Boggles the Mind

Boggle

One of the great gifts my father left to his children was a love of words and, especially, wordplay. To this day, our family enjoys rounds of what I call competitive punning when we get together.

Dad was a crossword fanatic. And he twisted words to such an extent that understanding him really tested the limits of the redundancy of English, purposely using malapropisms, like saying "I'm going to renew my newspaper prescription." I do the same thing, and Stephen has caught my habit.

But there was one word game that was just between my dad and me: Boggle.

A new name game

Could this be Ipetrya?
Source: PartyPM
(I won't link to their site because it's quite NSFW.)

You already know I have a fascination with names, partly because my own name is so unusual. And you know I have a lot of fun with words.

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy, and wondered how the author came up with the characters' names. I know the old [middle name] + [street name from your youth] trick, but for sci-fi or any fantasy genre, that doesn't always work.

And then I had a night of insomnia. As I lay there not sleeping, I played around with things you could do to a "normal" North American name that would make it sound out-of-this-world. Here's what I came up with.

STEP 1: Syllable Swap
If your name has two or more syllables take any of the later syllables and move it to the front. If you have a one-syllable name, proceed to Step 2.

Wynn Anne => Anne Wynn
Katharine => Akathrine
Emily => Ilemy
Peter => Terpe
Brian => Anbri

Not bad so far, though my own is pretty boring.

STEP 2: Consonant Substitution

Take the first consonant and substitute it with the one three further in the alphabet. So W becomes Z, C becomes G, and so on. If your first consonant is part of a consonant blend, substitute any different consonant blend. So, ST could be CH, for example.

Wynn Anne => Anne Wynn
            => Arne Wynn
Katharine => Akathrine
            => Anathrine
Emily => Ilemy
            => Ipemy
Peter => Terpe
            => Xerpe
Brian => Anbri
            => Arbri
Steve => Cheve
Joe => Moe

Looking better. Some of the names are already completely unrecognizable.

STEP 3: Add a Vowel
Any vowel, anywhere.

Wynn Anne => Anne Wynn
            => Arne Wynn
            => Arine Wynn
Katharine => Akathrine
            => Anathrine
            => Anathrione
Emily => Ilemy
            => Ipemy
            => Ipemya
Peter => Terpe
            => Xerpe
            => Xeripe
Brian => Anbri
            => Arbri
            => Arbriu
Steve => Cheve
            => Chaeve
Joe => Moe
            => Moye

STEP 4: More Consonant Fun
Using one of the following, either swap out a consonant or add to the end.

G, K, L, M, CH, TR

Wynn Anne => Anne Wynn
            => Arne Wynn
            => Arine Wynn
            => Arine Wyng
Katharine => Akathrine
            => Anathrine
            => Anathrione
            => Anathrioche
Emily => Ilemy
            => Ipemy
            => Ipemya
            => Ipetrya
Peter => Terpe
            => Xerpe
            => Xeripe
            => Xeripem
Brian => Anbri
            => Arbri
            => Arbriu
            => Arbriuk
Steve => Cheve
            => Chaeve
            => Chaele
Joe => Moe
            => Moye
            => Moyeg

STEP 5: Add an Evil Syllable

To help your readers identify a bad guy, add one of these two to the end of the name:

OL or SK

Wynn Anne => Anne Wynn
            => Arne Wynn
            => Arine Wynn
            => ArineWyng
            => Arine Wyngol
Katharine => Akathrine
            => Anathrine
            => Anathrione
            => Anathrioche
            => Anathriochesk [hm. we may have gone too far on this one.]
Emily => Ilemy
            => Ipemy
            => Ipemya
            => Ipetrya
            => Ipetryask
Peter => Terpe
            => Xerpe
            => Xeripe
            => Xeripem
            => Xeripemol [this sounds like an enzyme or something. Should I suggest it to Pfizer?]
Brian => Anbri
            => Arbri
            => Arbriu
            => Arbriuk
            => Arbriuksk
Steve => Cheve
            => Chaeve
            => Chaele
            => Chaeleol
Joe => Moe
            => Moye
            => Moyeg
            => Moyegol

Yes, I had a really, really hard time falling asleep that night.