As I wandered through my links the other day, I thought about how often I use various sites and thought I might share them with others. Some of them are uber specific to certain stories I've written, but I've included them in case they are useful to someone else.



CHARACTER NAMES:

Behind the Name (the best place for names, has all sorts of stuff on there, including being able to search by theme like names with red meanings or names with fire meanings and a random name generator.)

Behind the Surname (a sister site to the above, concentrating on surnames. Not as extensive, but still useful.)

Parenthood.com (enter the name and they'll tell you the meaning, enter the meaning and they'll give you names with that meaning. Includes tons of variations and unusual names.)

Kate Monk (a fantastic resource of names from all over the world, including surnames, variations, medieval and aboriginal names. No meanings, but good if you're just looking for a name for a certain era or region.)

Ancestry.Ca (type in a surname and they'll give you the meaning and origin of it)

Pet Names (as in 'sugar, darling, sweetheart', etc, not names for animals. I sometimes have trouble finding the right pet names to be used by characters, so it's helpful in giving a few options.)

Fantasy Names (what it says on the tin: names for fantasy characters or creatures)




LANGUAGES:

Chinese Annotation Tool (paste Chinese characters into it and it will tell you the meaning of those characters. Also has a Chinese<=>English dictionary and a place to translate Western names into Chinese.)

Chinese Phrases (at a Firefly fansite. Useful phrases in Latin letters with translations.)

Word Reference.com (an EXCELLENT dictionary that translates to and from English, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian. Includes slang and idioms/phrases. Also includes forums where you can ask for help in translating phrases.)

IM Translator (the best instant translator I've found online. Recognizes phrases and slang. Very useful and translates a gazillion languages)

Irish Gaelic Translator (a forum where you can ask for help in translating phrases into Gaelic by speakers of the language.)

Wicktionary Translation Request (another place to request translation help from pretty much any language into any other language.)

Clwb Malu Cachu ( a resource for Welsh useful phrases.)

Romany Language & Culture (a glossary of the language and culture of the Romany [Gypsy] people.)



DIALECTS AND SLANG

IDEA (The International Dialects of English Archive. Has recordings of various accents around the world, sorted by regions. I find it very helpful in getting a feel for how a character from a certain region would talk.)

How ta Tawk Rite (a lexicon of New Orleans slang and terminology)

The Cajun Dialect (Cajun words and slang, with wav files.)

Kiwi Words and Phrases (New Zealand slang)

South African Slang (Wiki's article on it.)



FACTS & INFO

Height to Weight Ratios (lists various heights and the low/target/high weights that the average person would have.)

Glossary of Nautical Terms (what it says on the tin.)

Nautical References (has diagrams of old ships and shows what all the parts are called.)

U.S Military Alphabet (another straightforward one. Also has military police radio codes.)

End-Stage Landmarks (an excellent resource for what signs a person who is dying of brain cancer might demonstrate near death.)

Symptoms Checker (input symptoms and it gives you a probable diagnoses. Good for if you want a character to be sick, but not sure what illness to give them.)



GENERATORS, TOOLS & REFERENCES

The Page of Generators (a HUGE resource of generators from plots to names to places to pairings, it's great for background things you don't want to think to hard on or for inspiration.)

Free Online Spellchecker (you can also manipulate text into all caps, all lower case or all proper case.)

The Alphabetizer (does a lot of neat tricks as well as alphabetizing a list.)

Dictionary.Com (an online dictionary and thesaurus, which I frequent regularly.)

RhymeZone. (a rhyming dictionary.)