# Looking for a Steampunk character name



## Matchstick (Aug 13, 2010)

I'm looking for a name for a steampunk character I'm creating.  I really want the name to scream steampunk.  I want people that have only vaguely heard of steampunk to see the name and think "that's a steampunk character".

The charater is female and non-mechanical.  She wears blades on her wrists to fight with.  Trench coat, classic steampunk spikey hair with goggles on the forehead.

I've seen some of the character generators, and gotten some good ideas, but what it is that makes a STEAMPUNK name to you?  Should I be looking at a title before the name (Miss, Mme, Lady, Baroness)?  Something mechanical sounding (Gearwell, Cogsworthy)?  

Thanks for any ideas!


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## Pbartender (Aug 13, 2010)

Matchstick said:


> I'm looking for a name for a steampunk character I'm creating.  I really want the name to scream steampunk.  I want people that have only vaguely heard of steampunk to see the name and think "that's a steampunk character".
> 
> The charater is female and non-mechanical.  She wears blades on her wrists to fight with.  Trench coat, classic steampunk spikey hair with goggles on the forehead.
> 
> ...




It's more than just titles or mechanically sounding stuff, though...

For example, my wife recently made a pulp character (the naming conventions should be fairly similar for steampunk, since very often steampunk can be considered Victorian Age pulp) for a Spirit of the Century game.  Together, we came up with the name Penelope Dreadful for her character.  The character, of course, went by the nickname "Penny".

Penny Dreadful would be a perfectly suitable name for your character, I think.

Spirit of the Century has some good advice on naming characters:

Pulp names can be like any kind of name, but there is usually a particular cadence to them. The most common model is a short first name and a last name which is also a word (usually a noun or adjective, but sometimes a proper noun will be a good fit). This allows for simple, resonant names like “Drake Devlin”, “Maggie Honor”, “Jack Stone”, and so on.

More “normal” names are fine too, but in the world of Pulp, they suggest a bit of removal from the action. Such names are more appropriate if your character also has an alias (a la Lamont Cranston and The Shadow) or is intentionally cultivating an aristocratic air.​
It's that rolling off the tongue cadence that you're looking for, more than anything else.


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## Umbran (Aug 13, 2010)

Matchstick said:


> I've seen some of the character generators, and gotten some good ideas, but what it is that makes a STEAMPUNK name to you?




An emphasis on the Victorian time period and pulpiness.


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## Deset Gled (Aug 13, 2010)

Steampunk Jane

Stormy McRatchet

Aqua Heattech


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## Matchstick (Aug 13, 2010)

Good stuff!

So maybe one thing would be to go with Victoria as a first name.  Not Vicky, Victoria.  That would place the character pretty solidly in a Victorian time frame (through association if no other way).  Doesn't hurt that I like that name!

So then we go to cadence, which I like as a concept.  Victoria Blake has cadence, Victoria Smith has less.  Victoria Tinker has none.  Victoria Cogswell has cadence, Victoria Askew has a bit, Victoria Baker has none.  

I can't think of any other "V" words that would work for that alliterative last name.  What about some classic Victorian last names from lit?  Victoria Holmes, Victoria Watson, Victoria Tesla?  Victoria Fogg doesn't grab me, but Vicky Fogg has a good ring.  Victorial Peel has a good sound, and might subtly bring to mind the redoubtable Emma.

Ooo, how about Victoria Swan?  I like that.  Miss Victoria Swan?

Lots to think about here!


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## Mallus (Aug 13, 2010)

Lady Jane Dhalgren. Maybe the "Lady" part should be in scare quotes.

It's an obscure pun, BTW. In Samuel Delany's classic non-steampunk novel Dhalgren, the street punks wear wrist blades (nicknamed "orchids").


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## Matchstick (Aug 13, 2010)

Mallus said:


> Lady Jane Dhalgren. Maybe the "Lady" part should be in scare quotes.
> 
> It's an obscure pun, BTW. In Samuel Delany's classic non-steampunk novel Dhalgren, the street punks wear wrist blades (nicknamed "orchids").




Oh, I'm all about obscure references!  Maybe I could use Orchid as well?  Maybe I should look up wrist blades and see if there's anything else like that!

I'm off on an "Amelia" kick.  I love Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody character, so I'm working on possible surnames for an Amelia now.

Way too much time on my hands!


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## Mallus (Aug 13, 2010)

Matchstick said:


> I'm off on an "Amelia" kick.



If you're going with Amelia, consider swapping the wrist blades for a "Tesla Cannon in the 40W range".

That way her nickname could be "The Ameliorator".

Did I mention I like puns?


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## Krensky (Aug 13, 2010)

The only female name that screams steampunk to me is Ada Lovelace. Other then that, any name appropriate to the Victorian, Old West, or Guilded Age.

Then again, I'm a traditionalist.


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## Pbartender (Aug 13, 2010)

Here's another thought...  Must the name be British-sounding?

What about something like Amélie L'Enfant?

Or Victoria Delafilo?


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## athos (Aug 13, 2010)

Roberta Townsend, aka "Bobbie Blades"


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## pawsplay (Aug 13, 2010)

Hortence von Pepfer
Christine Blacklock
Marjorie Flint
Jo Hawkins


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 14, 2010)

Delilah Hawthorne-Smythe

Hildegaard Van DerGreif

Oleander McPhearson

Mary Belladonna

Annabelle Lee


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## Argyle King (Aug 14, 2010)

Toycoma Sharpe

Jamie West (female take on James West)

Ms. Betty Boilermaker

Katana Boiler

"The Seductress of Steel" Candice Carmichael


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## TheAuldGrump (Aug 14, 2010)

Amaretha Winterlock

Rebecca Fairborn

Clarice Makepeace-Halderand. (Hyphenation in general, for that matter.)

Roberta S. Stablerock

Malacea Davenport

Antonia Charmsworth

Agatha Mulctuar

Karena Holmes Adler

The Auld Grump


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## DragoonLance (Aug 14, 2010)

As a mailman I see lots of interesting names, but the best surname for a steampunk character I have ever seen in RL was Gearheart.


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## Pbartender (Aug 14, 2010)

DragoonLance said:


> As a mailman I see lots of interesting names, but the best surname for a steampunk character I have ever seen in RL was Gearheart.




I find this terribly interesting...  If I'm not mistaken, Gearheart is the Americanization of Gerhardt, a German name (I have quite a few modestly distant relatives by that name), which in turn is derived from Gerard, a primarily English name first introduced by the Normans, which literally means "brave spear".


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## Matchstick (Aug 14, 2010)

Amelia Holmes-Adler?  That's crazy good.  OTOH, Amelia Gearheart has a ring to it, though mostly humorous.

Still thinking, I really appreciate all the input!


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## Ycore Rixle (Aug 15, 2010)

Wilhelmina Gerhardt

Alice "Slow Burn" Swinburne

Mildred Trunk

Catherine Calker-Corliss


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## Festivus (Aug 15, 2010)

Miss Bliss.  Miss Cadence Bliss (since the name has to have a cadence to it).  I feel like the name has an oxymoronic feel, which makes her all the more dangerous... sort of like a rose... beautiful to look at but watch for the thorns.  Oooh, perhaps even Miss Rose Bliss.


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## TheAuldGrump (Aug 15, 2010)

Sesquelinia Answertruth.

The Auld Grump, oddly, I am not making up the name 'Sesquelinia'....


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## Thunderfoot (Aug 15, 2010)

I dated a Gearheart back in the 80s....

So some names that will work:
*English-y*
Patricia Gearheart (her sister)
Victoria Von Veeling (Wheeling) how's that for V's
Katherine Cogsworth
Amelia Smythe-Higgenbottom
Wilma Dearring  
*French like*
Adrienne L'Bonvont
Amorette Cendrillon (means little love/little ashes) perhaps a boiler stoker or mechanic.
Gabrielle Leontine
Yvette Zephyrine
*Nordic- ish*
Olga Stenbla'sar (a' is one character mean Stoneblower also works works for dwarvish)
Helga Kobbermalm (Copper ore)

Feel free to add any feminine title to dress it up ~
Lady 
Madame
Marquess
Baronness
etc, etc, etc....


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## Tonguez (Aug 15, 2010)

Hettie von Stoom

Wilma Wielspark


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## radmod (Aug 15, 2010)

_Anastasia Beaverhausen

Karen Walker's pseudonym from Will & Grace. She's certainly a character who appears proper but would have wrist blades. 

Actually, I like Ada Lovelace.

EDIT: or possibly Spong von Stoom (or Stoom von Spong). Nice alliteration and the words possibly became "Punk of Steam" (or "Steam of Punk"). Also possible, and I like better, is Catamite von Stoom.
_


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 16, 2010)

Borrowing one part from fiction...

Delillah Quatermass


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 16, 2010)

Some "electric" themed names:

Lilly "Lightning Lil" Bastable
Matilda "Tesla Til" Gormengast
Roberta "Bobby the Bolt" Bainbridge


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## Krensky (Aug 16, 2010)

radmod said:


> Actually, I like Ada Lovelace.




Sadly, this seems to have been more obscure then I thought.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was a real person born in 1815 and who died in 1852. The daughter of Lord Byron, she was a writer, mathematician, associate of Charles Babbage, Charles Dickens and many of the important scientists of the day, and she was the world's first computer programmer.


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## haakon1 (Aug 21, 2010)

Didier Blasterflail (Mrs.)

Or combining random ideas from other posts here:

Lady Amelia Lovelace Mailman

because who said RPG character names can't be "Flying Circus" ready?


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 21, 2010)

Velma Gormengast, Daphne Stone-Silesbury and their big black police dog, a Great Dane named Scooby Dubh.


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