Some of the random names are not really random. Some of the random names were really random. This should be the last blog explaining my naming inspiration for my 188 characters in Ball of Nothing. If there is more you'd like to know, leave it in the comments if I have not already covered them in any of my blogs and there might be a fifth installation for it.
If you have any blog topics you'd like to see me cover, do let me know! If I can do it, I will schedule it accordingly.
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In case you did not know, this is my Ball of Nothing's entire Character Profile list. It's available for viewing for anyone with a link, so click it! Also, Ball of Nothing's Wiki still needs readers to maintain so feel free to contribute! Also, this should already be obvious but if you don't want spoilers, please don't continue reading past this point.
#1 Personal Assistant
At that point in time when I wrote Ball of Nothing, I had 3 models of the same phone already, the Redmi. Mii was named after my phone because she was literally a digital AI in a fantasy world that acted like an assistant. She was the administrator of the Mind's Eye System so it was really close. How did she end up as a strawcherry fairy? I'm glad you asked! Can I say that I was a little obsessed with strawberry milkshakes and cherry chapsticks when I wrote my chapters?
When the second personal assistant was created, obviously it had to rhyme. Hence, Wii was created. It wasn't because I played Nintendo, I don't own one. I'm too poor for that and I honestly hardly play games. The only game I play regularly enough and would like to play more would be Just Dance but that's on Switch and I don't have a huge ass TV at home or space to play it myself. The eggplant fairy came up later because, at that point in time, I was trying to get over my dislike for eggplants. I'm a picky eater and I don't like a lot of things, eggplant was one of them. My goal was to order eggplant dishes once a week and I overcame my dislike for them eventually although they are not my #1 option if I see lettuce.
#2 Divine Entity
This is where it can get confusing. Some of the names are self-explanatory to the roles they play. Others sound kind of random. If the Divine Entities were a split of the Great One's original self, you can say that they are also a fraction of the author's personality.
Venn
It's short for vengeance. Quite straightforward. The dude has anger management issues. No, it did not come from a Venn diagram.
Duu
This is just a sound effect. The inspiration comes from Durarara!! and the series' title came from "dura" a sound of laziness in Japanese. Hence I shortened it further to just Duu.
Gugu
Again, similar to Duu, Gugu is a sound effect. Funnily enough, it has nothing to do with his hoarding personality. Gugu comes from the sound of a stomach growling. I initially planned this character of greed to be gluttonous but it deviated when I split this Divine Entity into a Greed and Envy. However, the initial name remained because I thought it would be interesting this way.
Zesti
Being happy can be exhausting to look at. Zesti's name comes from the word "Zest" and also to some extent "Zeal". I wrote this when I was on the road to recovery from severe depression and suicide attempts. Back then, I just wanted a friend like this but not within any hearing distance. The best way to do that was to create an imaginary one so Zesti was born.
Trivia: Her favourite colour is orange. However, she also likes yellow. She's more friendly than happy in my mind and prefers to spread joy instead of keeping it to herself. It makes her happy to know others are happy. What an idiot.
Kale
It's literally the vegetable. Ask no more. I was high on coffee.
Nel
This is no coincidence. Nel does not come from Nelson and neither is it Nelly. I know I left this up for open interpretation but it is actually an abbreviation for "Not Everything is Lost". Nel was heartbroken at the Great One's spiral to madness and depression. Her existence was a single strand of hope and I imagine that Nel was actually the saddest to watch the Great One fall into eternal slumber. It's like finding out you've been adopted all your life and finally finding your birth mother on her death bed while she tells you how much she misses you and passes away.
#3 Human Politics
Some readers might have noticed how I hardly cover human characters in Ball of Nothing. I did not want to do so as it wasn't too interesting. The human arc was probably the least inspiring one as well. However, there were several easter eggs in there.
Count of Carrabas as seen as the dumbass who planned an invasion on Half Moon Village was actually inspired by a children's tale - Puss in Boots. No, not the one Disney made with Shrek. I'm talking about the actual book where his owner was made the Marquis of Carabas. Ah, sounds familiar now? Yes, I simply borrowed the name but did not keep the character of the good man.
King Brice was actually inspired by an ex-editor on Webnovel called Bryce. I changed several editors for Ball of Nothing in my time with the writing platform. Bryce was the editor who offered me a lot of tips about marketing my book and repackaging Ball of Nothing to reach more readers. It worked a little but I decided that it was enough trying. Nevertheless, whatever Bryce taught me worked well with Monarch of Solitude so I used his name (changed the spelling) as a tribute to the good man who left for better working opportunities. All the best, Bryce!
#4 Stupid
Have you ever thought that stupid could not get any worse? I think you need to rethink it because I learned that sheep head in German meant stupid. What a good way to insult the fund manager from Hell! Meet Schaf Schafkopf whose name literally means Stupid Stupid. You probably didn't see this coming unless you know German.
#5 Golem Not Robot
I knew immediately that I wasn't going to name my very first golem like a golem. After all, it is a fantasy world and that had to be the closest to technology even if they had Steve Jobs working on it. Hence, I was inspired by Munching Mike from the Letterland syllabus that I teach. Yes, I am a phonics teacher so I'm rather familiar with the older system. Robo Mike was inspired by it.
#6 Gay Teacher
Like most of my books, I need a gay man to make it feel complete even if it isn't BL genre. Professor Rhinestone is the guy we want. Dark, tall, handsome and dangerous with the flamboyance that screams "confident gay" when he was doing evil. Also, his aesthetic reference is Tyki Mikk in Noah form from the anime D Gray Man.
#7 Land of the Big
In the land of giants, big is everything! They might live in a mountain for regular people but for giants, it should be roughly the size of a hill. Hence, the name Magnus Hilda was created. The name literally means Big Hill and Magnus came from the word "magnum".
#8 Clumsy Fool
There's this lovable idiot known as Birb Blunder. He's a very minor side character but was inspired by Cephalonia, one of Ball of Nothing's top fans. Back then, Cephalonia used the name Birb and it was a meme name. They really liked memes. Hence, I decided to introduce this new character using Birb's name.
#9 All the D's
Dorgon Flintstock, Dorothy Hills and Darius Hills share more in common than you think. Although they are all dwarves from Rocket Mountain, they also have the D in their names. No, it's nothing as cool as the mystery of the D in names that Oda sensei uses in One Piece. However, I just wanted all dwarves to start with D if possible because what better to introduce themselves as a dwarf?
My vote for the most dwarvish name goes to Dorgon Flintstock, hands down!
#10 Two Similar
I think I need to take back my claim about not reusing names in novels. Just in Ball of nothing, I almost committed the crime of making 2 Mottleys. Motley and Ottley are similar-sounding names for those of you who finished the book. Motley was the chancellor of Rocket Mountain. Ottley is the one in the shipwright town.
Motley the chancellor was named as such because of his gloominess and kill-joy personality. It sounded like a nerdy name and had a 'mouldy' feeling to it. On the other hand, I wanted to name the shipwright Ottley the same name for a different reason. It sounded close to otters and was initially spelt with 2 't's like "Mottley". However, the confusion confused me and I didn't think many of my readers would be smarter than myself so I eventually modified it to become "Ottley".
#11 Deadman Town
Deadman Town has a very Old West vibe. It's the land where tough men cry for their mamas, blood flows more than water and the sun is a major eye burner. It comes to no surprise that the names I chose matched the vibe.
Dwayne the innkeeper was inspired by the legendary muscle god - Dwayne "Rock" Johnson. He isn't the only powerhouse in town and the other powerhouse with mysterious strength is Monoman. Honestly, I just wanted this dude to sound like Batman. I wanted a lone ranger type of hero who helps others. If you have not guessed it yet, I like Batman a lot more than Superman. Don't fight me.
Desert Lily is a tough girl and Lily was the flower of choice because of two meanings. While she is the only flower in town as in the only lady, the white lily is often a flower seen at funerals. The meaning of a white lily is about purity and returning to the state of innocence. Hence, when Desert Lily met Mitchnew, the two found themselves becoming fast friends. However, the difference was obvious between the two of them like yin and yang.
Some other side characters that I named lazily included Brutus who is just a brute and Kiren who is an unimpressionable friend of my brother's back when he was eight years old. I mean, side characters are side characters, right? There shouldn't be that much thought into them all the time.
Conclusion...
If you liked this, do remember to check out all my other books! I might be writing FL now but I still have not given up on Godfather World. I just need to wrap the FL and BL works before investing the rest of my life into Godfather World until it ends. I'll talk about the other random names in the next blog <3