Actors names

[Warpmind]

Sure; in the real world, you find great variations in names within the same language and region - but a little looking will reveal that there are almost always certain "norms" that apply. For example, throughout Northern and Western Europe, there are certain traits that are fairly consistent; names ending with "-a" or "-e" are almost exclusively girls' names, while names ending in "-us" or "-ld" are almost exclusively boys' names. Also, and English is particularly blatant about this one, flowers or virtues are almost always used as girls' names.

In addition, there are historical names that have popularity spikes with irregular intervals; names of saints and regents are remarkably common in Europe.

So sure, diversity is vast, but there are still commonalities everywhere. It doesn't take much forethought to have consistent and diverse naming practices.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Thank you, warpmind, I was pretty sure there was certain rules in areas for names, but I didn't have any examples.

I will just add that even in the real world, when someone names their kid something against the grain, they are quite often doing it in order to stand out. So the fact still remains, that choosing to have a character in the game with a name that is vastly different than anything else in the entire game, is still a decision that should be made consciously as the developer in order to be a hint to the player. (or as a source of humour, if that is the tone of your game.)

 

[jdh34]

I have real life friends who are part of my project as character's

 

[Square_art]

I really like how this topic goes, there are many interesting points to think about and to consider.

I like unique and remarkable names. But even if you generate a unique name, there are so many stories, novels, movies, video games created for the past ten-twenty years, that probably even your unique-generated name will be not so unique and you will find a character with the same name somewhere (especially if the name sounds good). 

Another case. Sometimes when it comes to naming you know how to name your character, especially, if it's a common name. For instance, you heard somewhere a good story behind real person John, you associate that story with that name, and you name your character the same (even if you remember that story at a subconscious level). The thing is, there are many Johns in the world, and everyone has own association about that name, so it's not always works as supposed to   What I do, when I feel it can be an appropriate name, I use google -images to look at popular association around the world and to double check it is an appropriate name BD

 

[whitesphere]

Personally, I pick names that sound cool, or that I've heard before.

Of course, I also sometimes do it to be deliberately silly.  In one case, the Ominous World Destroying Force rips a name for itself out of a character's head.  So, now what name does it go by?  Bob. 

If you have a specific in-game culture being imitated, then it's good to go with that culture's names, such as the Oriental culture.

If all else fails, I use Scrivener (a writing tool) which has an excellent Name Generator, that allows you to choose male/female, nationality, first/last name and even tells you what the names mean.  And you can search through the Name Generator's database on any of those.

 

[Warpmind]

If you have a specific in-game culture being imitated, then it's good to go with that culture's names, such as the Oriental culture.

Now, don't go assuming I'm part of the PC Police here, but "the Oriental culture" is an incredibly poorly chosen phrase here - Asia's nowhere near as culturally monolithic as Europe or North America is; the differences between, say, India, Thailand, Japan and China are quite a bit more inflexible than the differences between, say, Spain, Italy, England and Switzerland. Especially when it comes to such things as naming conventions.

That said, your recommendation is rock solid - if you imitate a culture, look to said culture for typical names.

 

[Non]

I name my characters based on the meaning of the name.

I try to use the character's name as metaphor, or clue, to who they are.

 

[Milennin]

The only rule I swear by, at least for important characters, is that their names must be short and easy to pronounce. The longer a character's name, the harder it is to remember for the player.

 

[captainproton]

Something mentioned in another post: if you throw together some syllables that have the right "sound" for the type of culture you're going for, make sure they don't actually translate into something unfortunate.

"Hi, my name is Manure."

"Hi, Manure, I'm Genitals."

 

[RaZzi]

Depends on the character, sex, his/hers religion, background of the characters, his/hers class etc. Name generators help a lot.

 

[Wavelength]

Is it really wise to have that one elf named MoonUnit when all the others are named things like Farthendial and Hythial or whatever?

Frank Zappa says YES!!

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I generally try to come up with a similar set of name "structure" (not necessarily the same consonants and vowels, but the same kind of "flow" for the name - a race in an RP I was recently running had names like Faiel, Laav, Kernell, Wev'luun, Priel, Marken, etc.) for every member of a single community/race/family, and then for each one I try to give them a name that fits their personality, whether it's a corruption of a real-world word that fits their personality or whether it's just something that sounds like it fits their personality.  My English teacher once illustrated a really good example of this in the novella Billy Budd - with his name (Billy Budd) immediately and perhaps subconsciously painting his character as someone generous and innocent, as opposed to the villainous and nasty John Claggart or the upright, cold, but fair Edmund Fairfax Vere.  From the second you hear their name, your mind already has certain biases about what to expect from them, even if you don't notice it.  It's a powerful tool.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Frank Zappa says YES!!

===

I generally try to come up with a similar set of name "structure" (not necessarily the same consonants and vowels, but the same kind of "flow" for the name - a race in an RP I was recently running had names like Faiel, Laav, Kernell, Wev'luun, Priel, Marken, etc.) for every member of a single community/race/family, and then for each one I try to give them a name that fits their personality, whether it's a corruption of a real-world word that fits their personality or whether it's just something that sounds like it fits their personality.  My English teacher once illustrated a really good example of this in the novella Billy Budd - with his name (Billy Budd) immediately and perhaps subconsciously painting his character as someone generous and innocent, as opposed to the villainous and nasty John Claggart or the upright, cold, but fair Edmund Fairfax Vere.  From the second you hear their name, your mind already has certain biases about what to expect from them, even if you don't notice it.  It's a powerful tool.

Okay, at first I liked your post just because you caught the reference, but reading the rest, yeah! I agree with your points and also like that you brought up the subconscious effect names can have on our initial impressions of a character.

That most certainly is a very powerful tool.

 

[Dragnfly]

The subconscious thing is 100% true and not falling into that trap is a part of sales and business training. Basically, if a person's name is Lucifer Deimos you're likely going to be picturing a pretty shady guy and not a tiny Scottish male nurse. Another thing I find important is to not go too crazy with exotic names. Players still need to remember and pronounce them. So Rashvana, cool. Ghp'lab)#or^*, not good. If your name looks like what was typed when your cat sat on your keyboard, pick a new one.

I'm not too fond of when a game asks me to name a character (although Shadow Hearts 2 gets bonus points for it) because it takes me so long to come up with a name and I'm always reminded of my immature days when I'd name them things like Hot Sex so characters say stuff like "I'm looking for Hot Sex." and it ruins the mood of the story.

For my names I tend to look to other languages and alter them in consistent ways. One of my projects used a lot of Russian names, unaltered. Then for my current one there's some slightly altered Russian names. But with my current project most of the characters are so old I have no idea where I got the name from. One of the species does have it's own fictional consistent language and all the names follow rules. Male given names must end in N, female names must end in a vowel, all family names can't be more than 3 syllables, etc.