Writing Naming is not hard, but you are soft.

[PageTurner]

As far as my interpretation goes:
Anus - Hoe - Shrimp - Top (Very masculine words)
Anal - Lisa - Vagina - Clitoris (Very Feminine words)

I was being sarcastic... It was obvious btw.
Also, I saw "rim" in the first word

 

[LuoirM]

I posted this on a Vietnamese writing site, let's see how they react

 

[LuoirM]

Elaboration: Cast of character in my new story so far

 

[yeul_e]

There are many foreign novels with laughable English name and that's all fine.

 

[Maelstrom556]

Coming up with names is so funny. You might be pouring over cultural names to find the perfect combination for one character, but then the next character it just comes to you at random. True story, I had one character name come to me in a dream. Like, up to that point he'd only been referred to by a chosen nickname (because woe be upon ye if you know his true name), but one night I dreamed about him whispering his real name to another character he trusted and suddenly I had a name for him. It's a really stupid name, considering the full first & last name has three X's between them (I know some East-Asian countries use X more than Western, but this ain't that) and his sister has a normal name, but in my defense dreams are weird and I was, like, 14.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Coming up with names is so funny. You might be pouring over cultural names to find the perfect combination for one character, but then the next character it just comes to you at random. True story, I had one character name come to me in a dream. Like, up to that point he'd only been referred to by a chosen nickname (because woe be upon ye if you know his true name), but one night I dreamed about him whispering his real name to another character he trusted and suddenly I had a name for him. It's a really stupid name, considering the full first & last name has three X's between them (I know some East-Asian countries use X more than Western, but this ain't that) and his sister has a normal name, but in my defense dreams are weird and I was, like, 14.

Then you have characters like The Doctor...
Early scripts (and two movies ... and the closing title credits for roughly half the show's run) gave the character's name as "Doctor Who"
He was called "Theet" in one story, short for Theta Sigma, allegedly the character's middle name according to one early series writer - full name was allegedly something like "D (cubed) Theta Sigma X (squared)" - except this was only "official" in the FAN press, and never accepted by the BBC ... and then, in an arc a few years ago, the character's name was categorically defined as "The Doctor", or, as the Fourth Doctor claimed in his debut, "The definite article."

 

[Maelstrom556]

Then you have characters like The Doctor...

Funnily enough, the character in question with the dream name was massively inspired by The Doctor. He just traveled between universes instead of through time.

 

[HotConsensualSalt]

I'm convinced (partially from experience) that "coming up with a cool, meaningful name" is just an escape from actually writing. Writing is way harder than thinking about writing, and deciding names certainly counts as the latter.

Obsessing over a name is easier and more pleasant than trying to figure out why your deuteragonist doesn't seem as interesting or dynamic or cool on paper as they are in your head. It's an escape. A refuge.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

I can come up with the names rather easily.
My issue is that they're often not very unique or interesting.

 

[SvalinnSaga]

I can come up with the names rather easily.
My issue is that they're often not very unique or interesting.

Why do they have to be unique? A recent book I read had the MC named "Dan McCarthy". Feels generic to me until I consider what the character did, then he becomes a standout.

Another book the MC was Kira Navárez. The last name is useful. But whenever I see her name I think of Kira Nerys from DS9. But, again, context makes them very separate characters in my head. Based on context I select which Kira (also the DeathNote Kira/Light lol) I am thinking about.

Context is king.

But also, reasonably easy to remember. Hard to remember and get attached to a name like Blarpzop Xrilzy.

 

[LuoirM]

Name me one mtf who remembers the name of the 5th dimensional fanboy of Superman

 

[L1aei]

Good. More importantly, make names that are small and memorable.

I ain't gonna remember your hard to pronounce named MC. Xfralda, yeah, I ain't gonna remember that. Now, "Emma" a name I can find anywhere, that's a name to remember.

I'll actually remember that "Xfralda" name because I can't pronounce it. Anytime I see "Alda" with an "X", I'll know who it is, but I won't expect myself to remember how to spell it correctly either.

That reminds me, we have a guy at work that we nicknamed "Alphabet" because we can't pronounce his long-ass name. But if we see his genuine name on a document, we'll know exactly who that is.

If the name sticks in my brain because I can't pronounce it, hey, it still stuck.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I'll actually remember that "Xfralda" name because I can't pronounce it. Anytime I see "Alda" with an "X", I'll know who it is, but I won't expect myself to remember how to spell it correctly either.

That reminds me, we have a guy at work that we nicknamed "Alphabet" because we can't pronounce his long-ass name. But if we see his genuine name on a document, we'll know exactly who that is.

If the name sticks in my brain because I can't pronounce it, hey, it still stuck.

Ah, yes, the Cthulhu school of naming conventions...

 

[L1aei]

Ah, yes, the Cthulhu school of naming conventions...

Yes. I couldn't tell you right now who is what, but if I hear one of their names, an unfathomable image of their character will infest my mind.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Yes. I couldn't tell you right now who is what, but if I hear one of their names, an unfathomable image of their character will infest my mind.

Praise mindless Azathoth that the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep has done its job and hope to avoid Shub Niggurath and her thousand young or the ever-watchful Yog-Sothoth, the Key and Guardian to the Gate...

 

[L1aei]

Praise mindless Azathoth that the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep has done its job and hope to avoid Shub Niggurath and her thousand young or the ever-watchful Yog-Sothoth, the Key and Guardian to the Gate...

Yes! I wish I could just pull the images straight out of my wrinkly, gray pudding and smack them on those names. Although, I sometimes get Shub and Yog mixed up.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Yes! I wish I could just pull the images straight out of my wrinkly, gray pudding and smack them on those names. Although, I sometimes get Shub and Yog mixed up.

Shub Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, was actually the creation of a very young Robert Bloch (whom HPL murdered in proxy as "Robert Blake" in The Haunter of the Dark - part of a strange series that their circle of correspondents played around with - each one named a character like one of the other authors, and used one of their additions to what HPL called "The Yog Sothoth Cycle" but everyone else called The Cthulhu Mythos to kill off said character; I've read three of these stories but only Haunter was memorable).
Yog Sothoth was supposed to be "the" god of Lovecraft's mythos, but history made the high priest of all the Outer and Other Gods, Great Cthulhu, its spokesbeing instead.

 

[L1aei]

Shub Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, was actually the creation of a very young Robert Bloch (whom HPL murdered in proxy as "Robert Blake" in The Haunter of the Dark - part of a strange series that their circle of correspondents played around with - each one named a character like one of the other authors, and used one of their additions to what HPL called "The Yog Sothoth Cycle" but everyone else called The Cthulhu Mythos to kill off said character; I've read three of these stories but only Haunter was memorable).
Yog Sothoth was supposed to be "the" god of Lovecraft's mythos, but history made the high priest of all the Outer and Other Gods, Great Cthulhu, its spokesbeing instead.

The names of Robert I didn't know. That's pretty cool to have in the back of one's mind when reading (or watching) one of those stories play out. But, strange. I could've sworn that Azathoth was the scariest one out of them when considering how absolutely huge and, well, incomprehensible its existence is in the cosmos. Again another but, out of us, I'm gonna defer to you as the more informed one on this topic.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Azathoth is, essentially, the last remnant of the Big Bang given some tiny degree of sentience. It is a living nuclear explosion attended to by amorphous creatures that make a constant, flute-like sound. Definitely one of the scariest of his monsters.