Naming Your Nouns
A noun is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.
– From Wikipedia
Whether you write fiction, run D&D games, or do stand-up comedy, coming up with names can be difficult. There are just SO DAMN MANY. What are some quick and easy ways to come up with names for your people, places or things?
- Watch the credits of a movie, preferably with lots of visual effects
- Visit a graveyard
- Look for baby names
- Use ‘conjoined twin’ method
- Add or remove a letter or two from an existing word or name
- Swap a letter
- Cheat – Use a name generator
Let’s look at these in greater detail.
#1 Watch Movie Credits
You know that part at the end of every movie and TV show where words come up on screen and you walk out of the theater or click ‘Next’ on Netflix? That brick of text you ignore is called ‘the credits’ and there are dozens, if not hundreds of names for you to pick from.
Movies with tons of special effects like Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Avengers: Endgame offer a treasure trove of names to choose from. The best part of this strategy is you get all the character names as well. If you really can’t sit through the credit crawl, visit IMDB and search for your favorite actor or director then peruse their work. You could try me, for example.
Just make sure you don’t pull anyone’s EXACT name. If your character is named Robert Downey Jr. or Will Smith you’re likely to get a slap on the wrist. It’s also lazy. If your character is named Robert Smith Jr. however, you’re probably safe.
There are also usually a smattering of companies at the end of these lists, which could give inspiration for a fictitious company of your own.
#2 Visit A Graveyard
You don’t have to be goth or in mourning to visit a graveyard or cemetery and they are basically a garden of names to choose from. If you happen to live in a big city with a memorial of some kind, where the names of the fallen are etched in stone, that can also be a great source of inspiration.
Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York has about three million burials over a 365 acre space. Hollywood Forever Cemetery is only fortyish acres but has a beautiful mausoleum where you can walk down the halls and write down names that inspire you. At Hollywood Forever they actually host events like movie screenings to give you an excuse to be there. Don’t forget to watch the credits for more names!
You can also use a website like FindAGrave.com and search for a cemetery to browse names.
#3 Look For Baby Names
There are hundreds of books and websites devoted to naming a newborn baby. Here’s list of 1,000 boy names, only about 950 of which sound like a suburban stage mom trying to come off as creative to the members of her wine club.
Some of these sites offer numerous classifications. BabyNames.net offers lists based on various regions around the world, names popular within a certain decade, Biblical names, ‘heroic’ names, ‘aristocratic’ names, and ‘cowpoke’ names to mention a few.
#4 Use The Conjoined Twin Method
If you’ve ever played any flavor of Warcraft by Blizzard you will be familiar with this. The idea is to take two fun words and smash them together to make a super word that personifies the character you are trying to portray. Examples include:
You get the idea. This is a fairly common fantasy trope, so be wary of coming off too much like a knock off of the genre.
Keep in mind this can work for other nouns too. Look at Gears Of War’s ‘Hammerburst Rifle’ and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s ‘Hookshot’. Even locations can get this treatment, for example Elder Scrolls’ Skyrim, Dawnstar or Riverwood.
In fact, I used this method for the MediSyn Corporation in the Soldiers of Misfortune universe. It’s a conjoined twin of medical and synthetic. It also happens to sound like ‘medicine’ as an added bonus.
#5 Add Or Remove A Letter
This one is pretty simple. Take a name like Kyle Winter and turn it into Kylem Winer. Don’t get too crazy though or your name will sound ridiculous. Like Kylem Winer.
#6 Swap A Letter
Another stupidly easy one is to simply swap vowels. Kely Wentir for example. But don’t use that, that’s a terrible name. The above is an example to illustrate the point, please don’t name your character Kely Wentir.
Maybe Mark Cuban turning into Murk Caban is a better example. He sounds like an orc warlord or something.
#7 Cheat – Use a Name Generator
If all of the above has failed you for some reason, or you’re pressed for time, you can always use a name generator website. If you’re a gamer you can often find generators specific to your game like this D&D name generator or this Shadowrun name generator.
Examples From My Work
I’ll briefly explain how I came up with the names of my four main protagonists in Soldiers of Misfortune: Parasite Lost.
- Dante Opulen – Dante lives a very opulent lifestyle. I hacked off the ‘T’ at the end of opulent and made it his name.
- Bren Beltrami – Bren is loud and dangerous, like the Bren machine gun. I don’t remember the exact movie but I’m pretty sure Beltrami was a letter change of someone’s last name I pulled from credits. Their name was Beltramo or something. In a similar vein, Bren’s nemesis Warden Hoskins was named after Bob Hoskins. I was looking at the back of a Doomsday DVD at the time.
- Apate Nevermore – Apate is the Greek personification of deceit and trickery, which if you’ve read Parasite Lost you’ll understand where that came from. Nevermore was an Edgar Allen Poe reference. Her fiance’s last name was Amontillado in the same spirit. I had Poe’s collected works next to me at the time.
- Alistair Preest – Probably my laziest one. I liked the name Alistair and in my head he was a sort of spiritual man. I replaced the ‘I’ in ‘priest’ and ran with it.
Thanks for reading, I hope this helps!
Please share with people you think may enjoy it and don’t forget to follow me on Reedsy, Wattpad, Goodreads, BookBub, Facebook, and Amazon!
