Yes of course Tolkien is an almost unending source of cool names. Did you know that all the names and languages in his book are not just some things he jotted down and used? Every name in every language has an etymology which is consistent with the other names, i.e. if you encounter the same phrase in two different names, they have the same root. I have a very interesting book on the languages of Middle Earth by someone called Ruth Noel with complete grammars and explanations and dictionaries, but unfortunately I just moved and don't have it here right now. However, anyone who's interested can e-mail me. This way you could create your own names which would actually have meaning and aren't just some random gibberish. For example, Quenya is based on Finnish and almost every word in Tolkien has it's root in some Indo-Germanic or other European Language. Did you know that Wormtongue is actually an Old English word meaning deceptive liar?
Some more sources for names (in case you were wondering where I got 'em):
The Gilgamesh epic (for Summerian names)
Beowulf (Danish/Germanic names)
Malory's Morte D'arthur (Arthurian names)
Fantasy novels
Shakespeare/Marlowe plays
Believe it or not: fairy tales (and I don't mean something like Cinderella but actual folk tales)
Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Chinese, Norse, Celtic, Roman, Sumerian mythology
Whoever comes up with the most interesting original name gets...uh I don't know actually, we'll have to discuss that later
|