12 February 2008

The Everchanging Book of Names

This little tool has been mentioned before on YWO, but I think it deserves a good look. This is possibly one of the best tools I've ever come across for writing.

Where can you find it?
Here! Everything you need to know about the program is on that site, including addons, etc.

So, what is EBoN?
The Everchanging Book of Names is a random name generator, only it's better than that. It's a name generator that comes with 'chapters' or alternate languages not only from real life, but from Tolkien's works and various other writers and fantasy worlds. So what? I've already got a random name generator!
What makes it better than other random name generator is that it isn't entirely random. Yes, the names are generated at random, but depending on the 'chapter' you use you'll get varying result. Why? Because each 'chapter' has its own set of rules that it must follow to produce the names. You'll never see Bob in two different languages unless that name would exist in both languages (so, in the case of Japanese and English, you'd never see Bob in the former).
Additionally, you can actually edit the settings that EBoN uses to determine names. You can affect how many consonants or vowels are used, etc., giving you a huge variety of names in one language set. Most likely you'll not mess with that, but if you wanted to get really trick you could!
What about those addons you talked about?
Well, the great thing about having a product like EBoN available to the public without a lot of security garbage protecting things is that users can make their own 'chapters'. The result is that you can find on the website all sorts of languages that don't initially come with the software. Some users have their own languages that they've uploaded and others have worked out the languages of writers or fantasy worlds like Warhammer or D&D. This means that you could end up with a whole lot of different options to come up with names!

How much is it?
Well, technically it's shareware, but the great thing about the program is that you can still use its amazing features without registering. Here is the downside: you can only generate five names at a time with most 'chapters' (these chapters are 'locked'). But all you have to do to get another five names is reload the 'chapter'. That's it!
However, if you want to pay for the software and use all its features, including the ability to generate 100 names instantly, among other features, then it's a mere $10 USD (or you can pay for it in other currencies too).

So, if you need a good tool to come up with names, this is it! Check it out, give it a try, and you'll see how useful it is!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The geek in me loves this program. Not only do I get cool names from it, but I get to program it to give cooler ones. *Sigh*