Names

[saintbacchus]

Ooh, great topic. But I'm probably going to offend
somebody at some point, so apologies in advance!

I agree completely that "creative" spellings should
be illegal. Or at least frowned upon. For crying
out loud, you can't make an icky or common name
better by misspelling it!

I also generally dislike ambisexual names. Taylor,
Terry, Lee, Chris, Pat, etc..... Ergh. The only
exception I can think of is Ashley, which is only
acceptable as a guy's name, and with the nickname
Ash. Bruce Campbell...mmmm....


Kathryn writes:
<<
Yes very nice names, and they'd make great Gryffindors,
however I need some Slytherins too and the pure-blood
wizards seem to tend towards the exotic.
>>

Ahhh, an ulterior motive! ^_^

I've got a Slytherin Beauxbatons transfer named
Madeleine Marchet you can borrow if you want. I
think she's been properly de-Mary-Sued since her
original incarnation.

Cordelia Belmont is another name I came up with,
although I'll probably never use it. Sounds kinda
slithy, ne?

Guy's names are a little tougher, but if you're working
on Slytherin, you get the advantage of being able to use
cool Biblical names that don't work as real names
because of the negative connotations. I can't think of
any off the top of my head (except Cain), but you get
the idea.

There are several Japanese names that I like a lot
(Sumire, Yuki, Mariko, Midori, and Rina for girls;
Akira, Shinji, Hiro, and Meiji for boys), but they're
so exotic it's hard to work them into writing.
Yoshiki Smith just doesn't work somehow.

How about Egyptian or Romany gypsy names? Or you could
go Norse and have sisters named Skuld, Verdandi and Urd.


<<
I admit to collecting names when I was younger and am
currently wishing I still did since I could save
myself the effore of looking for names online. 
>>

Many years ago, I bought a book called "Beyond
Jennifer and Jason" that is now probably the most
well-thumbed book in my collection. Someday I'll get
a newer edition. It's a name book, but the great
thing is, instead of just giving an alphabetical
listing, it categorizes names based on the origins and
general impressions of them. For instance, it's got
listings for "Homestyle," "Feminissima," and "So Far
In They're Out" as well as listings of Biblical,
ethnic, and soap opera names. It's also got advice on
spelling, naming twins, juniors, and stuff like that.

All in all, it's probably the most complete, useful
name resource, like, ever. Amazon's got the new edition
for six bucks, and 90 sample pages to look at.

Other than that, I recommend:
http://www.20000-names.com/


--Anna (that's Ah-nah, by the way, though I've resigned
myself to being called Ann-nah constantly)