How do you choose names?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Jack Asher, May 12, 2014.

  1. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    There are so many better books to buy than a book of baby names that would be a much better investment. Like just about anything else. Unless maybe you come across a book with boat names. I would skip that one, too. Chances are you know enough names that you could write a book of baby names yourself.
     
  2. Cephus

    Cephus Contributor Contributor

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    I tend to look at the character and the name just comes to me. It isn't always perfect, but I'll start writing with that name and if I decide to modify it later, I can always find-and-replace.
     
  3. Christina58

    Christina58 Member

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    I use Fantasy Name Generator and pick names that seem appropriate, I have issue with street names :rolleyes:
     
  4. Ohmo

    Ohmo Banned

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    My characters start out with common American names such as John Smith or Jane Doe. Then, their real name grows around them as the story unfolds or as the character sketch demands. I can see Jane Doe in my head, but Protagonist has never shown her/him self to me. When John lets me see all his features or his attitude towards's Jane's aunt Matilida, finding his real name is much easier. Important Character Number Two, however, just never lets me see anything, so he/she becomes just Import and, finally, Export and disappears.
     
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  5. Nessie

    Nessie New Member

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    Coming up with names might be one of my favorite things regarding character/story-building. I truly enjoy the process. I have various ways starting with the typical staring-off-into-space-until-the-sudden-illumination, which often turns out to be rather efficient with me. I've also been keeping a very long list of names -whenever I think of a name or stumble upon an original one, I'll write it down on my list (which is on my phone, thus always available to update!).
    However, what I usually like to do is find names with a specific meaning, one that represents well my character. If the character is a goddess of the sun, then I'll do lots of research for names meaning sun or light or even fire in various languages. Maybe if the character is secretly a traitor to the good guys, then perhaps I'll look up names meaning traitor or betrayal, and so on.
    I like to tweak up names, switching up letters, adding some here and there. I do it a lot with simple names; a simple added "h" can make it look fantasy/fictional-like. Cameron can become Camryn, Alya becomes Aaliyah, Sarah turns into Saerah or Saehra, and Alexis into Aleksÿ, etc.
    And a last option is simply looking up names from a specific country (my favorite go-to countries are probably Scotland/Ireland and other Scandinavian regions, and arabic countries as well). The country will obviously depend on the kind of place my character comes from.
    So yeah, lots of ways and options! It's a really fun process.
     
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  6. Iain Sparrow

    Iain Sparrow Banned Contributor

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    Rosemarie/Mabel/Adeline (the three protagonists)
    Valerie (French courtesan), Gael (Scotsman, animal trainer... short for Gaelic, 'Gael' is what his French hosts call him), Claire (actress/singer), Lazare (Rosemarie's uncle), Sabine (Lazare's lover), Hugo (tailor), Etincelle (sculptor), Gaston (carpenter), Jean-Paul Marat (real person), Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (real person), Clement & Pierre (two bad men you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, or anywhere else for that matter), Olympe de Gouges (real person)...

    Don't think I spent more than an hour combined coming up with all the names. Forcing yourself to choose a name quickly gives the cast of characters an authentic feel.

    The only pretentious names are given to the animals... Achilles (Rosemarie's ill tempered, one-eyed cat), Josephine (a thieving magpie who will befriend Adeline), Mango (a mongoose that has an appetite for hooded-cobras, and ill tempered cats, and is cared for by Mabel).
     
  7. dprice80

    dprice80 Member

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    I also struggle with names. I couldn't even name my own son without months of Agony :) The trick for me is I try not to think too much about it. If you think too hard and try to find a name that describes the character (like calling a highschool jock Chad) then it will sound cliched. If you write it down and stare too hard at it, then it will always start to look weird. I mean just look at the name Daniel - DANiel DANIEL. danIEL. It's weird and wrong when you think about it long enough. If you are trying to invent names from scratch, for sci-fi or fantasy characters, try building a name letter by letter. Lets start with L. L is often followed by a La, then a consonant. Lan s would roll off the n. Lans... and so on. I came up with Lansikara which I think is a cool name really - sounds female to me. I'll randomly generate a few more the same way. Mantobi (has a kind of tribal feel to it). Poudrendal - I didn't like much so just changed to Drendal - a believable boys name. I quite like it. Grindal - sounds a bit magical. Abscinimus - sounds like an academic from discworld or something. Modify the number of vowels to consonants to alter the effect, use more unusual letters like Z U W V for more exotic names or bad guys (Zeebawk, Vesix, Ukvold), more vowels and softer consonants for nicer names names (Solaria, Shalequil, Harlebor, Orbens, Arulthest). Most of them will be nonsense but you will find some you really like.
     
  8. dprice80

    dprice80 Member

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    Another strategy to get more meaningful random names would be to use meaningful segments of words from other places. Lots of people use mythology etc. For example, lets say you have a farmer's daughter, who is going to save her father's farm. Demeter is the greek god of harvest, so why not call her Demi? Dominique? At least it then has some meaning. You can also signal to the reader that a character is not quite what they seem (perhaps as a subconscious red herring). Call them something like Mark Veli. Sounds a bit like Machiavelli and their second name is an anagram of Evil. The reader might not even notice, but they should get a bad feeling about him.
     
  9. Lawless

    Lawless Active Member

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    When my story is set in my native country, I don't really need to make any effort to make up names. They just come to me naturally.

    In the past, when I needed names of another ethnic group that exists in the real world, I used to find some books whose authors were of that ethnic group and browse them for names, write down as many as possible, and then use some of them. These days, one can use online sources, of course.

    When I write science fiction (which is overwhelmingly the case), I don't need to worry about names sounding unnatural (as, for example, Russian names in English-language fiction usually do). I only need them to sound consistent. To achieve that, I think of a language or languages the names should look like, and then use that language for inspiration.

    For example, for a fantasy novel I began to write years ago (but didn't finish), I used an English–Welsh pocket dictionary. (I don't speak Welsh at all.) When I wanted to create words for the cardinal directions, to be used in placenames, I looked up the Welsh words
    north – gogledd
    east – dwyrain
    south – deau, de
    west – gorllewin

    Making them simpler, I came up with:
    Gol – North
    Led – North-East
    Dyr – East
    Ren – South-East
    De – South
    Hol – South-West
    Gor – West
    Win – North-West
    (Meaning, "XYZ Dyr" on the map in my novel would mean "Eastern XYZ", etc.)

    And so on. I would think of a word somehow, closely or remotely, related to the person or location I wanted to name, look up the corresponding Welsh word(s), and twist them around to make them sound right in my ears as well as comfortable to pronounce.

    These days I use Google Translate instead of paper dictionaries, of course.
     
  10. dprice80

    dprice80 Member

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    Lots of authors use names from history, that has some meaning, Greek gods etc. The meaning could be some clue as to a hidden character attribute. Sometimes an anagram. For example, Neo in the matrix is an anagram of One.
     
  11. TheRealStegblob

    TheRealStegblob Kill All Mages Contributor

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    I'm one of those "never has a problem with names" guys. If I ever get stumped when dreaming a name up, I'll usually resort to random name generators and click through them a bunch looking for some random inspiration.
     
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  12. WhiteRecluse

    WhiteRecluse Member

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    I think of what time frame my project is in or similar to, They have lists of names as far back as you could imagine. Just go look up, for example, Names 1400's. Or... I use names of people in my life.. like a childhood friend.. or a bully.. or just someone I dislike... So can tear them apart without them knowing. lol
     
  13. irite

    irite Member

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    I'm writing a book drawn from my life in 90's London so everyone significant to the story is refered to by a nickname based on a characteristic of the real person or something that will add to the story (explaining why you would call your son Sue led to a great song). The only characters with actual names are the good 'normal' people who don't really do anything wrong. You wouldn't mind having a drink with Steve, Pete and Dave. They might even offer you a bit of cash in hand work on a building site and you'd be happy to take it... But no one likes Ard or Edmonds, they don't even like each other.

    There was a financial advisor/accountant who didn't have a name. In real life I had a helpful call from the bank, a softly spoken Scottish man called Michael. I went back through the story and named the accountant Michael and made him Scottish. There's a mixed race gay couple named after 2 kids at school who thought they were the Kray's. I borrowed that idea from Richard Curtis and his use of Bernard as a fool.
     
  14. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    Me too! Most of my characters "arrive" with names and backstories, but occasionally I see the character in my head but don't know their name, as was the case of the wife of my MC's attorney. So I said, in my head,"What was Harold's wife's name again?" "Sylvie."

    I do have a baby book but rarely refer to it.

    Occasionally a character arrives with a name but I change it.
     
  15. EstherMayRose

    EstherMayRose Gay Souffle Contributor

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    I get pictures of them in my head and they just sort of "look" like a name. "Oh, she looks like a Jane." That's pretty weird, isn't it?
     
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  16. irite

    irite Member

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    From what I've read in this thread about people struggling for names and my own problems creating names in my writing I'd say it's a good thing that you have that ability. I don't think it's weird, but most things are normal compared to my thoughts... Maybe you should wait for a second opinion before taking my word on anything.
     
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  17. K McIntyre

    K McIntyre Active Member

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    I get good ideas for names from the credits that scroll across the screen after movies or TV shows. A lot of different ones, and combinations of names.
     
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  18. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    When I name my characters the names are usually just placeholders until I can think of better names. My original names are so stupid. I had my super cool MC and named him Barry. No offense to the Barrys out there, but it's not the sort of thing I was going for. It took me about a week to realize this. And don't even get me started on the Marys... Oh, the Marys.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2018
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  19. Goosey

    Goosey Member

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    I think up most of my character names myself and use the things around me for inspiration, for example I came up with a character called Lisa Sovereign because we own a Jaguar Sovereign, had we not bought that car then Lisa Sovereign would probably be Lisa Short or something like that. I spend a lot of time designing characters, but naming them for me has always been fab! :bigsmile: If only my writing went as well:pity:

    Samantha.
     
  20. nightswim

    nightswim New Member

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    I have a long list of names that I have collected over the years in a notebook but I have noticed that a lot of the names just randomly come to me when I am writing my first draft. I always try to make sure that those names feel a part of the world that they take place in.
     
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  21. BlitzGirl

    BlitzGirl Contributor Contributor

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    It depends entirely on the story and its setting. If I am using real-world names (even though my stories never take place in our world), then I try to think of what region of the world fits thematically and look up lists of first names and surnames from name websites and pick the ones that either a) sound fitting for my characters or b) have a meaning that fits...or c) both! However, with stories where names aren't based on anything in our world, I make them up and start with a letter that "fits" the character. I seem to be a fan of names that start with "k" for some reason. Then I just come up with "rules" about what letters are used in this fictional culture, if there are any recurring naming conventions, and so forth, and go from there. Most of the names in my current fantasy story tend to end with a vowel, though male names can end in "n".
     
  22. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    For historical novels, and those set in foreign countries, I just google up names by language. Interestingly Googling "Sogdian names" generated many references to name for that ancient Central Asian country 200 years ago. SImilarly with Chinese names. Similarly Parthian names. Also check the meaning of the name, you don't want to use one that has a bad meaning!
     
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  23. CAROLINE J. THIBEAUX

    CAROLINE J. THIBEAUX Member

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    I have a thick book of baby names from around the world. I'll choose one then change it a little to suit what I think I want from my character. I also keep a written list of names that I come up with that I can use for later. In The Dragonglass Bowl, I used names of my nephews and changed them a little. I have had people ask me to use their names for characters in the book, so with their permission, I did so, all with a twist. Some names have a meaning that ties in with the language of the world. But I have to say that baby name book helps a great deal as it includes names from around the world.
     
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  24. LittleTwistedMe

    LittleTwistedMe Member

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    Stereotypes... Bad ones at that. Have you ever run into anyone who is highly intelligent and named “Brittney?” Doesn't “Gladys,” or “Grace,” sound a bit like an old southern woman? Doesn't the name “Trevor,” sound like it belongs to a jock? Does “Brad,” sound like his bank account is pretty big? How about “Tristan?”

    Seriously, I find a name that sticks to the character. Sure, it's a been over played but I believe familiarity; even something as simple as a name; can relate to a reader. If I do use a more unknown name it's generally simple. For instance, one of my main characters in a fantasy piece is called “Teatah.”

    I usually end up saying a few sentences the character might say or listing off a few actions.

    For example,

    Brittney giggled and then titled her head to the side like a lost puppy. “Wait, um so like why not just totally drink all the water instead of drowning?”

    If it doesn't fit I find another name and try the statement again.

    Side note: Sorry to all of those people I stereotyped.
     
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  25. Zerotonin

    Zerotonin Serotonin machine broke

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    My process is... Strange... I'll give an example of how I go about it:

    "Alright, what's a good first name? Bill? Nah. Harry? Nope. John? John could work. Alright, let's see... John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John... Smith? Nope, too generic. John Fredrickson? Too much of a mouthful. I give up, I'm gonna take a nap."
     

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