Character pronunciation generator

Narrators guess when nobody tells them how a name is said. If the guess is wrong, the fix is not one line. It is every line that name appears in, sometimes across dozens of chapters. A fantasy novel with forty invented names gives a narrator forty chances to guess.

A character pronunciation guide is a plain list of names, places, and made-up words with a sounds-like spelling for each one, like AY-lith or VOLKS-wah-gen. Most authors build it by scrolling the manuscript and writing names down as they go. This tool does the scrolling. It suggests the terms and a first-guess spelling, and you decide what is right.

Everything runs in your browser. Your manuscript is not uploaded or stored on our servers, and your list is saved in this browser so a refresh does not lose your work.

Start with every character name, then add places, houses, ships, organizations, invented words, spells, foreign phrases, and brand names. Include real words too if you want one specific reading, such as a regional place name or a word that changes meaning with stress.

Each entry only needs a few things. Keep it short enough that a narrator can check it mid-session without losing their place.

• The name exactly as it is spelled in the book.
• A sounds-like spelling with the stressed syllable in capitals.
• A short note when it helps: what it rhymes with, the language it comes from, or a common mistake to avoid.
• Where the name first appears, so the narrator can hear it in context.
• Whether it is a character, place, or term, so the guide is easy to scan.

A good respelling is boring on purpose. It uses ordinary English spellings for each sound, splits the name into syllables, and marks stress so nobody has to wonder which part to lean on.

Read your respelling out loud the way a stranger would. If you can say it two ways, so can your narrator. Fix it before you send it.

• Put the stressed syllable in capitals: kuh-LEE-uh, not ka-lee-a.
• Split syllables with hyphens: TEER-nun.
• Compare to common words when a sound is unusual: Caer rhymes with fire.
• Avoid letter pairs that read two ways. "ow" can sound like how or like low, so write "oh" or "ow" as in cow.
• Use IPA only if your narrator reads it. Most narrators prefer sounds-like spelling.

The left column shows the kind of entry that still leaves a narrator guessing. The right column is what they can read cold, in the middle of a recording session.

Send the guide with the manuscript, before auditions or casting if you can. Narrators often record an audition from the first chapters, and that is where the main characters are introduced.

Keep the file after the book is done. When a sequel goes into production, the same guide keeps the series sounding the same, even if a new narrator picks it up.

If you produce the audiobook with AI voices, the guide becomes your checklist. In Narration Box you listen to each name once, adjust the spelling in the text or use pronunciation controls where available for supported voices, and regenerate only the paragraphs that changed instead of the whole chapter.

A spelling that reads cleanly for a person usually works well as a text fix for an AI narrator too, which is why it pays to get the respellings right once.