Why AI Struggles with Names and How to Fix It 

Another fun thing is to go way back and use Sumerian-inspired, Hittite-inspired, or even Proto-Indo-European-inspired names. If a civilization has persisted for thousands of years, it shouldn't sound Medieval. It should be odd but internally consistent, so it may be a good idea to generate a batch of names for allies and enemies while you're at it. Next, it might be a good idea to simplify or normalize the names to a form that an English speaker (or whatever your target language) can read, much like English speakers and Scandinavians now write Óðinn as Odin.

This was so helpful and surprisingly easy. I have been struggling with finding names for multiple historical fiction novels because the different AI's suggest the same 20 names all the time. Now I have so many good names that I am considering creating extra characters

Perfect timing. I was working on a prompt for naming characters when this video popped up in my queue. The 'name elements' was a game changer. I've had mixed compliance results with this prompt when using it with different LLMs (getting them to wait for input is frustrating). Follow the steps to assist the author in creating character names for their story. 1. Display the choices below. a. SciFi convention is names often include the special characters ^, ', -, * and numbers b. Fantasy convention is first names often include an apostrophe and/or a hyphen. Last names reference elemental and natural forces (e.g., earth, fire, storm), natural resources (iron, wood, stone), active verbs, and animal names (e.g., L’yon Firetiger, Cre-unk Stonebreaker) c. Cyberpunk convention is names tend to be futuristic and look like hacker and gamer handles by using leetspeak and quasi-homoglyphs (e.g., n00b for noob and l33t for elite) d. Romance convention is to use Victorian-era and/or aristocratic-sounding names e. General convention is first names often ending with a vowel and last names often end with a consonant. 2. Ask the user to choose a genre convention by entering a, b, c, d, or e 3. Display the choices below. a. Male - first names often end in O or Y b. Female - first names often end in A or I c. Alien - often only have a first name with high percentage of the characters J, Q, X, Z, ', - d. Robot - often only have a first name composed of letters, hyphens, and numbers (e.g., R2-D2 and C3-PO) 4. Ask the user to choose a life form type by entering a, b, c, or d 5. Randomly select two ancient or exotic PEOPLES Anglo-Saxon, Celt, Norman, Hindi, Sumerian, Arabic, Japanese, Malaysian, Sioux, Huns, Roman, Hmong, Proto-Indo-European, Babylonian, Persian 6. Randomly select 2 name elements from both peoples for a total of 4 name elements. 7. Use the name elements as the base set of characters to work with, then create 10 first and last names that comply with the genre and life form conventions. Play with spelling and name construction to create memorable names that have a lyrical, rhyming, and/or musical quality to them when spoken.

Text on screen is distracting. This is a great way to get good names! I have often struggled with ChatGPT giving me the same mundane names over and over again

Love it. I’ve got some clan lore developed that should lead to some good family names for my dystopian science fiction novel, but I’ve been struggling with first names sounding too ordinary. Definitely going go incorporate these prompts.

Thanks. If I ever want to get fancy with the names, I now have some more approaches.

I haven’t thought of being specific with letters, so this was helpful.

Fantasynamegenerator is my get-go when it comes to naming anything

But my name is Aria!!! 😮 It’s so rare to see that name anywhere 😂😂😂 But I get excited every time I hear it anywhere! So you made my day!!! 😀

I guess I wasn't the only one who noticed that these LLMs have preferences with certains names. It's not really random. Nice way of fixing it.

I am in the process of outlining my first novel. It is going to be a supernatural horror / drama with some gothic elements. I decided my character to be called Lucy Coldwell. So her name is derived from Lucifer, she and her family has a connection with demonic forces and it felt fitting to make that her name. Is it too on the nose though? Or too generic? Her character arc is about the lure of power and how she can stand against its corrupting nature and redemption in the end. So Lucifer as a character representing pure evil and Lightbringer at the same time is quite intriguing. I also changed Caldwell to Coldwell, because there is a Lucy Caldwell, who is a real person. I think the story will take place in the modern day, probably England, don't want to be fancy with the setting.

A Bit off Topic but is there a way to ai Generate a Fantasy map based of the Locations i Feed it with ?

Thanks for this. I wind up spending so much time just going through popular names from previous decades trying to name characters. if you tell AI (almost any AI) that you want characters for a contemporary romance, everybody is named Liam, Luke, Emma and Lila.

What about story titles?

I just mix up names of people I used to know.

I always base my characters on elements and I'll ask how do you say something in Elvish and I get an unique name..

My GPT gives me Elara and Seraphina all the time.

Can you tell us how to have AI write the entrie book with no effort?

All of these names are generic.