Daily Hobbit Hole Generator
 

https://i.imgur.com/IzerKQ1.png

Daily Hobbit Hole Generator

All coding, images, and research by me; it took me about a week. It'll generate a Hobbit Hole (& associated Hobbit name) every day, or you can input a name to get the associated smial:

https://i.imgur.com/yrZX3MY.png

Since Hobbit names are under discussion right now, a bit more detail on the name generator: I've manually divided all known Hobbit surnames (plus a few of my own) up by type. For convenience I've called them Westfarthing (middle class), Northfarthing (common as muck Harfeet), Southfarthing (fancy Fallohides), Eastfarthing (weird Stoors), and Westmarch (Fairbairns and Gardners). Each type generates names in a different way:

• Westfarthing lads get one of the 'nonsense names', like Bilbo, Frodo, Bungo etc. These are generated by letter/consonant cluster, so it will occasionally spit out things like Drordo, or indeed Disco and Ditto. WF lasses get common flower names, or the feminine form of the nonsense name.
• Northfarthing lads get Old English type names, a la Samwise, Hamfast. These are made of random combinations of the attested first and second halves of their names. Lasses are named like WF lasses.
• Southfarthing lads get Frankish-type names, like most of Pippin's family tree - your Isengrims and Fortinbrases. Again, these are put together from a first and second half. Latin/French names, like Paladin and Peregrin, can't be generated (they'd have to be coded as complete words, and there's so few of them I didn't bother.) SF lasses can be named either for flowers - there's a set of fancy flower names, and another set of Latin-type flower names - or for jewels. Again, there's both normal jewels, and French/Spanish jewel names (see Esmeralda Took). (And yes, I know Tookborough is in the Westfarthing! These are just coding names.)
• "Eastfarthing" covers Buckland and Bree names as well as actual Eastfarthing ones. The lads have Celtic-inspired names, cobbled together from two or three syllables - eg Mar+mad+oc. I'm afraid Sadsadoc is a possible name, but it's so funny I left it. EF lasses draw from the classy flowers and generic jewels, as well as a pair of Celtic flower names.
• Westmarch lads get NF names, but the lasses can take either the fancy flowers and jewels, or a special set of Elvish flower and jewel names. The only Elvish jewel name is Miriel, but it's the thought that counts. ^_^

It's not perfect - you'll see occasional very silly names - but I think it's pretty good, and the picture is the main point anyway.

Oh, and yes: I've checked, and the house of Bilbo Baggins does have an appropriately green door:

https://i.imgur.com/GyIYjzG.png

Not sure where those eaves came from, though... there ain't no eaves at Bag End, and that's a fact.

hS

I've tried to post here a pic but have been unable to. Cute game.I was looking for Esmerelda Took's place.

This is actually amazing and very impressive. Quite some work - both the linguistic exercise and the visuals, somehow matched to the coding. This is very cool.

I now want to see what absurdities (Sadsadoc :D) the code generates by accident. I am convinced that one day we are gonna land on a killer of a name.

Also... When playing around with it, I discovered that Bilbo Baggins gets a different image depending on whether or not you capitalize the letters! And if you only capitalize one of the B's, that also generates a different hole!

Today's is quite a nice one, though it may just be that I really like the wisteria look:

https://i.imgur.com/iDZnJ7N.png

I tend to host my pictures on Imgur; I used to use Photobucket but they went all weird a few years back. It's a struggle.

Yeah, the generator converts every character in the name into its Unicode value, which differs for capitals and lowercase. I could set it up to avoid that (by just capitalising everything before processing it), but this allows for more variety and lets you find the "best" version of someone's house.

As for worst names... Madmadac and Sadsadas are both pretty high up there for the Stoors. The Fallohide generator is less obviously daft, but "Everbald" is in there, along with the overwrought nonsense of "Ferdidolpho". The Harfeet can do "Fastfast" and "Wisewise", or something like "Bowman". And the general Hobbit names... anything with two consonant clusters tends to look quote daft (Drurgo, Blolbo), and you can of course get a dog (Fido), a bean (Pinto), and a scouring pad (Brillo). But... it's hard to really say Tolkien wouldn't have done that. He did almost have Bingo as his protagonist, after all!

hS

This is cute! I like the variety of doorknockers. The mushroom one made me chuckle.


Y'all are welcome at my door even if you're not on party business, just don't scratch the fresh paint!