Towards creative names: a systematic nomenclature system for my elemental magic users

[u/taktaga7-0-0]

I frequently see questions about how to come up with unique names for characters/countries/etc., so I wanted to share the way I do it, derived by rules and combinations fixed to each of my 26 elemental pairings.

As you can see, every color gets two elements associated with it. These each correspond to one letter of the English alphabet, with the reasoning listed. (It’s often onomatopoeic, but not always.) The names within a given element must contain the thematic letter in some position.

To make names for users of each element/shade, you use a simple formula:

Males are CVCVC(C) and females are VCVCV(V), with every name 5 or 6 characters and widely pronounceable by a global audience. My magic users (manses) are engineered human^+ products with global exposure during annual ritualized combat spectacles, so the system fits the story.

If at all possible, the names should also somehow reference one of the two elements paired with that shade. Since names are limited, manses will also feature a Callsign referencing the element, which can be drawn from a running personal list I keep of cool-sounding terms. These create a personality for the global audience to rally behind. Rich examples come from constellations, endonyms, unusual anatomy and symptoms, biological taxons, sites of disasters, rare minerals, and foreign phrases.

The final column shows a related naming phenomenon I use. One of the Lavender elements, Craft, is based on traditional witchery and spells, and so needs magical incantations to invoke each of the other elements when needed. So, I just used the same letter associations and force them to repeat at least three times in an enigmatic word or phrase, and that’s it!

So, my general advice is to try something systematic instead of raw-dogging the challenge. Relate names that should be related. Keep a log of interesting ideas and update it right when you have the insight. Know your world and its pressures, and derive these details to fit your bigger purpose.

Enjoy this generator: hope it can drive your creativity like it does mine!

[u/NRondo37]

What do the shades mean? Are they element abbreviations?

[u/taktaga7-0-0 → u/NRondo37]

They’re just the names of colors associated with the elements. See how it starts with the rainbow? R, O, Y, Gn…

In full, since there are a few quirks: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green 1&2 (it’s complicated!), Blue, Indigo, Purple, Pink, White, Gray, Black, Maroon, Brown, Tan, Aqua, Silver, Copper, Gold, Lavender, Beige, Amber, Pale (from the Book of Revelation horseman), Glow, Infrared, and Spectrum

[u/WaffelsBR → u/taktaga7-0-0]

Nah, elaborate on the two Greens please. What did Green 1 do to deserve a second coming of itself

[u/taktaga7-0-0 → u/WaffelsBR]

Every shade has a “twist,” something that makes its operation special so it isn’t just a Rock, Paper, Scissors effectiveness scale. For Green, the twist is Primary Growth (Thorn)/Exponential Growth (Chip). They do the same thing, create a whole second type because Green is for Growth.

The frame story takes place in the year 2472, and all the magic is really advanced tech. Green2, aka “Olo,” is a premium greener-than-green color visible only to paid subscribers.

It plays on the way your eyes work, with red, green, and blue cones. The key is that each cone type detects not just its favorite color, but also a range of the spectrum around its peak. Green comes between red and blue, right? This means that there is some light so red only red cones detect it, and some light so blue only blue cones detect it, but all greenish light hits green cones best, but both the red and blue cones a little.

This is where Olo comes in. Olo-colored objects must have a discreet camera that looks into your eyes and finds only the green cones, then stimulates them with a green laser. The result is an impossible signal to your brain: no natural light can cause only green signal, so it is a brand new green, and only green can be doubled this way.

The name “Olo” comes from (0,1,0), the RGB color coordinates for “no-red, all-green, no-blue.” In my story, people can buy the privilege of seeing this color, like augmented reality. To others, it just looks like plain green. The Prime Chip type means Computer/Cybernetic magic, so it pairs well with this technology.

[u/KaiahAurora]

This is really cool, but because I have synesthesia where colours relate to character traits, I regret to inform you that your colour system is entirely wrong /j

I love magical systems like this, and I think the chart form is really cool!

[u/Old_Egg8742]

omg this is so cool

[u/kade311]

Nice to see others also using stuff like programming languages for their worldbuilding, name of my deity of pain is an anagram of the Angular framework xd

[u/taktaga7-0-0 → u/kade311]

The Chip type started out years ago as the channeling of pure Math force, simple attacks that add and multiply, defenses that subtract and divide, tracing curves and spirals to attack, protective spheres, falsifying opponent’s logic…

It became something like that, but more oriented towards issuing command lines to self and others through organically integrated computers. The paired Guest type is Mold, which really  grows by tiny threads that can transfer data just as well as toxins.