Getting Started
It's easy as falling off a horse while shooting fish in a barrel.
What you need to do is scroll down to the table below where you can use
the handy radio buttons to select two words: one from each
column. Be sure to choose words that don't sound too much
alike. Like magic, they will appear in text boxes on the right
side of your screen! This is a preview of how your name looks
pre-adjustment. If the words read poorly together or sound lame,
you'll probably want to change something. Pixellated
Fëanor's adjustments can only change so much.
Once you've chosen your words, Ask Pixellated Fëanor how they go
together to form a name. Sometimes, words will fit together
as-is with no adjustment required. But if there is an adjustment,
the razor-sharp brain of Pixellated Fëanor will
do it for you!*** Or, at the
very least, tell you that you screwed up beyond help.
***Standard disclaimer: Pixellated Fëanor is a
cheap digital semblance of the original Fëanor, whose consulting
fees are far beyond the scope of this lowly name generator.
Because he is the illegitimate lovechild of a WinXP machine and
Elrohir's Super Nintendo, he is unable to do anything but follow the
instructions written into his programming. This sometimes leads
to errors. Deal with it.
Making Masculine and Feminine
Names
Unlike the QuenGen, there are no separate wordlists for masculine and
feminine names. Gender-specific words such as wife, son, lady,
and sailor all appear here together. All other words are
gender-neutral and can be used for both men and women.
Feminine names usually contain more 'feminine' sounds, such as 'il',
'el', or 'eth'. The vowels I and E come up more often in feminine
names, especially in the final syllable. Consider: Finduilas, Aredhel,
Nimloth, Elwing, Elbereth. They have a 'soft' sound to them. Masculine
names, in comparison, have 'harder' sounds, including 'on', 'or', 'od'.
The vowel O comes up more often in masculine name endings. Consider:
Aragorn, Celeborn, Elrond, Fingon. Usually it's not too difficult to
tell by sound alone which names belong to which gender, if they must be
assigned at all. Some names could easily be considered unisex:
Glorfindel, for example, has both masculine and feminine sounds and
could be applied to either a male or female character.
Meaning is another deciding factor in masculine versus feminine names.
Many names, such as Glorfindel (to use the same example), have a
meaning that is non-gender-specific. 'Golden-haired' could be either a
male or female. But some names, like Nimloth ('white flower'), are more
obviously feminine, while others like Gildor ('star lord') are
obviously masculine. Chances are a name meaning 'dark warrior' will be
for a male, while 'morning song' will be a female. Sexist, sure, but
that's generally how it goes with Elves. And it somehow works out that
the words like warrior, victory, battle, sword just sound more
masculine, while the girly words like flower, glitter, shine, and cloud
do indeed sound like girly words.
Too lazy to even bother clicking on those radio buttons? Get your one-touch randomised name of dubious worth here!
Wordlist by Sindarin
Wordlist by English
So now you have your name! Keep thinking about it, because
you're not finished yet. Here are a few things that Pixellated
Fëanor is too lazy to check for:
Length. This is an
important one. Pixellated Fëanor can't count. Nor can
he read. He is a GIF. GIFs are not good at math, and they
are worse at languages. Count the syllables in your name. Are
there more than four? It's too long. Sindarin names can be
two (Arwen), three (Elladan) or four (Galadriel) syllables
long. Five is pushing it. Shorter is better.
Accents. There are only a
few ways it can happen here, but it is possible to make a name with too
many acute accents. According to Pixellated Fëanor,
Túrúan is a valid name. According to common sense,
it's not. Accents are fairly rare in Sindarin names.
Usually you'll see none, occasionally you'll find one
(Celebrían), but two is too many. Think about how you want
to pronounce your names (consult the guide below if necessary), and
drop the accent that doesn't fit. Most of the time, it will be
the second one. I'd turn Túrúan into Túruan.
Repeated Syllables. This
is a Quenya rule that we may want to import over to the Sindarin side
to help in the war against dumb-sounding Elf names. In Quenya, a
name with a repeated syllable (such as lala or arar) can be condensed
down to a single occurrence of that syllable (la or ar). Because
Sindarin names with repetitive syllables sound just as dumb as their
Quenya counterparts, I wouldn't hesitate to use this rule in cases
where it would make an improvement. A Sindarin name like Ecth
elellon sounds silly.
Ecth
ellon is far
better.
Repeated Diphthongs. This
is another Quenya rule that may be applicable to Sindarin. In
Quenya, a name like Ainairon is simplified to Ainaron, with the second
AI becoming a single A. I would see nothing wrong in also using
this rule on Sindarin names in the case of a double AE, UI, IE,
etc.where keeping the repetition sounds silly. A name like
Maevaethor I would shorten to Maevathor.
Sounding Stupid. Does it
sound stupid? If so, it's wrong. Elves do not want
stupid-sounding names. If it's funny-sounding, weird, hard to
pronounce, or awkward, even if Pixellated Fëanor says it's fine,
take a pass and try again. Look for synonyms, or change the order
of the words. Pixellated Fëanor can adjust letters, pick out
common errors, and smite impossible combinations, but
he has no common sense. Only you can properly name your
Elf.
How to Pronounce the Names (that is, which syllable is stressed)
Generally (and by generally I mean about half the time), the stress
falls on the second-last syllable. Two-syllable names, such as Arwen,
are always the easiest, because the stress is always on the
first syllable. AR-wen.
Three- or
four-syllable names are a bit trickier.
If the second-last
syllable contains an accented vowel (í,
ó, ú), then it will be stressed, as in "Celebrían"
: ce-leb-RI-an. Also, if
the second-last syllable contains a diphthong or a consonant cluster,
it
will be stressed, as in "Glorfindel": glor-FIND-el
If the second-last syllable has only one unaccented
vowel followed by one or no consonants, it is a weak syllable and
cannot be stressed. The name "Elrohir" has an unaccented "o"
followed by a single "h". In this case, the stress is shifted
back to the third-last syllable, and the pronunciation is
EL-ro-hir. The same goes for "Thranduil", in which the
second-last syllable, the "u", has no consonant cluster following
it. The pronunciation is therefore THRAN-du-il.
Note that the "u" and "i" here are two separate syllables.
Some examples of second-last syllable
stress:
Erestor = e-REST-or
Mithrandir = mith-RAN-dir
Imladris = im-LAD-ris
Some
examples of weak second-last
syllables with displaced third-last-syllable stress:
Galadhon = GAL-adh-on (the DH counts as a single letter, not a
consonant cluster)
Elladan = ELL-a-dan
Lothiriel = loth-IR-i-el
Eregion = er-EG-i-on
Back to Names
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This Generator was created by the glorious talent of
Lenine, because my website
skills are limited to sucky basic HTML.