The Tau of Naming
Since this may actually be useful, this post is open to the public.
Over the past few years, I've had a few questions about how I name people and places (and Jasna, I think, has asked me about words I've 'made'). I'd like to give a quick and easy answer, but I have several methods of naming. Each method depends on the setting I'm working with or sheer whim.
If I am writing in an established fantasy setting (FR fanfiction), I find I need to create a name from basics. With dark elves, I studied the established character names. I'll be honest, a lot of the names seemed like the authors were intentionally adding Xs and Zs to make the names sound exotic. I'm not sure why that bothered me so much, but it did. Crossing out Xs and Zs from my list of sounds, I built the family name Mi'iduor from Drizzt Do'Urden's family name and some other sounds I liked.
Writing in an original fantasy setting, such as the Mandragora story, where I have already started identifying the ruling culture with our own world cultures (France and Russia), I try to create fantasy names from pre-established names. Leserev, for example, was taken from the actor that played the villain's father in Iron Man 2; Yevgeni Lazarev. I loved the name Yevgeni even more, but it didn't suit the character. Ending a name with 'i' or 'y' sounds diminutive in some cases, so I usually avoid it. (Exceptions: Rashi, Narbeli)
By the way, Uslana was never my favorite choice. My actual first choice was Jasna, but I avoid using my friends' names now. Besides, I wanted it to sound like Jazz-na and I don't think Jasna would have been able to read it anyway other than her own name. (Jasna is pronounced Yahz-na, yes?) So Jecible got the 'j'. Casteja, by the way, ended up being name that exists, but I didn't know when I made it. I altered 'Carteja'.
Lijyn came from French's 'Jean' but I wanted a name with letters that had dots and tails. It doesn't happen often, but I do sometimes want a name based on the look of letters. Lijyn has a name that is visually high and deep. I did that to sort of indicate that he is both intellectual and deep. The dots carry his disconnected moments.
Jecible doubles as Jezebel and decibel. Appropriate, yes? Dolly's name is tongue-in-cheek because she's not doll-like at all. Like naming an elephant Fifi.
The other goldmine for names comes from lack of understanding. Oh, yes. A popular character I had back in the day was Arsa'olakai. I got his name when incorrectly hearing and then trying to remember a Native American name on the radio. I totally mashed it up. Neat name, though. Anabash is another one of those. It happens more than I should admit.
Then there's symbolism. Two characters that will show up sooner or later in Mandragora are Trut and Trot. Trut comes from truth and Trot from troth (a vow). As is obvious once you know where the name comes from, Trut is not the whole truth. Trot is a broken troth.
Lastly, I create names based on my personal interpretation of sounds. Names like Tyshakir are strung together with syllables I think sound cool.
One thing I now really avoid is an old habit of consulting a foreign language dictionary for names based on nouns. Koedrobo was the result of removing vowels from the Japanese words for 'voice' and 'thief'. Kireitheo was a mistaken bastardization of 'dark' in Japanese and 'god' in... Greek? (Eleni, I am self-conscious about Greek and Latin references now. ;) )
I hope that helps. It might be way more than you wanted. For me, it all happens intuitively. I'm not really thinking about it unless I need a character name for fanfiction.
But there is a really good place that helps me build an internal and intuitive name vocabulary that may help you, too. When you go to a movie, stay for the credits and scan the names. It is easy and only takes a few minutes of your time while you wait for a possible Easter Egg.
Over the past few years, I've had a few questions about how I name people and places (and Jasna, I think, has asked me about words I've 'made'). I'd like to give a quick and easy answer, but I have several methods of naming. Each method depends on the setting I'm working with or sheer whim.
If I am writing in an established fantasy setting (FR fanfiction), I find I need to create a name from basics. With dark elves, I studied the established character names. I'll be honest, a lot of the names seemed like the authors were intentionally adding Xs and Zs to make the names sound exotic. I'm not sure why that bothered me so much, but it did. Crossing out Xs and Zs from my list of sounds, I built the family name Mi'iduor from Drizzt Do'Urden's family name and some other sounds I liked.
Writing in an original fantasy setting, such as the Mandragora story, where I have already started identifying the ruling culture with our own world cultures (France and Russia), I try to create fantasy names from pre-established names. Leserev, for example, was taken from the actor that played the villain's father in Iron Man 2; Yevgeni Lazarev. I loved the name Yevgeni even more, but it didn't suit the character. Ending a name with 'i' or 'y' sounds diminutive in some cases, so I usually avoid it. (Exceptions: Rashi, Narbeli)
By the way, Uslana was never my favorite choice. My actual first choice was Jasna, but I avoid using my friends' names now. Besides, I wanted it to sound like Jazz-na and I don't think Jasna would have been able to read it anyway other than her own name. (Jasna is pronounced Yahz-na, yes?) So Jecible got the 'j'. Casteja, by the way, ended up being name that exists, but I didn't know when I made it. I altered 'Carteja'.
Lijyn came from French's 'Jean' but I wanted a name with letters that had dots and tails. It doesn't happen often, but I do sometimes want a name based on the look of letters. Lijyn has a name that is visually high and deep. I did that to sort of indicate that he is both intellectual and deep. The dots carry his disconnected moments.
Jecible doubles as Jezebel and decibel. Appropriate, yes? Dolly's name is tongue-in-cheek because she's not doll-like at all. Like naming an elephant Fifi.
The other goldmine for names comes from lack of understanding. Oh, yes. A popular character I had back in the day was Arsa'olakai. I got his name when incorrectly hearing and then trying to remember a Native American name on the radio. I totally mashed it up. Neat name, though. Anabash is another one of those. It happens more than I should admit.
Then there's symbolism. Two characters that will show up sooner or later in Mandragora are Trut and Trot. Trut comes from truth and Trot from troth (a vow). As is obvious once you know where the name comes from, Trut is not the whole truth. Trot is a broken troth.
Lastly, I create names based on my personal interpretation of sounds. Names like Tyshakir are strung together with syllables I think sound cool.
One thing I now really avoid is an old habit of consulting a foreign language dictionary for names based on nouns. Koedrobo was the result of removing vowels from the Japanese words for 'voice' and 'thief'. Kireitheo was a mistaken bastardization of 'dark' in Japanese and 'god' in... Greek? (Eleni, I am self-conscious about Greek and Latin references now. ;) )
I hope that helps. It might be way more than you wanted. For me, it all happens intuitively. I'm not really thinking about it unless I need a character name for fanfiction.
But there is a really good place that helps me build an internal and intuitive name vocabulary that may help you, too. When you go to a movie, stay for the credits and scan the names. It is easy and only takes a few minutes of your time while you wait for a possible Easter Egg.