My Question for Authors

Thanks to Nerdcon: Stories last fall, I have been part of an audience watching and listening to various authors answer questions about their work and craft. I listened as my fellow seat-mates participated, lamenting my own reluctance to join in. I just didn't have a good question to ask.

I do now.

My question for an author would be: How do you find or create your names?

One of the challenges of the fantasy genre, and high fantasy in particular, is naming. Not only does the author have to create a new world filled with realms and cities, mountain ranges and seas, languages and cultures, but she must fill that created world with newly-christened objects and a world's worth of people.

I've created governments, from macro (for realm and region) to micro (for village, military rank, and a castle).

I've named my main currency and its various lesser denominations.

I'm especially pleased with my names for days of the week and the discovery that those names could be used in other ways. For example, my name for the first day of the week is also my word for dawn and for east and my name for the last day of the week also denotes judgment.

My system of education is simple, but singular.

I've created a few curses and blessings and at least one major spiritual ritual, though the full shape of the religious and spiritual practice of the world is still cloudy in my mind.

I know I need to add more culture-specific figurative language.

But I have found a lot of names.

So now I'm curious how the literary names I've come to love were born.