Okay, so I found myself needing some fantasy names the other day. You know how it goes, staring at a blank character sheet or trying to name a new location in a story. My brain was completely stuck. For whatever reason, the name ‘Kenneth Walker’ popped into my head. Maybe I’d seen it in the news, maybe it was just random noise, who knows. But it had a certain ring to it, felt solid, you know?
So, I thought, why not use that as a starting point? It’s not like I was trying to name someone Kenneth Walker in my fantasy world, but the sounds and the structure felt like good raw material. First thing I did was just break it down.
Breaking Down the Name
I wrote it down: Kenneth Walker.
Looked at the parts:
- Ken
- neth
- Walk
- er
Pretty simple stuff. Just looking at the syllables and the sounds they make. ‘Ken’ sounds straightforward, ‘neth’ has a slightly softer, maybe older feel. ‘Walk’ is active, obviously, and ‘er’ is a common ending.
Mixing and Matching Sounds
Then the fun part started. I just began mashing these bits together, sometimes swapping things around or changing a letter here and there. Didn’t really have a strict method, just playing with it.
- Took ‘Ken’ and ‘Walk’: Kenwalk? Nah, too direct. Walken? Maybe, a bit plain.
- Combined ‘Ken’ with ‘er’: Kener? Kennar?
- Tried ‘neth’ with ‘Walk’: Nethwalk? Walker-Neth? Felt clunky.
- Swapped vowels: Konneth? Kennith? Wolker? Walkar?
- Stuck bits onto other common fantasy name endings: Kenreth? Kenwick? Walkor? Walkian?
Some of these sounded okay, others were just nonsense. ‘Kenrith’ had a bit of a fantasy vibe. ‘Walkar’ sounded decent too, like a variation.
Thinking About Meaning
Then I thought about the name ‘Walker’. What does it suggest? Someone who travels, explores, maybe a ranger or scout type. So I started brainstorming words related to that: Strider, Rover, Ranger, Pathfinder, Treadwell, Marcher.
I tried mixing parts of Kenneth with these concepts:
- Ken + Strider = Kenstride? Striden Ken?
- Neth + Ranger = Nethranger? Rangerneth?
- Walker + Ken = Walken? (Already had that one)
- Kenneth + March = Kenmarch? Marcher Ken?
Kenstrider actually didn’t sound too bad. Kenmarch felt okay for maybe a guard captain or something.
The Results
After messing around for maybe half an hour, I had a small list of usable ideas, all spun out from that initial ‘Kenneth Walker’ name.
Things like:
- Kenrith
- Walkar
- Kenstrider
- Kendor
- Walner
- Kennick
Nothing earth-shattering, but it got me unstuck. It’s funny how just dissecting a normal, modern name can give you enough pieces to build something that feels completely different, something that fits into a fantasy setting.
So yeah, that was my little experiment. Just taking a name that popped into my head and seeing where it led. Sometimes you don’t need fancy generators, just need to break things down and play with the pieces yourself. Worked for me this time, anyway.
