The "What's a good name for this?" thread

Are you looking for a Meaningful Name or a Line-of-Sight Name?

A name that ticks both could be Ondine Dulac, which translates literally as "(female) merfolk of the lake", and looks like a reasonable French name. There are recorded instances of "Ondine" as a first name in the 1930s, and "Dulac" as a surname exists since at least the 19th century.

I mean a normal human name. She has some time to think, which is good because she doesn't know any human names beyond those of the people she's interacted with. She might look at a name book if those were a thing in the 40s.

Also, her people might be called undines in french.

Edited by Nukeli on Apr 29th 2024 at 1:52:06 PM

then why not just go with Undine as the first name?

And "Lac" as surname.

"Undine Lac".

Edited by Trainbarrel on Apr 29th 2024 at 1:32:57 PM

As I said, Ondine Dulac would be a normal French name. If she is just looking for a standard French name (the equivalent of Jane Smith) and not something thematically tied to her origins, something like Marie Martin would fit the bill (Martin is one of the most common surname in France and Marie was the most common female first name in the 1930s).

"Lac" as a surname sounds a bit strange (though it's not unheard of), while "Dulac" (which translates as "of the lake") or even "Du Lac" (same, but could imply nobility) is more common. In the same line of thought, "Rivière" (River) would also sound like a normal French name.

Edited by C105 on Apr 29th 2024 at 1:52:42 PM

Are there any alternatives for naming Fantasy Counterpart Switzerland than the ones already discussed?

And while we're at it, what about a name for Fantasy Counterpart Pan-Netherlands?

Edited by MarqFJA on Apr 29th 2024 at 6:36:21 PM

While we're at it, does anyone have any ideas for Poland and Czechoslovakia ersates as well?

Have you considered using the capital of our world's Switzerland as the name for the fantasy-counterpart?

Namely, calling the country "Zurich" or something of similar spelling?

Edited by Trainbarrel on Apr 29th 2024 at 5:52:24 PM

Mélusine or Melusina is a possible alternative to Ondine; I'm not sure how "normal" it is, but a number of minor historical figures have had that name.

Fantasy Low Countries: There are a lot of interesting options here, though many of them would imply "land of [ethnic group]" and given how you approached Switzerland I'm not sure that's what you're looking for. Polderland would have Dutch/Germanic origins and mean "place where land is claimed from the sea". Aaldiep would have similar origins, and mean "Eel Deep" in reference to the flooding of Almere that formed the Zuiderzee. Baslorraine would derive from French and refer to it being the low-lying areas of former Lotharingia.

Fantasy Poland/Czechoslovakia: Are these "alternate history" or "constructed world" equivalents? That changes my answers. :P

Edited by Noaqiyeum on Apr 29th 2024 at 9:16:16 AM

That's certainly a possibility to keep in consideration.

Oh, Polderland is a good one, especially since Dutch polder is suggested to be perhaps descended from Old Dutch polla, meaning "low ground elevation", which would play up the low-lying topography of the country. The reference to Almere is a really good one, too. FWIW, I've been considering Laaglands (literally "Lowlands") myself.

Ah, it's a Fictional Earth that's sort of halfway between the worlds of Valkyria Chronicles and Ace Combat: a constructed world that has broad similarities to our Earth in both geographical makeup and historical developments, but the proper names of the human nations, landmasses, countries, etc. are usually quite different; exceptions may be allowed for names like "Arctic" and "Antarctic" for the polar regions, the Pacific Ocean retaining its name for similar reasons to real life, and the Atlantic Ocean being named for the god Atlas.

Edited by MarqFJA on Apr 29th 2024 at 1:33:09 PM

...May I request changing the polar oceans to the Pinguan and Parapinguan as a very silly Historical In-Joke? Please? :D "Arctic" and "Antarctic" literally mean "bears" and "no bears" - due to the presence of Ursa Major and Minor, but obviously those are themselves named after Arctic polar bears. "Pingua" ("penguins") would instead be named after the great awk, native to the northern sea and formerly known as penguins, while "Parapingua" ("across from or nearby penguins") would be named for the birds they lost the name to which are exclusive to the southern sea.

Edited by Noaqiyeum on Apr 29th 2024 at 12:06:55 PM

Ah, I'm also going a similar setup (though slightly influenced by Arknights more)

I might use it myself as an alt name at least

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 29th 2024 at 4:05:55 AM

Fantasy Poland: I really like Piastla(n)d, after a founding culture hero (similar to the poetic name for Poland, "Lechia"), or Wis(t)la(n)d, after the Vistula river.

Fantasy Czechoslovakia: Still trying to avoid names that imply being a land of a specific ethnicity, which... makes all of the Balkans tricky. Silesia, Slonsk, Sleska, Slęza or their variants are probably the most convenient, if not really that far removed from reality?

I'm going to use Piastland for the Poland analogue and Slezko for the Czech analog (at least in national role). Thanks

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 29th 2024 at 4:34:29 AM

Uh, that's a no to all of those suggestions; they sound too silly. Besides, the Ursa constellations are not named after polar bears; the ancient civilizations that gave it that name in their various languages — the Finns, the Greeks (whence "Arctic"), the Hindus, and even Native Americans — weren't even aware of said bears existence. It's believed that the naming of the constellations is simply based on their shape evoking the image of a bear to the ancient peoples that coined those names.

What a coincidence, the Arknights setting is another influence for mine (albeit a loose one).

I have a query that is tangentially related to the setting.

Ahem long story short, pair of siblings based of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley and American Psycho. The latter made the sister's name easy, but I want to ask about the brother.

What name would be appropriate for an older brother while having a "cutesy" nickname version derived from it? Something along the lines of a pet name specifically.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 29th 2024 at 8:29:25 AM

No fun. :P A world feels smaller when everything in it has the same mood.

I don't get what you're talking about.

That said, I'll share some of the place names that I've come up with on my own in this setting, if only to shed some light.

• Brumaire – Brumairean Republic (France). Named after the month of Brumaire from the French Revolutionary calendar, during which the coup of 18 Brumaire occurred, which ended the French Revolution and led to the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor of France.

• Choryŏ – Samhanate of Choryŏ (Korea). Choryŏ is derived from two ancient names of Korea: Joseon^note Commonly referred to as “Gojoseon” in historiography to distinguish from the later Joseon dynasty. (alternately written Chosŏn) and Goryeo (alternately written Koryŏ). Samhanate is derived from Samhan (lit. “Three Han”), in reference to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, but later coming to denote all of Korea as a single entity after unification by the Goryeo period; the intention is to reflect that this Fantasy Korea has a triparite division under the rule of a single emperor, though I haven't settled on whether this division would be in the form of the country itself comprising three similar yet distinct sub-national units, the government under the emperor is divided between three co-equal kings/officials, merely symbolic of the country having once been split into three kingdoms before being unified by the first emperor, or something else.

• Ebrea – Ebrean Commonwealth (European Union). Ebrea derives from Ebrus, the old Thracian name for the river Maritsa, and a theorized namesake for the Roman province Europa and, by proxy, the continent of Europe.

• Fiorentina – Imperial Republic of Fiorentina (Italy + ancient Rome). Fiorentina derives from the Florentine Republic (Italian: Repubblica Fiorentina), which was centered on the Italian city of Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance period during which it was enormously influential, the second capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and whose Florentine dialect formed the basis of Standard Italian. The country itself is a blend of the regal, republican and imperial periods of ancient Rome, the Kingdom of Italy during both its Liberal and Fascist eras, and the Italian Republic; this is reflected by the usage of “Imperial Republic” in the name.

• Lucessia – Kingdom of Lucessia (Spain + Portugal). Lucessia derives from Lusitania, an Iberian Roman province named after the Lusitanians, which encompassed a large portion of western Spain and most of modern-day Portugal, and which in modern parlance has become an alternate name for Portgual; and the Cessetani, a pre-Roman Iberian tribe that inhabited the eastern coast of Spain, and one of whose major cities (Tarraco) became the site of the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula.

• San Cephano – Pontifical States of San Cephano (Papal States + Vatican City). Cephano derives from Cephas, the Aramaic-based name given by Jesus to Peter the Apostle, from whom the Roman Catholic Church’s papacy derives its legitimacy via extension of the Petrine primacy.

Edited by MarqFJA on Apr 29th 2024 at 9:12:55 PM

that reminds me I had called my Europe ersatz Erebus because I found something that claimed that the name Erebu was an old name for the landmass, and because I had engages in a mythological theme naming for sections of the planet (not quite continents, more like large strips that encompass them.) that made the name fortuitous (Erebus being a Greek god and all)

Again I'm still looking for name ideas. But fir refinement and context's sake:

• It's for an older brother who is an antagonist
• Must reference either American Psycho or a work related to it (for context, his sister is named Patricia)
• Must have a pet name version (context: the pair are also modded off a certain pair of fictional cannibalistic siblings. Patricia's nickname is Patty)

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 30th 2024 at 8:32:05 AM

Oh, that erebu is unrelated to Greek Erebus (lit. "Darkness"); it's an Akkadian verb meaning "to go down, set" (said of the sun).

I know, but there was an opportunity and I took it (plus the actual meaning makes for some good contrast with its slice of the setting being named after Helios)

How about "Sean" for the name and "Shaun" as the nickname? (due to how he says it, people makes the mistake of hearing it as "Shaun" instead and it just keeps happening so many times that he just rolls with it at this point.)

And for the reference, it's from "the Laws of Attraction" which have a relation to "American Psycho" in its setting.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Apr 30th 2024 at 4:03:51 PM

i knew about and had considered it, but I didn't think that sold the vibes I was going for.

I decided to go with Norman/Normie here in refernce to Psycho and how simialr that film's slasher's name was to Patrick's (and the titles of the films themselves are similar as well)

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 30th 2024 at 7:10:22 AM

I'm looking for an in-universe nickname for drugs that give superpowers.

Context: 20 Minutes into the Future, in a universe where superheroes and superpowers exist, however most of them are found in America. In Europe, where the story takes place, the very few superheroes are Badass Normals and superpowered people tend to go into hiding or emigrate to America due to Fantastic Racism.
These Drugs Are Bad: they can misfire one way or another, the cheapest one are often unreliable and they all have nasty side-effect after too much use, so none of the good guys wants to use them. Nevertheless they are a game-changers for the criminals, since the police and the Badass Normal superheroes never know when the bad guys they are chasing will suddenly fire lasers from their eyes or throw a car at them.

So far in my draft I have had most people call them "superdrugs", which I find too positive, while the criminals call them "helpers", which I think is very unoriginal (the bad guys who create the drugs call them by a series of letters and numbers between themselves, and I'm OK with that).

I'd look into street drug naming conventions as those tend to be euphemisms. Weed, Speed, Crack, etc.

Along those lines, I'd say Rocks, Lightning, or Bang (the latter being a reference to Static and the Big Bang Meta Origin)

How about "Cos'ly"?

Basically "Costly" with a dialect and a fine description on what the price is going to be for oneself when taking them.