuckerizations, sometimes of old friends and acquaintances, sometimes not. In my X-Men and Spider-Man novels, many of the supporting characters' names are homages to the cast and crew of the 1990s animated series of same, and in Ex Machina, there are Tuckerizations of several ST:TMP creative staffers.