What if you discovered that a name you made up and thought was original wasn’t so original? Perhaps you discover that the name of one of your kingdoms is also the name of a city in Europe. Perhaps you discover your hero’s name is also the name of the hero of a fantasy series that comes out several years after you started writing yours. Or, as in my case, I was talking to another fantasy writer and we discovered that we had both named one of our monsters the same made-up name. While it didn’t bother me, since our monsters were vastly different both in description and their role in the story, it did make me think about how other such strange coincidences must have happened and will happen to other writers under various circumstances.

Have you ever discovered that a name you made up and thought was original wasn’t so original? How did that make you feel? What would you do in such a situation? Would you feel a need to change the name, or would you leave it as it is?

I discovered someone on HW (I don't think they're active anymore), whose world was named Enderion. He spelled it differently, but pronounced it the same.

I guess I just said "hey, that's cool" and didn't make any plans to change mine

eru

I know a few HWers have some MCs named "Anastasia" like the MC in my novel, but it never quite bothered me... I always found it cool. There are three characters with the same name, but entirely different life stories and personalities!

I find it really hard to change a name no matter what after I have named them, because to me that's what they are. I can't imagine them as anything else, and I can never settle with anything else if I have settled on the original name.

That's probably the best attitude to take in general.


It's interesting to see how different someone or something with the same name can be.


In some or many cases, changing the name would be hard.

I found out that "Breyanna", "Xennon," and "Andreya" were real names. Also, "Thalian" is the name of a hall/library somewhere...I don't remember.

I didn't make any plans of changing them, though.

And I found out that both you and I have a "Verin" race.

Or would it be species? But, yes, we do.

Huh... I wrote a long post awhile back on this thread and I just realized it never posted. Strange. But I don't remember what I said exactly...

That's not nice of HW.

I know you wrote a reply on HWSF.

Oh. That would be it then. I get confused with duplicate topics. Carry on.

That's fine. You gave a good reply on HWSF.

All you have to do is also re post it here, as well.

I consistently find that my invented names are actual last names (Like, Zarack). Ashta is actually the name of a town somewhere. It's actually where I got the idea for the Wolves of Ashta (which are an actual animal). The wolves of Ashta were man-eating wolves that hunted near and in Ashta and were eventually killed. Totally intrigued by the connection my made-up name had to real life, I decided to use the name Wolves of Ashta for my own race

I read this thread and went to go google the name for my world, Amerouk.

Then I was like 'Oi! There's another Amerouk out there!"

It's a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny town or something in Chad, Africa. If you zoom in as far as it will let you, it's still impossible to see anything resembling a settlement.

The other results for Amerouk are HW ones for the threads I created for Amerouk, which is neat.

Google results for the name of my MC, Anria, are someone who works for wikipedia, a fanfiction writer, and some other stuff.

It's kinda cool to go googling your own names and see what comes up.

I think it's actually really neat that you 'make up' a name, and find out it's actually a real one.

I well remember the struggle of naming my main character. As I developed her, I decided that her name ought to start with an "M", and it needed to sound slightly unusual and fantasy-ish, while not being difficult to pronounce.
I tried baby name websites, online lists of ancient Greek names, Google Translate, but nothing seemed quite right. Then, one night, I was thinking hard about it, rearranging letters and syllables, and I thought of a name! A name I made up myself. Her name was Mahlia.
I loved it. It was perfect. And, best of all, it was unique. I made it up, so there was no way any other person or character could ever have the same name.

Or so I thought.

About a year later, while sitting in a theater waiting for a movie to start, I saw a trailer for a film, and a girl in it was called---you guessed it---Mahlia.

When I got home, I Googled that name, and turns out it is an actual---albeit unusual---name. Even for a fictional character or two. Go figure.

So, my question is: Have you ever made up a name, only to find it is a name already? Please share!

*reads last line and utters wry laugh*

Fancy that, someone who's gone through the same experience I have. I can't recall any fantasy names that I've found to real names, but more than once I've made up a name only to come across it in another novel. Sometimes I even subconsciously use a name I've heard before, as in the time I came up with a great location name only to discover it in LOTR and realize that yes, I had heard it somewhere before.

I have, yes. Airianna is a prime example. Now, the actual name is spelled Airiana *has not seen spelled with a double n before*, but I was very upset. I had poured so much time into making the name Airianna.... it is a very obscure name, though, not used in general. Most people haven't heard it before, so I suffice myself with that.

I usually go in google and search "define: ___" with all my made up names...and oftentimes see that it has been used in Warhammer, or D&D or something like that.

Yes I have. When I was younger I named one of my dragons after my dad, Alan. The dragon's name is Alana, and since then I've seen that name in two books. . . I actually saw it for the second time yesterday.

I've also found out that all but one of my other dragons' names turn up on Google as real names/words. Oh well, it happens.

I don't think I've ever seen "Alana" with only one N before ... but I've seen it before with two Ns (Alanna).

I have too. Want to take a wild stab in the dark as to what name? Yup, Celestria! Turns out it was a medieval name all along. Drats! I'm a couple hundred years too late!

Made up Dennik. Turns out it's a Slovakian newspaper or something.

Named a sea monster Tor before learning that tor is an old word for a high, rocky hill, or a prominent pile of rocks on top of a hill.

I've had several more, but those are the main ones I remember.

At least once. I thought there were more, but they've slipped my mind.

Gribble: Funky little stick creature I made. Found out it can be a person's last name, too. -_-

I made up a very similar name: Arienne.

But I think there's bound to be overlap in names, especially between novels of the same genre. If you think of all the thousands of books published and the millions of names created, it's sorta surprising that we don't run across already used names more often.

Or maybe they're out there and we just don't know it.

...ignorance is bliss.

Thanks for sharing, y'all.

I once had it happen with a made-up name for a creature, and that inspired a similar thread: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=4735

A very similar thread...

Do you mind if I merge them?

Go ahead.

Hmm... I don't usually check to see if my names are real or not. But once my sister named a fairy, "Esmeralda" only to later find out that, that name already existed. Then because of this thread I quickly typed in the name of a world I created into google, and found out that it as well has already been used.

I remember another one: I had this really cool old guy character, whose name was going to be Edain (because I loved how cool I could spell his name, especially the E, on paper) But then I read the Children of Hurin (Tolkien), I believe, I found that same name. Sucked all the joy out of that character so fast...

Was it a similar character to yours, or totally different?

Vadra, the name of my story-world, is a last name.

I'd never heard of the name Airianna before, Airi. Although I watched an episode of NCIS recently and the guy in it was called Airi.

I haven't had this happen to me yet; but I made all the names of things in my world up, and I'm sure someone's used some of them, somewhere at some time.

The topics are now merged.

I once came up with two names, thought they were utterly original, then found out that they came from a couple of books I'd read years before---one was the heroine of one of them, the other was the horse the male lead of the other book rode. (Sigh. )

It seems the human brain is capable of learning something, telling your conscious mind that the fact is completely forgotten, and then pulling it out later, making you think you made it up.

I don't see how that could have happened with me, though! There is no way I saw that name before I came up with it.