Why do fantasy- and sci-fi stories "require" fantasy and sci-fi names? - Page 2 - Writers Forum

SevenWritez · 07-20-2008, 06:28 PM

Harry Potter. Ron Weasley. Hermione Granger.

Seems pretty simple to me.

Ilasir Maroa · 07-20-2008, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SevenWritez

Harry Potter. Ron Weasley. Hermione Granger.

Seems pretty simple to me.

Yep, because they are from the UK.

OtherWorlds · 07-20-2008, 09:03 PM

I'm not sure fantasy and sci fi "require" weird names. For some reason they're just popular in those genres. I guess a name can kind of give you a feel for the world the story takes place in. A lot of authors just go with the ordinary though. Take Robert Jordan. I'm a long time fan, but he's got some humdingers in his books I still haven't figured out (despite the pronunciation guides at the backs of the books). However, he also tosses in ordinary names like Mat and... Come to think of it, Mat's the only one.

seigfried007 · 07-21-2008, 10:44 AM

Names come and go in popularity, but 'oldies' don't die easily so I tend to keep them around in sci-fi (and keep them specific to a ethnicity/nation.)

Fantasy isn't much different, but as Ilasir pointed out, it's good to keep the names of a similar nature when dealing with one people versus another (just like I most families from one nation/ethnicity aren't going to name their children a name from a far-off culture without very good reason).

Also, most names aren't especially complicated, which is why I have a difficult time with much modern fantasy. Dragons and Elves, I suppose I can see having sixteen letters in a name--after all, they have a very long time to memorize said names and learn to spell and say them. Most people however don't have names spanning more than three syllables.

For my fantasy, I tend to pluck names from other cultures and possibly modify them. That said, Slavic names don't strike me as anything but straight out of fantasy (long and hard to pronounce)--and Gaelic and Icelandic aren't far off.

stevesh · 07-21-2008, 11:53 AM

I think you see the goofy name thing more in fantasy than in science fiction (although extra-terrestials seem to always have names which end in vowels - could be a galactic rule).

I read some 'writer's guidelines' from somebody or another once who warned against creating new words for things. His point was that there isn't any point in calling it 'jav' or 'kaffa' when there's no good reason to believe they won't still be calling it 'coffee' a hundred years from now. Made sense to me.

Ilasir Maroa · 07-21-2008, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevesh

I think you see the goofy name thing more in fantasy than in science fiction (although extra-terrestials seem to always have names which end in vowels - could be a galactic rule).

I read some 'writer's guidelines' from somebody or another once who warned against creating new words for things. His point was that there isn't any point in calling it 'jav' or 'kaffa' when there's no good reason to believe they won't still be calling it 'coffee' a hundred years from now. Made sense to me.

The issue there is that since one is already translating the story from its natural language, so that it can reach an english audience, then there's no reason to new words for something that has a perfect english translation. It gets sticky, however, when you encounter something similar to an earth object with an english name.

lin · 07-21-2008, 09:20 PM

The thing is. If the names are goofy, it probably isn't a very good story.

Ilasir Maroa · 07-21-2008, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lin

The thing is. If the names are goofy, it probably isn't a very good story.

The thing is, if one thinks the names are goofy, it probably isn't one's type of story. Whether that means it is a bad story depends on a lot of things.

Lacrymosa · 07-21-2008, 11:42 PM

Adds emphasis on the genre, maybe?

I know in Tourniquet, there are names like Ravyn, Draven, Spyro, Fox and Spyral, but really there are simple names like Chaz, Rachel, Rob, Brad, Sarah, Joanna, Mel...............

Tiamat10 · 07-26-2008, 06:21 AM

The Sword of Truth series. MC's name is Richard.

'Course in the first book the bad guy's name -- I kid you not -- is Darken Rahl, so meh...

lin · 07-26-2008, 11:37 AM

Quote:

The thing is, if one thinks the names are goofy, it probably isn't one's type of story. Whether that means it is a bad story depends on a lot of things.

LOL

Oh, no, I didn't mean "what one thinks", I was referring to the higher subjective standards of Goofiness enshrined in the Disney wing of the National Bureau of Standards.