| Naming Your Character; Read? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 30 2009, 07:22 PM (85 Views) | |
| WoW Admin | Jan 30 2009, 07:22 PM Post #1 |
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Naming Guide You have a character planned out; you know their likes, dislikes, habits, qualities and faults. All you need is a name. I feel it is important that names mean something, and that they aren't simply selected because an actress or movie character we like has the same name: originality is important. This guide will hopefully help you in the quest to find the right name for your character. House The first thing I would suggest would be to work out the House they will be in. Although you may disagree with me on this, I think that most of the HP Characters have unusual names, and this is extremely important. -Slytherins, for instance, tend to have unusual names; Lucius, Draco, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Regulus, etc. I think it’s very unlikely that any of your friends have these names, and therefore when selecting a name for a Slytherin character, their name should not be a familiar one. -Gryffindor seems to have a mix of common and uncommon names. Harry, for example, is a common name, but Hermione isn’t. Ron, Dennis, Colin, Dean, and Katie are all common. Percy, Minerva, Ginerva, Albus, Sirius, and Remus are uncommon. Notice that most of the uncommon names are adult names, whereas the common are mainly students. -Ravenclaw is also a fair mixture; Michael, Terry, Roger and Anthony are all common names, whereas Penelope, Marietta, Luna, and Orla are uncommon. Rowena is uncommon, and Lisa common, almost a split amount. Of course, I’m not including ethnic names here. This gives Ravenclaws a fairly steady leeway in their naming. -Hufflepuff almost has all common names. Cedric, Hannah, Susan, and Ernie are all common, Amelia and Amos being the two uncommon names -- and both of them adults. Here I would suggest that all names should be common, with the exception of adult characters. Ethnic The next thing you may choose to look at is the characters ethnic background; if they were born and raised in India it is unlikely they’ll have the name Mary. Although Britain is set in England, there are a few characters from other countries in the books, too. An example of these would be; -Cho -Parvati -Padma -Seamus All of the above four have ethnic names. An excellent place for ethnic names is Behind the Name where they have a wide range of worldwide names. Another good ethnic name site would be Cool-Baby-Names [dot] com, which has an excellent search feature that allows you to search by male/female, and the origin. It then gives you a list of all the results, in alphabetical order, with their name meanings. Perfect for a writer, don’t you think? For African and Afrocentric names I recommend The Name Site which has brilliant name lists with origins, meaning, pronunciation, country, and more. Mythology Mythology is another thing JKR uses a lot in her names. An example would be Minerva McGonagall. According to The Nine Muses ‘Minerva is a Roman version of the greek name Athena, who aided the heroes Perseus, Jason, Cadmus and Heracles in their quests.’ This fits rather well, as McGonagall does help Dumbledore, Harry and the Order a lot in the books, and we have hints that she will be helping Harry in the future (anyone remember the scene in OotP where she promised to help Harry get into Auror training?) Minerva is also ‘the Roman goddess of wisdom, medicine, the arts, dyeing, science and trade, and war.’ This, too, fits in well with Minerva McGonagall’s personality and position. Sibyl Trelawney is another example of a Mythological name. Again taken from The Nine Muses: ‘"Sibyl", in Greek and Roman mythology, was any woman inspired with prophetic power by the god Apollo. The sibyls lived in caves or near streams and prophesied in a frenzied trance, usually in Greek hexameters, which were handed down in writing. "Trelawney" may come from Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's well-known play "Trelawney of the "Wells" (1898), about life in a theatrical company. Pinero is a British author, and JKR tends to get a lot of names from famous British people. Jenna theorizes that she could be named for Trelawney, hero of a Cornish poem called 'And Shall Trelawney Die?' This is perhaps a reference to her custom of telling one student a year he will die before its end.’ Arthur Weasley is another character with a mythological background; ‘Arthur is a possible reference to King Arthur. The World Book says, 'There are two versions of the events that led to Arthur's death. Both say he fought a war against Roman emperor Lucius.'’ For more information on Canon Character Mythology go here, which is where most of this information was taken from. Helpful Sites -Behind the Name // Mythology on Behind the Name -Cool-Baby-Names [dot] com -The Name Site -Godchecker’s Greek Mythology Encyclopaedia -Loggia.com Mythology -Mythology Guide -Greek Mythology Encyclopaedia -Greek Mythology Names Many thanks to Moira for all the help with this, particularly with the Mythology section. Copyrighted to Jess of RPG-D and Envious Magic. |
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8:17 AM Jul 11