Naming Fantasy Characters First Step: Get In a Creative Mood
So, I wanted to give a quick guide on my way of creating new names for fantasy characters. I have written some very short stories myself and wanted to share how I go about creating fantasy names. So, my first step is to create a nice quite space, get into a creative mood as well, sometimes music helps such as putting on a good youtube video on fantasy music.
So, for example and a good one I think is this, go to youtube.com and enter in the search “Epic Fantasy Music” and one of the first ones that pops up is the following video:
This one seems good…there seem to be others that look good but after I get into somewhat of a mood to create and listening to fantasy music to help you get into the mood really helps.
Write Down Ideas: 20 Minimum
Next thing that I do is write down about 20 different names and don’t worry about how silly they sound. Just write them down and if you shoot for at least 20 interesting ideas at a minimum I would say that should get you to about a few that seem like you are on the right path to developing a great name.
So for example….and this is a loose example, let me write down 20 just off the top of my head that sound like it may be in a fantasy novel.
Aerin, Laos, Andrin, Geoffin, Molnarik……
Alright, I didn’t quite get to 20, but I hope you get my point. The previous names I just wrote in about a minute off the top of my head while ,of course, listening to the fantasy music which I suggested. As you know, feel free to choose your own music and write down just ideas and ideas and I really think after about 20 to 30 minutes you should start to get some good leads and things that you like about certain names.
Take Real World Inspiration
Another thing I have done is if you are somewhat stuck on coming up with about 20 of your own original names is scour the globe and just take a map or go on Google maps and look at names in Europe particularly, so lets add them to our list..
Aerin, Laos, Andrin, Geoffin, Molnarik, and I’ll add the following cities from throughout Europe: Luxemburg, Munich, Paris, Athens, Berlin, Hamburg.
Ok, so lets play with this a bit…so lets combine Paris and Andrin…Parin
So we have now Parin….so that for me, not sure if that sounds just right but I hope you get the general idea of how sometimes I take cities from Europe and then combine them with my creative names which I came up with on my own to make some unique names that sound like they would belong in a fantasy novel.
It Takes Time to Create Fantasy Names
My suggestion to you also is patience, patience, patience….you know in real estate they have the saying location, location, location….well when it comes to naming fantasy characters I think it is patience, patience, patience. I believe most great fiction draws inspiration from real events and places and people that have happened, so drawing some inspiration from places that already exist I don’t think is a stretch by any means.
Please keep in mind that sometimes you end up coming up with interesting names using the way I describe which can help name other characters. So, its important to keep the list because later on down the line you may end up using some of the names you came up with. Keep those names and even when you need inspiration for another character you can come back to the list, which is a list that you totally made up on your own by the way…and use those existing names to fill in other characters.
Conclusion
So, I hope that this guide has given you some pointers, this is somewhat my own way of coming up with interesting names for fantasy characters, I mix it up with both creatively coming up with my own, then drawing inspiration from people and places that have already existed and mixing them with my own.
It is very important to realize that there is no set way of being creative, do what works for you and it is my hope that you have found something useful here in this quick guide on how I personally come up with fantasy names.
Best wishes in your writing adventures!!! Thank you for reading!!
Also, if you found this even a bit helpful, would love for you to let me know at celthricentertainment@gmail.com as well as of course sharing this article to any author you may feel would like to know how I create fantasy names.
More Resources To Check Out
Update February 25, 2021***
I thought I would include some more great resources to check out. I found this video of George RR Martin and a few other videos I thought you may want to check out for learning how to create names for your fantasy world.
I also found this video which seems to be quite interesting and seems to have a lot of great advice as well. He seems to have a great channel on all things creating your fantay world.
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