Hello! i just played your game and man, that cliffhanger though! i hope you don't mind me asking; but when it comes to naming the MC, is there are naming guide i can follow? i wanted to name my MC, Elpis but i feel like their name is an outlier
Hi, thank you so much for playing the game and I'm so grateful for your support 💖
There is no real naming guide 😅 I normally use naming generators for names.
For Cyre type names, I normally use this generator. Most of the names are a happy combination of Roman/Greek names that fit Cyre well.
For Ishari names, you can use Sumerian names, Assyrian or Babylonian names or any name from Mesopotamia.
Hey flo do you have a guide to naming Chinese characters?? So I can be ethnically correct !
i apologize for how late this is. i’ve had a very busy work day and i’m only now getting some downtime to sit down and answer this the way i want to answer this. i want to start off by saying that i am chinese-american and that what i say and how i name my chinese characters is based on my personal experiences in my community growing up and what i’ve gathered through long-sought out research and diaspora twitter.
i also want to say that of course your ethnically chinese character can have an western name, it’s very common that we do, especially in modern times and in immigrant spaces, however i think we should be able to normalize using ethnic names. also unless you are adopted ( see: leah lewis ), in my experience you 100% have a chinese name on top of having a ‘western’ name, so if you want to give your character a western name it’d be accurate to give them a chinese name as well ( see: natasha liu bordizzo/liu chengyu ).
if you find this guide helpful, please like and reblog the post, validate me and if you have any questions/corrections/add ons please let me know!
i would have you start off by reading this really helpful guide. it’s a little long winded and you don’t have to read all of it but they do a great job with describing the different romanizations of names and how they’re different across different dialects/regions. you need to first decide what context your character exists in, whether they’re from beijing or taipei or hong kong, their full name is going to be spelled differently based on what background you want to give them.
my mother’s surname is actually a great example of this. her surname is 湯 which in mandarin chinese is pronounced “tang” but because my mother’s family is originally taishanese, her last name is romanized “hong” everywhere that uses an english spelling. alternatively, if my mother’s family changed their romanization when they moved to hong kong, where they speak cantonese, her last name would have been romanized as “tong”.
another example of this is chou tzuyu. because she from taiwan, the romanization of her name is chou tzu yu but if her family was from, like, shanghai her name would be romanized zhou zi yu. same chinese characters ( 周子瑜 ), but because they are pronounced differently across different languages and because she is taiwanese, the romanizations are different.
so after you’ve decided what romanization you want to give them, the next step is to actually choose a name. i personally begin with the given name with all of my characters because i like attaching a meaning to the given name over the surname. and also surnames are pretty easy to find/figure out.
here is a guide that discusses a little bit about naming conventions in china, particularly about gendered names. i really like what tangelotime had to say about the fact that gender doesn’t really matter when it comes to naming because, in my opinion and experience, it doesn’t. i would say that what would be “gendered” is possibly the way a name sounds. idk how to explain this but there are some names that sound “girly” but more in the sense that it’s like girly vs. butch. and i can’t think of a good example of this so you’re just gonna have to ... idk go with your gut. but for the most part, chinese names are gender neutral.
what tangelotime also said about how giving a chinese name is intense is absolutely true because there are so many things that parents may consider including chinese zodiac and fengshui and radicals in a certain character and what it means---it’s a sport that i do not have the effort for nor the intelligence to properly explain. however, i think the guides that i’ve linked so far do a good job in explaining that in a way that i cannot. here is another extensive guide, but this one discusses historical contexts ( for all u historical rpers heh ) and more importantly imo, the list of themes that a parent might take in creating a name.
8/6/21 edit: i came across these pictographs of characters from mdzs that analyze the etymology by the radical that gives you a lot of insight to possible name meanings and to the written chinese language.
additionally, here is a video by avenue x, an amazing creator on youtube who reviews c dramas and gives a lot of in depth cultural context for some of the shows she watches, that explains the names of characters from word of honor and gives the poetry references that the writers may have used.
so if you’ve taken a look all the guides i’ve given you, good on you, i really appreciate you putting in all the work. now let me give you some examples of how different things may be taken into consideration when giving a chinese name.
my given name is 安儀, romanized “on yee” because my family speaks cantonese. the first character means “safe” while the second character means “appearance,” so together my name means “safe appearance”. but, my mom also took into consideration the radicals of the characters as well. the first character looks like it has a hat or a roof on it right? that is intentional. the character underneath the hat is the character/radical for girl, so my mom wanted to make sure that her daughter had something over her that would protect her. hence why she chose the character 安. the second character in my given name consists of primarily two other words/radicals, 亻+ 義. the first radical is a variation of ⼈, the chinese word for “person,” and the second radical can roughly translate to “righteous” which means when put together, 儀 can mean “righteous person.” however 儀 can also come to mean “the appearance of a righteous person” if you consider all of the meanings i’ve given so far. my parents thought heavily about what my name means, not only on a translation level but also on a structural level.
if you’re writing a family with multiple children, consider having a generational name. in short, generational names usually have a shared character among a single generation of family members. both of my parents and their siblings are named in this manner. my mom and her siblings all have the 華 ( wah ) character in their names. my dad and his brother have the 少 ( siu ) character and his sisters have the 美 ( mei ) character in their names. my grandparents ( both sets ) thought to give their kids a generational link in their names.
now let’s look at jackson wang’s given name, 嘉尔, which he explained was homophonic in meaning. this is a tangent but chinese people love homophones and it’s why we don’t trust the number 4 but love the number 8. his given name, romanized “gaa yee”/”jia er” is essentially a homophone for “plus 2″. he said ( in a video that i cannot find anymore ) that his grandfather named him because he wanted the meaning to be “a king with two guards to protect him”. jackson’s last name 王 (wong/wang) means “king” so “king” “plus 2″ is the intention his grandfather had in naming him.
but if you’re really not versed in things like fengshui or poetry or you don’t have someone with chinese literacy available to you, the next best thing is to honestly ... take a look at media. whether that’s celebrities or film/tv/book characters ( written by actual chinese people pls ) and see what their names are ( or at least the romanizations are ). this will help you figure out what sounds appropriate and what sounds like you’re just mashing sounds together ( see: cho chang is she korean... is she chinese?? who the fuck knows ). and then finding characters that give off a meaning ( like my name meaning “safe appearance” ) is just fine imo.
and honestly sometimes giving a name doesn’t have to be so deep. like fan bingbing’s name literally translates to “ice ice” and i don’t even know what her brother, chengcheng’s name is supposed to mean, i think their parents just think having the duplicated character is fun and cute. so don’t stress yourself out.
also a lot of what i’ve gone over has pertained to the common 3-character name ( 1 character surname, 2 character given name ) but you can also consider a 2 character name ( 1 character surname, 1 character given name ) ( see: xiao zhan ) or even a 2 character surname ( see: ouyang nana ).
so finally, to get you started, here is a short list of characters and their romanizations that you can take a look at.
thank you so much for bearing with me, i know this is a lot of information to take in but it is great that you are seeking this information out in the first place. i also know that this may seem very daunting, and even for me it’s daunting sometimes, but if you have any more questions, please let me know and if you have anything you’d like to add, please let me know.
I really want to use a FC who is Chinese, his parents are and he was born in the USA, and I want to give him and his NPC family names that is representative of that heritage, but I know that the last names come before the first name AND on my mind is also my friend (who immigrated w her family when she was young - though it was from a different part of E Asia) we able to choose an "enGliSH" name, which they did. So now I'm just over here a little confused, how (or CAN) I give him both a Chinese name AND a 'romanised' name, but still style it correctly?
hi there! a while ago created this guide that outlines some of the experiences i've had with naming conventions as a chinese american that you can take a look at.
to answer your question, yes, you can give your character both a chinese and a "western" name. as i said in my guide, it's very common that we have both and if he was born in a western culture like the UK or the US, he could have his chinese name be his middle name ( eg. mark yien tuan ) or just have his chinese name be a name reserved for chinese-speaking people ( ie. my chinese name isn't on my birth certificate or any official document but all of my family and family friends call me by my chinese name ) or he could just have his chinese name be the name that he uses in all spaces ( eg. simu liu ).
given your character's situation, it's totally possible that his parents, especially if they are immigrants, gave him both a chinese and western name. it is also possible that his parents did not give him a western name and that he uses his chinese name and chinese name only. it is ALSO possible that his parents did not give him a western name but when he was in school he decided to go by a western name as his 'preferred name'. all of these things are correct and possible, it's just about their family's choice and the character's character background.
as for naming order, yes, in east asian cultures, the order of names is surname then given name but when that transfers to western contexts, it's just flipped so it's given name then surname. for example, simu liu in western contexts is referred to as "simu liu," but in china, he's referred to as "liu simu" because liu is his surname and simu is his given name.
if you are going to roleplay him with a chinese name only in a context where he is american it would be best to refer him in the order of given name surname ( eg. simu liu ) because this is the order that he is most familiar with if he grew up in the US. the only way i could see him be referred to as surname given name ( eg. liu simu ) is if he is in the context of the chinese community ( ie. around family, chinese school, community centers, etc. ). which can also mean if he is someone with a western name, he can prefer that people outside of the community call him by his western name ( eg. mark tuan ) but reserve this chinese name for family/elders/etc. ( eg. tuan yien ).
please let me know if you have any other questions about this ! you can reach me here or over at my personal blog on @herorps
Hey everyone! I compiled a list of single sylable dragon words that were translated on the elder scrolls wiki page for dovahzul. These are not all the single sylable words, just ones that I thought would be good for naming dragons. They are listed alphebetically by dragon word and translated next to it.
All dragon names are made up of three sylables and three dragon words.
I appologize that these are screenshots instead of text, but there was no way to format this nicely on tumblr without giving me a headache so I gave up.
So there you have it folks! Everything you need to start naming dragons. Or pets. Or plants. Whatever. It’s up to you!
Keep in mind - dragon names usually have something to do with their personality or their job/purpose. For example, Alduin (Al Du In): Destroy Devour Master. Paarthurnax (Paar Thur Nax): Ambition Overlord Cruelty. Happy naming!
All due respect, y'all are wildin' if you think I'm smart or consistent enough to come up with an actual naming guide for Blest, haha!
My process is literally:
> Go to nameberry.com
> Type in one word that embodies the character or vibe, like "strong" or "musical" or "happy"
> Go through the list of names that mean that thing
> If I find the perfect name, yay! If not, go to the next step
> Select one name that sounds close-ish to what I'm going for
> Either 1) change said name by a few syllables at a time until it looks or sounds or feels right: Melisende -> Melisante or Milasandre or Melisse, etc.
> Or 2) Click on the name "Melisende" and scroll down to "Names Similar to This Name"
> For each new name, keep clicking "Names Similar to this Name" over and over until something sticks or you find one that you can tweak to fit your world and style! I call this "etymological leapfrogging" (to no one except myself).
That's literally my naming process for 90% of the characters gfldjgdg I hope that's... helpful!
If you are interested in actual naming guides, @fantasyfawkes actually created one for her terrific fantasy court intrigue game and world, The Seven Heirs of Ophaesia!
Would cats reference plants and animals in their territory by their common name, a more specific name, or the scientific name?
In this system, I use the common name for plants and animals, and specifically the common name that’s most widespread/readily recognisable. For example, I recommend “marigold-” rather than “ruddles-” even though they’re the same plant. You can read more about substituting common names here:
I'm researching prefixes for my Lake Tahoe fanfiction. How many different meanings would you consider to be acceptable for a prefix? For example, for Duck-, I have seven possible pelt colors: black-and-white, tortoiseshell with white markings, brown, brown-and-white, grey-brown with white markings, red, or calico. I wouldn't use all of them, but how many variations would you say is good?
I’d say it’s up to you and how you want to work your naming system. In general, though, I think any more than three distinct meanings would be really pushing it.
With your example, though, you can combine them. For instance, duck- in your system might mean: tortoiseshell (with white markings) or; brown (possibly with white markings); and black-and-white. That’s doesn’t cover all the possibilities, but it does help narrow things down into three more manageable categories. “White markings” might mean anything from “paws and belly” to “large patches.” It’s up to your clan.
Or you might want to use duck- exclusively as a patched cat (coloured patches can be black, tortoiseshell, or brown). Like I said, it’s sort of up to you. I don’t recommend going over three options, though, unless you’ve got a system in place that makes it easy to navigate a multitude of prefix meanings. I hope this helps a little!
