Comments | librasmile: Writer SOS

librasmile

Writer SOS - Help!

Jan 29, 2012 13:37

Okay, I'm trying to name a character for my Harry Potter fan fic and am completely stuck. He's the Hogwarts school chaplain as well as curator of the portraits - and I cannot come up with a decent name for him to save my life!

For some reason, I need his first name to start with the letter E. I want his last name to be French because he's from ( Read more... )

fan fic, religion, original character, fanfic, creative writing, fanfiction, severus snape, fiction writing, oc, albus dumbledore

Comments 16

atdelphi January 29 2012, 18:48:16 UTC

Ooh! Thanks! librasmile January 29 2012, 23:57:12 UTC

Eltanin is the name of a star in the Draco constellation-it's derived from the Arabic for "serpent" but is perfectly pronounceable in French. Are you looking for a common French surname or something odder?

Hmmmm, let me roll Eltanin around for a bit. Albalark came up with Eucherius and I'm kind of liking that. However, I love the associations with serpent.

As for surnames, well, because he's Pomona Sprout's cousin I've been trying to come up with something similar. I've been using Google translator and wordreference.com and right now I'm thinking his surname is Sarment, which is supposedly French for branch. But it doesn't quite flow for me yet. I'd like something in French that's related to plants or agriculture for his surname.

Re: Ooh! Thanks! atdelphi January 30 2012, 02:41:18 UTC

I do like Eucherius. I have a great-aunt Euchariste, and it certainly does evoke the religious aspect. *g*

Sarment is actually more like a creeping plant or a vine than a branch. LaPlante is the most obvious name, and it has the benefit of being an actual surname. There's also Bourgeon, which is also an actual (if not very common) name meaning "bud."

Re: Ooh! Thanks! librasmile January 30 2012, 03:33:29 UTC

Sarment is actually more like a creeping plant or a vine than a branch. LaPlante is the most obvious name, and it has the benefit of being an actual surname. There's also Bourgeon, which is also an actual (if not very common) name meaning "bud."

Ooh! I like Burgeon! ( That must be the root of "burgeoning" I guess ). And thanks for the tip on Sarment. I would say my French is bad but that would be an insult to bad French, lol

...I REALLY like Burgeon...* adds to list *

albalark January 29 2012, 19:03:02 UTC

OK, how about this:

1st name: Eucherius, named after St. Eucherius of Lyon, a Gallo-Roman saint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucherius_of_Lyon). It also has the benefit of soundin a bit like "Eucharist". Or, you could go simple and use the common French name Émile. :-)

Middle name: Columba (the dove) is a constellation that might work with Eucherius. Or, if you still want an "E" name, the constellation Eridanus goes trippingly off the tongue with Émile. Works with Eucherius, too.

Last name: The only one I could think of was duPont - since he is a bridge between magic and religion.

Hope this helps!

Oooh! Nice! librasmile January 30 2012, 00:41:24 UTC

1st name: Eucherius, named after St. Eucherius of Lyon, a Gallo-Roman saint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucherius_of_Lyon). It also has the benefit of soundin a bit like "Eucharist".

Eucherius? And that's the name of a saint? From Lyon at that? Sweet!

Or, you could go simple and use the common French name Émile. :-)

I am actually thinking of Emile. I just wanted to pair it with something else.

Middle name: Columba (the dove) is a constellation that might work with Eucherius. Or, if you still want an "E" name, the constellation Eridanus goes trippingly off the tongue with Émile. Works with Eucherius, too.

I thought of Eridanus, but I couldn't find anything that I liked to pair it with. And yeah I'm passing on Columba only because I want an E name, lol. But thanks.

Last name: The only one I could think of was duPont - since he is a bridge between magic and religion.

Really? Do tell! I live one state over from Delaware, home of the DuPonts. And in our ( ... )

majorjune January 30 2012, 00:11:23 UTC

I'm living out of boxes right now, so I don't have access to notes I have on websites that provide names of various sorts, an invaluable resource for me because I always need help in coming up with good character names in my writings.

Do a Google search on things like "Medieval Names", "French Surnames", etc. Lately I've been doing searches for American Colonial Names, and that gets quite a few French names, since so many French immigrated to the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries.

librasmile January 30 2012, 00:43:21 UTC

Ooh! Thanks! I never thought to search on medieval names. I'll give that a stab as well =^)

Edit: And good luck with the living out of boxes thing. I'm in the middle of a slow clean up at home, trying to throw things out and organize the rest. I just bought bookshelves * squee * and am finally putting the books in some kind of quasi-logical order.

veritybrown January 30 2012, 00:42:58 UTC

I like Eridanus! Eucharius is nice, too. I see what you mean about Sarment not quite flowing...hmm.... Maybe, Aubergine (eggplant)? Duplantier (from the tree plantation)? Eppinette (thorn or prickle)?
Espaillat (to winnow; i.e., separate the wheat from the chaff)? Gadbois (wasted forest)? Gagnier (cultivator)? Grillon (cricket)? Haricot (bean--goes well with sprout!)? Houlette (hoe)? Laframboise (the raspberry)?

That's the spirit! librasmile January 30 2012, 01:42:23 UTC

...I see what you mean about Sarment not quite flowing...hmm.... Maybe, Aubergine (eggplant)? Duplantier (from the tree plantation)? Eppinette (thorn or prickle)?
Espaillat (to winnow; i.e., separate the wheat from the chaff)? Gadbois (wasted forest)? Gagnier (cultivator)? Grillon (cricket)? Haricot (bean--goes well with sprout!)? Houlette (hoe)? Laframboise (the raspberry)?

Lol! You're channeling me, lol. I had thought about buisson which I think means bush. I thought of vigne ( vine, I think ). I was looking at eppinette last night only I think I saw it as epineux or something like that.

Re: That's the spirit! veritybrown January 30 2012, 03:07:29 UTC

Here's the site I was looking at: http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/browse/origin/french?page=1

Re: That's the spirit! librasmile January 30 2012, 03:35:45 UTC

Thanks, Verity! I'm sure I'll be losing myself there for hours!

selmak January 30 2012, 04:03:10 UTC

Elfenstone

Yeah can't type on aphone

Hmm... librasmile January 31 2012, 03:41:14 UTC

...Elfenstone...do you mean Elphinstone? Is that a place name or a personal name? Doesn't matter * gratefully adds to the list * Thanks! =^)

Re: Hmm... selmak January 31 2012, 13:06:24 UTC

it's actually the name of Minerva's supposedly cannon husband...

Re: Hmm... librasmile February 1 2012, 03:17:45 UTC

it's actually the name of Minerva's supposedly cannon husband...

Ahh, I suppose that's from Pottermore, hmm?