Fantasy Names

[devilish]

Go with Gwendolyn:

1. It has a nice short form Gwen, should your daughter ever want to go with that.

2. You can spell upteen different ways: Gwendolinn, Gwyndolin, Gwendylinn, etc. That may not sound like that big of deal, but in today's identity theft world, a complex name can save your butt. (I myself can now thank my horrid handwriting to saving me from fighting a massive amount of identiy theft, the person couldn't read my social security number & got it wrong, I also have friends with weird name spellings that got them off the idenity theft hook).
By giving her a unique (yet common, Gwen), you protect her, yet let her make the option as to whether shes wants a unique, pretty name that sets her apart or a more common name that lets her fit in.

She'll probably do both as she goes through phases growing up.

Plus Gwendolynn, Gwendylynn, whatever will make her very mad when she goes to kindergarten & she has to learn to spell her name, along with all the Kims, Tommys & Johns in her class. It'll make her a better writer.

This is exactly the way we went -- named our daughter Gwendolyn/Gwen.
Sometimes I'll call her Gwenyfar, her mother sometimes calls her Gwennie.

And only my best friend guessed why the name came to my mind ... "Hey, wasn't
that Peter Parker's first girlfriend?"



-D

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Just because you come up with a "normal" first name, doesn't mean you have to call the child that..... I sure don't go by my first name. It just takes harassing the teachers when she goes to school. But they get over it and call the child by the name SHE wants to be called, not just because it's the first name...


Arthuran legends, eh?

Ygraine or Igraine (I've seen both spellings)
Guinevere (I named a cat this one. )
Morgan
Morgause

I think that's the gamut of female names from the legends....

 

[Darth K'Trava]

This is exactly the way we went -- named our daughter Gwendolyn/Gwen.
Sometimes I'll call her Gwenyfar, her mother sometimes calls her Gwennie.

And only my best friend guessed why the name came to my mind ... "Hey, wasn't
that Peter Parker's first girlfriend?"



-D

I have a cat named Guinevere that my late grandmother shortened to "Ginny" for some odd reason.... but then she wanted to name another cat I had "Prisslefoot".... :\

 

[A'koss]

Some short and sweet names I've been partial to...

Arel
Rhain/Yrayn ("Rain")
Myra
Tiersa/Tyrsa
Rhia
Kestra
Ember
Shyr
Traes
Kaena

Cheers!

 

[Torm]

SJ's surname is Heywood, and mine is Glover. We're not married obviously (the shame, oh the shaaaaaame) so we're not sure which surname the baby will be blessed with yet, but I think more likely than not it will be Heywood.

Marriage is how responsible you are to each other and your kids, IMHO, not a piece of paper.

If the last name were going to be Glover, I'd like to recommend Danielle Tenar as her first and middle names. Can you figure out why?

 

[MonkeyDragon]

http://pregnancy.parenthood.com/babynames.html

This is my favorite babyname reference. It has tons of cultural names that sound very exotic, including names from arthurian ledgend. I use this site and fiddle with the spellings to make fantasy sounding names for all kinds of characters.

My best friend's sister had a baby last week. They've named her Kateri (Ka-TEER-ee) and are calling her Kate. Another friend named his daughter Aria.

I'll definitely echo what other people have said. don't name her something that will be an ordeal to spell or pronounce, or that will make recess a nightmare. A name should always pass the following tests:

How does it look? You should be able to read the name and know what it says.
How does it sound? Pronounce it on its own and with the middle name and surname. A general rule of thumb is that names sound better when the first and last name have different numbers of syllables.
What does it look/sound like? The name shouldn't look or sound similar to words you wouldn't want associated with your kid. Prime example? My mom is a nurse and a kid came in to her clinic who's name was pronounced "shi-THEED." It was spelled S-H-!!-T-H-E-A-D.

I rest my case.

 

[Torm]

If she's a Heywood, then how about Patricia Capulet Heywood? (Patricia Heywood was the actress who played The Nurse in the Zeffirelli made "Romeo and Juliet".)

At least she won't have any of the names my wife saw people give their babies when she was a candystriper. Like Ophelia Rump, or Neva Seener.

Hey - also, you might want to look at the General RPG Discussion thread "Character Names from Popular Music" - it might be neat to have a name from a song.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Arthuran legends, eh?

Ygraine or Igraine (I've seen both spellings)
Guinevere (I named a cat this one. )
Morgan
Morgause

I think that's the gamut of female names from the legends....

There's also Elayne (I like that - it's a fairly common name, but not spelled the same) and Vivienne or whichever name the Lady of the Lake goes by. And Nimue, the sorceress who imprisoned Merlin. And Enid, which is a good old English name, but kinda...old-fashioned.

Well, technically, there Gwenhwyvach, too, but, well...just look at it.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Marriage is how responsible you are to each other and your kids, IMHO, not a piece of paper.

If the last name were going to be Glover, I'd like to recommend Danielle Tenar as her first and middle names. Can you figure out why?

Danny Glover?

 

[Torm]

Danny Glover?

Right. And Tenar was the name of the female protagonist from Earthsea, the Sci-Fi Channel version of which featured Danny Glover (in a different role, of course).