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

I rather like both "Lightning" and "Bang"—I'll second those!

(Especially as the former suggests the euphemism "ride the lightning"—meaning to be put to death by electric chair—and the latter suggests the idiom "out with a bang"—meaning to expire in a dramatic, flashy way.

Both of which seem at least somewhat fitting for a drug that is used by criminals and gives fantastic power—but that might have terrible effects.)

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 1st 2024 at 6:47:58 PM

My Games & Writing

I feel "Sups" or "super" will be an adequate term  for the general public.

The official name will consist, of course from "letters and numbers" .

Edited by jawal on May 1st 2024 at 7:18:58 PM

Every Hero has his own way of eating yogurt

What comes to mind when you hear this made up word called "Ungulataur"?

I have no idea how to pronounce that. Could be related to the word centaur.

Probably depends on where in Europe. In English-speaking countries, or countries heavily influenced by US/UK pop culture? A common English word used as a euphemism. In countries where people like to put their own spin on things? Maybe an English word or acronym pronounced like a word in the local language (say, French).

"He betrayed the Staaarks" is not the only problem here.

Centaur morphology but the lower body could be any kind of ungulate rather than solely equine.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Thanks a lot for the suggestions! I like the idea of the euphemisms like "Lightning" or "Bang". In fact I may even have the characters use different nicknames depending on what kind of superpowers the drug gives (with a global nickname for the drugs in general).

I might have one character use that one.

I have been taking the easy way and consider that either everybody speaks English or that Translation Convention is in effect.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

@princessin.

I prolly should've emphasized that it was a term I thought up myself and not an actual word, sorry. I made the post to indirectly ask if it intuitively fits a group of human/ungulate hybrids that would include cases like the Mantelopes.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 1st 2024 at 12:33:39 PM

x5 Sounds something that would fit in Centaurworld.

I assure you, I'm a completely trustworthy person.

I'm not sure of how widely-known the term "ungulate" is.

(Speaking for myself, I got it—but I'll admit that it took a moment of thought.)

My Games & Writing

Despite all the possible names for Fantasy Switzerland that we've discussed, including even the suggestions that I've put forth myself, I still find myself unsatisfied. And I think I've figured out why: The words "Swiss" and "Switzer(land)" sound unique among all the European country/nationality names, and I want to retain that somehow.

Edited by MarqFJA on May 1st 2024 at 9:56:11 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

In that case, I'll try and update my previous suggestion to match this new criteria.

"Zyrisch"

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

Eh, that doesn't hit the same IMO. I was referring to both the -ss ending and the monosyllabic pronunciation of the word.

For reference:

• Country name: Switzerland (English), Schweiz (German), Suisse (French), Svizzera (Italian), Svizera (Romansch).
• Demonym: Swiss/Switzer (English), Schweizer(in) (German), Suisse(sse) (French), svizzero/svizzera (Italian).^note Romansch appears to not have a native demonym for Swiss people
• Adjective: Swiss (English), schweizerisch (German), suisse (French), svizzero/svizzera (Italian), svizzer (Romansch)

And for further context, English Swiss is derived directly from French Suisse/suisse, itself being descended from Middle High German swīzer (from which German Schweizer is also descended, making it and Suisse cognates).

Edited by MarqFJA on May 8th 2024 at 1:12:21 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I have this rather young sci-fi universe that I'm developing. There are two main stories as of now, Aphelion and Perihelion. The former is from the POV of the main ruling power in this universe, the Intersystemic Confederation, and the latter is from an anti-Confederation resistance force, Apsis 5. The issue I'm having right now is that I kinda don't have a catch-all to refer to this universe in general. Could someone help?

Edited by viridianskyes on May 7th 2024 at 7:32:01 AM

"Oh, I'm a paramedic, not a fightymedic. That's Caduceus' job."

Apsisverse seems logical to me, assuming that your stories revolve around hero protagonists from Apsis 5; the term "apsis" is the hypernym of "aphelion" and "perihelion", after all.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Is there an "official" name for a hatred of social media and the people who use it? I'm pretty sure there isn't, and I came here to get a good grasp on what it would be.

"Cyberphobia?"

A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.

Probably easier to just make up a new word for it.

In this case, it would be "Cyberekthos"

It's combined With "ekthos" which is ancient greek for something similar to "hatred".

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

Would "Stum Und Drang" (as in the genre) be a good title for a story where, basically, an SA man survives The Night Of The Long Knives and thirsts revenge against Hitler and the SS, to which end he steals a nazi Power Armor/Walking Tank and goes rogue in late 1934 or early 1935 maybe and then spends several years alone before he meets a woman with Super Serum powers who's also waging a guerrilla war against the nazis (for much nobler reasons) and some more years later more people with superpowers/superweapons appear and form a superhero team, and the SA guy joins them to get in the position to take his revenge but obviously none of them trust or like him?

For context, this is a backstory issue in a WWII superhero series. The first story starts on 14th june 1940 in Paris and the main character is in France for quite a while, so everything that takes place before that date is explained or shown in flashbacks of varying lenght.

~ * Bleh * ~ (Looking for a russian-speaker to consult about names and words for a thing)

Planning out a post-canon fic for Symphogear, I need names for an old Artifact Collection Agency. As of now, they’re heavily Brotherhood of Steel inspired with two major traits being their pseudo-religious nature and claiming to collect said artifact technology when they really come off as glorified hoarders.

The agency in question nearly got wiped out by some of the series’ Big Bads a couple times in ages past but have always managed to hold on though with a nursed grudge and their modern incarnation is secretly backed by some wealthy folk wanting to snag the artifacts for their own. Of course, the organization went along with this to survive though they also do want to get back at those who wronged them in the past and with the Big Bads gone they’ve settled for hunting their associates to take back what they see as theirs.

Suggestions?

Oh that is a brilliant name! Thank you so much for that

Edited by CrownlessMimic on May 20th 2024 at 1:32:52 AM

A universe of infinity held within a singular dot. Thus a collection of dots a collection of infinities does it become...

"C.G" = "Concerto Grosso" = "Composition for a group of solo instruments and orchestra"

This one also happen to sound like what a hoarder would call their music instrument collection.

And thanks to the acronym, they can be referred to as "COG" in-story.

Edited by Trainbarrel on May 19th 2024 at 9:05:09 PM

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

Nitpick: Sturm und Drang. The R before the consonant is not completely silent, but not heavily stressed, so people unfamiliar with the language might be forgiven if they don't notice it at first (compare the R in "Merkel", name of our former chancellor).

Does it work for that kind of story? Probably, on some levels. Taken literally, it is obviously the wrong time period, with the likes of Goethe and Schiller long gone when Those Wacky Nazis showed up. While it sounds like a very German phrase that should fit right into German (and specifically Prussian) obsession with the military (and later, association football), it is not that kind of storm. It's about inner turmoil, rule-breaking, a counter-movement to the enlightenment, more Germanic Depressives than the law-abiding, quality-manufacturing, Boring, but Practical stereotype. Fans of the Werther were pretty much the Emo Teens of their time. But as the Wikipedia article you linked notices, works in the genre can and do get quite violent.

One thing that could happen is that you have all sorts of intellectual reasons why the title fits your story and your audience just doesn't notice. That's the downside of the Genius Bonus trope, not everyone can be a genius

I can't really comment on if/how the arc and character of your vengeful SA member works because I'm not super firm in my knowledge of the historical details there. As stated before, I'm not a historian. As anything involving the Nazis and their crimes is obviously a touchy subject, I trust you that you do research beyond asking random forum users about words.

For that matter, I'm not an expert on literature epochs either, I just like reading. My qualification is that I'm the type of nerd who has read Die Räuber. Which is a play. That you are supposed to see on stage.

"He betrayed the Staaarks" is not the only problem here.

Yeah, i know. That was some kind of a typo.

I'm, of course, doing research, but an alternate history spanning over a decade isn't a quick job.

Edited by Nukeli on May 19th 2024 at 4:56:17 PM

~ * Bleh * ~ (Looking for a russian-speaker to consult about names and words for a thing)

I guess nobody has any suggestions for my last question. Sorry for being so picky.

Here's a new, and hopefully easier one. I'm working on an ersatz of the Dune setting that's primarily inspired by Westwood Studios' own take on the Dune setting, as represented in its video games Dune II, the Dune 2000 remake, and the sequel Emperor: Battle for Dune. Part of it is coming up with good names for the expies of Westwood-Dune's three playable factions; I've settled on "Acleides"^note A clipping of Heracleides, a patronymic that originally denoted its bearer as one of the purported descendants of the Greek mythical hero Heracles, who incidentally bore the epithet Alkeides (Ἀλκείδης, “descendant of Alkaios”), a near-homophone to Acleides. This emulates the origin of House Atreides’ name, and the name sounds similar to Atreides as well. for the Atreides expy, and "Kozerogyn"^note From the Russian name for the constellation Capricorn (Latin for “horned goat”), a reference to the Harkonnen home planet Giedi Prime being possibly named after Alpha[[superscrupt:2]] Capricorni — also known as Algedi, Secunda Giedi or Algiedi Secunda (from Arabic الجدي al-Jadiy “the Goat”) — as well as House Harkonnen’s association with horned animals (besides the ram as its animal symbol in the Dune Encyclopedia and Westwood Dune video games, the name Harkonnen derives from Finnish Härkönen, meaning “little ox”). for the Harkonnen expy. I'm considering "Zungar"^note A reference to Dzungaria, a region in Northwestern China that takes its name from the Dzungar people, whose name comes from the Mongolian term Zűn Gar (“left hand”). This name thus pays homage to House Ordos being named after a location in China that's associated with historical Mongolia, and additionally alludes to House Ordos’ malicious nature through the common association of the word “sinister” (from Latin, literally meaning “left” or “left-handed”) with evil. for the Ordos expy, but I worry that the name's harsh phonology evokes the image of being bellicose and brutish instead of the intended image of being calculating and insidious. Am I overthinking this?

Edited by MarqFJA on May 19th 2024 at 6:23:05 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

You are overthinking it.

The name sounds fine to me.

And that's because, after tasting it for a while, it comes out smooth, one ends up drawing out the "-ng-" part of the word as if thinking about something, and there are no sharp tones in it anywhere.

Edited by Trainbarrel on May 20th 2024 at 3:55:54 PM

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

I guess you have a point.

Well, on a different but related point, I'm stumped on what to name the ersatz for House Corrino. Given that the first Corrino assumed the name after the planet on which the final battle of a war against tyrannical machine intelligences was waged (Corrin), I should probably follow a similar derivation. What would be a good name for the location of such a battle? Something that sounds exotic, has a connection to technophobia that is rather subtle instead of being on the nose, and is relatively short and easy to say for the Anglophone?

Edited by MarqFJA on May 20th 2024 at 2:20:02 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.