Dumbest thing you've ever named... anything.

[Madrigal]

(No, you really don't want to know what inspired this.)

OK, as SFF writers, we tend to find ourselves coining words and phrases and names all the time. However, sometimes we don't really pay attention to the term once we've got it--it's just there, we can go on with the manuscript.

Until rewrites, when we can realize we've just named the main character Kitty and her ex-pornstar lover Dick. Or something along those lines.

I, for instance, have just found out that I managed not to notice a somewhat ditzy character was named Hillton...

Anyone else got some good ones?

[ladyholdermara]

welllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lol


I named my lead character Kristellan and noticed afterwards that it was very close to my neighbors daughter Kristal-Ann lol, didn't mean it to be that way but oh well lol

I was VERY deliberate when I named things in the universe I'm trying to write in, I wanted something TOTALLY original so I used family names and mixed them up together. :D The planet name is Pabawijoka, which is the 1st two letters in all the names of my immediate family :)

[Jorine]

To not name a character at all. The whole story was that this abducted baby was taken to live with shape-shifting dragons and she isn't to know her own name until she comes into her "power" - after a meeting in which she conceives a baby with her unknown twin brother. :roll: what the hell was I thinking.

[Anareth]

Well, I have a book that's in rewrites and still doesn't have even an inkling of a title.

I tend to give the main characters vaguely aliterative names. (Jozef and Juliet I say is all right--if Agatha Christie can do Tommy and Tuppence, I can do something less silly. Alan and Elaine, meanwhile, have the same last initial as well, but I turned it into a joke--their offices get mixed-up mail, they joke that only the 'questionably literate' would spell their first names the same way, my not-so-subtle jibe at anyone who can't keep short A and long E sounds separate.) And one character's name is a deliberate if obscure joke--Marcus Fabius Valentinian (his cognomen means 'strong', he's dubbed that as a joke by 'friends' after he kills some...thing that doesn't require a whole lot of strength, but as that's part of what drives him over the edge and isn't exactly meant to be ha-ha funny.)

[AnnMarie]

hmmmm. Tough question. I think the worst I ever did was name two cousins almost the same thing....just changed two letters. Confused the living daylights out of me, so I went back and changed it.

[Madrigal]

Ugh, I've done that... I have two characters named Kira (different worlds and written about a year apart), and a Sabel and Sable. (The first is from a roleplay. The other's from NaNo.) Does wonders for my typos...

[Greenrider Tresa]

Don't think I've ever done it...though I do have too many characters floating around in my head to keep track of. Myath and Mhyth were not entirely my fault, I adopted one. <G> Oddly enough, their riders names are Melia and Mairaed, but one's blue and the other brown.



Tresa

[Maedhbh]

Not quite sure if this counts toward your question or not. But I named a type of character Soul Singers. (I'd explain why, but that might give away the story I wrote on them.) And I swear I was in the bookstore one day and found someone else had used that same term. I was so mad. I came up with it! :irked: :mad:

[Jorine]

That reminded me of something. I start looking around my humble little abode and think "I really need to do something with this place" and I get onto a decorating kick (which is mostly fantasizing - I don't have the money to change anything right now). For the last three years or so, I will come up with my own "theme" for the different rooms in my house: sunflowers in the kitchen and diningroom, gingham and roses in the livingroom, etc., then walk into my sister-in-law's house and see that she has already "stolen" my idea and even if I HAD the money to fix up my house I couldn't do it anyway because she'd think I was copying HER :irked: .

[Jozell]

To not name a character at all. The whole story was that this abducted baby was taken to live with shape-shifting dragons and she isn't to know her own name until she comes into her "power" - after a meeting in which she conceives a baby with her unknown twin brother. :roll: what the hell was I thinking.

"King Arthur and his half-sister Morgaine = Mordred" perhaps?

I can't think of a name that would be really bad, except I'm guilty of the ol' starting a name with 'K' technique for beginners.

Well it sounded good to me! :roll:

[Maedhbh]

... starting a name with 'K' technique for beginners ...
K technique? Never heard of this. Explanation? (BTW, I rather think I like your avatar, Jozell. Nice.)

[Madrigal]

With a lot of newbie writers, you'll see Mary Sues with names that begin with a K. (Often with Ys, Ls, Rs and As in them too, plus absolutely useless vowels. The longer and flowerier, the better.) Like this: Kyalia, Kellara, Kelisendra, Kylarina...

[Maedhbh]

Thanks, Madrigal. Guess I managed to not do that sort of thing in my writing. Not so sure I haven't done a Mary Sue though.

[Madrigal]

LOL, I'd be shocked if you hadn't. It's my pet theory that everyone does at one point. I know I used to... :roll:

(I also really did once name a character Kyalia... and horror of horrors, she's still around. With a name change. Now she's Eleanor.)

[DragonShadow]

With a lot of newbie writers, you'll see Mary Sues with names that begin with a K. (Often with Ys, Ls, Rs and As in them too, plus absolutely useless vowels. The longer and flowerier, the better.) Like this: Kyalia, Kellara, Kelisendra, Kylarina...


*Is butting in* I've done that. My most common Girl Charrie name is Kyiana. Talimar is my boy.

As for stupid thigs to name something. I named one of my Charrie's pets MoonShine.

[pern_queen_rider]

Odd...my First Characters Naem was Tarwena.

As for naming sometihng stupid, I have named my computer, "Slowwwy"

[Vyon]

:roll: Well, there was one story I wrote that had about six people called "Barannath" in it. I knew who they all were, but I doubt my readers did! :roll:

[Jozell]

LOL, I'd be shocked if you hadn't. It's my pet theory that everyone does at one point. I know I used to... :roll:

(I also really did once name a character Kyalia... and horror of horrors, she's still around. With a name change. Now she's Eleanor.)

Just for the record it was Kyrlinya :roll: complete with two ys as well! I don't think her character is going to disappear in a hurry, as she been talking to me for so long, but I can see her name is going to have to change. :O

[Jozell]

(BTW, I rather think I like your avatar, Jozell. Nice.)

Thanks. It's from the cover of Crystal Singer, so it's actually Killashandra - another K name! :redfruit:

[granath]

Kylara is hardly a Mary Sue. :redfruit: I don't have enough characters invented yet to give multiple ones similar names...

[Maedhbh]

... It's from the cover of Crystal Singer ...
You must have a different cover than me. Because that's not even remotely similar.

[Tabra]

I knew a woman who called her daughter Mary Sue. It was hard not to smirk and think how fandom uses the name. Poor thing.

[waterlogged]

my worst thing that I do is when I can't think of a name for a character I will just call it Bob/Anna just because those are quick and easy to type. Then I'll go back and change the name when I come up with one. Countless number of times I've had people read my writing and say "This was a great story, but who is Bob?" I'll then stare at them with a dumb cow look before I finally catch on.

[SpaceCowboy]

I have a character named Nicholas Knack. All through one of the stories I am working on I never mention his last name until the end while calling him Nick the entire time. Yes that is Nick Knack.


(No, you really don't want to know what inspired this.)

OK, as SFF writers, we tend to find ourselves coining words and phrases and names all the time. However, sometimes we don't really pay attention to the term once we've got it--it's just there, we can go on with the manuscript.

Until rewrites, when we can realize we've just named the main character Kitty and her ex-pornstar lover Dick. Or something along those lines.

I, for instance, have just found out that I managed not to notice a somewhat ditzy character was named Hillton...

Anyone else got some good ones?

[McClance]

Two of the names that I came up with for the homeworld of this one species in my story were kind of silly. The first was Maytray and the second was Martyr.

[Taluria]

a starwars short-story in which a character's ship's name was "Jamakinmehkwazi" (say it out loud)

[Feena_bronze_rider]

(No, you really don't want to know what inspired this.)

OK, as SFF writers, we tend to find ourselves coining words and phrases and names all the time. However, sometimes we don't really pay attention to the term once we've got it--it's just there, we can go on with the manuscript.

Until rewrites, when we can realize we've just named the main character Kitty and her ex-pornstar lover Dick. Or something along those lines.

I, for instance, have just found out that I managed not to notice a somewhat ditzy character was named Hillton...

Anyone else got some good ones?

Where do I start? Yetomta, NighLigh, Tally.... those are just the few that come to mind!

[Zei]

Big, big coincedence.

Before I got into Pern books, I had a character in my Sci-fi novel The Golden Silence named Anne McCafrell :eek:

When I got into the Pern books, I had to re-write. She was now named Ally McBeal.

AND...that was a show. My luck. Finally, her name is Jenna McCormick. Darn it, stupid brain, STOP THINKING UP NAMES THAT ARE ALREADY TAKEN!

No lie O.o And since then, I haven't had any problems with my books. >.> Scary.

[Feena_bronze_rider]

That is weird.... YOu should just try jumbling letters togeather!

[McClance]

One thing that I have started to do in coming up with names is combine two real names, scrambling up the letters in the process.

I'll give a few examples using my real first and middle names (Franz Josef):

Ransef, Josanz, Janrez

This could work for virtually any two or more names. :D

[Bamy]

i have inadvertantly named my main character after a paper company in staffordshire

[Feena_bronze_rider]

I've named a Pod racer from a star wars fan fic Mustang.... (If you don't know then POd Racing is like car racing.)

[McClance]

I once named a character "Boron". Then I discovered that boron was an element.

And, back when I was writing my fan fiction series for Star Trek, I named a Romulan "Zack Sue". :O :disguise:

[Feena_bronze_rider]

Was it a male or a Female? And did it go to a planet where Romulans and Clingons coexist?

[McClance]

Was it a male or a Female? And did it go to a planet where Romulans and Clingons coexist?

It was a male and came from a planet under exclusive control under the Romulans.

[Ravien Coromana]

With a lot of newbie writers, you'll see Mary Sues with names that begin with a K. (Often with Ys, Ls, Rs and As in them too, plus absolutely useless vowels. The longer and flowerier, the better.) Like this: Kyalia, Kellara, Kelisendra, Kylarina...

Mad, for me its not the K, its the A's and R's as startes for my name. It seems evil as I always end up naming a char Ravien, or Adrianna, or Alexa.

[Feena_bronze_rider]

It was a male and came from a planet under exclusive control under the Romulans.
I'm writing a new Star Wars fan fic and I name a girl Fer-de-lance which means viper.... but I made her more like a cat.

[Lady Faizah]

Not sure if this counts, since it was deliberate...

Randy Ulger Magee.
I chose these names very carefully. The first two names are (according to my baby names book) Old English, while the third is Old German. I spent hours poring over the book just to get a name that would shorten.
To what, you may ask?
To RUM.
Yes, rum, like what pirates drink. This is what people call him.
And I can't even blame this on my early attempts at naming. This was a character invented for my most recent story.

Oh, wait, I have an even worse name:

Khoischriantoferzinth, the blue dragon.
I do not lie, this was the poor creature's name. He let his rider and a select few shorten it to Kinth, but no-one else. :roll: My reason? I wanted it to be shortened to a specific name, and I wanted to include 'chriantofer' in it. The Chriantofer bit was in memory of my late uncle Chris.
That one was from my early days.

Oh, and Khoischriantoferzinth's rider:
Galletonian.
Shortened to G'ton, thankfully.

[TamTam]

Two names I gave to minor characters: Rayla and Raylig.

I didn't do it on purpose, and I didn't realise I'd done it for a long time. It turned out all right, though. Raylig was young enough to be Rayla's son, so I just did that instead of changing names around.

[McClance]

Another thing from back when I was writing my fan fiction Star Trek series:

I named two cybernetic races the Cloudians and the Electrons. :O :O

[Shalyn]

My stupidest names were though of when I was like...ten. Thank God! I wanted to write about a magic dog, so what did I name her? "Magic". Duh. Then, she had a puppy named...Magicina. *cringes*

Oh, then I thought that "Thera" was a real cool name for a planet. Then some other SF writer names a planet that - in a short story I read a long time ago.

I guess my most recent one, but I like it anyway, is one of my Pernese at RP - her name is Calynn. Which sounds at first like a twinkie name. But her mother is Cavalyn and her father is Linwold, so it makes more sense than it sounds.

I prefer to use baby-name books and sites for names any more. I can usually find good ones that way. But I do plan to do a Mary-Sue fanfic soon. And her name is going to be Kylasu, or Kyliesu. *nods*

[Nagetier]

'Alyaia.' Character is still around, considering she Impressed a gold dragon and I wouldn't go and just give that up ... but her name is now the less-flowery Senaiys.

[Ryuu]

I guess the most embarrassing thing I've named were the feline Hrallans---too close, I think, the Anne's Hrrubans. But then, what can be done with a language that's mostly soft silibants and soft gutterals??? :O

[Rabble]

I've got a character called Mary-Sue. :evil:

She's a White Wolf Vampire 'Brujah'.

[magicfan241]

I named my four characters for my Nano novel Bill, Bob, Brandy, and Brad.

I think I mixed up who they were by partway through the novel.

magicfan241

[Rabble]

Oh, I also have a rpg character called Baithen.

It can be pronounced 'Bye-then" or "Bait-hen".
Yes, this chick is dragon bait.
:evil:

[Lady Faizah]

Oh, I also have a rpg character called Baithen.

It can be pronounced 'Bye-then" or "Bait-hen".
Yes, this chick is dragon bait.
:evil:Veering slightly off-topic here, but I had a character once, and one of her friends (also played by me, though not enough to make her a character in her own right) was totally obsessed with dragons. After my character impressed, she did a 'pity-search' for said friend, which only encouraged her dragon-fixation. Unfortunately, the place closed down or moved or something, so I'm never quite sure of how that character's tale ended... Well, apart from not impressing. :p She had a bit of a screw loose. And gah, I can't even recall her name. :P I'll find it, hang on...

Elsha.

Does that bring it back on topic enough?

[Tygress]

In the midst of the neverending cycle of critter creation I decided I needed yet another world for my newest draconics to live. But I couldn't for the life of me come up with a name. So as I was writing up the creature sheets I was about to leave a blank space to fill in later... then it hit me: Filndablanque ;)

Then of course there's my whole Seaspray/Seafoam dragon issue. I used both for the same dragon type at different times. Of course they are from Filndablanque so I guess it's to be expected.

[McClance]

In the midst of the neverending cycle of critter creation I decided I needed yet another world for my newest draconics to live. But I couldn't for the life of me come up with a name. So as I was writing up the creature sheets I was about to leave a blank space to fill in later... then it hit me: Filndablanque ;)

Then of course there's my whole Seaspray/Seafoam dragon issue. I used both for the same dragon type at different times. Of course they are from Filndablanque so I guess it's to be expected.

Filndablanque!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I like it! :good: :ok: :ok: :good:

[Lady Faizah]

I named a world 'Htrae' once. Yes, Earth backwards. It was populated by mermaids with normal earth names, except spelt backwards. (Alex became Xela, for example)

In my defence, I was like 10 at the time. Maybe younger.

[Ryuu]

I named a world 'Htrae' once. Yes, Earth backwards. It was populated by mermaids with normal earth names, except spelt backwards. (Alex became Xela, for example)

In my defence, I was like 10 at the time. Maybe younger.hmmm...

sounds interesting...maybe you could do a revision & a grown-up update to it, Ydal Haziaf :evil:

[Staerwyen]

Kylara is hardly a Mary Sue. :redfruit: I don't have enough characters invented yet to give multiple ones similar names...


The way I name my characters is spastic I look around me and the first thing I see is what i base it off of like right now I turn around and see a picture so I takje that and start changing letters. Picture Picturn Victurn victrin Victrillin and there I have my name Victrillian. that way Im sure to never have the same names. As far as the wierdest one Ive ever done was for the evil overlord in one of my stories was named Tirin. Need less to say it got changed

[Monkeysrule]

I've duplicated DRoP names in my Wolf Monkey story several times. I decided to leave Gorby because he's such a minor character in both the Moreta book and the WM story.

[Monkeysrule]

Kylara is hardly a Mary Sue. :redfruit:
Nope...but Brekke is :redfruit: :redfruit:

I'm not a big fan of those K names, so I don't have to worry...

[Taluria]

Ooh! I named a character Noname once! it was pronounced No-nah-may accent on the last syllable

[HarperBrandyAlexander]

One word:

Spooth!

:)

[Bane]

I have a Bane, Beyn, Valkyrie, V'rie (which is Valkyrie shortened for dragonrider status). I do this a lot. I tend to run out of things to name my stuff, and that idea of using the first two letters of everyines names probably wouldn't work for me. I would have something like this:

Pephfrsamach

That is mom, dad, step dad, me, middle bro, little bro. I couldn't throw that anywhere because it just looks goofy.

[Purpura]

My parents sometimes had my brother and I go for walks with them and we'd walk in different orders L -me A- my brother, M- Mom and P -for my father's first name... We'd go L A M P or P A L M... Then when CLBeilby came along... Sometimes we'd be a C L A M P .

[persephone]

If I can't think up a decent girl name I usually end up calling the character Shirley. I have this ancient baby name book from the sixties that I flip through when I need a name. It has listings of the names' origins and foreign spellings underneath the meaning, which makes finding names that are different while still familiar pretty easy. A lot of the time I say screw it and use a normal name.

[Kath]

Can I suggest an entry for "Dumbest thing Anne's ever named anything"?

Harrison's Fjord

:throwbookatwall:

[McClance]

Can I suggest an entry for "Dumbest thing Anne's ever named anything"?

Harrison's Fjord

:throwbookatwall:

:rofl2: What book is that in? :laugh:

[Kath]

_Powers That Be_, or one of its sequels. Names for places and characters sank to a whole new nadir in that series...

[Bane]

Not that it's a bad name, but I have named a character Arwyn. Then I realized it was the actual name of someone here and changed it. I didn't want to hurt Lady Arwyn's feelings by putting her name on a character that was a villain, and more besides.

Now I have Ferrel, Sorlin, Metrin, Tupoern, Ulyst. That's about as exotic as it gets here.

[skysong]

i named a character Aletta Vesta, fire controlling princess with wings (bird like) from Aviania, an island filled with winged people, and the land is under the curse of Vanhalen. then i have a cat who thinks it is a bird named tweety.

[queenrider melody]

Well, I know that this isn't neccessarly 'dumb', but it is funny! I'm working on a historical-fiction book, and I was asking my dad male Dutch names. He said that Hans was a good male Dutch name, so I used it as one of my characters. Well, not too long ago, actually, probably just a month ago, I found out that my grandfather's(he's Dutch) name before he changed it was Hans! Don't ask me why, I just find that funny!

[Kath]

i named a character Aletta Vesta, fire controlling princess with wings (bird like) from Aviania, an island filled with winged people, and the land is under the curse of Vanhalen. then i have a cat who thinks it is a bird named tweety.


Under the curse of Van Halen?

Brilliant!

:rofl2:

[DragonShadow]

O.o :rofl: This is just too funny BHut just lok at my critter list My meathos, when I get a group of them is have them end the same way but start diffrent or some such thing.... Anyways Madrigal- I have been trying to stay away from the K names latly, 'Sept for Karo and Kyi 'cause I've used them too much already...

[Vyon]

Ooh! I named a character Noname once! it was pronounced No-nah-may accent on the last syllable

That's as bad as the local cat breeder who actually registered a pedigree Siamese cat as

"Hei Yu"

Pronounced, "Hey you!"

[DragonShadow]

That's as bad as the local cat breeder who actually registered a pedigree Siamese cat as

"Hei Yu"

Pronounced, "Hey you!"

O.o odd much...

[McClance]

I recently named a minor character "Gemtree".

[Just Bob]

For a comedy LotR fanfic, my sis and I wanted a silly name for an elf lord, so we trawled through the elvish dictionary at the back of the Silmarillion and came up with:

Lord Kanolhachkirraukoturgilarseregedhelthalion :eek2:

We're still using him, and he's actually one of our more popular characters. :good:
For a roleplaying game, I created a character called Rohan Arsinh. Okay, slightly outlandish but not too terrible. But then I made a back-story for him that said he was born in Tibet, a country whose language, accent and naming traditions I know nothing about. I found myself alternating pronunciations between a mundane "Ro'an" and an exotic "Ro-HAAAAAAn". :roll:

[McClance]

I tend to come up with the craziest names for minor characters.

"Jawthorn" and "Berrytree" are two more examples added to my last one. :)

[persephone]

I really got into L names for a while, and realized that a couple characters I decided to throw together both had names that started with lih sounds (Linneasa and Lyddian). Oops. Ah, the folly of youth. Now I just use normal names when one doesn't come to me. Why bother coming up with messed up names when normal names work just as well? Especially since I like to use the meaning of a name to indicate something about the character.

[Lady Faizah]

Ooh, ooh, I have one. In my 04 NaNo attempt (posted in the fiction forum, for the curious) one of my characters somehow managed to give Covelle, a female character, the nickname of Cock ... :erm:

Yeah...

She stuttered her own name when she introduced herself. "Co-covelle." First syllable sounds like ... :roll: