User blog:Takeshi kun21/What is your Name?: Guide to Naming Your RWBY OC

So, after watching a few episodes of RWBY, you said to yourself, "Hey I wanna make my own RWBY character too!" and started designing away. You get the concept for their appearance, weapon, Semblance, etc. yet there's still one important factor that you can't figure out. What is your OC's name?

If you're one of those people who need a small push in the right direction of creating a nice, unique name that stands out to people, then look no further.

''**Do note that this is just a bit of friendly advice for those who believe they're lacking in creativity for their own characters. If you feel offended in anyway for some reason, as though I'm saying you have a grand lack of originality, please don't be.''

What is a Name?
First off, let me go ahead and define the meaning of the word name. It is what you're called, what people will know you by and refer to you as. In other words, it is one key thing that identifies who you are.

Names are very important to character creation, as you want them to stand out in some sort of way, make them appeal to whatever you audience you're looking for. A name like "John Smith" is something so common anyone can think of and brings me straight  to yawn city.

You want to draw attention to your character, make people interested at looking at the page to so lovingly created for them. Your OC is your very own child you want to share with the world.

Color Naming Rule
As we are the RWBY Fanon, you can't make a RWBY character without following the Color Naming Rule. This is the one mandatory law, created by Monty Oum himself, that the fandom must follow in order to be considered a legit RWBY OC. Every single character, except for Professor Ozpin who is exempt from the rule (information given by Monty himself as well), in Canon does follow this rule.

To simplify, a character must be: Pretty simple right? Let's just slap a color into our already existing name. WRONG! Changing your character's name from "Bob Johnson" to "Bob Green" or just adding a color in for the middle name (like Mary Blue Jacobs) doesn't necessarily make the cut.
 * A color.
 * Something that sounds like a color.
 * Means a color.
 * Makes you think of a color.

Why you might ask? Well, for starters,  the CNR applies to the first and/or whole name. An example of the first name only would be, Jaune Arc, where Jaune is Yellow in French. The whole name scenario is used with our male news reporter, currently in name only, Cyril Ian, which is essentially a corruption of the color Cerulean. Then for first and last name, we have Ruby Rose, where a ruby is a red gem, and rose is a red plant as well as a color. All of these examples cover the first point of the CNR.

CNR in Canon
There is another piece of evidence as to why the rule must apply to the first name. In the episode Field Trip, Ozpin gives the students from various campuses a speech that informs everyone about a war that destroyed forms of art, self-expression, and individuality. To oppose this form of tyranny, it became a trend to name your child after one aspect of art itself: color. The tradition isn't just a Vale thing, it's the whole planet.

'But, what about characters such as Lisa Lavender, or James Ironwood? don't they only have references in their last names? Lisa isn't a color!'

Yes, from first glance we can see that Lavender fits the color rule as well as iron and wood, but their first names also fit the ruling as well. Lisa, actually has an old relation to the lily flower (white in most cases); while it may not be an actual color, it still follows point 4 of the CNR. James is derived from Jacob which means "holder of the heel " (heel of a human foot, or crusty ends of a loaf of bread), and this meaning also follows point 4 of the CNR.

'So, I'll just name my character "Black Jones." How about that?'

While it is acceptable, it technically isn't IMO. It's a lazy way to try and get by the rule because no thought was put into it whatsoever. The whole RWBY crew spent loads of time coming up with interesting names from various origins that fit color, as well as a certain theme for the character. Neo, or rather Neopolitian is based off of the ice cream that comes in the three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry and her appearance shows that aspect off well. Pyrrha has a Greek origin in her name ("first name meaning flame-colored", and last name meaning "victory of the people") and her overall appearance as well as her skill in battle compliment this name greatly.

Ask yourself, would you want to watch RWBY, or any show for that matter if they were blandly named Black Jones, Fire Storm, Milk Tea, or Pink Smith? Names are unique. Be creative!

Research
Now, you may be discouraged, thinking at this point, "Man this is gonna be one of the hardest things to do," after being thrown with the specifics and such. Don't tear your brains out or give up completely just because you think you might have to start over right away. Before instantly crossing off your name off the list completely, first do a little research, look up the meaning of the name in question either by This helpful website, or your choice of search engine.

Let's say you wanted to scrap the name "Blaine" as you just thought it sounded cool for a moment. With a little bit of effort, you'll find out it's a Scottish surname meaning Yellow.

If you named a character Brandy, you'll know it also has a color allusion after some quick searching. Brandy is a type of alcoholic beverage from a Dutch word meaning "burnt wine". For this meaning you have wine, coming as a clear or red liquid.

Final Remarks
So with all this being said, you now have a few tips and resources on naming your RWBY OC. This guide is mainly helpful for those who want to "just get by" and find a good color reference without trying to tie the name and character to a certain theme they might have in mind (which can be much more difficult).

If there is anything that should be added or touched up upon, just let me know and I'll see what else I can add in. Thanks for the read, and have fun with your naming process!