Scoring Central

As you know, I've spent a lot of time coming up with fantasy names the past few years, making sure that names from a certain nation or region sound somewhat similar, which you kind of expect. But it's easy to forget that parents rarely stick to the same local pool of names for their children, so maybe one doesn't have to be so particular about fictional names "making sense". Came across a fun example of this today.

My daughter's maternal aunt posted a pic on Facebook, listing some old-timey (I'm guessing 19th/early 20th century?) names from the northern parts of Sweden from a book she was reading. And damn, some of these sound completely made-up. For example:

Serudia
Ajerin
Agorka
Eteria
Lisanian
Tenola
Trogott
Elleny

I wouldn't even have guessed those were real Swedish names, because they sound like something out of a fantasy novel. And not a very good one at that. Agorka? Really? Elleny's a cool name though, I might steal that. Then we have stuff like...

Gerdhild
Hildedrott
Malgunda
Vildegard

...which sound like they're straight out of Beowulf. Really ancient-sounding stuff. And finally:

Vetzerah

Surely this must be a biblical name? It certainly sounds more Middle Eastern than Nordic. Anyway, I found this very interesting and something I need to delve deeper into.

(02-10-2021, 08:05 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: [ -> ]As you know, I've spent a lot of time coming up with fantasy names the past few years, making sure that names from a certain nation or region sound somewhat similar, which you kind of expect. But it's easy to forget that parents rarely stick to the same local pool of names for their children, so maybe one doesn't have to be so particular about fictional names "making sense". Came across a fun example of this today.

My daughter's maternal aunt posted a pic on Facebook, listing some old-timey (I'm guessing 19th/early 20th century?) names from the northern parts of Sweden from a book she was reading. And damn, some of these sound completely made-up. For example:

Serudia
Ajerin
Agorka
Eteria
Lisanian
Tenola
Trogott
Elleny

I wouldn't even have guessed those were real Swedish names, because they sound like something out of a fantasy novel. And not a very good one at that. Agorka? Really? Elleny's a cool name though, I might steal that. Then we have stuff like...

Gerdhild
Hildedrott
Malgunda
Vildegard

...which sound like they're straight out of Beowulf. Really ancient-sounding stuff. And finally:

Vetzerah

Surely this must be a biblical name? It certainly sounds more Middle Eastern than Nordic. Anyway, I found this very interesting and something I need to delve deeper into.

Vetzerah also reminds me of Vorzheva from MS&T.

I like Trogott, actually. It's very memorable. But also maybe because it's reminiscent of Trogool

(02-11-2021, 03:11 AM)Nayrb Wrote: [ -> ]Vetzerah also reminds me of Vorzheva from MS&T.

I like Trogott, actually. It's very memorable. But also maybe because it's reminiscent of Trogool

That's true! After typing that, though, I realized that Trogott actually does sound Swedish. Tro means faith, or belief/believe, and gott is a variant of god, i.e. good. So Trogott basically means good faith. As for the other names, they're a bit harder to make sense of. Eteria might be derived from eterisk, ethereal, I suppose.

(02-10-2021, 08:05 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: [ -> ]Elleny's a cool name though, I might steal that.

Sounds a lot like the greek Ἑλένη Helénē, which is a very very common feminine name here in Greece. It would surprise me to find it in a fantasy novel! It also has a direct reference to Helen of Troy.