How did Brian Jaques come up with his names?

[Jack the Quick]

I was just reading another redwall book when I thought of something. How did BJ come up with all his names (especially the villains)?  There's so many, and I can't think of many others. I don't really expect anyone to know, but I figured that some of you might know, especially you fan fiction writers.

[Sebias of Redwall]

Well, some of them have certain meanings in Latin and such... Like Abbot Mortimer. Also, I think he used a lot of British names...

[The Grey Coincidence]

No, I think Brian had a deep understanding of language.
Rollo is a medieval english name-not many Rollos present nowadays.
Mathias is also a medieval name
I think he used common names quite a bit
For vermin he gave them harsh-sounding ones or combined two words...
Others he gave semi-made up names. Think Chib.

[Hazelsqueak]

I think he simply gave the characters names that fit their looks/personalities.

[The Grey Coincidence]

Tsarmina is a play on Tsarina/Tsar - Russian Monarchs
A wolverine is scientifially called Gulo Gulo- hence Gulo the savage
But yeah, generally harsh sounding stuff. Lots of k's, g's and stuff.

[The Skarzs]

There was a mid-episode featurete in which Brian talked about this. He would think of names sometimes that would describe the person, especially vermin, things like Damfur, Chopsnout, Cheesethief, and so on. For good beasts, obviously they would be nice names. There are lots of real names through the series, but also a lot of made up ones.

[Sebias of Redwall]

And for some of the vermin it was for what they looked like; Like Plumnose.

[Captain Tammo]

Brian did a lot of word-play, like what the others said above. For example, he chose Mariel because he thought it sounded like a bell - a great name for the bellmaker's daughter! Asmodeus was taken from a list of names associated with the devil, and it had a good number of 'S' for a villainous snake. Methuselah was said to be an extremely ancient and wise man; it matches the character in Redwall nicely! Or Tammello de Fformello Tussock being the greatest name ever (in my perfectly unbiased opinion ) incorporates "tussock," which is a word describing a particularly long, thick and verdant patch of grass

Other times, Brian would use letters that gave hard sounds or had weight to them: Korvus Skurr; Gabool; Lask; Ublaz; Damug; etc...

One idea was to start with a root word in some language, then add or take away letters until something stuck. For example, to tag onto what the others said:

• Tsar (title of the old Russian monarchs) --> Tsarmina
• Bad --> Badrang
• Left-handed --> (Italian translation) Sinistra
• *drum sounds* --> Rubbadub

It's pretty fun looking at some of the fanfics people write on the forum. You can see a lot of how people try to replicate or put their own unique twist on these sorts of things. It's pretty fun!

[Jack the Quick]

Thanks! All of this really helped with my name generators!

[LordTBT]

Some of the bad guys' names are reasonably obvious (Redtooth, Darkckaw, Bladetail), but how do you come up with the other names, like Romsca, Ferahgo, Slagar, Ublaz, and Lask Frildur?
I spend a long time thinking of names that sound bad or mean. I play with words and shuffle them until something feels right. Hard sounds like k and g and x and z often do the trick.

How do you think of names for characters? I try to write stories (not always Redwall stories), but have trouble thinking of names for characters.
Many are made up from anagrams of people I know, and others just sound like the character to me. Some, of course, are real names for the animals that they are given to, but in other languages: Plumpen for instance is the Dutch word for Dormouse.