Titles: How do you come up with them?

[Miyuki]

So, this might seem a little silly, but how to people come up with the names for things?

Like, the name of your game group (company) or the name of the game or even the names of the characters?

Right now I don't have any titled projects that I'm actively working on, and I'd like to start my own project, but I don't know what to call my project. I'd also like to have a snappy label for my games and me like a lot of people seem to have and I have no idea what makes a good name or not.

I tried googling good indie company names but that wasn't very helpful and the list on Wikipedia that has Indie Game Publishers on it is so varied I have no idea what's a good idea or not.

So, I guess I'm asking what other people do. Did you use the first name that came to you? Did you lose sleep over it? What did you do?

[sayuri]

For names of characters, I always go to http://www.babyhold.com/ or http://baby-names.familyeducation.com/renamer
The first site lets you search by meaning, so you can put a trait or object significant to your character. For example, if my character was a knight, I could find names related to 'knight', 'brave', 'guardian', ect. The second one lets you go by personality traits. The names it gives are kinda out there, but it's good for brainstorming.

As for titles, it should relate to the game's material, sound nice, and be easy to remember/not too long. You don't need to stress over it. Just give the project some generic title as you work, and once things shape up, it'll be easier to pick a title that fits. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help! Bouncing ideas off someone helps you think of new things and lets someone else judge whether the title is 'good' or not.

[Camille]

I think most of my name choices are very impulsive. Like, Auro and I picked "Cyanide Tea" as our duo name because Camille sounds like chamomile and chamomile -> "chamomile tea". This + the Cyanide from Auro-Cyanide = Cyanide Tea. The other duo I'm in, "Khobi", is a mash-up of two foreign words that mean "yam" and "clam" because of a very old Prince of Tennis in-joke. Very impulsive. I think each of these names took like 5 minutes to come up with. 8D

For game names, we chose "Machina Jewel" because it's relevant to the story, but it'd be spoiling things if I revealed how. XD Mostly we thought it sounded cool. We considered "Machina Rose" for a time, too. Same thing with "Break Chance Memento"... Relevant, but mostly picked for how cool it sounds. I think as long as the name isn't *too* long and is relevant somehow, it's a good name for a game. I'm not a huge fan of really long game names (ie: more than 3 words) or names that are foreign for no apparent reason, but that's a personal preference.

As for character names... Mostly I poke around Behind the Name and try to choose names that fit the character. I usually don't go so far as being picky over meanings (ie: naming a dark, depressing girl "Ebony") because that's kind of silly--except when naming Japanese characters, as their name kanji is usually relevant in some way--but the names should at least be from the right country/time period ish and roll off the tongue well.

[Chorvaqueen]

Like, the name of your game group (company)

It started with my handle Chorvaqueen. From the word "Chorva" a gay lingo that means "something" like "That something, you know...that something." Basically it's a gay word for something random...I'm having a hard time explaining this but here you go: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chorva

3 years ago, I set up a website to post crap on it. I found Chorvaqueen a bit off to use so I ended up using "Chorvaworld" and the rest is history. (Though I find using chorvaqueen in deviantart more fitting though)

Just to set the record, I'm not gay. I have a vagina.

or the name of the game

I'll get you back on this for I am also struggling with it for the meantime.

or even the names of the characters?

What I'm working on is a reflection of my high school obsession with mythology classes and I got stuck with Norse. The story used to be sue-riffic as it involves your typical real-world-counterpart characters (read:IRL friends). Their names where heavily varied from real life names. Over the years the story steered away from the original plot and ended up completely different.Fast forward 5 years and I don't really feel that it's an old shame (the fact that my first serious VN project is about it)....wait why am I talking about this

And as for overall naming, I try to incorporate shout-outs and fridge brilliance in it. Though I rarely use blatant theme-naming since it's highly abused already. I don't name villains Thanatos or something that overrated *hides in a bunker for saying this*

[Rewritten Ennui]

Naming a company is rather hard, I would think. You want something that sounds professional, and you want it to sound appealing. Coolness and funniness might also play a factor as well, but I'm not sure.

Character naming can be a little difficult too, but I find that to be the most fun part. You can be one of those people who look up the meanings of names, or you can just pick names that you like. The key to finding the perfect name and surname combo is to figure out what rolls off the tongue naturally. If you feel like you can say the name without feeling awkward, then it's probably a good name.

As for the title of the game, that takes a lot of thought. You don't have to come up with a title automatically, so it's best to look at what your game is about. Think of a title that adheres to some common themes in the game. It should be eye-catching and interesting, or something you know people would stop to look at.

[Mink]

Eh, my names tend to have something to do with the project. Ex.: 'Say You Love Me' is meant to be a play off of 'Dost thou love me?' ("No." "BUT THOU MUST."). This started because the original premise of the game is how you're given a choice without having a choice. The short story I wrote called 'Gretchen' is about...a girl named Gretchen, and her name is a play off of a character's name from a fairy tale the story is based on.

So...yeah. Most of my names aren't really randomly picked and actually mean something within context.

[Cidz]

for character names i recently found this random name generator pretty nifty gives you first and last names also you can set the obscurity on it. but before that usually off the top of my head or i googled naming sites or sometimes id try to look up meanings for names having to do with a chars personality.

As far as how we came up with words within our hearts. welll one day i was on AIM chat with the other two writers and we were bouncing around title names and such, we wanted one that both had a cute romance feel to it but kinda had to do with journalism as well (since it centers around a journalism club) eventually i came up with that title lol. there were alotta other ones some were very cute and were very strange XDD

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I usually try and make titles short and punchy, and that are indicative of the subject matter but also with a little mystery.

Within those confines I also try to be as unique as possible for future marketing - you want the title of your game or story to show up near the top when someone searches Google.

[Anarchy]

I like my names to be meaningful, but not in an obvious way. I usually look up the meanings of words on the Online Etymology Dictionary, or sites that give you the etymology of names.

As for titles, I try to make them short, catchy, unique... something that will hook audiences and intrigue them.

[TsukiShima]

Well, titles are unique. There are some names that I invented myself, but sounds really nice. There are some came from my own imagination and creativity, and some are from references too. But I only use references if I want the name to whole a certain deep meaning.

I believe that a good title or a good name needs to have a certain hidden meaning.

[DrathFox]

For me, usually my names come up within a matter of 5 seconds or up to a minute at most. I run a 'process' of adding a couple of words together that normally don't fit. I also want to be creative enough to invent words that have never been used such as my own username DrathFox, or Megaphoria. I don't know what gives me a trait to gain such things but it's like...a spiral dimension of all things exsisting somewhere in my mind.

I havn't give much thought in company names but I would suppose for the sake of novelty and story/game stuffs it's a mixture of a description or characteristic then a noun. Or I suppose even a verb then noun like Fade Studios *just made it up*

Usually the names have some 'story' to it as to why it should fit the overall project or character.

That's my thought process anyways

I agree with HanaMori

[Wright1000]

Like, the name of your game group (company) or the name of the game or even the names of the characters?

Just Google it. That's all.

for character names i recently found this random name generator pretty nifty gives you first and last names also you can set the obscurity on it.

This will be useful.

[netravelr]

It's really just a matter of opinion, but I know in my experience in the game industry that projects don't really get named till much later down the road; after all, a game can change radically from when you were first starting it and you don't want to get bogged down to be forced to be a particular name. Most companies have a "codename" for their projects to which they refer to though I think it's partially just so people that aren't supposed to know about projects will have anything to go on. (like when Microsoft called Windows Vista "Longhorn") However, I'm horrible with coming up with titles, so that'll be another reason why I usually name projects.

As for a company, I would want to have something that people can easily identify (too similar to other stuff and it may cause confusing) but also follow what kind of thing you're company is based on. For example, Self-Aware Games is company that creates games that focus on using real-life information in the game world. (like Google maps data)

But, again all my opinions. Cheers!

[ririruetoo]

Well, how I named my characters was: I looked up Korean names. Yep, thats it, I looked at some, and the one I thought fit the characters, I choose. Of course, some of the characters I merely just made up their names off the top of my head ( thats how I came up with the title of the VN too.)

[OtomeWeekend]

studio:

I'm struggling again if which should i use

title:
Pumpkin princess was titled like that cause the pumpkin plays a big matter in the story of the game....while as my other VN which I'm still not announcing about is titled "Toki no Shuujin" or "Prisoner of Time" for another related matter. \herpderp

conclusion: I name my titles basing on what's the story about.

characters:
I use this: http://www.hapinemu.net/ <---it's in japanese, i usually search by meaning but lately, i search by the kanji of names, since its kinda flexible and shows the meaning at the same time too.. Well, I'd rather make a japanese-themed game anyway considering that I live here and I got a lot of japanese-themed resources anyway. ="=