[rushking]

Do you like a story better with make-up names or absolutely hate it? Frankly, I like how Terry Goodkind uses simple names like Richard, Rachel, etc instead of some weird make-up names I have seen so oftern in fantasy novels that I can't even pronounce.

[Posher]

Yes...I don't like it so much when they use names that are hard to pronounce myself...but I do like it when they use names that seem like they'd not be as common today.. but were more common in other...time periods/medieval. ...Such as Joffrey...Godfrey, Nigel...So on and so forth.

[Chiaroscuro]

I can't stand it when it looks like the writer's apostraphe button malfunctioned, and everyone has these rediculous names with about ten syllables and two vowels. And I hate it when the hero of a fantasy book is named, I don't know, Ashley or something modern. To make made up names sound right, I actually believe you have to invent the sort of complex history/language foundation to back you names up, as Tolkien did. (All his names actually mean things in his languages, off the top of my head 'wyn' - Eowyn- means 'girl') Of course if you don't speak ten languages have fifty years to spare, there is another way. JK Rowlings charaters have actual names - names you never hear in the normal world, but never the less real names. She peices together her charater's names charaters out of the gods and heros of assorted mythologies, stars, latin nouns, you name it.

Fantasy stories have to be based on what exists in this world, or people will have trouble connecting them. It all happens on a deep, subconcious level, but it is this that seperates good fantasy from bad fantasy.

I mean, think of the best fantasies you've ever read. Were you not left thinking "It could be real?"

[algernoninc]

i don't like it when authors are lazy in their worldbuilding, and they think that by changing one letter in a person, city or country name they are good to go. some are using this technique even for common substantives : animals, trees, household implements or weapons. I'm reading now the second book of "Crown of Stars" [a good series otherwise] and for example a bishop has become a "biscop". :confused: . If your aim is for the readers to easily recognize what you're talking about why not call a spade a spade, instead of this fake fantasy language. If you are creating an entirely original fantasy world [like Erikson or Carol Berg] then you shouldn't use common names, but also there's need to steer clear of those many weird consonants.

Also from my recent reads I had problems with R Scott Bakker naming system in "Prince of Nothing" - he has very good skills in inventing names and languages. the only issue I had is that in such a large cast of characters too many of the names are extracted from the same lexical root - they are too similar to each other and I had to make repeated forays into the addendum to stir through the maze.

[Lfex]

But Bakker's names are supposed to sound similar tous, since tehy are supposedly derived from similar languages. I think Bakker is quite good at this, although of course not so good at Tolkien who was master of this particular game.

Not being native English speaker I really dislike fantasies in which everybody in a secondary world appear to be speaking English (unless the setting is clearly modelled on medieval England, in which case it may be justified, but even then it would be nice if authors more often used other countries as models.) Seeing a name like Richard or Jimmy in a fantasy novel is for me enough to seriously spoil the whole pleasure.

[thrinidir]

Frankly, I like how Terry Goodkind uses simple names like Richard, Rachel, etc instead of some weird make-up names I have seen so oftern in fantasy novels that I can't even pronounce.

yes...like zul zulander (or whatever the name of the magician is) is a simple and not at all weird make-up name you see so often in fantasy novels... :rolleyes:

[TarotGaladriel]

Normally I don't mind it too much, but I had to draw the line when I started book one of Jordan's WoT........I mean, Trollocs !!! :rolleyes: Are you serious, come on !!!
I just couldn't take it, after about 150 pages I gave up as it spoilt the book for me, I couldn't take it seriously LOL

I may try again at a later date, as I heard they were good, at least the first few, but the name made me feel like I was in a schoolboy's fantasy :D

[bearhat]

Maybe I'm the only one (but I doubt it) that subvocalises as I read. It's automatic for my brain to think of the shapes the words make in the mouth. This means that a mouthful of a name more than three syllables long will be tripped over. A name that stops me and makes me go back and read it again until I get it is okay, provided I only have to do it once. I found many of Bakker's names (although obviously in-keeping with his world) tripped me up time and again.

After three failed attempts to get a name right, my mind gets frustrated, assigns a random hjvbhjbhvbhhb and moves on. These characters then all become one "background blur" character for me as I read on. I can no longer differentiate between them becuase my subvocal "tag" is broken.

I reckon a good rule is if you wouldn't give your main characters these long difficult shoe-string names, don't do it for any character. It's a bit of a giveaway otherwise (Hmm, they've just met someone called Brak. One syllable. He'll be important later, I bet.)

Personally I've got no problem with simple names from our own history, nor with names with one or two letters swapped. As long as I can assign that visual "tag" easily to that character each time, I'm good.

What bugs me is when author's decide the hero must amass names and keeps changing names throughout the story. I thought cecilia dart-thornton's otherwise enthralling bitterbynde suffered because of it.

What did everybody think of the Farsser naming tradition in Robin Hobb's series, giving characters a trait as a name? (Verity, Chivalry, Regal). I thought it would suck at first, but was quickly surprised at how effective it was at engrossing me in the story.

[suupaabaka]

I was a teenager when I first picked up Tad Williams' Otherworld. Flicking through it, I saw the name !Xabbu. I put it back down.

I still haven't read Otherworld. Might as well get around to it.

I generally have no really problems with names - made up or otherwise. However, I do have a problem with protagonists whose "exotic" names coincide with people I know. For example, Ian Irvine's The Three Worlds series features a young lady by the name of Karan. One of my friends is a young man of the same name. It's hard to read about the female Karan, as she always assumes the visage of the male one.

I love the name "Fafhrd" :D

[zorobnice]

Bearhat, I don't sub-vocalise. The wierd names are just like pictures to me, I don't try and pronounce them, I just recognise their shape. So the author can call his characters anything he might want. The only time a name clashes is if they give a name like Timothy to the evil character, my mind does not see Timothy as an evil person, the converse is the same for dark characters.