How to create a consistent feel for character names in a fantasy setting?

Question

Recently while doing some world-building for a role-playing game with a friend we were seriously struggling with naming character consistently.By consistently I mean make the names feel as though the belonged to the same culture or race. We had a particular theme or structure in mind but struggled to create names that suited it. So I'm turning to the wisdom of writing.se for advice.**How do you name characters so that they feel as if they belong in the same culture?**General tips on technique people use to keep names consistent are useful but in particular I am looking for advice on the traditional fantasy type names. Names with lots of "'" and made up syllables.

Answer 1

Coming up with character names can be tough; making them seem like they're from the same culture, doubly so!

There's a few ways to go about this. There's the George RR Martin way, which involves taking a modern day name and adjusting it slightly (Jeffrey to Joffrey, Rob to Robb, Alexander to Sandor, etc.) while also using some less-common modern names (Arya, Jaime).

You can also find a name list from an ancient culture and use each one as the foundation for a particular culture (e.g., adapting Latin names such as Gaius, Marius, Cicero, Tullius, etc., for Culture A, Greek names such as Patroclus, Agamemnon, Ptolemy, Seleucus, etc. for Culture B, and Egyptian names like Imhotep, Hatsheput, and Ramses for Culture C). Even if you adjust these names slightly, they all have shared similarities built in that will help make them look like they belong together.

Lastly, you can find a name generator online that does this sort of thing and borrow from there, such as this aptly-named site: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

Hope this helps!