Naming Help

So is this like the TV show Charmed? Be careful to avoid parallels if it isn't supposed to be like that. I think I need to know more about the setting in order to help, but names are something I am good at. If it's kinda modern then names like Roper, Sweets, or Rook work. Trying to go with things that might not have been over-used...

It's modern--set on an island actually (I pitched it as LOST meets super-natural Charlie's Angels, but, you know, sexier). I don't know anything about Charmed (though I hear it's great). The guys are actually also members of the Specials Intelligence Agency (top secret government agency that keeps tabs on Specials and does counter-terrorism work)--I say parallel because their unit functions similarly to the girls' and they work for the same agency. Of course their group is bigger because they aren't QUITE as awesome as the girls. It will help when I know their abilities because this would be an obvious source for nicknames, but I don't know my characters well enough yet. They're all going to be psychic/mind manipulating abilities. Nothing physical like flying or teleporting.

Well then you want things that can sound like names and "code names" so that they can be personal without giving an overhanded explanation of the character in a name. My advice would be to use words that are like last names, ala Roper (Mr. Roper was the landlord in Three's Company) or things that are easily recognized nicknames... then it can subtly elude to a person's abilities and also seem like a name. The phonebook works well for this. Glen Cook never gives characters real names, instead they always have nicknames that give the reader some insight into the character and some of them, the ones that are really good, have double meanings. For instance, Croaker, is always the charcater in the novels that makes me think of the rasping breaking gravel voice, but he is also the doctor, which is funny... Characters can named after thier ticks and quirks, Tom-Tom always carries a little drum, Silent doesn't speak EVER. But in the context of the story the names weren't heavy or silly they just were. A guy who is always sleeping around could be Pedro or Cherry (you are what you eat). A confidence man could be Roper (I don't know why, but I like that name) or Puller, an artist or imagery guy could be Rembrandt or Dali. Naming characters without knowing them seems backwards to me, I have written pages with placeholder names or blanks until I know more about a guy because I won't name him until I know it fits... Phil the Giant-slayer just doesn't work... (It's not Phil, it's THOR!!! -- that was for you Neil). At the end though, I'd be happy to help, I love naming characters.

Thanks! You're clearly good at it, too! Well, I agree that it's hard to name a character that I don't know (or illogical, even). Problem is, I write to "get to know" my characters and need to have a name I fill in in the meantime. What you've suggested with last names is what I've been doing so far. The MS Word "Find and Replace" tool is a very good friend of mine. :-) Off to write...I'll know more when I'm done.

Okay, Nathan. You're up again. I need some naming help.
I need a name for the group of "bad guys" the SIA is pretty much keeping from taking over the world (to put it simply: the bad guys are like the group of bad guys in the X-Men--they think non-Specials should be little more than drones for Specials).
And I need a name for the island where the SIA does their training--private, top-secret, tropical, you get the idea.

And, I need my head examined...but that's something else entirely...

GROUP:
The first one that comes to mind is Nephilim... it's biblical, the children of men and angels, they were said to be powerful giants with great powers. Ringers could work if there is some 'inner circle' kind of feel to thier organization. If they are pompous at heart, they could call themselves Ascendants, since they have ascended passed humanity. The source, or what they view as the source, of their special nature is probably pretty important to thier name as a group...

For an island
If you want some historical/mythical flavor go with Chemmis, the floating island. The floating aspect could be due to its perpetual surrounding fog that makes it appear to be floating. Since it's mythical it can be anywhere, and it being real it would just be named after the myth anyway.
Herodotus tells: "The next greatest marvel was the island called Chemmis. This island lies in the middle of a broad and deep lake close by the temple, and the natives declare that it floats. For my own part I did not see it float, or even move; and I wondered greatly, when they told me concerning it, whether there be really such a thing as a floating island. It has a grand temple of Apollo built upon it, in which are three distinct altars. Palm trees grow on it in great abundance, and many other trees, some of which bear fruit, while others are barren. The Egyptians tell the following story in connection with this island, to explain the way in which it first came to float:- "In former times, when the isle was still fixed and motionless, Latona, one of the eight gods of the first order, who dwelt in the city of Buto, where now she has her oracle, received Apollo as a sacred charge from Isis, and saved him by hiding him in what is now called the floating island. Typhon meanwhile was searching everywhere in hopes of finding the child of Osiris. The island, therefore, in consequence of this event, was first made to float. Such at least is the account which the Egyptians give."

In the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, the Symplegades are also known as the Clashing Islands. The two rocky islands float on the surface of the water, and guard the entrance to the Euxine Sea (The Black Sea.) The islands would crash together, crushing ships caught between them. A king that Jason had rescued told them how to get through- a dove was sent through first, and the islands crashed together, clipping the dove's tail. When the islands began to separate again, the crew of the Argo slipped through before they could close. According to the legend, the islands became fixed in place after that day.

These islands were similar to the Planctae or wandering rocks, referred to in Homer's Odyssey.

IT will be remembered that the story of Ola's building of the famous watercourse Kikiola concludes with the refusal by Namakaokaha‘i, chiefess of the Mu and Menehune people, of an offer of marriage and her disappearance with her people on the floating land of Kane-huna-moku. Kaanaelike (Anelike) in the story of the "rolling" island of Ulu-ka‘a is the same chiefess under another name. Ulu-ka‘a and Kane-huna-moku are interchangeable names for that garden of delight in which the gods first placed Kumuhonua and his wife, ancestors of the Hawaiian people. Ku-waha-ilo is the parent of Anaelike as of Namaka-o-kaha‘i in the heavens. The lover who comes swimming to her over the sea is the Man-of-the-sea of Namaka under another name. Even the poisoned food of the Aukele test is here suggested, although with a quite different turn. The son Eyebrows-burnt-off of Kaanaelike by her stranger husband is Lightning-flashing-in-the-heavens whom Namaka bore to Aukele. The concluding infidelity motive connects the story unmistakably with the Pele legend with its outgush of fire which desolates the whole land.

This website has some fun stuff too...

http://www.themaphouse.com/specialistcat/mythical/mythical.html

Anyway there is some food for thought...