Sarah's Multi-Purpose Naming Generator
I really like to invent names, but if left to my own devices, they'll all start to sound the same after a while. I made this generator because it's the kind of thing I like to use. It's more open-ended than most generators - I'll let you decide whether that makes it more or less useful. ;)
Instructions This is not your typical naming generator. It doesn't give you actual names. Instead, it gives you letter and sound combinations to get you started. It's much more flexible this way and leaves more room for your own creativity than a generator that produces 'complete' names.
Example: I generate the three starting sounds "ki+ne+ga". I could put them together to make Kinega (no changes), Kilneylga (adding some letters), Ki'naeka (changing a couple of the sounds slightly), K'negan, Kienegelle, Kinella, etc. |
Additional Notes and Tips
Some tips about using the generator and random unsolicited advice.
Double consonants (clusters): The generator will occasionally produce clusters of two initial consonants. They don't occur very often, so if you are trying to represent a certain culture that uses lots of consonant clusters, you may want to add a few! Those that do appear are random and may or may not be pronounceable. In that case, you can either choose to remove one of the two letters, change them to something else entirely, or declare that in your language, people can pronounce that! (Some sounds like vl, sr, ts, etc., are not used in English but are not too difficult for us to pronounce.)
Names in different cultures: If your characters come from a fantasy world, are they all from the same area? Different cultures, even if they speak the same language, might have different naming traditions. You can make a group of names seem to belong to the same culture by using certain consistant spellings (for example, you might say that Elves spell the long "ay" sound é most of the time and humans usually spell it ay or ai) or syllable patterns (maybe farmers tend to have short names and nobles have very elaborate, much longer names). Maybe there are certain sounds that they don't use - this generator uses all 21 consonants in any combination, but we certainly don't see many names starting with "xp" in English!
Punctuation for exotic names: Many folks like to add random apostrophes and hyphens to make a name look more exotic. (Recall the examples K'negan and Ki'naeka above. You wouldn't expect to run into either of them on the street.) You can also add spaces in the middle (e.g. Mary Ann), which is a bit less unusual. It's almost a cliché, so I don't recommend doing it without a good reason!
Endings: This is where you get to be creative! French girls' names often end with "-ette" or "-ine", while if you hear a girl's name that ends in "-ko", you probably guess that she is Japanese. An Elvish girl, on the other hand, might have name inding in "-wen" or "iel". This generator doesn't really do much for endings, so you need to add this kind of touch if you want it to be there.
Most of the javascript code for the generator is taken from Steven Savage's Page of Generators.