Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-29858293-20170616222825/@comment-24947676-20170620031120

Chariot Dude wrote: First of all, support, in the case of serious OCs. I feel like joke OCs should still be allowed to have google translate names, simply because of how iconic and idiotic it is at this point.

I understand the argument "I want my OC to have a meaningful name," but people have to understand how stupid it is to name your character after their concept. Imagine meeting a businessman named "Serious Businessman," or the mother of a scientist named "Mother Science," or a robot named "Robot AI." It'll bring up some obvious questions. Who even names their child "Mother"? Just because it's in a language you don't understand doesn't change anything.

There are more subtle ways of doing this: an upbeat character named "Felicity," meaning "happiness." Maybe you have a brave character with a heart of gold named "Leon" meaning "Lion." These are both European names of course, so how about Japanese names?

Maybe your character likes the ocean. You can name him "Kaito," with "Kai" meaning "Sea, Ocean." Your OC is a florist? Name her Momoka, "Momo" meaning "Hundred" and "Ka" meaning "Flower," depending on the kanji.

Of course, there are also ways of creating meaningful Japanese names from scratch that are much more reliable than naming your scary character "Frighten ing." I'd be happy to go into those methods for anyone that's interested! I am very interested!