Names for an Epic Protagonist

[musicflyer2]

Hello all,

I have always enjoyed Epics (Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon-Eldest-Brisingr-and Inheritance, Beowulf and things of that nature). I have just decided to something big. Very big. I have decided to attempt to write my own story. This decision wasn't taken lightly. I know this might be a life long en devour. I already know the direction I want to go. Make my own world with ancient sounding names and maps and possibly it's own language ect. The only difference is this will loosely be based on my own personal life. More like I will use stories from my life but change them around to fit this story. I have lived a very exciting life so far having traveled the world and seen many things and done a lot of stuff...this is sorta my way of documenting it before I forget it all I guess...in my own personal way.

The story will start as a young boy growing into a man (and of course he has many adventures but it all leads up to a climax ). He does the normal stuff. Sword fighting, riding dragons, getting the girl (actually that one really happened ), and things that a protagonist in a story like that would do. I am stuck though...I need a name! I want it to sound...like he would do great and mighty things and you know he is the hero of the story. Like Caspian (from Narnia) or Eragon (from Inheritance) or Percy (from Percy Jackson). Not a normal name...an abnormal name. Something that grabs the ear and won't let go till you know the outcome. Something you could see yourself as. And no comedian names! (like Eddie, Frank, Jerry etc.)

Oh! and it is being narrated by someone. Like the story was derived from ancient texts found in excavations around the world and on cave paintings a stuff and the story is being told by an older person to a younger person.

The title, right now, is: "The East Wind Archives"...it sounded cool. I'll probably change it as I go on.

So, fellow simmers, come up with names! And remember all those amazing epic fantasies you loved growing up!

Fly high and may you have smooth skies!

musicflyer2.

Edit: Also Humble. And maybe Wise.

Yet Another Edit: Also Spelling is important. For example, let's take the name Eric. It sounds kinda epic. But change it to Erik and it is even more so. Now...if you want to change it to Ancient and Epic then I would go with Arek. See what I mean? It's all in the details.

[Webb]

You also need internal consistency.

Are these people most closely related to Norse, Slavic, Europeans? Stick with Norse, Slavic and European sounding names.

Erik would probably not have a sidekick named Mao Zheng.

[CrashII]

First mistake you made; there are no European names. We're not 1 country with 1 language, you know. So for example John in English becomes Jean in French, Johann in German, Johan in Dutch, Gianni in Italian. Best option you have is to stick with Nordic names.

http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Main_Page

[musicflyer2]

You also need internal consistency.

Are these people most closely related to Norse, Slavic, Europeans? Stick with Norse, Slavic and European sounding names.

Erik would probably not have a sidekick named Mao Zheng.

I completely agree! Yeah Norse, Celtic, Euro names and stuff like that. Right now the names I have (I came up with these) are Arek for the Protagonist, Ani (a form of Annie) for his older sister (supporting character) and Kyler (I thought it resembled Kyle a little...) for his older brother (supporting character). These could change but I am getting everything down now. Also the Villian is named Faradax (for now). I always like it when the letter "X" is used in the name to describe someone of pure evil. Like in Eragon the Villian was King Galbatorix. That just sounds like pure evil.

I was gonna use Paradax...then I thought better cuz I realized that one could also be bullied for that name. Para-Dacks. And obviously we don't want our bully being bullied.

Oh! Another thing is Faradax isn't human. He lives in human form but he is the essence of evil itself. Kinda like Sauran. Sauran wasn't a person but more a life force. Remember, he also had the Great Eye and , spoiler alert for the Hobbit!, he also has his form as the Necromancer. In a way Faradax kinda invented evil. I say all this to say if you think you have a better villain name then I am completely open to it...but I won't be using things like Rabadash (any other Narnia fans here?!) or something like that. It must represent pure evil.

[musicflyer2]

First mistake you made; there are no European names. We're not 1 country with 1 language, you know. So for example John in English becomes Jean in French, Johann in German, Johan in Dutch, Gianni in Italian. Best option you have is to stick with Nordic names.

http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Main_Page

This is true. Like I said, it's all in the details. Sometimes changing one letter can make all the difference.

[H]

It might be better not to change some spellings and abbreviations -- like endeavor, etc.
Many, many, many moons ago I had a camping club of sorts with campsites on my parent's property (we had about 60 acres or so of it wooded) and on that of a few others; every camp had its own flag and we sometimes had little wars one camp against another or one alliance against another. There was a difference in name spellings (partly because our own alphabet and spelling rules were applied) and some of these camps had strange names like Uk, Labebes (La-bee'-beess) and Cilorux (Chill'-or-uth); some were more common names like Apeks, Argos, Sumit. The meanings may also have been different (a dictionary was actually started for the main language): Bexlahim (Beth'-la-him), although taken from the name Bethlehem, translates as Lightning Star Home (some of my personal planes in my CFS hangar have the lightning-heart arrowhead symbol; Bexlahim's flag also had a red, six-pointed star in the middle of the arrowhead).
When I started writing a story (more like a series; still have the manuscripts in folders somewhere, a bit moldy/frayed) many years ago, these camps became city-states, not necessarily on this planet. Like said, there's a dictionary; there's drawings of the flags and maps, as well. Many of the characters were based on actual members of the club but many other main characters were added, like Ab Reks (m) who is one of the generals, and Shara (f) who is a commander of Bexlahim's city defenders upon its rebirth (the defense of the city was sometimes in the hands of a trained female army - the men often fought elsewhere).

I have to cut this short; good luck in your endeavor.

[musicflyer2]

It might be better not to change some spellings and abbreviations -- like endeavor, etc.
Many, many, many moons ago I had a camping club of sorts with campsites on my parent's property (we had about 60 acres or so of it wooded) and on that of a few others; every camp had its own flag and we sometimes had little wars one camp against another or one alliance against another. There was a difference in name spellings (partly because our own alphabet and spelling rules were applied) and some of these camps had strange names like Uk, Labebes (La-bee'-beess) and Cilorux (Chill'-or-uth); some were more common names like Apeks, Argos, Sumit. The meanings may also have been different (a dictionary was actually started for the main language): Bexlahim (Beth'-la-him), although taken from the name Bethlehem, translates as Lightning Star Home (some of my personal planes in my CFS hangar have the lightning-heart arrowhead symbol; Bexlahim's flag also had a red, six-pointed star in the middle of the arrowhead).
When I started writing a story (more like a series; still have the manuscripts in folders somewhere, a bit moldy/frayed) many years ago, these camps became city-states, not necessarily on this planet. Like said, there's a dictionary; there's drawings of the flags and maps, as well. Many of the characters were based on actual members of the club but many other main characters were added, like Ab Reks (m) who is one of the generals, and Shara (f) who is a commander of Bexlahim's city defenders upon its rebirth (the defense of the city was sometimes in the hands of a trained female army - the men often fought elsewhere).

I have to cut this short; good luck in your endeavor.

8)

That actually sounds like a great story! You should finish it! I would read it. I didn't know how to spell endeavor (now I do). It kept coming up with a red line and every time I right clicked that was the number one answer. So I went with it.

[expat]

You also need internal consistency..

Funny, that's what my Doc after I had a foot of lower intestine removed...................


Matt

[ozzy72]

How about Kevin?

[Fozzer]

How about Kevin?

....or Barry?

Paul... ..!

[Hawkeye07]

My suggestions: Gunthar - Lodahr (Low-dar) - Dagholt - Inor (Eye - nore)

[CrashII]

You could write a story about an adventurous British duo. They fill their days chasing Spitfires and small airplanes on their motorbikes, ending in cooking big meals every day. You could name them Paul and Mark or something like that...

[ftldave]

One of the best name references on the Internet, an historical and international dictionary of names. It's a real treasure resource:

Kate Monk's Onomastikon

[OldAirmail]

For the most part, I don't care that much for fantasy. But I think that it far outsells science fiction, so what do I know.


When I read your opening post I thought of an Elizabeth Moon series, Sheepfarmer’s Daughter that I read a very long time ago (1988). You can read up to 8 chapters here. For free.

I even enjoyed The Deed of Paksenarrion series more than the Hobit series.


Another "saga" was Louis L'Amour's book, The Walking Drum, set in 12th century Europe and the Middle East. Although there are no dragons, it is a story full of riveting action & characters.

What has kept those books in my mind for so many years, are those characters. You can believe in them. You "care" what happens to them. So much so that the "magic" and fantasy of the Paksenarrion series didn't really matter to me.




There's one name that is common enough to be used, but was pronounced differently in the middle ages, Thomas.

The common pronunciation then was Tomas (Tow Más). Other versions are Thomaz, Thomás and Tomaz.

It's still used in Spanish, Portuguese, and eastern Europe as Tomás/Thomaz.



I'm sure that there are more than a few places on the internet for writers, but the only one that I'm familiar with is on MobileRead, the Writers' Corner



Other than those little tidbits, the only other way for me to help you, is to buy your book.

But do hurry along being a famous book writer. I'm not getting any younger.