Okay, this has been bugging me...

well, since is was posted. I just haven't had time to comment on it effusively until now...
And now that I do, well... yes.
"Whoever" wrote this, don't take horrible offense. I just don't disagree with you, and rather half feel that a little bit of discussion would have been fairly decent before the rampant postage of much name-bashing. Personal thing, I suppose

And so, to begin!

Firstly...
Why, if Pernese names aren't supposed to be much like earth names, would this statement work?

So... you're supposed to be unlike Earth, but not do things that wouldn't be done on Earth? Wow... now that's logical!

Is it? Maybe if you're saying Xylophone.... many other X words, particularly names, are actually a Z-J combination.
Frankly, even if it is a Z sound... why would Z names be more prolific than X ones? How many people do you know with names that start with Z? I don't know any - and I know five people with X names. Xia, Xander, Xandry, and two Xaviers. Thanks.

Why shouldn't your character be Asuka? It's more acceptable to have an English-sounding name than a Japanese-sounding one? Why is that?
Now, I'm not saying that the Sailor Moon wannabes that have long lilac locks and huge, dewy eyes don't drive me crazy - we aren't an anime, folks! - but why shouldn't your character have a Japanese sounding name?

Ditto above. Why does changing the spelling of a name suddenly make it better? By that logic, everyone should name their child Mhickiella instead of Michaela because it's not as blatantly biblical. Let's not note that it's confusing, and only leads to tons of misspelling! (I promise... with a name like Gwenwyvfar, I know this all too well!)

Okay, moving right along...

I'm not even going to start on the "good" and "bad" honorifics. For one thing, it's format doesn't make any sense. Are you saying that all of your offered honorifics are bad? That's pretty much what it looks like...
I won't say that I haven't seen some pretty bad honorifics in my time, but frankly... who bloody well cares?! The most logical explaination I've ever seen for the existance of elided names is that they're shortened to whatever a person would hear when shouting the dragonrider's full name across the length of a Wing - usually the first hard sound and the last syllable. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other theories floating about on that one - attempting to get rigid based on just one is just silly. Until Anne McCaffrey herself sets down firm guidelines for elides, don't try to be the honorific police. It just makes you look foolish.



And finally...

and this is basically the whole point of this rant - who are you to decide what is "good"? Everything is "good" to someone. If you want to rule with tyranny over the names included in a story... then why don't you write it by yourself!?

Now that I've gotten that out of my system....

I'm not anti naming-guide. I just think one with rather less of a militant slant might be appropriate.

Stating that it's okay if there aren't a lot of X names in the Weyr, and that steering away from blatantly anime-sounding names might be in order, and that trying to use names that are a little bit more "original" than ancient celtic ones or ones that are found in various mythologies...
Now that seems okay. Even recommending that people consider the way the name they're choosing might elide is cool.

I just think that it's pretty wretched to post something that is effectively bashing pretty much every writer on the list, in one way or another. And in all honesty - maybe I'm just being overly suspicious, but I doubt it - it pretty much seems like this "naming guide" was written with malicious intent. The first paragraph certainly implies such...

*applaudes* my feelings exactly

OK! I have just seen that name guide. My my! Someone has a hangup about names! *Looks over shoulder* and that person could be watching us right now! Why wouldnt there be Japanese names? There were some Japanese in the first settlers, why would they NOT have handed down Japanese names? And how on Earth are we supposed to make names that sound 'Earthy' yet not 'Earthy'???

You make a good point PD....a very good point....i agree with what you guys have said...

Are we all Rping in a military base or something?

I sure didn't know that....



sep

I was going to post something about the name guide when it first appeared.. afterall I have the male weyrling who's name cannot be elided

Tigrelliyth you did what I couldn't and I applaud you...

Yay!! I was sure I was going to get slammed by everyone for posting it... but I couldn't resist any more. I mean... every point on the bloody thing seems to be pretty specifically aimed at at least one of the characters currently being written!

Grrr... well, I'm glad that everyone else agrees, at least!

I know that I should have asked for your oppinions before posting the naming guide in the information forum, and I appologize for that. However, the intention of the guide was to clarify the naming convensions at Pern as I and the person who wrote it see it-- and which are supported by canon.
There are parts of the guide that could have been worded differently, that is true.

However, while you certainly have the right to your own oppinions, what I don't approve of was the manner in which this was posted in the open and how those oppinions were expressed. I would prefer that you in the future contact me through a PM instead of comming that close to insulting another member at this forum. That's to everyone, including me.

I know that I do stupid things, and I have quite a bit left to learn before I can call myself a good GM, but please solve things such as this one in private with me in the future.

I'm closing this topic again now, so if any of you have anything further to say, feel welcome to PM me.