Thread "What do your character names mean?" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 6:01AM, Jan. 14, 2019

Please, do tell! :D
Might do a Quackcast on this… I might have already, who can remember?

Pinky TA:
Named after her hair, because I'm lazy. "TA" was originally a joke because one of my painting lecturers claimed that my work was just all about "Tits and Arse". But it then came to be her initials: "Tatiana Ananova". It can also stand for many, many things: Totally Awesome, Total Annihilation, Tactical Attack, Territorial Army, Traitorous Assassin, Toil Always, Tear Asunder and whatever else I CHOOSE for the story ;)

Cc:
Named after the song See See Rider by the animals. It then became her initials: "Cynthia Crow".

Ace Kinkaid:
Named after an American explorer/liar GE Kinkaid, who claimed to have found a giant jewelled city in a cave next to the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon:
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4556
I had read it in a brief paragraph in an old copy of the Fortian times. I found it just TOO ridiculous and started riffing a character based on him with my friend. We called him "Ace" because it's such a stereotypical short American style "Hero" name. I loved the idea of a Anti-Indiana Jones type character who didn't have any of his adventures but claimed he did anyway.
(there really WAS no G.E. Kinkaid, he was made up for the original hoax story).

Posted at 8:01AM, Jan. 14, 2019

Bast is probably the most obvious, but the other characters do have a bit of a story behind their names.

"Tenkyo" just comes from a gibberish word I kept impulsively repeating in my head, but once I named a character after it it kinda stopped. If I remember right, it was just a garbled version of "thank you".

Bebe Dea is, obviously, an acronym for Big Black D-err, actually no, that's a lie. Originally the character was an anthropomorphic deer, so the name was more of a quasi-acronym for BaBy Doe. Deedee was just derivative of the name.

Telloh was just a name I made up to sound robot-y, so there's nothing particularly special about it, but I wanted to give it a bit more of a reason for being what it was. I reverse-engineered it into her model number, TEL-01.1, though I still have yet to further reverse-engineer that into a decent enough name… right now I'm just using the excuse that it's in Merozzi language, so it can be whatever nonsense I want it to be. But, I was able to use that to get Tellori's name - model TEL-02.1.

So there you have it, the origins of Thankyou, Big Black Dodongos, and Turnip-Eating Lycanthrope 01.1.

Posted at 9:01AM, Jan. 14, 2019

Jim Ylönen is based on my 7th grade friend Jimmy and Lauri Ylönen of Finnish rock band "The Rasmus"

Shawn Jewelings is a hybrid first and last name of my best friends throughout childhood.

Heigie Periwinkle…I think is Heidi mispelled and Periwinkle because it has that lastnamy taste like Kirkpatrick or O'Neill.

Posted at 10:01AM, Jan. 14, 2019

I collect names. Habit I got into for my writing.

I have lists and glance through them, roll names over in my head and say them aloud to see if they're right and use them.

A lot of times I'll realize long after where precisely I came up with them. I do a lot of free association so things can and do just pop into my head that are borrowed or inspired.

Searsha for example came from Sorsha in the movie Willow. But it became Searsha because she's searching.

Belinda Brandon is from the daughter in Muppet Christmas Carol and it struck me as funny that her father had three daughters and decided to use alliteration (a little key to his character.) Barbara, Belinda and Brenda Brandon. It is family legend that when considering names he threatened to name a possible son Bradley. Gave a whole family dynamic just with the names.

GOOB was a nonsense word and I wanted to use it in a story so brainstormed an acronym: Giant, Organic Optical Brain. And it fit with the eye anatomy model kit I had gotten in a lot with a human body model I bought for some gory scenes I wanted to do.

And Robofemoid? It's my very own word. Took a week of brainstorming.

Posted at 7:01PM, Jan. 16, 2019

Hapoppo wrote:
Big Black Dodongos

HAHA!

Posted at 10:01PM, Jan. 16, 2019

@Oz-

TA= Tank Assassin, Tank Arsenal, Tantz Aerine (!!)

Posted at 5:01AM, Jan. 17, 2019

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
@Oz-

TA= Tank Assassin, Tank Arsenal, Tantz Aerine (!!)

Mind Blown? XD

Fotis Porfyros —> Fotis = light Porfyros = crimson coloured (but also, in greek porfyra = royal dress)

Basil Lokrides —> Basil = kingly, also, scented plant (also see historical greek/byzantine folk with this name) Lokrides = descendent of Lokros (Lokros being a name associated with the Homeric hero Ajax)

Arthur Wolff —> Arthur = warrior/bear (also see the king of myth) Wolff = wolf (duh?) but also 'one who shreds'

Martha Peoni —> Martha = The Lady, The Lady Master (also see biblical) Peoni = war cry, war song

I could go on and on but I'll probably bore the hell out of you. :D

Posted at 8:01AM, Jan. 17, 2019

Tantz_Aerine wrote:
kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
@Oz-

TA= Tank Assassin, Tank Arsenal, Tantz Aerine (!!)

Mind Blown? XD

That's it!
Tantz is the next Pinky TA model ^_^

Posted at 9:01AM, Jan. 17, 2019

I was originally imagining an anime and making story boards, so my original Used Books characters have Japanese names, and yes, I picked them based on the meanings of Japanese characters. Yuki = snow/luck; Kaida = dragon; Seiko = wisdom; Fudo = fire; Raidon = lightning; Toyo = plentiful

Then it became its own thing, so I knocked off the anime stuff. Wish I could say they were all deeply meaningful, but it was mostly random choices and "sounds goods."

~Alex always makes me think of child characters. I've named innocent/young characters Alex for decades. It's one of my go-tos.

~Mike was the most generic name I could think of. His last name, Thompson, equally generic. And I made him a "junior."

~Tristan was taken randomly from the work roster in the biology grad school office, and Verona was taken from Sims 2.

~Meredith was picked from five finalist aristocrat/evilish names. Her last name is the last name of a close friend.

~Brad is a generic guy name, and also my uncle's name. Lane, generic last name, picked randomly from the phone book.

~Violet was picked because I wanted the Verona girls to have flower names. Lily was the silliest, girliest name I could give Kaida.

~Dozer… I dunno. I wanted him to be a hacker alias. I just cannot recall. His last name Gates just sounds cool. (I later had a supervisor named Grant Gates, who arguably, has one of the coolest names on earth.)

~Ashley is a codename/undercover name. Going to be Pheonix, but it was too on-the-nose, so I extrapolated. Phoenix > Ashes > Ashley.

~Sean is another of my go-to names, like Alex.

~Tara Price is one of my friends' first names with a different one's last name.

~Celes came from a video game, one of the old Final Fantasies. I ended up giving her the last name Godwin, somewhat randomly remembered from a kid I went to school with. Sounded good with the first name.

~Valentine had the right evil ring to it. His real name, Courtney, is the name of a kid I went to school with (real Courtney wasn't evil, but was a self-proclaimed redneck). Unfortunately, I later realized he has my initials, so it's a bit awkward when he carves them into someone. -_-

~Conrad was the last name of some kids I grew up with. I later found out it was also a first name, and it has a cool edge to the sound, imo.

~Dirk was taken from a book series my mom used to be addicted to. We had to listen to the audio books on long road trips. I hated that character. He was the worst Mary Sue. So it seemed fitting for a pompous, narcissistic villain.

I have a lot of characters. I love naming them. Don't look for meaning, though. "That sounds right" is as deep as it gets.

Posted at 1:01PM, Jan. 17, 2019

In Mindfold, Darra is short for Dorothy. That nickname was borne of her mispronunciation of her own name when she was a toddler.

The half-cat folks of Mindfold are all named after anatomical terms. That's why Kit's "formal" name is Amygdala, and the high priestess's name is Trochanter. Those people usually call each other by nicknames, because their formal names are often very convoluted.

In Tusk, Khthonis is a corruption of Khthonic, which means "subterranean." It is the term that historians use to describe dark or evil religious cults in the ancient world.

The Characters in GirlsquadX are all named after cars. Well, diesel is a fuel, but it's still car-related.

Posted at 8:01AM, Jan. 18, 2019

There’s an art to naming a character. Often it won’t happen until aspects of the the character are well established, but the names Reginald Parr and Windsock occured to me half way up a loft ladder. Maybe it was the sudden change in altitude, I don’t know. I thought Parr might be a golfer, but the name became more about keeping on track, having once been Britain’s most celebrated equilibrist.

Windsock seemed to immediately conjure up a whimsical old duffer, but one who was reliable and essential to have around, even a life saver. He later acquired the forename Quainton, which I took from a local school because it had the word quaint in it.

Pashmeena Greenmeyer has a contrasting name. Pashmeena is both an Indian name and sounds like pashmina, a wool of outstanding credentials. It also hints at her warm, comforting personality. Greenmeyer was chosen as her late husband Victor’s surname because it sounds like green mire, hinting that his was an entirely different personality.

Barbara Quince was so named because she is a marmalade millionairess and quince jam was the original marmalade. The name Barbara seemed to fit and make her somehow more friendly and approachable.

Don Briars was named after my father in law (actually Ron), with the addition of Briars because he’s usually seen with a pipe. Ironically he doesn’t smoke a briar pipe, but Don Meerschaum didn’t sound right for the character.

Kyoko Briars, Don’s daughter, got her name from the song Don’t Worry Kyoko by the Plastic Ono Band. Her mother is Japanese and the song suggested surprising qualities, which she has no shortage of.

Dr. Black is the name of the victim in the UK version of Cluedo, which formed the basis of Awfully Decent Fellows. Of course our Dr. Black is not the victim, but a villain so despicable he’d be twirling his moustache if he could grow a half decent one. He must view Reginald Parr with furious moustache envy.

Natalia Katlova is both a Russian sounding name and implies a love of cats. She can be found in the pub scene on page 22 of Awfully Decent Fellows. The regulars know her simply as the Leopard Lady!