How I Create Fictional Names (Non-Character)

I thought I would talk about how I come up with names in my books. I won't be getting into character names because my guess is that is another blog post, but I will talk about naming flora, fauna, technology and the like.

My superior Scrabble skills provide little assistance to this task. When it comes to fictional names, I use Google Translate. I'll pop in a descriptor of a particular animal or technology then I look for various translations that I can use for a derivative, adding proper prefixes and suffixes. I consider proper pronunciation. I may combine terms and adjust a few letters, and then I have what I am looking for.

If only it were so easy!

Sometimes I come up with seemingly brilliant made-up words, only to discover through an internet search that it wasn't so original after all—by belonging to a business, pharmaceuticals, or maybe the term has a meaning I dislike. The best creations are those that yield minimal search results.

I avoid using terms that are not legally appropriate for me to use. For example, Dungeons & Dragons' names are trademarked. I also try to spell phonetically. This is not perfect so I include an appendix with a pronunciation guide in my book to help. Writing out the phonetics is painful but worth it. While not everyone checks this guide, it lends to world building and hopefully makes it easier for readers who may not know how to pronounce something.

I can't be bothered to keep track of the linguistic origins of these nouns of course, but some stick out in my memory. In the Reign of the North Forest series, the ancient martial arts craft utilized throughout the story is called "Canvias Letalis", pronounced "Kan-vee-us Lih-tah-lees". This terminology was derived from Latin and means "hundred ways lethal".

Okay, so I do have a bit of fun. :)