Naming Things

tim-cain narrative-design naming worldbuilding game-development fallout arcanum outer-worlds

Abstract

Problem: How should game developers approach the massive task of naming everything in their games — places, characters, items, spells, technologies — and what separates good names from bad ones?

Approach: Tim Cain draws on his experience naming things across Fallout, Arcanum, and The Outer Worlds, plus memorable failures from other media like Babylon 5 and The Matrix.

Findings: Good names must fit the genre, match the tone of dialogue, and avoid excessive real-world connotations. Generic "adjective + noun" names work in moderation but create a bland, genre-agnostic feel when overused. Brainstorming sessions anchored by reference material from the target genre produce the best results.

Key insight: A name should immediately evoke the genre and tone of your game — if someone hears the name out of context and can't guess the genre, it's too generic.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSKr1T_VsvU

Tim's Relationship with Names

Tim opens with a candid admission: he's terrible at remembering proper names in real life — friends, colleagues, actors, movies, songs. He suspects he may have anomic aphasia, a condition that makes it difficult to recall proper names. Despite this, he's created countless names across his career in game development.

Who Named What in Fallout

Tim didn't name much in the original Fallout. Most naming credit goes to Scott Campbell, the original designer, who came up with locations like Junktown, the Hub, and the Glow very early in development. Tim may have named "The Vault" but isn't sure about anything else.

The name Fallout itself came from Brian Fargo during a brainstorming session when the team couldn't decide among their options.

SPECIAL and Fallout 2

Tim recalls the SPECIAL stat system — he initially thought it spelled "a lips" (ALIPS) until someone suggested the arrangement that spelled SPECIAL. For Fallout 2, he came up with The Den, short for "the den of iniquity," which he considered clever.

Arcanum: Coming Into His Own

Tim says he truly found his naming stride with Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. He named a huge number of things:

  • The subtitle itself ("Steamworks and Magick Obscura")
  • Locations: Tarant, Vendigroth, the Stonewall Range, the Glimmering Forest
  • Items and spells throughout the game

He notes that places like Shrouded Hills and Isle of Despair were not his — and observes that with the exception of "Glimmering Forest," if a place followed the adjective + noun pattern, he probably didn't come up with it.

Examples of Bad Names

Tim shares two names from popular media that broke immersion for him:

Za'ha'dum (Babylon 5)

When the show revealed that the Shadows came from the planet Za'ha'dum, Tim literally laughed out loud while watching live. A friend pointed out it was borrowed from Lord of the Rings (Khazad-dûm), but Tim's objection was more fundamental: the name didn't fit the genre or tone of Babylon 5. It felt wrong for the setting.

Zion (The Matrix)

When The Matrix revealed the underground human city was called Zion, Tim paused the movie. He understood the intended meaning — a holy, guarded, secret place — but the name carries so much real-world religious and cultural connotation that it drags baggage into a world that has nothing to do with it. The connotations overwhelm the fiction.

Recommendations for Naming

Study Your Genre

Before naming anything, identify your genre (sci-fi, fantasy, cyberpunk, post-nuclear, etc.) and research names from that space:

  • Movies, books, tabletop RPGs, and other video games in the same genre
  • Write down the names you like
  • This gives you a target space — a feel for what names in your genre sound like

Use Brainstorming Sessions

Hold group brainstorming sessions with reference examples. Show people the names you've collected and say "I want names like this." Tim loves brainstorming sessions for naming.

Avoid Over-Relying on "Adjective + Noun"

Names like "Shrouded Hills" or "Roseway" aren't bad — Tim thinks both sound nice. But the problem is they're genre-agnostic. If you heard "Shrouded Hills" in isolation, you couldn't guess whether it belongs in a fantasy RPG, a sci-fi game, or a horror novel. They work for filling out a map, but shouldn't dominate your naming scheme.

Match Names to Dialogue Tone

If your narrative designers have established a tone for how characters speak, names must follow suit. Tim illustrates with a fantasy example:

  • ✅ "Thou must go to the Tomb of Decay and find the evil Necromancer"
  • ❌ "Thou must travel to the Glowy Tomb and take on the Super Rad Necromancer"

Names that clash with the established speech patterns create dissonance for players.

Names Should Signal Genre

All names in a game should come from the same conceptual space and collectively point toward the genre. A few generic names are fine, but if most names are generic, "you've got a problem."

A Personal Request

Tim ends with a plea: can the industry please retire the name "Cain" (and its variations) as a character name? He acknowledges it gets attention (given his own surname), but he's made a whole video about being over it.

References