Creative Fail no Jutsu

[tj_dragonblade]

I'm pondering names for this Goujun archive thingy, and I'm coming up rather dull and boring for the most part. I was going to do a poll and solicit votes, but...really, I haven't got anything yet worth voting on. Soo. Instead, I'm soliciting ideas for names.

Ideally we're going for something not too generic (white_dragons is already taken anyway, ahaha ^_^;) but also maybe not too specific to Goujun because there may be Hakuryuu linking going on in the future. Or not. Totally open to more Goujun-centric naming if there's something good to be thought up. I shy away from things like seikai_ryuuou or long_wang (and I'd want someone to back up my other-than-English there anyway), on account of not wanting to tie up the names if future persons might want them for Goujun RP journals. And Nightwish fans have pretty well covered most variations of the term 'oceansoul' that I've tried though I wonder if a comm can have the same name as a user...? Am I the only one who finds 'Ocean Soul' an apt concept/description for Goujun? Bad idea because it's more likely to say 'Nightwish' than 'Goujun'? Does oceansoul translate neatly/concisely into Japanese? >_< I shouldn't go there, I know, but I wonder.

So, thus far, I'm coming up with stuff like goujun_n_jiipu or saiyuki_dragons (meh), dragon_library (never mind, it's taken), dragon_archive (dreadfully generic), etc.

haku_ryuu? ^_^;; Is it even linguistically proper to split the name like that?
western_ocean or thewesternocean? the_western_sea? seikai_archives ?*headdesk*

Grr. Argh. Suggestions? I have nothing to offer in the way of incentive excepting due props on the info-page and my heartfelt gratitude. ^_^;

Restrictions - comm names can't exceed 15 characters and can only be letters, numbers, and underscores.

Comments

[ao-jun.livejournal.com]

Hmm... well, "long wang" in Japanese is rendered as "Ryuu-Oh," so there's that. However, if you wish to add my little earth-bound alter ego, the "Ocean Soul" does not seem to work very well, as he's never been to the ocean that I'm aware. We'd be more likely rendered "Surf and Turf" or "Sea and Sand." Or even, dare I say, "Queues and Kyuus."
*winces at his own joke*

Of course, there's the usual concepts, like "Dragon's Gate," "Dragon Well," "Double Dragon," "Dragon Tales," "Dragon Song,""Empire of the Dragon." Or "Dragon Dance," "Dragon's Pearl," "Dragon's Flight," "Dragon Eye," or even "Dragon's Keep." "Two Dragon Inn." "Dragon Mountain." "Celestial Dragon." "Dragon Roll," though that seems less dragon-related and more based on thin slices of avocado.

*rubs his chin*

What about "Honor and Motor Oil?"

*shakes head* No... to be honest, the only name I find interesting at this point is rather obscure; Only I Know the Story. It comes from Chapter 18 of Gaiden; those are the words of the dragon king himself.

[deathlike.livejournal.com]

Dragon Wheels? Dragon Ball is long taken by Toriyama Akira. Chinese-Japanese Shinto Myth based on Ryuujin (Dragon God) if is not taken: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABjin

[soliandxpyne.livejournal.com]

Ooh, okay... hmm. this the best suggestion i could come up with, what do you think?

Shades_of_White

[thefacelessevil.livejournal.com]

Dragon Balls.

HARR HARR HARR

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Is it only my age that made me do the same at long_wang?

I see no reason not to split haku and ryuu, though if you want to be technical about it: words aren't separated in a Japanese text, no, though they are in early readers for, say, six year olds. I don't think the Japanese wouldn't mentally split hakuryuu if the kanji are read haku and ryuu, the 'Chinese' readings, because that's a noun. They would if you used the Japanese readings, shiroi tatsu, but then you'd need some hiragana in there.

BUT (classic workaround, if you want it) there's a writing style in Japanese, kanbun- 'Chinese writing'. It's grave and classical and was once used for monument inscriptions. It involves using only kanji without hiragana, reading characters with their 'Chinese' readings, and putting the words in Chinese sentence order. (This is why Japanese kids have to be taught how to read it-- it's a high school course.) Haku ryuu is perfectly reasonable if the words come from a classic kanbun text. And as bronzetigress says, we're (cough) gaijin, with our own English rules on these things.

And it covers all your options. Fannishly, Hakuryuu is a proper name, while haku ryuu is what Goujun is. It's functional and means something to people in this fandom. It's just not terribly catchy or poetic.

But the best I can think of (within 15 characters) is claws_and_gears- and that assumes future Jiip stories included. Though I think you'll need them, seeing the trouble kyuuuu has run into with its 'no Goujun stories' rule.

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

Is it only my age that made me do the same at long_wang?

Probably not. ^_^ I had a little snicker over it myself.

And Jiip stories are already getting included just by virtue of how many fics blend the lines between Goujun and Jiipu, so...yeah. He'll probably be properly archived in the future.

[bronzetigress.livejournal.com]

haku_ryuu? ^_^;; Is it even linguistically proper to split the name like that?

I don't see why not (have some salt; I'm not even close to an expert). From what I know/have found, Japanese actually has no spaces, anyway; those are a convention imposed on transliterations by speakers of other languages so that we can figure out where the individual words and parts of speech start and stop. Thus, technically, there is no difference between "haku ryuu" and "hakuryuu" (just like it isn't correct OR incorrect to separate Wufei/Wu Fei's name) that I'm aware of, since it would be written the same way in the Japanese. It's only us gaijin that separate it (or not).