Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [naming]

Questions about creating and using names. Note that questions asking people to come up with names for you are off-topic.

Questions about creating and using names. How to come up with appropriate names. How to come up with unusual names. Whether to reveal names. When to use first/last/nicknames.

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Character is called by their first initial. How do I write it?

A character's name starts with a hard G, as in Gary. Another character (dismissively) calls him by his first initial "G", said with a soft G, as in gee whiz. I've been using the letter G, but it's giving me the willies in formatted text. I don't…
wetcircuit
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How can I make names more distinctive without making them longer?

In the point-of-view culture in my story, all of the women in priestly families have two-syllable names beginning with vowels. (There are reasons for this, but they're completely unrelated to my question.) I've gotten feedback from a beta reader…
Monica Cellio
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About using authentic historical name for teenager material

I am writing a (short) story set in Ancient Egypt, and the intended audience are junior high-senior high school students in the US. I am trying to use authentic Ancient Egyptian names for the character, I can find a lot here. But my colleague warned…
Fitri
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Using place names from other novels

There is a novel by a well-known author the title of which is a place name. The place is fictional and appears in the novel, although there are real places in the real world with the same name, but these places are small and not well known. Anyone…
user5645
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How can I learn about the aesthetic rules behind composing new names for things?

This is kind of difficult for me to describe, so let me lead with an example. Suppose I tell you there's a creature named Humbarum and another named Axratax. I'll ask you to start imagining what they're like, even though you know nothing but their…
doppelgreener
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Writing a character that has many names

So one of my main characters uses three different names throughout the story. There's his nickname Warlock, his name Andreas, and his shorthand name Dre. Warlock is probably used the most, enemies use it in combat with him, along with anyone not…
sturrockad
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In dramatic dialogue, would it be okay NOT to drop the definite article from a character's name?

The tradition of dropping the definite article in dramatic dialogue seems to go back to William Shakespeare's days and beyond. Thus, in Romeo and Juliet (to pick a play at random), the Apothecary is referred to (in the dialogue and blocking) as,…
Ricky
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How do I write about a character with no name?

I'm writing a story where one of the characters is taken in by three other characters, but they don't know the first character's name. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to write this scene, since they can't refer to the first character by…
art
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Should a fantasy book only have fictional names?

My book is totally fantasy, full of made up countries and places, all with fictional names I created, but most of my characters have real names. Some are English, others are Asian, and some are even African, since the world is pretty big and I…
Alcino Albino
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Should the word "The" be included in a label when labelling a character?

If I reference a character, whom, for the current context is given a label, such as "The Skull", should I include the word "The"? The following snippet should clarify my question: Our mission is to assassinate an elite member of a crime syndicate.…
Azriel
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How do I come up with a powerful Name?

DISCLAIMER: This probably not the ideal StackExchange site for this question, but it was the closest one I found I have been using this name, "MikePendragonXD" online for a few years now. It represents three things, my love of writing (Pen), My…
Mike Fleitz
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Dialog problems with a character with only one name?

I have a character who starts as a low servant caste and rises up through society. While plotting, I never bothered to give her more than one name, I guess I was thinking her island/village is small enough that it wouldn't be important, and that she…
wetcircuit
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Help! Character naming similarity

Okay so I am coming up with ideas for a potential story. I am naming my strong female protagonist and I looked up some character names. I like the old german last name Stark, it fits with my character and it means strong and brave. The problem is,…
Kitkat Potato
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Characters with very long names or titles

My story is bilingual Spanish and English, revolving around an emperor and his lover. My main character is royalty and it is fitting for him to have a long name, but he transitions from one title to the next in the story. At first he is the royal…
JasperRuberté
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Making a big deal out of revealing a character's name

Does there always have to be a big, showy production about the revelation of a character's name? I was thinking that I'd just slide the name in quietly, in an off-hand manner. Probably the reader might not even realise that they're even reading the…
Sphoorthy Nutulapati
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