: 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.

@Connie138

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You're unconsciously limiting yourself within your rules
I decided to go to a baby name website and find some real names that fit your restrictions.
Anna
Amber
Amy
Audrey
Alice
Adele
Angel
Ali
April
Alma
That's just the first page of A's. And I was skipping anything with that was too similar to anything I had already picked. There are plenty of names for you to use. You just need to find/create them.
English has only five vowel letters, but there are more than five vowel sounds
There are at least three different starting vowel sounds in the list that I made (Anna, Amy, and Audrey) even though they all start with the same letter. Pay attention to the sounds you are using, and make sure that you are taking advantage of all of them.
Pay attention to the beginning and the ends of words
People pay more attention to the beginnings and the ends of things while skipping over the middle. You may have seen some trivia pieces that take advantage of that fact:

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt!

The more you differentiate the endings, the more distinct the names will be. And if two names have very similar endings, then it becomes extremely vital that the centers use consonants that feel very different in the mouth (compare Anna to Alma for example)
Your rules have a lot of design space - it's up to you to decide how much of it makes for proper names
Here are some more names following your rules:
Unter
Omething
Ustice
Andwich
If you can't tell, I just took ordinary everyday two-syllable words and lopped the first consonants off. These look a bit odd to be names, but they should be an indication that there's a lot of space in your rule for creative and unique names once you go digging for them.

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