Friday

[ksmith]

So many folks talking about how they name characters. papersky matociquala, I think.

Where did my names come from...? Very haphazard with the Jani series. I tend to veer toward names that sound cool, which is why Jani wound up with a Hindu man's name. But hey, times change and maybe 200-300 years from now... I think I decided on Kilian as her surname before I realized she was mixed background. Hindu-Irish worked out.

I also try to avoid names of co-workers because it's just better than way. Considering that I work at a large pharma company with offices worldwide and many non-USA co-workers, it can made the naming thing difficult.

I worked much harder with my fantasy names. Made sure I had a set of endings that denoted nobility, and that all names fit with the culture I was assembling. I think naming conventions may matter more in fantasy than SF, just because storylines often revolve around specific regions/cultures/countries and consistency is important.

Then again, my idomeni had specific naming conventions that denoted bornsect or Haárin status. Keeping those blasted accent marks straight drove me nuts on more than one occasion.

In other news, Forester's been preventive maintenanced. Groceries have been bought. Leaves in the backyard have been collected using the lawnmower, a process that went counter to expectations but at least *went*. Also mowed the areas of the lawn that weren't covered with leaves.

Still need to measure dining room walls for new baseboard and chair rails and put in some walking time and practice guitar and write.

Comments

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I agree re: fantasy v sf naming, as I tend to think that in sf we often posit that naming goes global, that is, that as cultures get increasingly intermixed (especially if we have expansion into space) one could reasonably assume a big salad bowl of naming conventions.

Uh, I think that makes sense.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it makes sense. That's what I was thinking of when I posted. I suppose you could conjure an SF universe where naming was limited for reasons of status or religion or some other reason--if you work at this job, or in this city, or for this family, you change your name according to certain criteria. But that would require some set-up and explanation, and could probably serve as a subplot in and of itself.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

That's right.

You could to write anthropological sf about how this all came to be. Of course, that's also part of the speculative process.

I think that near and medium future sf is appealing in that sense because we as writers are projecting short term into the future out of our own EuroAm-slightly-multiculti globalized future.