I want to make a cultivation novel but I don’t know if I should use American or Chinese/Korean names
Should you use American names when you create a cultivation Novel
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Berserk_channel I'll advise you to use either Chinese or Korean names because their culture stick with it better than American which is more urban and modern.
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Let's put it this way.
Kelvin McDonald mastered level 10 of the Nine Yang Divine Energy Formula, and was on his way to reaching the Heavenly Saint Realm.
Gregory McGore executed the Gentle Wave Palm, deflecting his opponent's Iron Soul Fist to the side before redirecting his qi back toward his opponent.
"Courting death!" Courtney Drear screamed as she held her face, which had just been slapped by Harry. "Do you not know of how powerful my Drear Clan is? We have plenty of spirit realm cultivators and elders! My father will hear of this, Potter! How dare you offend and humiliate me! You're dead! I'll make sure your entire family is erased from existence!"
"Trash," Trey sneered as he looked down upon Aaron. "I'll cripple your dantian and destroy your meridians so that you will never cultivate again!"
"Ah, I have finally refined a spirit pill!" Nicholas Fleming declared, holding the mystical elixir that emanated lots of qi. "Look at these amazing yang veins! This is definitely a high-tier xuan pill! I'm glad I'm a saint-level Alchemist! This heavenly medicine will allow me to breakthrough to the Divine Saint's Realm!"
If you think there's absolutely nothing wrong with what has been written above, feel free to use American names.
My story has a Japanese setting so I just use Japanese names. It fits with the story better and it isn't too terribly hard to look up proper names/honorifics. However you're free to use whatever you please, as I'm sure you'll make the best choice regarding that decision.
Either or.
While American names make less sense as Tomoyuki points out in her examples it beats throwing together random names without knowing what they mean. I mean take a Chinese name that might mean Bright Lotus when translated... yet the name is assigned to some big burly savage guy.
Its why its suggested not to try and use such names when doing cultivation novels, but yes just using George, Bob, Timmy for their names is equally unimmersive unless you put them in a modern day America cultivator setting.
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Darth_Xiane I am not a "her." I'm a guy.
Also such problems can be easily solved by doing research. Most professional writers do a lot of research before writing a story. Best to make it a habit.
succulentgumbo and even then there is a lot of people who is it wrong : /
Whoops sorry 
Honestly it is fine, cultivation might be more of a Chinese thing but it doesn't mean if it suddenly became available to the whole world that people of other countries and cultures would be like "nah, I don't want to be stronger or be immortal because this method doesn't fit my culture". Given an American may be more likely to choose an American equivalent of multiple systems pop up, but if there is only one system that everyone has to use it isn't weird for an American to practice something related Chinese culture.
Though if you aren't using earth or a fictional counter-part of earth it depends on the world, like if the world is a Victorian setting with cultivation a Chinese name would be more odd due to the setting.
Honestly it is fine, cultivation might be more of a Chinese thing but it doesn't mean if it suddenly became available to the whole world that people of other countries and cultures would be like "nah, I don't want to be stronger or be immortal because this method doesn't fit my culture". Given an American may be more likely to choose an American equivalent of multiple systems pop up, but if there is only one system that everyone has to use it isn't weird for an American to practice something related Chinese culture.
Though if you aren't using earth or a fictional counter-part of earth it depends on the world, like if the world is a Victorian setting with cultivation a Chinese name would be more odd due to the setting.
Berserk_channel As Tomoyuki pointed out, american names will sound weird if the story is not set on the U.S. but that doesn't mean that you need to use chinese names. My story is set on an western fantasy setting, so all the names are western too such as John, Westbrook, Rochdale, etc. Just make sure that all the names fit with the setting.
fantasynamegenerator is a great tool for that, and I like to use the Westeros generator for most of my character names, while fantasy town generator and northern american town generator for place names.
If you absolutely need to use chinese names, then leave them untraslated. Kamehameha, for example, may sound a little weird, but it's much better than Turtle Destruction Wave. And yes, I know that this is a Japanese name. I couldn't think of any chinese one from the top of my head. Moving on.
As also pointed out in a post above, the usual cultivation terms will sound weird, so you'll also need to adapt them. "Edward training on the Frosty Ying Imperial technique to become an Heavenly Body expert" doesn't sounds as good as "Edward training his body to become a Paladin." Instead of an evil blood cultivator, you have a Heresiarch. Rather than a "cultivation pill made of concentrated qi", you can change it to "mana potion."
Finally, if you want a good example of a work using westen names, then you can read Coiling Dragon right here on webnovel. Another good example, not free though, is the Craddle Series by Will Wight.
In a western fantasy setting, even modern names cannot be used. It will be too modern too and don't sound nice...
Tomoyuki
You, dear sir, are legendary. That post certainly was an eye-opener. Lovely indeed.
I like stupidly simple names that just repeat the first and last name like chen chen. What a stupidly easy name to remember LOL
