I've gone a bit mad. I've been thinking and daydreaming about NaNoWriMo for months and really pulling a story together for about a month now. Now 11 days away I'm trying to tidy up my loose ends, ignore gaping holes and give myself time to breath and remember that it is supposed to be fun even if it is a challenge.
I've really done far better in the name department this year. Last year all my characters had ill-fitting names, if they were lucky to get one. Even main characters were called NAME! On my characters post from last year there are a few links to names. I love the Regency Name Generator and the site has a few other generators that would can while away hours on. But wait! If that doesn't sidetrack you here are a few more ways to help you name yourdragons heroes and maids.
Read through The Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland by Debrett. I read about it on a few different boards and looked through it filling a page or two of possible names. Since these were real people in the same time period I deconstructed my names by doing mashups and in many cases using surnames for first names, which after seeing Henry, George, John and James realize that most regencies I've read use surnames. After skimming the book forfive 20 or so minutes I got back on track and scoured the Internet.
Here are a few posts that you might want to check out too.
Historical Hussies: Regency Names
Diane Gaston: What Is In a Name?*
Word Wenches has quite a few posts.
What's In a Name? August 2010 April 2010 January 2007
What's Not In a Name? Post by Edith Layton back in 2008.
Don't forget one important thing
Keep track of names used.
Now I really need to get back to productive things, I'm building my hero's study in Sims3!
*After rereading this post I am going to get rid of one of my characters extra names. My heroes father and an in-law will have less names which means now I can make more characters!
I've really done far better in the name department this year. Last year all my characters had ill-fitting names, if they were lucky to get one. Even main characters were called NAME! On my characters post from last year there are a few links to names. I love the Regency Name Generator and the site has a few other generators that would can while away hours on. But wait! If that doesn't sidetrack you here are a few more ways to help you name your
Read through The Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland by Debrett. I read about it on a few different boards and looked through it filling a page or two of possible names. Since these were real people in the same time period I deconstructed my names by doing mashups and in many cases using surnames for first names, which after seeing Henry, George, John and James realize that most regencies I've read use surnames. After skimming the book for
Here are a few posts that you might want to check out too.
Historical Hussies: Regency Names
Diane Gaston: What Is In a Name?*
Word Wenches has quite a few posts.
What's In a Name? August 2010 April 2010 January 2007
What's Not In a Name? Post by Edith Layton back in 2008.
Don't forget one important thing
Keep track of names used.
Now I really need to get back to productive things, I'm building my hero's study in Sims3!
*After rereading this post I am going to get rid of one of my characters extra names. My heroes father and an in-law will have less names which means now I can make more characters!
Thanks for the name-generating tips! (And yes, take note of names already used. I've made the mistake several times of naming characters the same thing by mistake, usually by delving into my limited repertoire of character names throughout a novel!)
ReplyDeleteI am currently working on my NaNoWriMo preparation, and have found looking through baby names (sorted by nationality) to be really helpful too.