Concerns and questions on naming characters in my hack!

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Heyo! Im Clover!
You mightve known me as selk, or by my hack, nations of conquest, but ive since made a new identity for myself on the internet as a whole.

Anywho, I’m making a new hack now, and while I don’t wish to make it public yet, it will be soon. And with that, leads into what I’ve been thinking about since i started naming some of the units. The continent is split into 3 kingdoms and cultures, taking inspiration from real life countries and tribes. Warring states period of Japan for one, medieval england/france/ireland for the second, and native american tribes/Mongolian nomads for the third.

My main concern lies with my naming conventions for the Japanese inspired kingdom, mostly being that I tend to name characters after actual people from that era, and there’s a reason for it. I’ve been inturiged in that era for a long time, and have been wanting to create something that captures the same feel, while still being respectful to the actual culture and not treating it like an aesthetic.

As such, I don’t want to create names that sound like one of those “this is what your name would be in japanese!! :sob::flushed::scream:” twitter posts, but i also don’t want the whole cast to be people you could find if you play Nobunaga’s ambition. I also don’t want to just steal modern names too, since it would feel kind of cheap to me at least.

I have the same concerns for the Native American and Mongolian inspired kingdom, but I haven’t even started on their characters yet, and want to know your guys’ thoughts on this first. Just really don’t want to release my project to the public without me knowing I was being ignorant lol

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You could potentially look through other eras of Imperial Japan to find other clans/names, potentially inspire yourself through them, or even learn and deepen your knowledge about the naming conventions of the era (to potentially make your own with its familial context).

You could also lean towards gaining some surface knowledge of Japanese language if you don’t have such yet (as to possibly gain more understanding on their names), but do not quote me on whether that is fully necessary for you to write varied names for your cast.

On a last ditch effort - looking at games from Japanese companies can potentially also give you names in a pinch.

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Those are some good ideas! Kinda embarrassed i hadnt thought of the first one lol, I’ll definitely be revising the names with all of that in mind!

Funnily enough, i did actually just take some names from Nobunaga’s ambition, but i wasnt very satisfied having done that heheheh

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Yoooo, while I’m not mongolian, I do live in place that’s adjacent to that culture.

Child birth was a dificult process and a lot kids and mothers wouldn’t survive it back then, so they would give kids unsighlty names, i guess they thought death comes only for exceptional people or something?? Obviously naming kids like this is not practiced today. So they had names like Eleusiz(unremarkable), Elemes(Hard to notice). There were names that would bless the kid against death like Ulmes(will not die), Osken(will grow up), Januzak(Long lasting soul), Kunzak(Long lasting day).

Some names are tied to the time when the kid was born, like Tanatar(Light emerges, sunrise), Karjau(Snowing), Janbyrbai(Raining), Tumanbai(Foggy), Boranbai(Blizzard)

But when a family really wanted a kid and had to wait long for that kid to be born for whatever reason, they would name them Tlegen(Desired), Kuandyk(Rejoiced), Suyndik(Admired).

To have their kids be lucky or rich in their future they would give them names like Otarbai(has a horde of sheep), Jhylkyaidar(Rides/has many horses), Kilijbek(Many swords), Naizabai(Many spears)

The most simple names are probably the ones that are named after animals like Burkit(Eagle), Kieran(Falcon)

Or if the kid had some sort unique body features like moles or birthamarks, they would name it after those. For example a kid that was born with a lot of rashes or freckes or some tumor on a body, they would be named Anara(Pomegranete). I guess they saw Pomegranete seeds similiar to those frekles and rashes. Boys with their teeth slighly more developed than usual would be named Kaskyrbai(Like a wolf).

As you probably already noticed, there was weird idea that giving your kid a name could in some way jinx them in their future. Supposedly it was believed that girls were less affected by jinxing them so they would just give them pretty names, like Jibek(Silk), Raushan(Rose), Yenlik(Edelweiss), Gauhar(Emerald). Sometimes girls would be named after heavenly bodies like Sholpan(Morning star or Venus), Aisulu(beatiful like a moon).

Also sadly most nomadic cultures are deeply patriarchal, some if a family only had girls being born into them, they would start wishing a boy would be born… and they would name girls something like Ulbolsyn(which translates to “Let the next one be a boy”), Kysdyghoi(Stop giving birth to girls), Uljhan(soul of a boy). Pretty weird. Only Uljhan seems to common enough in modern day.

Also one last thing, most of these names aren’t that commolny used in modern day.

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To start, I love this topic. This is my favorite part of game design. I use various websites and tools, such as dictionaries, for my naming conventions. Here are just a few of resources to get you started:

  1. Behind the Name

This website has lists of personal names from different cultures around the world. They also give you the definitions and other relevant information, including etymology and cultural usage. They even have a built-in advanced search tool, to find names based on various factors (number of syllables, male or female, meaning, etc.).

  1. Fantasy Name Generators

This website has over 100 different generators, to create names for your fantastic world, people, places, and various other writing needs. It can even generate your writing for you, via ‘description generators’. Take the time to look at every tool available and you’d be surprised at what you can find.

  1. Jisho

This website might be a little more advanced for some. It’s a Japanese dictionary. I use this website to cross-reference translations that I get elsewhere (like Google Translate or Wiktionary).

I have several other resources to share, should you ever need more. I studied Japanese in university. While I’m not yet an expert in the subject, I still have a lot of knowledge, including history, etymology and vocabulary. I also have knowledge about historical England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Western Europe, including France and Germany.

Connecting facts and truths to your story is what links it to the ‘real world’ or rather, ‘the shared narrative between various cultures and people.’ Embrace it and remind yourself that you are a talented individual. Don’t give up and don’t hesitate to ask for help or feedback.

Good luck ~

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blegh, had to reach into my old account to reply since i couldnt on my new one for some reason-

But thank you so much for the sites! Honestly a lifesaver, I was trying to find something similar to the first one but that would never pop up for some reason-
And I’ll absolutely consider talking about the other resources, even if not for the hack, I just like learning about history ehhehe

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agh, sorry i had to reach back into my old account since my new one cant reply for some reason-

But holy wow this is some absolutely dark stuff, I don’t think I’d get this if I was even looking for names to get inspiration from! This whole reply adds a whole lot of insight into old Mongolian naming schemes, thank you so much!!

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