That’s not to say that names like T’Challa, Muad’Dib, and T’Pring aren’t fine! I think writers should use stylistic name choices sparingly, to preserve their impact. Sometimes I think writers go a little overboard with apostrophes and vowel-less consonant streams. It sounds foreign, it’s interesting, and while I had trouble pronouncing it at first, it’s feasible. The name “Daenerys” sounds like it could exist, and it now does. How do we find a name that sticks, both for the writer and the reader? My rule of thumb is that, above all else, the name should sound like it could actually exist. Once I decide on a character’s name, it’s really hard for me to change it. I think about how easy it is to derive nicknames from it, or whether the character would’ve been teased for it growing up. Mainly, I focus on the way a name feels with the character’s personality. I don’t always look at name meanings, unless the name is something completely out of character. I collect names almost every day: from people I meet, people I read about, street signs, storefronts, you name it. Naming characters in a fantasy novel is both difficult and, in my opinion, a lot of fun. “ Daenerys,” the site says, “ would therefore mean ‘god is judge of my destruction.’” It’s far more glorious than names that are a “ diminutive of Henry or Harold” or “ shortened form of Jonathan,” wouldn’t you say? According to BabyNameWizard, Daenerys can be broken up into “Daen,” which means “god is my judge” in its Hebrew origin, and “Erys” comes from “Eris,” the Greek goddess of chaos. The name “Daenerys” is a name of George R. Now, I raise you “Daenerys Targaryen.” Before A Game of Thrones, no one would think of naming their child Daenerys, and now Microsoft Word is correcting it to its actual spelling because I accidentally spelled it wrong from memory (and I swear, I hadn’t added it to my Word dictionary). The simple names are meant to humanize the protagonists to be more relatable to the reader. Harry Potter is just a normal boy, far from likely to be any sort of “chosen one.” Jon Snow is just a bastard son of a lord: there’s no way his destiny can ever end in glory. It’s arguable that these names are so commonplace to highlight the ordinariness of their bearers. Names like Harry Potter and Jon Snow were surely on birth certificates before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and A Game of Thrones were published. So, how do you make your characters’ names more … iconic? What’s in a Name? His name doesn’t yield itself to glory in his novel, or immediate recognition in real life. He feels like he belongs on a high school football team, not slashing orcs on an open field. But your hero named Steven doesn’t feel like he can measure up to the great heroes of yore. You can skew the pronunciation with Stef-an or Stee-vaun, whichever suits your fancy. You can spell it Stievan or Stiven or Stevein. You look at your brand-new character, your hero, your knight in shining armor, and all you can think is “I dub thee… Steven.” Now, there are ways to make “Steven” more fantastical. In addition to being an important part of fantasy worldbuilding, character names will stick with readers long after other features have faded from memory. It also seems like a high-stakes decision. I see you, writer you’re stalling because figuring out how to name characters in a fantasy novel is hard.
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