I was recently reading Way of the Devil again, and one glaring point in that novel is just how bad the MC is at naming things. And this honestly seems to be a reoccurring thing, I can't even count how many times a pet has been named Little *****. So I figured that I'd ask you all what your favorite names in various novels. Please list what type of skill it is and what novel it's from. I'll start with a few: Single move- Transcending the Nine Heavens- Why Not Slaughter the World? Cultivation Technique- Soverign of the Three Realms- Secrets of the Nine Laughing Oceans Sect Name- Martial God Asura- Crippling Night Demon Sect Daoist Title- Desolate Era- Ninedeaths Movement Skill- True Martial World- Golden Crow Sun Shift Edit: Please keep in mind that this is completely about the name, not the objects themselves.
Some of the pet/companions from World of Cultivation have creative names: Tenth Grade, Sunshine Some don't...(lil pagoda and fire, I'm looking at you) Honestly I don't usually remember the names of cultivation techniques and moves, because a lot of xianxia MCs collect them faster than me trying to fill a pokedex. I actually really liked the name of the Violet Fate Sect from I Shall Seal the Heavens. Other than that, nothing really comes to mind.
The novel with the some of the most ridiculous names I've ever seen has got to be Sage Monarch. I mean the name of the cultivation technique used by the protagonist is "Strength of the Hell Crushing God Mammoth" and that is tame compared to other techniques that have been introduced later on. Honestly reading that novel I'm like 90% sure it was written as a parody of the xianxia genre, than anything serious.
If it is sheer impact when reading the story, then the top spot for names goes to Linley's statue from Coiling Dragon - 'Awakening from a dream'. In terms of names that are impactful as is, my favorite is from Bleach - 'Getsuga Tenshou' - "Heaven piercing fang / Piercer of heavens", the sheer audacity of that name second from naruto - 'Shira Tensei' / 'Banshou Tennin', cuz sound so cool when pain says or rather screams it in japanese and third place would be from nurarihyon - 'Hyakki yagyo' - Night parade of a hundred demons. Chinese technique names are really not memorable, especially after you have read many CN, it becomes repeated after a while. Korean Novels - Bl****d Lancer is the most memorable Job class as well as the most ingenious one from Everyone else is Returnee, And finally a special mention for the most bone chilling name courtesy of Mahouka kouko no rettousei, the title given to the MC by his enemies - "Mahesvara" - God of Destruction. You will need to read the chapter to know how damn awesome it was.
In this i like the begin of Martial World. In the first sect Lin Ming go, when the power level of the world is still ultra low, there are a lot of absurdly named skills displayed for pick after initial entrance, and the own MC says: “bullshit names, what‘s the point in grandious names for shallow skills?”, and then he ended picking “basic spear skill” and “basic movement skill”. One of the most reasonable moments of a xianxia novel.
I recognize the that the Chinese alphabet with over 3000 characters is a really flowery language where characters can have various meanings depending on context. Words are constructed from meaning described by characters so there is little to no equivalent in English. It usually comes out as multiple english words that make it sound like the author was trying to be impressive, but falls flat. Maybe if translators didn't always to find an english equivalent and just left it at romanization, they'd come off as exotic and cool like Getsuga Tenshou or any of the technique names in Naruto. My favorite: Reverend Insanity: Reverse Flow Protection Seal.
In the novel Immortal Executioner or Zhanxian, he got a few things from the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord. One was a pill concoction technique and it was named <Elderly Gentleman's Pill Arts>, or just Old Guy's Pill Journal. The character made a point of thinking how so many people, in order to impress the masses, come up with a showy title. But the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord just named things simply, so it was an amusing departure from the norm.
While not the name of a skill, the most interesting name I have ever come across in a novel (it's been a long while and per Google, it's by Larry Niven) is the name of a huge mountain = Mount Lookatthat
I don’t like harry potter shit much, but i have to give in, latim spell names are a good choice. foreign language names normally give a sense of mistery. Take Bleach for example, arrancar, hueco mundo, vasto lords are kinda of stupid from my point of view (vasto lord is kinda passable in fact), but to a japanese there spanish names surely gibe a sense of unknow. Same for Vaizaed in deutsch language.
九陰真經 - Nine Ying Manual from Legend of the Condor Hero. It's not a martial art per se, but it's a compilation of all sorts of super strong martial arts techniques. This is probably the most popular fictional martial art of all time, and it's the reason why Chinese writers try to come up with cool names for their own inventions. 丐帮 - The Beggars' Sect featured in a lot of books. This is a purely fictional invention, and it's so widespread that I don't even know who invented it. Jin Yong did the most to popularize this group but a ton of other writers like Gu Long also used it prominently. 小無相功 - Small Peerless Art from Demigods and Semi-Devils. This is a inner strength art, and I put it here because I really like the name. 吸星大法 - from Smiling Proud Wanderer. I like the name here because it's so damned hard to translate into English! 任我行 - Ren Woxing from Smiling Proud Wanderer. The name means "Let me do what ever I want to". The naming sense in this book is just incredibly good, and this one is the best of them all! 玉女素心剑法 - Jade Maiden Pure-hearted Sword Art from Return of the Condor Heroes. I love how well this name suits the way this martial art works. Yes, all of these names are from Jin Yong's writing, and no, this is not a coincidence. That's because the names don't translate well into other languages, especially into English. They sound far better and are far more memorable in Chinese. Romanized Chinese, especially using the pinyin system, looks ugly as hell, and it's hard for just about anyone to read. Japanese uses (mostly) regular syllables so it can look memorable when romanized. Chinese, with its tones, doesn't work out so neatly so the result is much worse. Just look at romanized Chinese names: they look terrible even to someone who can read Chinese like me.