How did you choose the name of you comic or hero? Did it just come to you? Is the name an alusion to something in your life? something/someone in history? Mythology? What was the idea that sparked the name or even creation of your hero?

For me my name came from the Famous painting "St. George and the Dragon". I loved that painting. I loved the dragon. He was so small and cute :D

So I swapped the roles. I love role swapping. The protagonist St. George from the painting became the object of ridicule/fun/torture in my comic and I gave the knight's name to the dragon, making the dragon the big one and the protagonist. The knight was relegated to a smaller role. :)

Thus was born "George the Dragon".

How did you come up with your names? And did those name/ideas for names spark the entire comic? or did the comic come first and the name come after much struggle?

Well for me the name of my comic just kinda came to me. But the characters are all named after game tags. For instance Genesis is Sega Genesis. Fayt is the main character from Star Ocean. Coleco is the Coleco Vision. Etc etc.

First, I thought about what kind of names amnesiacs would give each other. I decided it would be simple neutral names. Because as much as you would want to name yourself Deathstroke The Terminator, nobody else is gonna humor you. Everybody'd end up calling you Streak or Termite, then laugh at you.



Flash - The comic is a fan comic, and so the character has his own name. I chose this character because I wanted a well-known (but now obscured by time) classic hero for his role in the story. This is why he is the only character whose identity is known in the story.

Hanes - The name starts out as a joke, but is also a good name for a gunslinger. It sounds macho, and its anagram and phonetics all carry hidden meanings. In the first edition of FIGHT 1, I used a different name for him. Ed liked that better, but I felt it was a lazy choice.

Cat - I wanted a simple, obvious name. Because she's a simple girl. And I wanted to shove the catgirl stereotype in the reader's face, because it's so absurd.

Nuada - Named for his similarity to his namesake, who incidentally is as opposite to this character's personality as he could get. I was into celtic things before being into celtic things was cool.



Chase - I needed an androgynous name, to fit the character. She had an androgynous name in her original fiction. Chase is a name unassociated with gender, but at the same time is associated with several female characters in popular fiction. It also has another meaning later on in the story.

Hanno - Named from Hanno the Navigator and Hanno the Great, both Carthaginians. The name means 'merciful' or 'mild' in Punic. LOL, he's anything but. I think Han Solo's name may be derived partially from Hanno. He's a Han Solo type mercenary character in his original fiction.

Amok - Derived from the Malay word mengamuk, meaning "to go mad with rage." He was a docile beast in ch.1 but he's gonna lose it in ch.4. He's the reason I made the thread What does a chaingun sound like?

I find names come in two flavors ... the ones you think of and just know are right first time, and the ones you agonise over for months.

Shades was one of the second kind. For most of the time while I was writing the script, it laboured under the descriptive but rather unwieldy title of "Spirit of Britain". Then, once Harsho came on board as artist and started producing artwork, I used to send him title after title to see which one he preferred. (Actually, he still prefers "Spirit of Britain" so that wasn't much help!)

Eventually, I had a notebook of maybe fifty possible titles and it seemed that my favourite would change every week. Shades just happened to be my favourite in the week when we finally posted the first page online!

Someone
For me my name came from the Famous painting "St. George and the Dragon". I loved that painting. I loved the dragon. He was so small and cute :D

I was actually going to ask if the name came from that painting! lol

For my comic, I wanted to do a little homage to manga, so I chose Japanese names for my three main characters. Seiko, Kaida, and Yuki. I chose the names based somewhat on name meanings (Seiko=wisdom, Kaida=dragon, Yuki=luck) but mostly on what "fit." They sounded good and fit the characters, and they were short and different from each other. The way I chose family names was a little strange. I chose them from anime credits.

For my secondary characters, I think the names came from a "name bank" in the back of my mind. I just "knew" that the schoolboy was to be named Alex. My brother also has a friend named Alex. Um, Mike got his name very randomly because I needed a name for him and he wasn't actually supposed to hang around... I named him Mike because I know about a dozen Mike's, so it's such an average name. A few other characters got names from some of my coworkers. Kaida's given name (Lily) was a teasing thing. I thought that she must've had a cruel mother who named her twin daughters after flowers (Lily and Violet), and Lily seemed to work best -- plus it made me think of Lilith from Cheers. Last/family names mostly just came to me. I would say the first name and then without thinking, I'd say the family name that fit.

My brother came up with my comic's title, Used Books. I was struggling over it, since there is not a single main character and the plotline/story arc is all over the place, plus it evolves over time. The real plot is revealed gradually and twists around like crazy. My brother is a good "titler." We went with simple and it has gradually taken on some deeper meaning to apply to the characters who all have complex pasts and themselves have a "second hand" and "used" feel.

Well, lets see, for 2's a Company, I originally named it that because in the first, like, 30 comics, I only had 2 characters starring at the time and I never planned for a 3rd character. I suppose that's my mistake, but for some reason, the name grew on me and I'm happy with it.

The names of my characters?

Well...

Travis- I don't know where I got the idea for his name. I was probably watching a TV show and the name just seemed pretty cool at the time.
Andy-Mainly the same with Travis, except that I chose this name because of his personality. Andy always sounded like a funny name to me, and since he is the comic relief, I thought this name would work perfectly.
Riley- I just always loved that name.
Leah- Named after a good friend of mine.
Raphael- Well, he is Italian and that name (if I'm right) has a religious basis behind it.

Dasien - Derrived from "dashing" (i.e., a dashing superhero)

Michelle Knight - Not much meaning, other than the fact that I like the name Michelle and her last name described her role somewhat. It's also possible that it's a subconscious nod to the main character of Knight Rider, but I honestly don't remember if that was ever the case.

Parker Lynn Bailey - Parker is a gender-neutral name. Lynn is my best friend's middle name. Bailey is the name of my favorite character from WKRP.

Lord Crimson - He and other similar characters are named for various shaded and hues of red.

The Gooch - As I've always understood it, a gooch is a slang for a crime lord, although I'm also aware that there's a more vulgar meaning in there as well.

Palody - Engrish for "parody".

Ogre seemed fitting. At first I considered MONSTER which was our way of saying terrorist in the comic, but Ogre seemed better. I dunno why.

The Guilty Will Be Punished is a reference to the punisher, its about the other side of the vigilante's death toll.

Love Song For Polyhymnia was hard to name. I thought it was the best choice though because, even though there isnt a love song in it, Polyhymnia is the love interest.

Neilsama
Dasien - Derrived from "dashing" (i.e., a dashing superhero)

So is it pronounced "Dashin" then? I've been wondering about that.

Anyway...

I can't remember exactly why and how I came up with the title Bulletproof anymore because it's an idea I had years and years ago. I'm using it now because I wanted to keep the basic premise of the comic as open to trying different stuff as possible - it's sort of a generic term that befits pretty much anything superhero-ish.

Shockwire was originally called "Livewire", and I have no idea where that came from anymore. What I do remember is that when I posted a pinup of her on dA about two years ago, somebody pointed out that there's a character of the same name (also female and with a similar looking lightning bolt emblem) in a Superman cartoon, so I had to change her name. I really liked the original name, though, so I went with something as close as possible.

Whiplash was originally going to have a whip. Possibly inspired by Wildstorm's Backlash character. I don't remember, I created her in the mid-90s. Somehow the whip became a tail. The name may have come from the Metallica song.

Vector happened in Physics class in high school. I'm not kidding either, it really was that retarded. A guy named Vector with an arrow on his chest. He was originally more of a happy-go-lucky teen superhero and a bit of a dork, but when I developed him for Bulletproof, he became this nearly indestructible, scary big guy who smashes monsters into walls and barks orders at everyone. He's still a dork, really, but nobody would ever tell him that to his face.

Shyft (the chick on the last two pages; her name will be mentioned on tomorrow's page) has kind of a complicated history. She's really an old version of one of the main villains in the Bulletproof universe (to be introduced in the next issue). I changed and changed that character's look to the point where she had nothing in common anymore with the original design, and years later, I came across a sketch of the original version and decided to use that as well, as a different character. Her name refers to her ability to turn herself intangible and "shift" through solid objects, as she calls it.

Skulhedd, uh, looks kinda skullfaced and he's a throwaway character, so he got a throwaway name. Not that my more thought out character names are particularly brilliant ideas, but yeah.

The HK in HK Interceptor actually stands for "Hunter Killer", and I'm pretty sure I lifted the term from the original Cybernary comics that ran as backups in the first Deathblow issues. Fear Factory also had a song with that title. I'm really not 100% sure where I first heard it anymore, I just always thought it sounded cool.

Junction City was just some spontaneous idea, really... I wanted a name that sounded generic to go with the faceless corporation JCORP. The town is named after the river junction around which it was built.

Bottom line: I suck at naming stuff.

spacehamster
So is it pronounced "Dashin" then? I've been wondering about that.

Not exactly. It's more evolved than that. there's no "sh" sound. You have to consider the fact that I trip over my words sometimes, and so sometimes what comes out can be quite different from what I originally meant to say.

Actually, if you listen to Gigcast #105 , Black Kitty provides what I consider to be the correct pronunciation during Drunk Duck News.

My comic "Erth" was named because there wasn't anything to name the comic after so since Erth takes place in the future I named it after the Earth but with a different spelling to show the evolution of language. When I need to name a character I usually start putting words that are relevant to the character into online translators for various languages until something sounds like a name.

In my comic the main character's name came after looking up translation from japanese. Yokia Urufu literally means "wolf monster/demon".

Originally his name was Yokai Okama...I then found out that okama which I then thought meant "wolf" means either "pot" or "bucket" or "male prostitute"...yikes!

The main name comes from the characters yokai heritage and powers along with the role as a homicide detective.

But the idea for the comic and the name came at the same time. Its hard to explain. its just click and evolved from there to what we got now.

Human City is my comic... but was the name of a band I was in.

Zoe: In Greek her name means 'Life' and that is what she is after on many levels.

David: He is the fellow that looks weak but in reality he is a tower of strength- and when you least expect him to be.

Mike: He fights evil and has been forced to face it in the most abysmal manner- and cleanse himself of it, but that is not part of his name. The original Michael has always been pure ;)

Jane: Somehow that name just stuck. lol!

Edith: This name also stuck. Edith is the one with the most burden of the two sister.

Raven: She has black hair, and a darkness that's undefined about her ;)

Reggie: Just sounds like a spoilt brat name. (Reginald is also a rich boy name in my book)

I got more characters, but you get the gist of my name picking. They usually all have some link to the core of what drives a character or at least one facet of their personality. :)

Hah! One day recently I was doodling, and came up with a clown face, body, and costume combination that I rather liked. I then figured out what I would want the little fellow to say of a funny nature. Then I realized that I really wanted to feature this clown in a cartoon strip. I looked at him some more, refined the character as much as possible and then shrugged and muttered, "Sadly, this is as good as this clown gets."

Thus was born and named, Sadly The Clown! :)

Somewhere in San Fransisco Half Way Beyond The Bridge and The Tower Lies A Place Where Nothing is Ever What It Seems On A Day to Day Basis Because That Is What Happens in This Kinda Place: The long title paints a picture about the comic itself.

Somewhere out-there, in the city of San Francisco, past the Bay Bridge (Bridge) and the Coit Tower (Tower) is a place (the mansion of the main character's father) where alot of things happen, Stuff like betrayal, sex, etc. Hence the "Nothing is Ever What it Seems."

It also includes a reference to soap operas in general (This Kinda Place).

Some great stuff guys. =P I base my name on design, like, in ancient cultures a lot of names had similarities, it adds validity to the world if you can sometimes guess where someone is from by their name alone. Just like the real world.

A lot of my characters/upcoming characters names are taken from famous horror movies, actors, characters, ect.

Jack Price: Jack is just a name I have always liked, and Price obviously came from Vincent Price.

Maximilian Orlock: Orlock was the name of the rat-like vampire in the old silent film, "Nosferatu". He was particularly called Graf Orlok. But ALSO the actor who played that vampire's name was Max Schreck. Thus his first name.

I also used the name "Bathory" which came from Elizabeth Bathory, Maila Nurmi was the name of the actress who played the TV host "Vampira", and I am planning to call a character Jonus Murnau, and Murnau was the name of the DIRECTOR of Nosferatu. (Though the last one I'm not entirely certain yet. I am picky about my characters' names.)

Vallov and Topaz however totally came out of the blue.

And Jill.....Jack and Jill. Duh. XP

SarahN, you have some great name choices I think. =P

BFF

Suzanne - I got it from Hope Sandoval's Suzanne. Great song by the way.

Chris - I got it from Sufjan Steven's Godzuki.

Dakota - I needed the whitest little girl name I could find so it was either Dakota or Ashley.

fern
Dakota - I needed the whitest little girl name I could find so it was either Dakota or Ashley.

Britney?

TheMidge28
In my comic the main character's name came after looking up translation from japanese. Yokia Urufu literally means "wolf monster/demon".

Originally his name was Yokai Okama...I then found out that okama which I then thought meant "wolf" means either "pot" or "bucket" or "male prostitute"...yikes!

The main name comes from the characters yokai heritage and powers along with the role as a homicide detective.

But the idea for the comic and the name came at the same time. Its hard to explain. its just click and evolved from there to what we got now.

Man Midge, that's really impressive. I would've never thought of translating something.

For characters, I like to choose simple names that usually have some humor in them. In one of my comics, the main characters name is Miles Distance, a little joke against Sega's "Miles Prower" (miles per hour... get it?). There's also the daughter of the devil who's name is Ofelia Dei Gloria which is latin for "Ofelia, in God's Honor" or something to that effect.

For my non-human characters, they always have simple names that are rarely more than 2 syllables. Something simple or gutteral sounding like Gurn, Lorne, Zed, and Grik. I've never known monsters to have complicated names.

As far as titles go, I like making allusions or references and creating unorthodox titles. few of my titles were Sheep from the Goats (a spin on a terrible cliche), Early Game Monster (a story about a monster in an RPG style land), and A Penny For Your Soul (a story about two celestial beings fighting for control over a kid's soul).

Priest_Revan
Man Midge, that's really impressive. I would've never thought of translating something.

Interesting that 'wolf' and 'hungry wolf' translate into completely different words (or at least phonetics) in Jpnese. But I've never heard 'urufu' before. I don't trust those online translators.

And I'm not sure about 'yokia' being Jpnese, unless you purposely bastardized it for the purposes of making a name.

Hawk or Isukun would know.

Neilsama
Parker Lynn Bailey - Parker is a gender-neutral name. Lynn is my best friend's middle name. Bailey is the name of my favorite character from WKRP.

Why does this person need a gender neutral name?
Do parents really use last names as their kid's first name? Poor kid.

Addendum because he's introduced today and we're talking about non-English character names anyway:

Blitz has a lightning bolt on his chest, and the German word for lightning is "Blitz". I picked the name because of its English connotations of speed and being overwhelmed derived from the word Blitzkrieg, its German meaning really doesn't make much sense for the character.

Also, the Flash's name in the German translations I read back in the 80s was "Roter Blitz", which translates as "Red Lightning", and Blitz's mask looks kinda like Kid Flash's. That doesn't mean anything, I'm just blathering because it's Sunday.

Do parents really use last names as their kid's first name? Poor kid.

Parker's a common first name in many english speaking countries. There are also people with two first names like a guy I work with named Christopher Ralph.

Mick - short for Mickey; a pun that becomes obvious when you know who my characters are

Ryan - the opposite of Mick: cool, self confident, experienced with the opposite sex. For some reason, I always associated these qualities with the name Ryan. Examples? Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Gosling. And DrunkDuck's very own Ryan McLelland, the writer of Wise Intelligence.

America - it's actually what some people think my friend's name is. In fact it's just a misheard version of "I'm Erica"

I think the names in HVH are kind of obvious.

mlai

Neilsama
Parker Lynn Bailey - Parker is a gender-neutral name. Lynn is my best friend's middle name. Bailey is the name of my favorite character from WKRP.

Why does this person need a gender neutral name?
Do parents really use last names as their kid's first name? Poor kid.

She has a gender neutral name, because she's individualistic. A name without preconceived gender assignment is perfect for just such a character.

angry_black_guy
Parker's a common first name in many english speaking countries.

Correct.