N Is For Names...

Names are a huge thing in fantasy world building. You're either going to stun and amaze people, or you'll piss them off.

Personally, I like coming up with unique sounding names in my fantasy writing. Sorry to all of you out there who have read my book and can't get over the names. Not my intent. Just like... skip 'em or come up with you own nickname, I suppose.

But that's the point of this post. You want your names to be simple, yet fantastic. This IS fantasy, you know. I don't want my main character running around saying, "Hi! I'm Bob the ogre. Nice to meet you."

Bob? Bob is the slightly overweight, balding guy who sits behind his desk in the managers office of the insurance agency in town and shows off his old high school football trophies to new clients.

No offense to any Bobs out there.

Ahem.

When I came up with the name Kayta, it was while playing Dungeons and Dragons. I took my middle name, Kay, and added the last two letters. I just randomly pulled it out of the air. Then again, names come easily to me. To other people? Not so much, from what I've been told. But there are baby name books out there to help you. Find something with meaning. Try different languages. I named a character Alkarinque once. It's Tolkien's Elven language and it means "a star". There are all sorts of translators out there, use them if you want.

Or, be nice to your readers and give your characters simple names.

It doesn't have to be hard to pronounce to be a fantasy name. It is all personal choice. What seems viable to you may be hard for someone else to pronounce and get past. They might even put the book down. I don't intend for people to put my book down because of the names, but I still will make up a really cool sounding name over something generic. I can't help it. You can find a happy medium. Remember the name Bob? Try spelling it Bahb.

Good luck!