I agree with Thucy's vote on Johannes Godfrey - it's more medieval

yes agree. i agree with all names heretofore barring an objection

hereafter*

Reposting the list above my ideas just to keep it on the recent pages:
Selina Dawes
Byron Fitzgerald
Faustus Domitius
Johannes Godfrey OR Nicolas Bennett

Unknown modern woman
Unknown future scientist
Unknown future sidekick

I really like the Tacitus name for the Roman personally, but I can live with what's there. I preferred Nicolas Bennett, but perhaps instead of Godfrey, Goddard?

As for future/modern names, heres a few I've thought up:
Amelya
Frisk
Taylon
Candon
Xender
Grav
For a modern name, maybe Danielle, Naomi, or Juliana?
Also, I don't do to well with last names, but I'll come up with some in a later post.

Solo writing is crazy hard. Collaborative writing can be excruciating. I wish the best to everyone involved in this project.

@Ges - thanks friend. Hopefully you'll be able to enjoy the outcome.

I like Johannes Goddard. I also noticed that Muench is a German name meaning monk... Something to think about. Perhaps Johannes Goddard Muench. After all, real historical criminals have commonly had three names. John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald come to mind.

Sounds good to me! I like it.

I'm thinking no one else went with the Devon name that you suggested earlier. I like Warden's suggestion of Danielle. Any thoughts there Draugnar?

I'm good with any modern but not overused name. Danielle, Devon, Alyssa... Just not Brianna (Banks) or Lexi (Steele) or Ginger (Lynn) or Amber (Lynn). Let's avoid the porn star names. :-) Or embrace them and name a character after a porn star (or at least somethihng suggestive like Fleming's Pussy Galore, Mary Goodnight, and Moneypenny).

How about Danielle Shapiro? That last name means 'pretty' in Hebrew according to behindthename.com. They didn't have one that meant smart or intelligent. We could make her be of jewish decent (but not active)

I see that you suggested Agnes Obel? I can't handle the name Agnes for our smart modern girl - always reminds me of the nosy 'stupid' neighbor on the Bewitched series.

Ahhh, you were suggesting it for the music thread, LOL. Now pie is in MY face. Doh! =P

yeah agnes = old lady.

danielle shapiro is good. case closed.

i understand that this is important to you guys but this is like... funny.

we dont even really NEED to come up with surnames if we just never say them..

But Shapiro has taken on a different connotation since the OJ trial and Robert Shapiro...

Amelia, Melody, River <grin>. Of course, Danielle Sharp could also work.

We might have a need to say them at some point, especially early on or if one of our characters has a quirk and likes to use last names. Something like "Sharp! Get you cute little butt over here and figure this out!"

ah that is a nice one draug sharp because, you know, shes sharp

I like "Sharp", that works. Thucy - it is VERY important to fully develop your characters in all context before you get into writing. You need to KNOW them inside and out, their names, family life, education, personality, fears, likes and dislikes. That's how you portrait the full complete character that people can either love or hate (as you want them to) instead of being static. This is actually EXTREMELY important and... yes, they will be used here or there.

Yeah. Obvious, but sometimes those work well.

I was thinking the same thing, sometimes the name is the best subtle description of who she is.

oh im all for a complete character profile.

i just.. i dunno. why dont we just appoint FA the name master and just go with what he makes up? speeds it up

LOL! True. Then he can dish out the names for us to flesh out the character backgrounds. But I do enjoy having some input into the names.

"My name is B..."
"Names is for tombstones, baby. Y'all take this honkey out and WASTE HIM! NOW!"

Thanks for the vote of confidence Thucy, but as you can see our collaborative efforts have come up with some pretty awesome combinations for the characters. We're nearly done now.

Selina Dawes - Victorian age - late teens/early 20s - spoiled 'princess' who is self-conscious of her own shortcomings

Faustus Domitius - Roman soldier - early 20s - strongman brute - acts before thinking

Johannes Goddard - medieval monk - mid-40s - looking to do God's work, steals the machine to accomplish that

Byron Fitzgerald - modern day African American male – early/mid 20s – ex-ghetto cleaned up to try and make a career in the hotel business. Enjoys reading, learning and rapping

Danielle Sharp - modern day female - late 20s/early 30s - paralegal working towards law degree, uses logic above emotion making her emotionally detached from others due to a father who skipped out on her as a young girl

All that’s left are the two ‘future’ people. Any further ideas?

Actually, I meant to change Danielle to mid/late 20s, sorry.

Johannes Goddard Muench, right?

Ahh, yes. My apologies, Johannes Goddard Muench is correct.

Yes:

Future sidekick is a man in his late thirties who has always wanted to do something great with his life, but never though he would - his personal life had been notably lacking and he poured himself into science.

His superior - a woman in her late 40s who was widely respected for her work in physics but had not had any career breakthroughs in several years or even more than a decade. She only took up the time travel possibility she had because of a friend's urging. She is killed by Johannes Goddard.

Also we really need to decide where this thing is happening - Goddard is an English name, is our monk some kind of German/English freak hybrid?

Also, this would be the most believable set up I think, stick with me for a second:

Johannes would know WHERE he wants to go, so that wouldn't change. What he would mess up is the when.

Thus, we basically need to come up with a common location where all our accidental stowaways are. Italy, perhaps, but anywhere in the Roman Empire would be plausible.

Furthermore this location should have some kind of significance to Johannes as a place where history must or should be changed.

We also want it to be a setting we are comfortable with in the ___th Century where they ultimately end up.

NOTE this place we have chosen does not have to be the place the scientists originally visit, since the machine presumably also moves in space. It does however have to be close enough that a monk living in the other area would still care about what happens in the ultimate setting.

For example, I would not be terrible convinced if the monk in English and the scientists visit England but then he decides the most important thing for him to do is to go to the Balkans. Not buying it. France or Spain or Rome at the furthest extremity. See what I mean?

I like Warden's suggestion of 'Canden' as the sidekick, but then again Thucy mentioned 'Phylos' which is also interesting. Personally, I want to stay a little more grounded in reality with the names though so I vote 'Canden'

Canden Burquet, Canden McVinly, Canden Rotterheim

Any thoughts about that?

Remember that around that time, English and German were extremely closely related languages so a German monk could easily have had an 'English' name.

Go for it First Apple Canden sounds good.

I know they were related languages and all, but really, Goddard is to me like Campbell - a thoroughbred English name. Maybe I'm wrong but didn't we have a more Germany name earlier?