Does no one have an answer or even a guess at this?

Yeah....there's not one. But, you could look at one those baby name sites and find the name you're looking for. What I do is open up a phonebook and just find a name that's suitable.

mC

Does it matter what language? I would think that would be a huge part of the character/naming issue. Someone named "one who gives hope" in an ancient American Indian dialect might have a different connotation from the "one who gives hope" in ancient Egyptian.

I would start with the language and then do a search on google. You could even write a short sentence and type it into Babelfish and have it translated into whatever language to determine the word of choice.

http://www.babbelfish.com/

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

If you are going to reveal your character's name means "one who" whatever it was, you can just wing it. The audience isn't going to be able to double-check their references while watching, and for the most part, probably won't care.

If you want name suggestions, try flipping through the phonebook. Or just ask friends. People seem to have trouble naming characters because every writer wants their character to be named "Brock Samson" or "Dick Valeson" or something strong. "Rock Hudson". But my name is Steve. I know a guy named Mike. We have a friend named Doug. Common, eh?

Also, if you use Final Draft to write your screenplays - they have a name generator built in that contains about 17,000 names.

??Goofy Horace??