Monster naming - little help with Spanish, anyone?

[Wofano Wotanto]

Tapping the brain trust for help since my Spanish was never strong and has decayed badly for lack of use.

I'm working a writeup for a urban horror entity, pretty much a vengeful ghost/banshee equivalent. My old dictionaries and the online translators tell me "Novia Aterradora" is a valid translation for "Terrifying Bride" but does that sound right (and suitably ominous) to someone with a real grasp of Spanish? If not, how would you phrase it so it doesn't sound awkward?

There's too many ways to say something is frightening for me to begin to trust an online translation for nuance here.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

@LuisCarlos17f

Care to help?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Depending on the details of your ghost bride, it sounds like you may be describing La Llorona. (Don't watch the dumb movie -- the real story is very spooky. The pilot episode of Supernatural does a pretty good take on it.)

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Depending on the details of your ghost bride, it sounds like you may be describing La Llorona. (Don't watch the dumb movie -- the real story is very spooky. The pilot episode of Supernatural does a pretty good take on it.)

La Llorona is indeed quite chilling and the movie was a serious letdown, but mine is more about wrathful hellfire and visions that drive you to madness. She was killed at her wedding and is back looking for revenge on everyone involved - so maybe closer to the Bride from Kill Bill if she'd been an undead revenant powered by dark magic? I'd have just called her La Novia and left it at that if it weren't for the films having pretty definitively claimed the name regardless of language.

I rather hope Novia Aterradora isn't lame or weird-sounding. Quite like the way it rolls off the tongue, if nothing else.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In Hispanoamerica "La Llorona" (the crying woman) is a very popular myth.

Other myth is "la dama de blanco" (the lady in white).

White Lady - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Xana - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sihuanaba - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Tunda - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Yes, certainly, but I'm trying to do something original for an RPG, not crib an existing piece of real world mythology. A fictional myth, if that makes sense.

 

[Blue Orange]

I think 'aterradora' is the direct cognate with the same Latin root, but I've more commonly heard 'espantoso/a'.

'Novia espantosa' isn't too bad either.

If it's just for your players (who presumably don't speak Spanish) 'novia aterradora' might get the point across better.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Thanks. I'll mull it over. You're probably right that most of my players aren't likely to notice anything subtly nuanced here, like the difference between frightful and horrifying in English. Two of them have better Spanish than I do but it's a second language for them as well.

May be overthinking this.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If you want to create an original character, my suggestion is adding the surname "Torres" that means "towers". Maybe the background is linked to some doomed place, for example "la torre del terror" (the tower of the terror) where innocent people were killed.

Some Spanish-speaker could create a cynical nickname like "Torres la aterradora".

Maybe she suffered a horrible death because she didn't "work" for a gang leader and she was used as punishment example to terrorize the rest of the enslaved girls.

There is a horror Spanish movie with the (translated) title "the Blood Spattered Bride". Maybe it could be useful as source of inspiration.

 

[overgeeked]

I’m not a native Spanish speaker, but I wouldn’t worry about it.

One popular author from Spain named his main character “to the sad.” Captain Alatriste. Triste means sad. And the character is, you guessed it, kinda sad. Though this is a real surname.

If it looks and sounds good to you, use it. It’s a nickname given by people to this creature. Not their birth name. It can be whatever you want it to be.

Worst case scenario you can blame the name on someone who’s not that great with words and it just sticking.