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How to Name a Country
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When I come up with names, for people, countries, or otherwise, I think more about sounds at first and play with them in my head. I try to pair sounds that I feel convey some of the personality of the character/country. So if I have a country that's harsh and maybe a little evil, I go for harsher, colder sounds. For countries or people who are gentle or delicate I go for lighter sounds, ones that flow into each other.As for spelling, once I have the sounds figured out I usually just have to play with a few different spellings and pick the one that looks right to me. I tend to add silent letters...which may or may not be a good thing. Anyway, I hope this was helpful!
It was--could you give me an example of the sounds, though? I know of the concepts of hard and soft letters, but I'm not quite so good at thinking of "harsh" sounds with negative connotative meanings.
It just occurred to me that I don't actually have any names with the harsh sounds I'm thinking of. XD But here are some examples of names of characters who aren't good.Shantin
G'rinna
Garik
Tanik
The reason I have those names for people who are bad is because they either have a sort of snake-like sound to them or a hard sound at the beginning or end (in my head, anyway).
Anyway, when I say harsh I typically think of some of the throaty, somewhat guttural sounds that are used in the German language. And I don't know why, but I think of hard G's paired with U's give a kind of 'evil' or 'bad' vibe. But that's just me.
I think 'k' sounds are...evil. They seem to fit bad characters. Like 's' and 'r'.And I often associate the letter 'a' with innocence, and 'c' with mischief. So yes, I see what you mean.
Hope, I will get back to you on this soon, okay? I don't have time right now to lay out my naming process for characters and locales, but I will most certainly have a couple things to say.
Hope wrote: "I think 'k' sounds are...evil. They seem to fit bad characters. Like 's' and 'r'.And I often associate the letter 'a' with innocence, and 'c' with mischief. So yes, I see what you mean."
I'm glad you were able to make sense of my explanation. :)
Taylor [formerly Timothy] wrote: "Hope, I will get back to you on this soon, okay? I don't have time right now to lay out my naming process for characters and locales, but I will most certainly have a couple things to say."It's less characters and more locales, but I'd appreciate your advice all the same, Taylor.
I like Mindon and Dakun more than the others. I'd use your same strategy--but my lack of extensive knowledge on entomology prevents me from doing that.
Hope wrote: "I think 'k' sounds are...evil. They seem to fit bad characters. Like 's' and 'r'.And I often associate the letter 'a' with innocence, and 'c' with mischief. So yes, I see what you mean."
Yay, somebody understands the evilness of K's!
It's just such a...hard sound. An evil sound.
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How do you come up with names for a country or a kingdom, things of the sort? I'm currently working on a fantasy work in which I want to involve a country with several kingdoms to it, and I'm at a loss for coming up with a name. I just don't know how to make it sound original without giving it some outlandish title made by a name generator or snatching off of other authors. Help?