What I know of fantasy is that a lot of what you’re writing can be made up, including the names of places, things and people. Changing letters and letter order in common names to make them look more “fantasy-like” is a common practice, along with just flat out making names up. I am one of the latter people. I have a tendency to play Boggle in my mind and just start throwing together letters until they make a relatively coherent name that doesn’t tie your tongue in a knot to pronounce.
Some of the names in Diamond Crier? Sabina, Goquin, Barloh, Jeviar, all phonetic. Now, the more fantasy I read, especially the heavier stuff (or the light stuff with authors injecting fantasy by the way of names), the odder the names become. Things with apostrophes, like Myr’atak, and something that looks like the author drug their forehead across the keyboard, like Ahbejuiklo. Yeah, looks fancy and pretty but should that name come up more than a handful of times in a story, I’m going to have to pause to wrap my tongue around it (because I’m OCD like that) and it’s going to frustrate me. I don’t mind seeing names with random punctuation and impossible speech patterns in them so long as they’re not brought up constantly. It’s a turn off if they are.
So what’s the point of that? Is it to make their world that much more fantasy like? Raydin, that’s the name of Diamond’s kingdom. No weird accent marks here. Just plain ray-din. Does that make my world less fantastical because I didn’t play the lottery with the alphabet, complete with mixing chamber? I just see some of these names and wonder what people were on when they came up with them. Then again I look at the names I’ve created and wonder what’s in the water I’m drinking.
Personally, I like names that I can pronounce and have it stick in my head on the first go. If I have to keep sounding the word out like I’m back in first grade, it’s going to get a little grating. I say make them up but use common sense when doing it. If it takes you a few tries to make out what it is, don’t put your reader through the same pain. They are the ones buying your books, remember. They might not think that’s very nice.
I’m with you. Make it too weird, and the reader gets booted out of the story, thinking ‘What was that?’ Whenever I see a real-life name that’s too good to pass up, I write it down. Helps that I write urban fantasy, so the names don’t have to be too out-there. But while listening to an NPR quiz show this weekend, I heard the name of one caller, Parrish Knight, and had to write it down. Another name I found in family tree research, Thaddeus Stonecipher, is a keeper as well. Makes it kinda like a scavenger hunt, really.
Those are some awesome names! And hey, other real names are free game! Hopefully they’ll be honored that you used their name in a book!
Personally, I think those people read too much Tolkien and wanted to make their fantasy world “realistic” just like Tolkien did without going through all that bother about actually making up a real language that has structure and grammar.
A lot of people seem to be always looking for a short cut but usually that shows in their writing. While I think Tolkien put an insane amount of work into his writing and while it’s not required of every fantasy author, it shows spunk and the want towards fantastical realism. People that just throw random letters together, regardless of their ability to pronounce it are just sloppy, in my eyes.
Hi
Fantasy isn’t my genre but I agree you should have names that are pronounceable. A reader will lose interest after awhile if they keep running into words they identify.
I would think that notion would cross genres though. Regardless of what you’re writing, have names that are at least nominally pronounceable!
I’ve done things randomly, and I’ve done it the way of changing spelling of regular names. Most often though I like to search out words or names in other languages, and then play around with them. That way I’m starting with an actual, real language base. Cuts down on the weird stuff, plus I get a little kick out of having secret meanings behind names.
Not that I even remember them, myself. I recently came across a worksheet I’d scribbled down when I was brainstorming names for people and places in Alisiyad 5 years ago, and I thought, “Oh yeeeeaah, that’s why I named it/him/her that.”
I’m the Parrish Knight that you heard on “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me”. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve gotten a lot of comments about my name. In fact, they did a lot of joshing about my name on the show that got edited out due to time constraints and rearrangement of various segments.
Carl Kasell’s voice now resides happily on my answering machine. The whole experience was a lot of fun.