Random name generation

[davidn]

Right, so apparently my clever random name generation routine doesn't produce quite as convincing results as I had first imagined. Perhaps I'll just say that we're recording information for obscure Aztec deities.

Comments

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

It seems to favour the letters that many people don't seem to fit most human names. Why are there so many Q's and X'es?

This reminds me of Nuit Blanche a few years back, City Hall had this 4-Letter system (http://vimeo.com/6915111) that would generate "words" like XEWE, CILA and PAYE, occasionally actually spelling out a real 4-letter word. After a few minutes, I discovered it used the consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel method you're using here.

[davidn]

I had thought that that was the best template to get something pronounceable - it appears that that isn't necessarily a guarantee of it sounding remotely human :)

I'm not sure why there seem to be so many of the rare letters either, but it's possible that we just notice them much more when they're weighted evenly, rather than in a tiny fraction of words compared to 'T's, 'N's and 'S's.

I haven't even used them once in this reply, and under the rules I used here, they have as much chance of appearing as any other consonant.