Whenever I try this, I see the file as grayed out (thus unable to import into Scrivener). I know there’s a way to do it. I just don’ know what it is!
Arthur
(By the way, it’s not that hidden… )
On p. 285 of the manual, it says: “make sure to name the file with a “.csv” extension” (before you try to import it, of course). Perhaps that might be the problem.
Cheers, Martin.
BTW, I just tried it myself with the US 1812 first names csv file – no problem at all.
Thanks, (Martin, especially) for all your pointed help. The lists imported, with a lot of extraneous material.
Where does Scrivener keep these files? How do I go about editing the individual entries in each file? (I don’t think “Civil War” is that good a first name! )
These were formatted based on the instructions within Scrivener for Windows. If the formatting for these files is different for Scrivener for Mac, I’d love to know the proper formatting for the latter, and I’ll work to making lists for both versions.
I’ll also go back and make sure the earlier lists which I saved as .txt files are resaved as .csv files if that’s all the Mac version will accept (Windows accepts both, which is why some of the first files I created are .txt).
The manual for the Mac version says:
You can add your own custom lists. Name lists should be formatted so that all names are on a single line, and each name is separated by a comma, like so:
name1,name2,name3,name4,name5
It might be easiest to produce these lists in a spreadsheet on a single row, and export as a CSV file.
I don’t know where they are kept (I don’t write fiction, so I don’t use them) but I would hazard a guess in the Application Support folder inside Library.
Martin.
Wow. Wish I’d looked this up beforehand, but it didn’t occur to me that the Windows and Mac versions might expect different formatting for name lists. I’ll grab the Mac manual this weekend, see what it wants, and start the process of creating Mac versions of the files. Though I don’t understand how first name gender identification is handled in the mac version if it just wants a raw list of comma separated names.
And my apologies to anyone who grabbed what I didn’t know were Windows-only files and imported them to Mac. Based on what the Mac version is looking for, there’s a lot of extraneous material in there.
Alright. Between Arthur and myself we’ve reformatted most of the files to Mac format. They’ve now got their own page here. Big thanks to everyone pointing out that the formats are different then helping change them.
You might want to check the link you posted – it’s giving a 404 error.
Looks like a good resource, and very generous to make it available.
Martin.
Oops. All fixed. Thanks for the heads up.
I am new to all this and successfully imported the additional name files (so generously given) but I am not sure how to access them for use within the name generator. I looked at the manual but it didn’t help. Could someone kindly tell me how to actually use the imported files within scrivener. Thanks.
So you’ve successfully added them to the name generator, but need to know how to generate a name with them? Are you using Mac or Windows?
I tried importing the lists into my name generator but I’ve had no luck thus far. I keep getting errors about too many commas. I started out with the windows-specific files (as I should, being on a Win7 platform) but got repeated errors about there being 3 commas to many on each line.
So then I figured that maybe during the updates of the lists there’s been a mix-up between the win and the mac lists. So I tried importing a mac list. Denied: 999 too many commas.
Any thoughts?
ETA: Ok, for some reason now it worked - it took quiiiite awhile to import the lists though and I got “Scrivener is not responding” prompts several times. But when I left the program running (though “not responding”) after 15+ minutes I was alerted that the list had been imported. I have a fairly zippy desktop computer running Windows 7 64-bit btw.
Anyone know where I can get name files for Italian forenames (male and female) and surnames?
Wow. Amazing work.
Any chance of getting names and surnames for Ancient Rome, Egypt and Greece?
I know, Really old thread…
I just recently started writing a story that involves the Mob… So I’m looking for male Italian forenames and surnames (More forenames than surnames) My google searches for names have come up close to empty but I’ve only just started. Having a list within Scrivener would be a useful addition…
I have been compiling name lists from various sources on the web. Here is my page where you can download my Name Generator Lists.
dartm.com/Name_lists/
List Notes
Female African Names
Male African Names
African Surnames
Female British
Male British
British Surnames
Cherokee Names (Male with meanings) eg: Chea Sequah (Red bird)
Cherokee Names (Female with meanings) eg: Tsula (Fox)
Cherokee surnames.csv
Female Greek Names
Male Greek Names
Greek Surnames
Male Russian Names
Female Russian Names
Russian Surnames
Male French Names
Female French Names
French Surnames
Female Irish Names
Male IrishNames
Irish Surnames
Unusual Female Names
Unusual Male Names
Unusual Surnames
Female italian Names
Male italian Names
Italian Surnames
Female Hispanic
Male Hispanic
Hispanic Surnames
Hindu Surnames
Japanese Surnames
US (C1910) Surnames
The links are dead!
These links seem to be working:
Thank you DLThurston and levancil.
Thanks, that saved me some time.
By the way, the Mac-version files work on the Mac Scrivener 3. More awesomeness!
Thank you, David!
(Your blog hasn’t been updated in a while. Hope all is well and you are still writing.)