How to create fantasy names that sound like one world

To create fantasy names that sound like they belong to one world, give each culture a small set of sounds and a few syllable shapes, build every name from those, and reject anything that breaks the pattern. A hundred names made from the same eight consonants and four vowels will feel like one people. A hundred names invented one at a time will feel like a hundred authors. Fantasy name generators are good at producing raw material, but they cannot tell you which names belong to which culture. Your sound rules can.

Why the sounds come first

Tolkien wrote in a 1955 letter to Houghton Mifflin, as quoted on Wikipedia, that his work was "fundamentally linguistic in inspiration": "The invention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows." You do not need to go that far. But his method shows why invented names from different books feel different: each is the surface of a sound system.

Mark Rosenfelder, author of the Language Construction Kit, makes the practical version of the point. Non-linguists, he says, often start with the alphabet and add a few apostrophes and diacritical marks, and the results are likely to look too much like English, have many more sounds than necessary, and be something the author does not know how to pronounce. He also says the order of work matters. He lists what he had to do to write a short inscription in his own invented language: decide the sounds, create the lexicon, then the grammar, the alphabet and so on. Working backwards leads to an inconsistent if not incoherent result, and his bad example is Hergé's Syldavian in the Tintin books, which was made up in pieces as needed, so no consistent phonology can be derived from the scraps.

Step 1: Choose a sound palette for each culture

Pick a handful of consonants and vowels for each culture, and leave the rest out. Rosenfelder's key to a naturalistic language is to add or subtract entire dimensions instead of single sounds. A language might have a whole series of palatalised consonants, or lack a whole series that English has. Applied to names, that means leaving out a whole class of sounds, so the reader hears the absence.

Two examples of our own show the idea.

Nothing on a map says these two peoples are different, but the reader hears it. Add a third culture only when the story visits it.

Rosenfelder notes that this kind of effect is widely used. In Tolkien, he says, Orkish makes heavy use of guttural sounds and many consonants, while the Elvish tongues are more vocalic, with pleasant-sounding l's and r's. He points out how much voicing changes the impression for English speakers: compare Tolkien's Gorbag, Shagrat, Lagduf, Muzgash with unvoiced Corpac, Shacrat, Lactuf, Muscash. He also reports a claim by some linguists that front vowels like i and e suggest smallness and high pitch, and back vowels like a, u and o suggest size and low pitch, though he adds that exceptions are not hard to find, notably small and big. Treat it as a tendency to use on purpose, not a law.

Step 2: Fix a syllable shape

A syllable shape is a rule such as "consonant, vowel, optional consonant." Rosenfelder says he intended his language Verdurian to look mildly familiar, and that a friendly spelling and a simple (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure help make it inviting, while Xurnese was designed to look more alien. You choose how foreign a culture should look to your reader. A strict shape keeps the names consistent, and a rare exception (a name from another culture, a foreign title) becomes a signal.

Step 3: Build names from roots

Instead of inventing each name, invent a few word parts and combine them. Rosenfelder describes derivation as a way to multiply the usefulness of roots and keep a language consistent, using suffixes, prefixes and compounds such as book-place for library, and says these processes are useful even if you only want a "naming language".

A small example for the lagoon towns:

Seven parts already give you seven names and many more combinations, and the reader can feel the relation among them: Tavil is the town of the Tavesi, and a Vesali keeps the tide. You do not have to explain any of it. A character who is called Limali by the town and Limena by her mother has a story already.

Rosenfelder adds three cautions. Do not sit down and come up with a hundred words at once: you will run out of inspiration, or all of them will start to sound alike. Do not give a meaning to every possible syllable, because real languages do not work like that. And keep long words for combinations of short ones.

Step 4: Use a generator carefully

Rosenfelder says it is not hard to write programs that randomly generate words that respect a syllable structure, but sounds are not distributed equally in natural languages: English uses many more t's than f's, and more f's than z's. A generator that treats every sound alike will give names that feel random. His own lexicon generator, he says, handles the weighting.

In practice, use a generator the way you use a baby-name list in how to name characters: as a source of raw material, filtered through your palette. Keep the names that fit, adjust the rest, and write the rule you used so the next name follows it.

Step 5: Check pronounceability and the cast

Say every name aloud. If you cannot say it, the reader will skip it. Then lay out the cast as you would any other, with initials and syllable counts, and check that no two names are close. The cast-level checks are in how to name characters, and worldbuilding questions can help you decide which cultures your story actually visits.

Where the sources disagree

Tolkien and Rosenfelder agree that sound comes before story, and they differ in scale. For Tolkien the invention of languages was the foundation of his work. Rosenfelder lays out the full order, from sounds to lexicon to grammar, and also says the processes of derivation are useful even if you want nothing more than a naming language.

Both scales suit different books. A novel that lasts one season in one town needs a page of rules. A series across continents benefits from the whole method. The cost of too little structure is names that feel arbitrary, and the cost of too much is a language the reader never sees.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make fantasy names sound like they belong together?

Give each culture a limited set of sounds and a few syllable shapes, and build all of its names from them. Reject any name that falls outside the pattern.

Do I need to invent a whole language for fantasy names?

No. Rosenfelder notes that derivation processes are useful even if you want nothing more than a naming language. A short list of roots and endings is enough.

Are apostrophes in fantasy names a problem?

Rosenfelder says non-linguists often add apostrophes and diacritics to English letters, which makes names look English-like, with more sounds than necessary and an unknown pronunciation. Use them only if they stand for a sound you can describe.

Can I use a fantasy name generator?

Yes, as raw material. Filter the results through your sound rules, since generators often treat all sounds alike while real languages do not.

How many syllables should fantasy names have?

Vary the lengths within a pattern, but keep the names you will use most often short. Rosenfelder advises building long words from shorter ones.

Where Musael fits

Once you have a sound palette and a handful of roots, they need a home. In Musael's world and characters codex, you can keep one entry for each culture with its sounds and roots written in the notes, and entries for every person and place built from them. Names in your scenes link back to their entries, so you can see where each one appears. Musael does not generate names. It helps you stay faithful to the ones you chose.

Sources

• Mark Rosenfelder, "The Language Construction Kit": zompist.com and the longer text at zompist.com/kitlong.html
• Mark Rosenfelder, "Hergé's Syldavian": zompist.com
• J. R. R. Tolkien's letter, as quoted in Wikipedia, "Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien": en.wikipedia.org