I’ve had several questions posed which I’ve answered briefly with reply comments, but I’d like to take some questions and answer them in more detail. Maybe someone else has the same question but didn’t know to look for the answer in the comments below!

Today we will tackle Phoenix Grey’s question:

. . . I really like the name Victara. Did you make the names up for your fiction? Or get them from somewhere? I’m curious.

I’ll just stop to mention my favorite site to visit when I’m struggling with names. I could spend hours here: Behind the Name. Of course, I also peruse all the other baby naming sites . . . and yes, my search history is odd. That’s only the half of it!

The characters’ names in my stories are a mixture of real names and made up ones. The following is just a sample of some of them:

Real names:

• Ismene (means: knowledgeable; pronounced: Iss-meh-knee)
• Bimala (means: pure; pronounced: Bi-mah-la)
• Idra (means: fig tree; pronounced: i-dra (short i))
• Simon (means: to be heard; pronounced: SI-mon)
• Hanif (means: true, upright; pronounced: Ha-nif)
• Ahmad (means: more commendable or most praised; pronounced: Ah-mahd)

Made Up:

Caityn is a modern name shortened by one letter. (Thanks Cherie! That was a tough one to mess with)

Theiandar is just totally made up.  I wanted his name to shorten to Theian (The-an, with a ‘th’ sound like that at the beginning of thistle), but it feels like Alexander. His nickname is Raz (which is a real name and means secret)

Victara is a combination of Victoria and Tara.

Marodan is a place which is a combination between words in a different language and a real name: Spanish-Mar (means: sea) + Odan– is a variation of Odin from Norse mythology (means: inspiration, rage, frenzy).

When it comes to naming in fantasy writing, my suggestion is use a combination of real ones and your own creations. Keep them simple (just 1-3 syllables maximum) unless it serves a purpose to have a long complicated name.

So, to make it simple, here’s a list of a few ways to create names for fantasy characters and places.

1. Use exotic real names
2. Remove a letter or two from a real name
3. Add a letter or two to a real name
4. Combine parts from two real names
5. Combine words from different languages together or with parts of real names

Now, go have fun making up your fantasy world and characters!

❤

Rachael Ritchey

And if you’re interested in reading The Beauty Thief, here are all the places you can find it!

Amazon USA — Amazon UK — Amazon France — Amazon Germany — Amazon India

Barnes & Noble — Smashwords — Kobo — iBook/iTunes Apple — CreateSpace