element-lists/names_how_it_works.txt

   1   Made-up names, especially those found in literature and roleplaying
   2 games, often sound silly, out of place, or not-quite right.  To be
   3 honest, it can be difficult thinking up creative names that sound right.
   4 Names is a program which can generate hundreds of names based on the
   5 input you feed it.  Because it combines "elements" from data files
   6 to form names, it is possible to generate very high quality output.
   7 Further, it is possible to create data files which provide a "feel"
   8 for a particular language or culture -- real or imaginary.  This enables
   9 the writer or game designer to genarate lists of names for each fantasy
  10 culture, which all have a certain sound and seem to belong together.
  11
  12   This document has various suggestions on how to create element files,
  13 as well as how to generate good quality names.
  14
  15 NAMES ELEMENTS
  16
  17     There are several types of name elements:
  18
  19     PREFIX (PRE)
  20
  21         Parts that begin a word.  Example:
  22             "c", "co", and "con" could all be prefixes for "Conan"
  23
  24     MIDDLE (MID)
  25
  26         Parts that go in the middle of a word, BETWEEN a prefix and suffix.
  27         Example:    "cam" is a middle for "Alcamtar", where "al" is the
  28                     prefix and "tar" is the suffix
  29
  30     SUFFIX (SUF)
  31
  32         Parts that end a word.  In the name Aragorn, suffixes could be
  33             "agorn", "gorn", "orn", or even "n"
  34
  35     NOUN (NOUN)
  36
  37         Nouns:  "road", "fortress", "tree", "crossing"
  38
  39     ADJECTIVE (ADJ)
  40
  41         Adjectives:  "gray", "slow", "stubborn"
  42
  43     NOUN/ADJECTIVE (NADJ)
  44
  45         These are words which could be either nouns or adjectives.
  46         Examples:   dark ("darkwood", "outer dark")
  47                     silver ("silverlode", "moria-silver")
  48                     wood ("woodtown", "goblin-wood")
  49
  50         Many nouns and adjectives actually fall into this category.  This
  51         gives the program more flexibility in using them, providing much
  52         more variety in names.
  53
  54
  55     Elements should not be duplicated in two categories.  For example,
  56     "orc" should not be under both noun and adjective, or you might get
  57     something like "Orcorc".  Instead, make it a NADJ and it won't get
  58     used twice.
  59
  60     Elements that you want to emphasize may be duplicated within the same
  61     category.  For instance, if you list "forest" three times in a row,
  62     it is three times more likely to be selected.
  63
  64     Elements are stored in plain text .ELE files.  Thus, you might have one
  65     file of goblin sounding names and another for elvish words, etc.
  66
  67 ELEMENT FILES
  68
  69     These should have the extension .ELE.  The element file contains
  70     several types of elements, denoted by simple abbreviations:
  71
  72         PRE     prefixes
  73         MID     middles
  74         SUF     suffixes
  75
  76         NOUN    nouns
  77         ADJ     adjectives
  78         NADJ    noun/adjective
  79
  80         END     this signifies the end of the file
  81
  82     The pound sign (#) is used as an escape character to denote the start
  83     of a new section (much like preprocessor directives in C).  Thus, a
  84     typical file would look like this:
  85
  86         #PRE
  87         con                     Conan
  88         gal                     Galan
  89         tar         Example     Taran
  90         #SUF        Output:     Galarok
  91         an                      Conarok
  92         arok                    Tararok
  93         #END
  94
  95     This defines three prefixes (con,gal,tar) and two suffixes (an,arok).
  96     Notice the #END used to end the file.  There should not be any blank
  97     lines in the file, unless you want to define empty parts.
  98
  99     Parts may include any character, including spaces.  For example,
 100
 101         #PRE
 102         con
 103         gal
 104         tar
 105         #SUF
 106          an
 107         'Arok
 108         -Rog
 109         e arba
 110         zud
 111         #END
 112
 113     Might produce the following output:
 114
 115         Con An          Gal'Arok            Galzud
 116         Tar-Rog         Cone Arba
 117
 118     Elements in an element file should not be capitalized.  The program
 119     will automatically capitalize the names after each space.  If you do
 120     put any capitals in, they will not be converted to lowercase, so this
 121     could be used to artificially capitalize words (usually after special
 122     punctuation, as above).
 123
 124     The exception to this general "rule" is when you want to capitalize
 125     an element after a punctuation mark; in the example above, 'Arok
 126     would not have been automatically capitalized because there is no
 127     whitespace.
 128
 129     I find it helpful to keep all the elements in each section alphabetized
 130     so that I can check for duplicates.
 131
 132 USE OF ELEMENT FILES
 133
 134     The prefix/suffix form is generally the most useful.  Most of the
 135     example files are in this form.  Note that you are not restricted
 136     to fantasy names.  By using english words you can get things like
 137     "Darkwood", "Brightblade", "Millennium Falcon", "Nottingham" and
 138     so forth.  See the sample files for ideas.
 139
 140     Middles can add a lot of variety to your names, but they also make
 141     the names themselves longer.
 142
 143     Noun/NADJ/ADJ elements are mostly useful for idea-generators, or
 144     special places like "House of the Skulls" or "The Books of the Priest."
 145     The program combines these in a variety of ways, and also pluralizes
 146     them sometimes.  All you need to do is supply the list of words.
 147     Such lists may represent themes, such as dark fantasy, science fiction,
 148     nautical things, wizardly things, and so forth.  Again, see the sample
 149     ELE files.
 150
 151     It is easy to make your own ELE files.  There are several methods I
 152     have found personally useful.  One is to just sit down and starting
 153     making up the elements out of your head.  Just come up with all the
 154     combinations you can think of and put them in.  Another is to compile
 155     a list of names from your favorite book(s), movie(s), etc.  You can
 156     then easily split these names into prefix/suffix parts.  Example:
 157
 158                             PRE         SUF
 159
 160         Alcamtar            alcam       tar
 161         Celowin             cel         owin
 162         Conan       ==>     con         an
 163         Gimli               gim         li
 164         Talward             tal         ward
 165
 166     One helpful strategy in making your names sound better is to end the
 167     prefixes and begin the suffixes consistently.  Either end the prefixes
 168     with a vowel and begin the suffixes with a consonant, or end the
 169     prefixes with a consonant and begin the suffixes with a vowel.  I
 170     generally prefer the latter.  Example:
 171
 172                         METHOD #1           METHOD #2
 173
 174         Alcamtar        alca  / mtar        alcam / tar
 175         Celowin         celo  / win         cel   / owin
 176         Conan           co    / nan         con   / an
 177         Gimli           gi    / mli         gim   / li
 178         Talward         talwa / rd          tal   / ward
 179
 180     This technique will keep your names from sounding too random, and
 181     will make them more pronounceable.  Note that soft sounds such as
 182     r, l, t, s, w, y might be including with the vowels, as I have done
 183     above.  Use your imagination and common sense, and put a few together
 184     yourself to see how they sound.
 185
 186     Another helpful technique is to make all the words of a given language
 187     use the same set of sounds, or same spelling.  This might require a
 188     little research.  Some good references are the appendices to the
 189     Lord of the Rings, or an introductory book on phonetics/language from
 190     the library.  Some simple examples:
 191
 192         Elvish spelling:   'C'  'G'  'DH'  'T'  'S'  'W'  'F'
 193         Orcish spelling:   'K'  'GH' 'J'   'D'  'Z'  'V'  'V'
 194
 195     Here is a chart.  I'm not going to take the time to try an explain it,
 196     but study it and compare the sounds to one another.  You will notice
 197     patterns.  It probably isn't too accurate, but is still useful.
 198     (yes, I got the idea from Tolkein.)
 199
 200                       ---STOPS---  -SPIRANTS--  --OTHER----  ---NASAL---
 201                       Soft Voiced  Soft Voiced  Soft Voiced  Soft Voiced
 202
 203         Labial         p       b           bh    wh     w      mh    m
 204         Labiodental                 f      v            y
 205         Dental                      th     th
 206         Palatal?       t       d    ch     j     lh     l      nh    n
 207         Sibilant       s       z    sh     zh    rh     r
 208         Alveolar?      c,q,k   g    ch     gh    h      h            ng
 209
 210     You can use this to create "sounds" for languages.  For instance,
 211     celtic has a lot of unvoiced (soft) sounds, making it sound smooth
 212     and soft and flowing.  German, on the other hand, has a lot of voiced
 213     stops, making it louder and harsher sounding.  By selecting which sounds
 214     are most common, you can give each fantasy language a certain "feel."
 215     One handy technique is to get an atlas of foreign countries and look
 216     at the names on the map.  You can get a pretty good idea of which
 217     sounds are common, and how they should go together this way.  This is
 218     the way I did my "french" ELE file, and also the "aztec" and "african"
 219     ones.
 220
 221 CONCLUSION
 222
 223     Hope you find this useful.  I can be contacted for comments/questions
 224     on the Internet as "mike@cs.pdx.edu".
 225
 226