: Re: How can I make names more distinctive without making them longer? In the point-of-view culture in my story, all of the women in priestly families have two-syllable names beginning with vowels.

@Turnbaugh521

Vote Up Vote Down

As others have suggested increasing the length of the name in letters and adding markings (accent marks, apostrophes, et al.) may help make the names more distinctive. In some cases, this can be accomplished with little or no change in pronunciation.
For example:

Elish: Elissh, Eelisch
Ara: Arah, Aruh, Ára, Eirah
Efa: Eefah, Efaa, Eefa'
Eril: Er'l, Erill, Eeril
Aygo: Aygho, Eigoh
Ina: Ína, Inuh
Ilu: Ilou, Ilooh

Alternate spelling may not be possible if you are trying to maintain a certain cultural feel (e.g., Semitic language).
It also seems that all of your example names start with a long vowel. This reduces variety (beyond not using o, u, y, or dual-vowels as starting vowels) and increases the difficulty of using dual consonants after the first vowel (because in English such usually makes the preceding vowel sound short). This also emphasizes the first syllable, reducing the perceived variety of the names. (Your example names may also be a little artificially different in the vowel sounds between syllables, only one uses a long vowel and then the short version of that vowel and none has internal assonance. You may also be trying too hard to make the names sound feminine to an English-speaking ear; some of the sound features seem to hint at that.)
Most of the example names also have no terminating consonants, and the two out of seven that do have softer terminating consonants. This further limits length (and diversity of length and sound).
Some examples of using sound features missing or rare in your examples: Adgail, Obaat, Ilgad, Onpheth, Unev, Elchad, Onur, Esbath, Orgrod, Innith, Eddel, Oshon, Ergrat, Aytphail, Opthol, Errel, Ebnech, Umthaph, Oodmach. (These generally sound less feminine to an English-speaking ear, but mostly have a Semitic feel and seem to be significantly distinct from your examples and each other.)
Besides making the spellings (and pronunciations) more distinct, it may also be helpful to use sounds, spellings, and markings that help the reader map the name to the character. An acute accent may give a sense of specialness possibly fitting one who acts like a princess (stuck up nose or tender heart); a longer name (in spelling and pronunciation) may associate with importance (self-importance, narrative importance, importance to parent), a shorter name may associate with social reserve or abruptness in speech (an apostrophe/elision may increase this effect); harsh consonant sounds might associate with a grumpy or homely person, bright vowel sounds might associate with a more lively person. Name sounds can associate with physical appearance, personality, social position, occupation, etc. (and the author can lightly emphasize this association). This can also be done by contrast, e.g., a pretty name associated with a woman with an ugly personality.
For one character's name, wordplay with a somewhat common or important foreign untranslated word could help solidify the association. For example:

He blessed his mother as he entered the tent. "The well is opened now."
"You must be hungry. Have some aygoht!" She handed him a steaming bowl and urged him to sit and eat.
The spicy lentil stew from his dear mother, as pleasant as it was, did not warm his heart as much as remembering his brief talk with the priest's daughter. Rich, warm, wholesome — well, named indeed, Aygo, daughter of Eliob.

(If the culture makes heavy use of wordplay or some characters have significant literary aspects, as might be common among priestly families, such might be used a little more extensively as a reminder or mnemonic. Besides affectionate associations, teasing and name-calling can exploit wordplay.)
One can also use in-story name confusion to help remind the reader of the name associations. This has very limited application, but may be helpful if applied to similar names that may be more likely confused because of the similarity of character, scene, role, or other aspects. Even a single in-story name confusion may not only help the reader remember the name associations but also feel less incompetent when confused.
Family and town associations can also help the reader associate names with persons. For example, if Elish is the well-loved daughter (or sister) of the prominent priest Elishem, the closeness of the names may help the reader connect those two names (and Elishem may be more readily associated), remember the emotional closeness, and remember who Elish was. Accidental assonance, consonance, etc. can link the name to some aspect easily linked with the character similar to how the feeling of a spelling or sound can be linked with aspects of the character. For example, Elbeth of Bethlehem may be more memorable than Dorach of Bethlehem.
Another technique that may help readers is to occasionally insert characteristic traits when introducing a character into a scene. For example, "Elish thundered into the room" could help the reader remember that Elish is the bold, temperament, heavy-set woman rather than her petite, reserved sister Elib. When other characters talk about a character, relationship aspects will naturally be presented. For example, a high-status woman is likely to be spoken of more formally, using additional distinctions like family association. This can be done with a mocking tone for someone whom the speaker feels takes their status too highly: "Elish of the house of Eliezer! She may be the High Priest's wife, but that doesn't mean she knows everything!" Such is similar to how diction and other manners of speech can distinguish characters in dialogue.
Introductions and telling another character about an interaction can provide opportunities for natural repetition of identifying information For example: [returning from the market] "I found a nice cluster of dates. Elib's stall had the most beautiful shawl. I wish we could afford it, but it is probably sold by now. Oh, and Elba said the barley harvest is likely to be rich this year." Such establishes Elib as a seller (likely maker) of fine clothing as distinct from the similarly named Elba, who has some agricultural connection. (This seems related to the cabbage head technique; instead of explaining somewhat common knowledge in the setting, one is helping the reader associate a name with a character.)

(0)

Login to post a comment!