Creating Character Names

I personally don't like really elaborate or obviously fake names. The romance genre is notorious for this and I think it detracts from the quality of a book.

eg.

Willow Crysanthenum Petunia-Rose Somerville gave a defiant toss of her glossy locks as she contemplated her ridiculous name.

(ok so this is a little exaggerated, but sadly not that much)

Keep names real, I say, and this might also help you to write more realistic characters.

 

I keep lists of first names and last names that I like--and occasionally add to that list and I come across new names that I like for any number of reasons.

When creating a character for a story, I select first and last names from those lists so I don't have to keep doing the same brainstorming legwork over and over.

Once I get a first and last name combination for a character, I search for that full name in Google to see if the name already belongs to a celebrity or someone who seems to have a lot of similarities to my character. If that's the case, I rename the character.

 

Huh.

I want her.

 

Mine usually come out of the blue. Occasionally if I'm stumped, I'll go to a baby name website or name a character after someone on a movie or TV show that I like.

 

I must admit... An opening line like that would make it impossible for me to put the book down. At least for a while.

 

I personally like names that aren't too terribly weird (not a reference to the one above, that one's actually kind of cool haha). For instance, in my YA fantasy, two of the characters that my MC (Adalyn) meets while in the alternate universe are Tailey and Riper. They're unusual enough to pass as being fantasy (because it'd be weird having characters named Joe and Jessica on another planet), but they aren't four syllables long with hard-to-pronounce cacophonous syllables. Also, I find that using names in a different language doesn't make a character seem fantasy-like, they just make the character seem Spanish/Nordic/Icelandic/etc. That's just me though.

I find it kind of annoying when characters' names are way too fitting and always match their personality. Parents won't know the kid's personality when the kid is newborn and being named. It comes off as too cliche.

 

I know one guy who just opens the phone book to a random page, drops his finger, then takes the first name that it falls on and uses it for the character's first name. Then he flips through to a different page and does the same thing for the character's last name.

Personally, I don't know where I come up with my characters' names. They just seem to materialize out of nothingness when I'm looking for a name to use.

 

Same here! My only exception being one of my MC's, Sabrina AKA Sabby, and it's only because her personality is based off someone I've actually met and I couldn't think of anything more fitting for my MC than to use the name of the person who inspired me. But that's it. The other's... Their names kinda just pop into my head and stick...

 

I go to behindthename.com, and choose a random letter to start with, then I pick whatever name I believe suits the character.

 

Names depend on the time period and how much cross culture the world has.

Names in the 12th century Europe did not include American indian or Hawaiian names, because they didn't commonly trade with the island or the new world since no one knew it was there(in Europe).

My daughter has a name from Hawaii, I was born in Arizona, have been to over ten countries in the world.

Travel was restricted in the past, so cultural names would be limited.

 

I like the, "Planet of the Apes" way where they give the ape a dictionary and the ape has to randomly point at a word. Caesar of course knew how to read so he purposely picked his name.

As for the phone book thing you would still have to be careful to pick a name that matches your stories place and time.

 

^ LMAO. That's brilliant.



I struggle with lots of things, but putting names to characters isn't one of those things.

When I write non-human characters, I'll just make something up, or think of a random word or existing name and tweak a couple of letters.

With my normal human-people, I just pick a random normal human-person name. It doesn't even matter if it sounds off at first, you just get used to it. When you meet someone for the first time and they tell you their name, you'll naturally associate that name with their face. You don't say, "No, that name obviously isn't your name, it doesn't suit you at all!" You just accept it's their name, and it works.

So, as long as you don't write something that'll bug readers like "Ivor Biggun" or "Mercedes Benz", or some Chinese guy in the middle of China with Chinese parents being called "Billy-Bob Van Tucker", I wouldn't worry too much. (I'm sure some writers could even make those names work, come to think of it. lol.)

Good luck with it.

 

Hmm, with me, I have many various methods of creating character names and deciding.
One of my character's name is Karria. It's technically Kiarra with the I switched.
One of my character's last name is Thurling. I was in school and on the black board was the words Spelling Test Thursday. Taking the Thur off Thursday, and ling off Spelling I created Thurling. After using the internet to my advantage I checked out both Karria to be a real name, and Thurling to be a real last name. Albeit, not very common, but Thurling is simple to pronounce and Karria is pronounced Car- Ria.

Another character I was having a terrible time coming up with her name. After baby names sites and popular names by year in the us I was running out of resources. It was a fantasy story about an female alchemist working with poisons. Al from alchemy and ison from poison. Alison.

Other times I use name by year. Sometimes it works great for me, other times, not so much. Currently failing on a name for a romance novel female lead character. Her fill in name until I can decide is Samantha.
I also avoid names of people I know most of the time. Unless its a name like Nickolas, Christopher, or the like. I feel those names are free game, but the characters that are created around those names are nothing similar to the two people I know named Nickolas and Christopher.

 

I have various ways to make a name.

My unicorn: She is white and shiny, first thought was diamond, but to common of a name, so I took one letter off, and got Diamon. (she does not sparkle like vampires)

Elves: I tend to go to sights with elvish names, or the sight with elvish prefixes and suffixes.

Dragons: Sometimes I use the Elven way, sometimes I just play with their abilities.
Evil desert fire dragon- Styxon(Styx-on) hells river-Styx plus "on".

HUmans: I think I might have posted this one, I go to period name rosters. (for me thats the SCA heralds list for finding a period name.)

Some names just come to me.

 

I try to make my names as unique as possible. I think it's because my parents like really unusual names and it's rubbed off on me.

 

I usually do something like this:

Simultaneously have Latin root-words list, dictionary.com, elvish dictionary, name-meanings s sites open (usually in tabs), and then just start browsing. It's quite the lengthy and tiresome process, but as you're stuck with them for the rest of your life (if your book/story hangs around), it's worth the time.

 

With what I'm writing, my character names are coming to me one at a time. Until then, they're just @ag2, @ab5 etc.

 

One day, I couldn't come up with a good character name, so I named my character Raven for the time being.

I changed that to Katherine.

 

The names always just come to me. Sometimes you can put a temporary name until you decide on a really good name.

 

Names are eaily enough created, particularly when you already have a personality formed for that character. The names seems to just come to mind, or atleast that's what happens for me.

I do select historical names for my own writings though, as my book is of the historical fiction genre.

 

I still use the same two names when I write short stories for my villains. I made them up on a little story I wrote in school when I was 10 or 11, pretty randomly at the time, and they have just stuck because I still like them and I instantly think 'bad guy' when I write them.

Just choose names relevant to you, and that you like. Don't necessarily worry about them 'fitting' to the character!

 

Hello,
I love thinking through names for my characters. For me, the names are very important, crucial even, and if they are not right I'll keep tweaking them until they fit with the character, the story and the other names and characters I've already decided on. I like to research names online or remember names from day-to-day life.
Does anyone else get a bit fixated on character names?

This was my first post!
LostInFiction

 

This is my second post, but bear with me ... On occasion, I will see whether or not a character relates to someone in my waking life, and then come up with a variant of that. It always seems to fit comfortably.

And, as Alex W said, once I've formulated the character's personality, their name almost always emerges from thin air and it just works. Crazy! Then again, there's always the phone book, lol

 

For me the character "speaks" their name. Its weird because I work in ideas and phrases. And do not work in concrete thought. So a name becomes part of a word and a picture. I sense his name is this. And thus it remains their name.

That sounded confusing and probably didn't make much sense.

 

I stay away from Jack as it seems to overly used. Titantic, Lost and Jack Sparrow to name but a few.
Also be careful when using made up names in fantasy stories. I wrote a story when I was 11/12 years old and my hero was called Lupos.