Creativity Call: Lunar Assassin Names

[mabfan]

Folks, remember when I asked people here for names of possible future movies? I'm putting out a call again if people want to play.

For the novel project, I need to come up with the names for ten assassins-for-hire who work and live in a futuristic, anarchic city on the Moon. Well, actually I need eight names; I've already named two of them Dumas and Dianora. (Hi, dianora2!)

Anyway, the names can be anything: one word, two words, standard names, evocative nicknames, etc. If you want to suggest a name, or even offer up your own, let me know. Since I need ten of them, though, I'm trying to make them as distinctive as possible.

The usual offer applies. I'll file your own name away for a Tuckerization, if you want one, and if I can swing it, I can even try to list you in the novel's Acknowledgements. Which assumes, of course, that the thing eventually sells...

Comments

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

What happened to that baby naming book I gave you?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

It's on the shelf, along with another baby naming book we have. But I'm really looking for more creativity than, say, just calling the characters "Robert" or "Jane." For example, if you wanted to build a rep as an assassin, what sort of code name might you adopt? I'm unlikely to find a name like that in a book of Jewish baby names...

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

So I have a friend whose nickname is Demon.

A couple of us call her "Oni-chan" however. means "demonling"

you should call an Assasin that. :)

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

This may be too obvious/religious, but I always liked Kali - Hindu goddess of dissolution and destruction. Her other name was Parvati, which might be less obvious but people may think you got it from Harry Potter.

[saxikath]

I've always wanted to name a roguish character Catch. I don't know why exactly.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Catch is the name of the demon in several of Christopher Moore's novels.

[valancy.livejournal.com]

I'm obsessed with Caspian lately, and I'm subtitling a vid right now with a woman named Marion Fox, which is common, but, well, aw. *g*

[queue.livejournal.com]

Mr. Fixit
Shaggy
Duke
Loretta Ling
Charlie Angel
Seamus McCool

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I named a cyberpunk character Chane once - nice mix of Jane, Chain, Chance.

What's scary on the moon? Vacuum, and moon dust apparently. Mr. Dust? Vacuum Lou?

In an anarchic future-city does everyone go by cool nicknames like in the Matrix? How about Omega, Thanatos, Iron, Brick, Crossbones.

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

I used Eddard in a story once, you're welcome to snag it, or Edgar.
Bish (also slang for sexy man in Japanese)
Black (can't go wrong there)
Wade/Wayne (get that whole batman thing going)

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

A couple of names for female lunar based assassins:
-Mary Nubium (or perhaps Mary Imbrium)
-Selene

For men (based on lunar crater names):
Anaxagoras
Sheepshanks
Vlacq

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

• Felt
• Mr. Cholmondeley
• Sigur
• Finis
• Bubbles

[arib.livejournal.com]

Bubbles? Like Michael Jackson's monkey?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Asrael
Chu Jung
Deert
Devi/ Mahadevi
Dis Pater
Hades

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Hey MAB. Do you remember Diesel, from CSW?

You should name an assasin after him too.

(his real name, or something like it. Diesel is a bit too obvious)

[crackboy.livejournal.com]

clearly I should get partial credit for reminding Annie about her.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

There's a story about Harpo Marx visiting Russia and asking who was this Gapno Mapcase whose name was on posters all over the place: there must be a touch of creative misremembering in there, as you can't quite get Gapno Mapcase from the Cyrillic rendering of Harpo Marx, but still - I nominate Gapno Mapcase.

Also, Hleb and Maslo - though I've hitherto always seen them as a couple of dim but strong fantasy henchmen.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was Exapno Mapcase.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I assume you want the names to be distinctive to a modern reader, not in the character's own society. Some of the suggestions here have been things that a hitman might adopt (or more likely have foisted on him) as a sobriquet, but aren't anything a mother is likely to call her child, even in that setting. And a hitman might actually want to go by a very common name, that doesn't stand out at all, so as not to attract attention. So how about names that are uncommon now, but might be common in the moon 200 years from now: Delos, Harriman, Deedee (for a boy), Anson, Buzz, Armstrong, Aldrin, Luna, Selene, Levana, Sihara...I'm kind of free-associating here...

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Luna's the name of the main character already. But, out of curiosity, is Levana ever used for a person's name in the real world? And if so, male or female? I've never run across it.

[zmook.livejournal.com]

Nine-Eleven.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Just brainstormin', here:

Cicero
Sharpe
Salizar
Moriches
Maurice
Miranda
Agineaux
(And because my head's full of Jewish comedians now) Marx

I often find Biblical names can convey a certain sinister mein: Zachary, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, for example. At least they convey a certain sinisterness (is that a word?) to me.

[ckd]

I wonder if the sinister resonances you're getting are because of all the wrath going on (smiting, flooding, pillars of salt, etc).

[ckd]

For birth names, expect there to be several from this list:

Gus, Ed, Roger, Wally, Donn, Walt, Frank, Jim, Bill, Dave, Rusty, Tom, John, Gene, Neil, Mike, Buzz, Pete, Dick, Al, Jack, Fred, Stu, Ed, Ken, Charlie, Ron.

For epithets:

Airlock Al
Lunar (or Loony) Lou
The Crater (he puts people in crates, get it?)
Montressor (rumored to have bricked a guy up in an unused corridor)

[arib.livejournal.com]

How about a tag team of assassins named Reebo and Zootie?

What do you mean it's already been done? :-)

Seriously, pick various and sundry NASA astronauts that have been on the moon, and use their names/surnames. You could mix and match, if that'd work.

(Armstrong, Collins, Buzz, etc.)

[somehedgehog.livejournal.com]

Vesper (as in "say your vespers," or, latin term for the evening star)
Tranquility (as in Sea of)
Fenrir (the wolf who slew Odin All-Father and devoured the moon)
Penumbra, or Umbra (as in eclipse)

[beowabbit]

Some bad-guy names from Russian history:

Rasputin. (Or Grisha, short for Grigorij.)

Dzhugashvili (Stalin's real last name), or Vissarionovich (his middle name).

Gor'kij or Gorky (besides being the nom-de-plume of the writer, means "bitter").

Dzerzhinskij or Dzerzhinsky (first head of the Cheka).

Beria (or Berija or Beriya).

Some other ideas:

Pestilence.

Plague.

Hatchet.

Cleaver.

Quick-and-easy (nicknamed sarcastically, or not, depending).

John Doe.

Horseman Jack.

Vacuum Jack.

The Switch. (I imagine you can do a lot of damage on a lunar base by flipping the right switch.)

Random take-offs on characters like Jack the Ripper (Jenn the Ripper, Mack the Ripper, etc.) or the Boston Strangler (the Tycho Strangler, the Clavius Strangler).

Nicknames of actual contemporary hit-men:

(Things like "Buddy", "the Rifleman", etc.)

What's a Tuckerization?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Wilson Tucker used to name characters in his books after friends of his; hence the term Tuckerization.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

If you have one that's particularly tech-savvy, a good nickname might be "Widget."

[dr-pipe.livejournal.com]

Foreign language words: Volta, Archon, Meser (altered spelling of German for knife)...

Mythology: Ragnarok, Ouroboros...

Geology: Core, Mantle, Facet...

Angels: Raguel, Ithuriel...

Other: Bresner, Rinquest, Emmiel...

[etrevino.livejournal.com]

Pyrias
Bel Riose (ten points for he/she that knows that one!)
--Belisarius (if Bel Riose doesn't ring the bell)
Bach (his music: sinister!)

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that mabfan knows Bel Riose, especially given his comments on yesterday's anniversary.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Jack the Knife.

Or,
Mack the Ripper.

Napoleon
(it would be amusing if Napoleon were nicknamed "Bones-apart")
Jeremy (for the perfectly ordinary)
Bearclaw
Munchkin

I must apologize, my brain seems to be in amusing mode right now. Please try your call again later.