I’m planning a novel where in, every character has a “soul name” or “true name” which is only known by themselves, their immediate family, and their soulmate. I’m looking for names that have an outlandish or other worldly quality. God/Goddess names, esoteric names, mythology names, unusual biblical names, just not anything too well known, which is why I haven’t included names like Persephone and Athena, etc. This is what I have so far…
Illyria or Illyrius
Harmonia
Themyscira
Selkie
Pleione - sea-nymph, mother of the Pleiades
Peneus - a river god, father of Daphne
King Arthur:
Avalon
Percival
Camelot
Guinevere
Lancelot
Ok, I found my post which I’m copying and pasting below. Many of them are repeats of what I have listed in my listography link but they are organized differently and there are a few in here that aren’t listed on my listography page.
EastAsian:
Japanese/Shinto (eg Kojin, Izanagi, Daikoku-ten, Susanoo)
Chinese - there’s gods for Buddhists, Taoists, and Confusian so it can get confusing (eg Gong Gong, Guanyin or Lady Buddha - she’s in my grandmother’s house and I see her a lot in other places like temples, Dragon King or Long Wang, the Monkey King or Sun Wukong, Wangmu Niangniang or Xiwangmu, Jade Emperor or Yuhuang Dadi, Caishen-he often appears on red envelopes for Chinese New Year, the Eight Immortals, Chang’e - I think she’s why we have mid-autumn moon festivals)
You can keep looking through Norse, Egyptian, and Hindu myths/religions too for inspirations
I’ve been looking at Celtic, Scandinavian, and Germanic mythology. I already had a pretty good list going, due to being a practicing pagan; but obviously, I don’t know everything, lol, so thank you for the resources, it is much appreciated!
These are all water related: Amphitrite - Greek sea-goddess, wife of Poseidon, mother of Triton, personification of the sea water
Nymph or Nymphadora
Nereid - sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of Nereus and Doris, and are sisters to their brother Nerites
Ondine - a water nymph
Naida - Greek - “water nymph”
Nerida or Nereida - means sea nymph or mermaid
Ceto: Greek - Goddess of the Sea, duaghter of Pontus and Gaia
Mazu: Chinese - Goddess of the Sea Sedna: Inuit - SeaGoddess
What about using the character’s soul name? [name_m]Even[/name_m] if the reader doesn’t get to know the name until the end, it could work as a twist as in they knew all along. It would certainly give a power to the book.
