Name a Spider
I’d like to announce the winner of the Name a Spider contest that I ran on Facebook back in March! I had meant to announce the results along time ago, but was neck-deep in edits for Dragon Rift, my latest book. Then I launched Dragon Rift at Armageddon, and life went crazy with Easter and visitors and running my writing business and publishing the NZ Youth Laureate Award winners, and suddenly… its’ May!
I mean, May? How did that happen?
The Challenge was:
I need a cool fantasy name for a venomous spider as big as a dinner plate. Any ideas?
What I’m looking for is a fantasy species name, so a fantasy name that shows it’s a huge, dangerous spider. i.e.: a species name – bitten by a/an xxx spider. This is for Dragon Rift, the 3rd book in Riders of Fire, a dragon rider medieval fantasy series… go for it! I’ll name you and call out your genius in my acknowledgements!!
The Results
You all came up with such fantastic names! Now I’ll have to write another novel full of awesome spider characters. That’s the problem with being a writer: thousands of book ideas and not enough time to write them all!
There were over 80 entries, so I had a lot of clever names to choose from.
The Winner :
Susan Minot: Gargantula ?
Sue’s name is in the acknowledgements of Dragon Rift. As a bonus, I’ll send her a copy of the paperback. And although gargantulas are only mentioned once in Dragon Rift, I’m sure they’ll skitter across the pages of Dragon Strike, Riders of Fire book 4, due out later this year.
My favourites:
I loved everyone’s ideas. I was torn in a few different directions, but ultimately I wanted the species to sound big and venomous. Here are some of my favourite suggestions. Some made me laugh, some gave me the creeps, some were fascinating. See what you think:
- Zelda Tufue Dahya & Hail Dahya: Aracknidus Giganticus
- Simon Voysey: Skitters
- Kevin Maclean: Tarantula morbidius
- Adam Roberts: Terran Chulla.
- JoAnne Carlson: venenum diaboli
- Mirren Hogan: Spidey McBiteyface
- John Irvine: Coconut Joe or Freddie Fangster
- Mary Edwards: Plateous hugemont
- Linnie Osborne Jones: Fangipotomus
- Daniel Potter: Bigus leggius
- Susan Darlene Faw: Frisbee
- Ryan Mcfadden: a Ceramihumngi (large as a dinner plate: humungous ceramics)
All the Entries:
Below are your entries, in no particular order. If you make your way to the bottom, you’ll get a fun surprise.
- Linda Tepley-Kean: Baba del diablo, which translates as ‘slime of the devil’.
- Juanita Dickens May: gargantuanarachnid
- Charlie Thorman: Jätte spindeln. Swedish för the giant spider.
- Or spindlarna (the spiders)
- Stefanie Murray: Magna aranea, Latin for large spider. Or
- Arachne (aráchni).Or
- Monstrum texente tela; monster web weaver.
- Mary Ann: Lilith
- Ian Israel: Araneae Leviathan
- William Shane Blalock: Bloodmare
- JoAnne Carlson: venenum diaboli, Latin for venom devil.
- Josh Lanterman Hammer Back
- Angelica Honeycutt: How about Mors Aranea? Latin for Death Spider
- Eva Seyler: Platus mortis
- Gil De Marco: How about “Rancorous-copious” Rancorous means bitter; unforgiving. Copious means vast; taking place on a large scale.
- Michael F. Renegar: Gigantula
- Elizabeth Townsend: How about Spinne? It’s German for spider.
- Julian Adorney: A species, or an individual spider? If it’s the latter, call him Dave
- Lisa Mettler: Anansesem. . It has really cool lore behind it.
- Justin Murray: Nightmare
- Serena Dawson: Horse spider? Lol. Exaggeration is always fun.
- Mirren Hogan: I’m guessing Spidey McBiteyface is out? Although I’m now using that in my WiP.
- John Irvine: Coconut Joe, or
- Freddie Fangster or do you want a sensible name?!
- Shirley Wine: Avondale spiders are as big as bread plates – real domicile Avondale Auckland. NZ. Or
- Those wacky big one on Norfolk Island that trap birds.
- Mirren Hogan: Arachnia? or
- Arachnis? or
- Huntsman? or
- Funnelweb?
- Daniel Potter: Bigus leggius. I’ve got a pet spider who’s as big as a dog. He’s named Blinky. (In my Dragon’s Price series).
- John Irvine: Loxosceles reclusa… very deadly but small
- Robbie Lane: Cressida or
- Spindel ( the later is the Swedish word for spider)
- Susan Darlene Faw: Frisbee?
- Linnie Osborne Jones: Fangipotomus. or
- Fangaraurus
- Shane Hayes: Tarantino if it’s a bloke. or
- Tarantina for female
- Ebony Jean: I beg you to call her Ebony. Please. I love spiders!
- Aaron Compton: Nick Cave has you covered The Atra Virago, or
- the Vargus Barking Spider
- Hayley Smith: Trencherous Arachnis (a trencher is a medieval dinner plate) ?
- Aaron Compton: Araneae Somnumexterreri – nightmare Spider
- Alison Stuart: Fluffy
- Angela Oliver: One of my characters had a pet spider called Fluffy.
- Mary Edwards: Plateous hugemont
- Melinda Szymanik: Huntsman is big and scary so some variation on that?
- Annemarie Mead: Dobelix from Lachlan
- Denika Mead: Sounds like a cool character, I can’t wait to read it! What about ‘mortiferun’?
- Wendy Vella: Spidersaurusrex
- Renee Jaye Lyons: Ansidium mortius
- Alicia Ponder: Depends on what you want the spider to do – trapdoor – webs – etc I reckon choose one the family names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_taxonomy then go for a species name like armida or morteus. Or a species name of …ebenum – for Ebony 🙂 Spider taxonomy – Wikipedia (Ebony Jean’s comment: awwww yeah! #TeamSpider)
- Susan Minot: Gargantula ?
- Ava Fairhall: Mix and match with these: Shield crawler, or
- colossal harvestman, or
- disc spinner, or
- orb weaver
- Virginia Taylor: Michael
- Bronwyn Norman: Venomous maxima, but people call it ‘Carol’
- Natasha Kenyon: TEmperor
- Zelda Tufue Dahya: Aracknidus Giganticus (Hail came up with that! He has been a Spiderman fan since he was 2yrs old)
- Eric Corrington: Peteroid Parkernid
- Ryan Mcfadden: a Ceramihumngi. I took the word for large and the start of the word Ceramic seen as as large as a dinner plate…
- Tania Torea: Ingensaranea Literally two Latin words meaning huge spider Or Ragnoenorme
- Peter Friend: Troll Hands – named after their supposed resemblance to those of mythical (or are they?) eight-fingered trolls, or so parents tell their children…
- Nicky Curran: Zorboct.
- Silvia Brown: Plato, means plate in Spanish and is the first thing that came to mind so I am sticking with it. Plus wasnt that the name of an Ancient Greek philosopher as well? A philosophical ceramic spider!!!
- Martin Riesen: What kind of a name are you looking for? A pet? (Fred), More funny? (Spidermax). Medieval? Arachnia Tantus
- Simon Voysey: Skitters
- Meg Jolly: Empress Widow?
- Jean E. Lane: The “Freakindead” spider.
- Matt Whitaker Jeff. Or Dave.
- Kevin Maclean: Tarantula morbidius…
- Moya Bawden: Tantunab – Sanskrit
- Gary Freedman: Puppy
- Adam Roberts: Arachadonis. Spider with a six pack…
- Adam Roberts: Arachadonis Rex. Front legs are too small to do anything useful…
- Adam Roberts: Terran Chulla.
- Eric Corrington: Aralob.
- Deryn Pittar: Archnia gigantus
Wow, you made it to the end of that humongous list of scary spiders. Just for being brave, here’s a reward. Enjoy this fascinating video.
If the venomous spiders haven;t put you off Riders of Fire, feel free to pick up a copy here. Your next wild adventure is waiting.