Promote your story with the inspiration behind your most unique character name (or names)

Leyelle 2024-01-13 01:35:53 UTC #1

So I think my two winners are Kattar and Shannon, so I'll start with Shannon because his reason is shorter.

My older brother once talked to this Aussie guy, and his name was Shannon. I had no idea that was a unisex name, and other than that guy, I had 100% only seen it used for girls. So since i needed a name that would make my MC think she was meeting up with a woman only to find out it was actually a man, I chose the name Shannon.

Kattar's is a little more out there. I've only ever heard of one person in the world with that name, male or female, and it was my next door neighbor's niece's boyfriend. A lot of degrees of separation I know, but in the Dominican Republic, people spend a lot of time at their relatives houses, so I saw this girl often. No the character is not based on her boyfriend. I've never met him, never seen him once, didn't even know what his name was. My dad found it out because she had a baby, and when they asked the baby's name they were saying Catarina because the baby's father was named Kattar. for the life of me I have no idea how he spelled his name, so I made up a spelling, cuz I thought the name sounded cool. I honestly don't even know if it's a real name because I feel like we make up a lot of jibberish we think sounds nice and name our kids that in this country.

Is Wilfren a real name? I don't know is Yogeiri? are Juleicy and Juleidy, and Gleidy and Albeili? But I've seen more than one person or business named some of those.

So yeah. Hence we have Shannon Carmichael (who's last name Carmichael is inspired by Amy Carmichael, because it's irish but doesn't have a 'Mc' or an 'O' in it.)

And Kattar Moon...who's last name is NOT Moon because his father is Korean...spoiler alert...

BoomerZ 2024-01-13 01:37:07 UTC #2

Baul (pronounced ball) is just a play on words so the title works "Little Ball of Hate".

Leyelle 2024-01-13 01:45:03 UTC #3

For my "Lion Proof" I feel like the most interesting character name really just revolves her ethnicity in relation to her character design, and that would have to be Lucy Kim.

Not only does Eliza suspect her of being a spy just because she shares a last name with Mrs. Kim, the owner of Puff Mommy, an afro-hair beauty supply store, which Eliza insists on considering her rival, though in reality they're totally crushing her, but Lucy also has a really cute afro which is kind of out of the ordinary perception of Koreans. Truth is, some real Koreans naturally have afros of 3B to even 4C hair texture, which is pretty awesome IMO, and just more proof that people are more similar than we think and we have GOT to stop boxing ourselves off from each other.

This I learned from a Korean natural hair YouTuber who was at this famous Gangnam salon getting her hair done. Sorry I can't tell you her name, but I can't speak or write in hangul. It translated to 'green vegetables." but if you look up "Kiu's Salon" ruined hair contest, you'll probably find the channel, and then have to scroll through his "Hair tutorial" playlist to find the Ms. Green Vegetables. But she shared a lot of information I didn't know about Korean genes and hair. Apparently a lot of them just perm their hair because, like too many black women, they're told or convinced that it doesn't look nice to wear their hair natural. fortunately the USA is breaking away from this, and hopefully Korea will soon too.

kyupol 2024-01-13 07:42:21 UTC #4

Akala = tagalog word for "perception".
Maya = Hindu term for illusion. Aka "matrix"... aka "the world" in Christianity.

Akala Maya = perception illusion

miyaskya 2024-01-13 09:27:39 UTC #5

Some of the characters in Grand Epic Elemental are named after elements in the periodic table
* Thallios (named after the element thallium)
* Xenon
* Oganesson
* Selenia (named after the element selenium)

For the other characters
* Leiyu - Chinese for "thunderstorm"
* Saragerel - Mongolian for "moonllight"
* Narantuya - Mongolian for "sunbeam"

Comic version

Novel version

Stargazer31 2024-01-13 11:53:24 UTC #6

Carmilla: Vampire novel
Ross G. Wells: Roswell/HG Wells (Sci-Fi)
Khufenkhamun: Portmanteau of Khufu and Tutankhamen
Ika Dunedin: Maori word for fish and a New Zealand seaside town
Yossele Clayman: Yossele was said to be the name of the golem. And he's literally a "clay man"

Rai_Muffin 2024-01-13 12:02:22 UTC #7

Most of Raikiri are named after weather or nature in some way.

Natsumi and Fuyumi Yukihana - Yuki is Japanese for Snow and Hana means flower.
Keanu Ikazuchi - Keanu is Hawian for light breeze, and Ikazuchi is Japanese for Lightning
Xuiying "Rose" Fengbao - Fengbao is Firestorm in Mandarin
Sandalio "Lok" Borasca - Borasca is Spanish for Squall
Nyambura "Niya" Tuberosa - Nyambura is African for Born in the Rain
Leon Erdbeben - Erdbeben is German for Earthquake
Fio and Lilia Névoa - Névoa is Protugese for mist
Jasmine Nuit - Nuit is French for night
U-Jin Yuseong - Is Korean for Meteor

The outlier is David Bladen, who is actually named after my Dad's middle names.
Almost mine too, but my parents incorrectly thought I wouldn't like an awesome second middle name like Bladen.

skidiggy 2024-01-13 16:31:44 UTC #8

This is awesome. Love the prompt. So many of my character name origins are either spoiler-ish, so I'll stick to the non-spoiler related ones.

Byxx Malignar: I love the old timey name "Bix" and thought it would be perfect for the archfiend. "Malignar" stems from malignant, which many archfiends are said to be. He is, of course, a complete teddy bear who only bares fangs at the Invaders...

Zayzann: His name stems from me sounding out "Cezanne" (the post-impressionist painter) and creating syllable pairings to smash into a coherent name. Iris was fumbling for a name she could say for him, and lifted the name from one of her favorite artists. "Zayzann" was his alien response that he uttered when trying to copy Iris's pronunciation.

Khazmine Asteras: I love the names "Casamir" and "Castiel" and wanted a "Khaz" name to match for the Augment. "Asteras" is a Greek word for "star."

I'll also add that many character names are references to favorite song names or lyrics. I hope someone may guess them in the future...

Hope that helps!

sevenstarsofeightIam 2024-01-13 20:14:56 UTC #9

In my Space Bum series, I have the cast of characters Besh, Sam Barker, Raul Ruiz, and Crispin Beasley. The incidental characters are King David Loughty, Queen Elizabeth Loughty, Prince Albert Loughty, and Heaven Langley.

My ideas for Besh came way back in the 90s. Besh is a consolidation of letters from his name, Benjamin Edward Shuller. He meets Captain Sam Barker, and the inspiration for his name is in the passage; Sam confronts Besh, a stowaway, and uses a loud voice. Sam used to be a pirate and had another name, Maxfield Dagget, inspired by the name Maxfield Parrish, one of my favorite artists. I gave the name Raul to one of my characters because I remembered it from a Terrence Hill movie. Crispin is a rare name but it was not as much a part of the character as his last name.

For the King, Queen, and Prince, I used real-world names. There was actually a King David and a Queen Elizabeth. My sense of humor could not resist throwing in a Prince Albert, which I have smoked on occasion. The name Heaven just popped into my head when I introduced the character, and I chose the last name Langley to make her sound official, as she was a Constable in the King's service.

In my Star Seeders series, the thought was to base characters on religious characters. Therefore, my MC, Jeez, was based on Jesus. LUC was based on Lucifer. The MC's father, named Godeli, was a construct of a title and a name: God and Eli. Bha Huda was based on Budda, and Crish was based on Krishna. The two soldiers closest to the MC were military Archangels. I named them after angels I looked up on the internet. They are Barachiel and Khamuel.

In my fantasy novel, The Faerie Dusters, I got the MC's name from the back of a phone book.

https://tapas.io/series/Escape-Through-Esthos/info

https://tapas.io/series/Mundus-Vae-Men-of-Mud-and-Stone/info

craftsbyblue 2024-01-13 21:32:42 UTC #10

A number of characters in my story have Chinese / Japanese names. The names range from uncommon to "no one would use this in real life."

Here are a few examples:

Zhen Xinyi (真心意, multiple meanings, could be read as "sincere")
Baiqiao Sheng Feng (白桥圣凤 / 白橋聖鳳, "sacred phoenix of the white bridge")
Baiqiao Yaoshe (白桥妖蛇 / 白橋妖蛇, “demonic snake of the white bridge”)
Shilu (失路, “someone who has lost their way”)

Kurosawa Makoto (黒澤誠, "sincere black marsh")
Kurosawa Gyoku (黒澤玉, "jade black marsh")

UntiteldMaidens 2024-01-13 21:36:48 UTC #11

American Maiden is... Made-in America( that names taken I guess rho)

Got a girl named Invisabelle. Isabelle+invisible
Got a character called Revengence. Vengeance + revenge
Got a character called Gibberish that changes everyone's speech bubbles into Blahblahblah

2DLenzy 2024-01-13 22:33:35 UTC #12

Alec Tryon is stolen from Alectryon, a figure in Greek myth
Horace comes from Horus, the falcon-headed Egyptian god, and his last name, Apis, from Serapis, another Hellenistic god
Teresa came from Mother Teresa.

Lots of chickens were derived from puns, breeds, foreign words
Friar = fryer
Bucky = Buckeye
Gallus = Gallus domesticus
Schmultz = schmaltz, a broth used in Jewish cooking

My newest three - Baltzar, Melchor and Gasper are derived from the three wise men/kings who visited infant Jesus.

Lots more to come!

lexhera 2024-01-13 22:52:15 UTC #13

I enjoy bastardizing rather common names. I just pretend it's the culture of my novel's setting, haha

Ellowyn Vestein
Florencia Vestein
Ikras Alciel
Empress Tersica
(Future Characters) Evelissa, Cloetta, Charliette, Victorren, etc...

Leyelle 2024-01-14 12:35:22 UTC #14

wow, Nyambura is a really interesting name

Leyelle 2024-01-31 02:57:35 UTC #15

Okay, so in book two, (technically in book one as well, but she doesn't get any dialog until book 2) there is a character named Melissa Xochitl. Her name is Mexican, but interestingly, I first learned that name because it was the name of a brand of blue corn chips. They were so tasty...and the character is a really fun, chipper, non-toxic person (because we really really needed some of those) so she earned that (earned being christened after blue corn chips lol)

lignorice 2024-01-31 07:44:11 UTC #16

Internet is definitely my friend for names! Names of my characters are either made up or browsed in internet. I tend to choose uncommon names, or ancient forms.

Cenric is taken from Old English "Cene" means bold and Ric means "King". It's an Anglo-Saxon name (according to ny browsing)

Atreus is taken from Greek, the word "Treo" means to fear/flee added with suffix "a" (so it means not coward/run away)

Nicola is a variation of Nicholas, taken from Greek "nike" means victory and "laos" means people.

Aaaand future characters:

Erhard is from Old German, "era" means "honour, respect" combined with "hart" means "hard, firm, brave, hardy"

Ilze is Latvian variation, short form of Elizabete (Elizabeth). I chose this name because it sounds like what her parents would name her

Itri means star in Tamazight (I don't know what language is this, but I chose this name with the same reason as Ilze, and how it means star).

Vrakh is a name I came up with during concepting Lume more than 7 years ago, when I am in high school. Sounds ancient is the only reason lol

Leyelle 2024-02-23 15:52:22 UTC #17

So i have a really interesting story behind one of the names waiting to come out later, but I'll wait for the character's reveal.

For now: Jimin Lee, Jinwoo's little sister, is named after Park Jimin (Singer of "April Fools" not the one from BTS)

PoppyTheMerpasaur 2024-02-23 16:25:15 UTC #18

"C-3" is a complex one. I wanted something that sounded labrat-y, and so you can see why I went with a letter-dash-number format. I made sure the letter and the number rhymed to make it roll off the tongue like an actual name, but it means something deeper than that. The C and the 3 come together to form a little heart, which is meant to represent the character's endless compassion, and the C alone is meant to represent half of a circle... although saying what that represents starts to get into spoiler territory-

"Dolus" is just latin for something. A lot of the weird names are. Is it lazy? Lol yeah
But I bet you didn't know that until I said something <u<

Animal508 2024-02-23 16:31:15 UTC #19

Every Japanese name I use in my story is symbolic in some way, either of a physical trait, or of an emotional one.

Leyelle 2024-03-15 02:47:22 UTC #20

The female lead of my series "Hushabye Prince" goes by her middle name Kimberly, but her technical first name is Motarilavoa. She's Vanuatu and African American, so her mother named her after a Vanuatu chief-tess because she wanted her to stay connected with her culture. (Her mother's name is Isabel, because it was changed when she got American citizenship)