Fantasy Friday 4 - Fantasy names

This is a meme hosted by Rinn Reads where anyone can join in and talk about anything Fantasy!

This week I'm discussing names in fantasy.

One of the reasons I love fantasy is that it's really cool to imagine other worlds, especially ones with magic or creatures that don't exist in ours. That said, sometimes those really cool worlds and characters have such unpronounceable names. 

I can see why fantasy names are often so difficult to pronounce - the author wants to build a world different from our own, so obviously the culture and language would be different too. A lot of the times you want exotic names to go with exotic places, but I feel like there ought to be limits on how many consonants you can have in a row for the sake of your reader's sanity. I definitely appreciate pronunciation guides though (thanks, Christopher Paolini!).

That said, there are some names that are really gorgeous, and others that fit the culture that they are portraying really well. There are also some fantasy names that have roots in foreign languages (often Welsh, I think) so that makes them a little better. So here are some examples of words and names that worked for me...and some that didn't.

Book/series	examples of names	Did it work?
Jaran by Kate Elliott (Ok, it's sci-fi, so I cheated a little. But the names do sound like fantasy)	Jaran,  Ilyakoria Bahktiian, Sonia, Yuri, Chapalii	Yes! The names were mostly derived from Russian, and all had a distinct flavor. The names fit the horse-riding nomad (Mongolian?) flavor really well, and most of the names were pretty easy to pronounce.
Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson	Vin, Sazed, Kelsier, Rashek, Terris, Skaa, Kandra	Yes - not only were most of the names easy to pronounce, they fit the pseudo-European society really well. The more fantastical elements had more fantasy-esque names.
The Kingkiller chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss	Kvothe, Denna, Bast, Chandrian, Cthaeh	Maybe... most of the names were fine but with a main character named Kvothe (you try saying that aloud three times fast!) it was kind of annoying.
Trickster's Choice  by Tamora Pierce	Allianne Crow, Veralidaine Salmalín, Rubinyan Jimajen, Ochubu Dodeka, Veron, Verayu, Luarin	No. There were so many characters and so many of them had similar or unpronounceable names that it was really hard for me to keep them all straight.
Pathfinder Series by Orson Scott Card	Rigg, Param, Umbo, Olivenko, Vadesh	Maybe. The names weren't that hard to pronounce but they were all so...ugly. They all felt funny as I read them.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini	Eragon, Saphira, Islanzádi, Oromis, Glaedr, Nasuada	No. Some names were really pretty (like Saphira) but most were really hard to say. Most of the characters were elves and dwarves, so not only did they have strange names, they spoke in strange languages which were even more difficult to pronounce.
Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta	Finnikin, Froi, Arjuro, Beatrice,  Phaedra, Charyn, Lumatere	Yes! Each region/family had its own culture and rules for names, and most of them were beautiful. I just loved the names Isaboe and Phaedra, as well as the places Lumatere and Charyn.