Naming question for the authors
- Thread starter Woomer
- Start date
Yes. There are characters named after people I know, and I don't tend to be overt about it because I hate things that bounce you out of the story like seeing a character named after someone every reader's going to recognize. I hate small world syndrome, and I hate giving everyday characters easily-recognizable as "tuckerization" to the reader names. That's just a pet peeve of mine.
My big thing is naming ships. Ships are a different story. Recognizable names there are expected and common, but I'd like to think that we can recognize more than just the major planetary leaders and big names that everybody knows. I'd like to think there are some ways to expand horizons. Every ship I've ever had the privilege of naming has had a distinct purpose and reason behind its name.
The U.S.S. Progress was a transport ship, and it was named in honor of the Russian ships that transport goods to and from the ISS.
The S.C.E. ship U.S.S. Trosper was named for Jennifer Trosper, mission manager for the Spirit Rover.
The shuttlecraft Reeves, assigned to the U.S.S. Trosper, is named in honor of Glenn Reeves, flight software architect for MER, whose foresight helped save Spirit from the brink. He was the one who built the back door in the programming that allowed Spirit to be revived.
The briefly mentioned U.S.S. Landry in Progress is named for Bridget Landry, who was one of the uplink managers on the Pathfinder mission and is a big Trek fan herself.
And the explorer ship U.S.S. Manning--whose story I one day hope to be able to tell, because it's a really cool one--from Malefictorum was named for Rob Manning, who has basically been one of the major reasons for us being able to explore Mars from the time he joined the Pathfinder mission.
Yeah, I'm a Mars geek. I freely admit it.
People remember the big names associated with stuff like that. It's the others who never get the acknowledgement they deserve, but without whom we wouldn't be able to do the things we've done and see the things we've seen.
My big thing is naming ships. Ships are a different story. Recognizable names there are expected and common, but I'd like to think that we can recognize more than just the major planetary leaders and big names that everybody knows. I'd like to think there are some ways to expand horizons. Every ship I've ever had the privilege of naming has had a distinct purpose and reason behind its name.
The U.S.S. Progress was a transport ship, and it was named in honor of the Russian ships that transport goods to and from the ISS.
The S.C.E. ship U.S.S. Trosper was named for Jennifer Trosper, mission manager for the Spirit Rover.
The shuttlecraft Reeves, assigned to the U.S.S. Trosper, is named in honor of Glenn Reeves, flight software architect for MER, whose foresight helped save Spirit from the brink. He was the one who built the back door in the programming that allowed Spirit to be revived.
The briefly mentioned U.S.S. Landry in Progress is named for Bridget Landry, who was one of the uplink managers on the Pathfinder mission and is a big Trek fan herself.
And the explorer ship U.S.S. Manning--whose story I one day hope to be able to tell, because it's a really cool one--from Malefictorum was named for Rob Manning, who has basically been one of the major reasons for us being able to explore Mars from the time he joined the Pathfinder mission.
Yeah, I'm a Mars geek. I freely admit it.
People remember the big names associated with stuff like that. It's the others who never get the acknowledgement they deserve, but without whom we wouldn't be able to do the things we've done and see the things we've seen.
^ Yeah, I'm with Terri. I thoroughly enjoy naming ships.
There are all sorts of things that go into nomenclature. Some are personal. Some are fun. Some are just names I like the sound of. Some are acknowledgments of people who I think deserve it (a la what Terri was talking about with ship naming).
But the reasons are many and varied, and I couldn't possibly list all of them here.....
But the reasons are many and varied, and I couldn't possibly list all of them here.....
when i was writing my fan-fic i started using human names from people from other countries by picking names of 'famous' people from said nation and mixing up forenames and surnames. eg need someone Dutch? take Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Blekemolen the two main A1GP drivers and get Jeroen Verstappen.
when i was writing my book, i did some similar things as well as also using names of astronauts or pilots from different nations since it was a Dan Dare-esque SF story. since i had an Afghan woman pilot, i used the forename of the first Afghan woman Olympic athelete from 2004 and gave her a random surname.
when it comes to ships, i usually make a point of seeking non-English warship names.
when i was writing my book, i did some similar things as well as also using names of astronauts or pilots from different nations since it was a Dan Dare-esque SF story. since i had an Afghan woman pilot, i used the forename of the first Afghan woman Olympic athelete from 2004 and gave her a random surname.
when it comes to ships, i usually make a point of seeking non-English warship names.
