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Naming conventions
May. 27th, 2023 09:09 amI have ranted about this before, and I probably will again.
If you are writing fantasy, and you are naming people. Please, for the love of fuck, think about it carefully. If, say, you have a family from outside the area, desperately trying to fit in, they are more likely to name their children as the children around, than to give them names from their family lineage. If they don't give a fuck? Sure, that family name will come out.
Also, do not have James and Fittenzgulbirt in the same town. Not unless the latter is a surname. If it's a first name, explain why the two names are in the same town. Otherwise, it will throw me out of the story and I will put your book down and not pick it up again.
Naming conventions have to be thought of. If you're naming people after an attribute? Is it only the women named that way? Only the men? Is it a family thing? Is it a nobility thing? Perhaps the men all have long ridiculous names if they're nobility, and the women don't, because it goes to show what families the men belong to. Perhaps it's a matrilineal thing and the men need that to show which woman they belong to.
Nicknames? I'm much more lenient on. They happen in odd ways. (My own, "Kitten", was given to me at birth, because according to M, one of my older brothers, I looked like a drowned kitten. It stuck.) But a full name, or even the Proper Name of someone needs to have some rhyme or reason to it.
So, please, think of this when naming people in your writing.
If you are writing fantasy, and you are naming people. Please, for the love of fuck, think about it carefully. If, say, you have a family from outside the area, desperately trying to fit in, they are more likely to name their children as the children around, than to give them names from their family lineage. If they don't give a fuck? Sure, that family name will come out.
Also, do not have James and Fittenzgulbirt in the same town. Not unless the latter is a surname. If it's a first name, explain why the two names are in the same town. Otherwise, it will throw me out of the story and I will put your book down and not pick it up again.
Naming conventions have to be thought of. If you're naming people after an attribute? Is it only the women named that way? Only the men? Is it a family thing? Is it a nobility thing? Perhaps the men all have long ridiculous names if they're nobility, and the women don't, because it goes to show what families the men belong to. Perhaps it's a matrilineal thing and the men need that to show which woman they belong to.
Nicknames? I'm much more lenient on. They happen in odd ways. (My own, "Kitten", was given to me at birth, because according to M, one of my older brothers, I looked like a drowned kitten. It stuck.) But a full name, or even the Proper Name of someone needs to have some rhyme or reason to it.
So, please, think of this when naming people in your writing.
