With little discrimination. Sometimes if I'm really cheeky I'll chose something creative that has a meaning in a dead language.
I have been having an easier time with this recently. I used to draw blanks on my character's names all the time. The only ones I'm really having trouble with now though are the main character first names. Goes to show that our inability to name characters is partly due to our reluctance to do so.
I usually come up with them myself, sometimes thinking of what some minor character are called in other novels or reliable shows I have seen concerning the time period or place. I also usually try and give the names either a very subtle hint as to what the character is like or what they will become in future.
I usually take the names of people that have had some sort of influence on me or resemble my fictional character in any way. As I was a little child I used to make up names but they sound too outlandish and weird so I don´t do that any more. Just take the names that are similar to the names of the real or not so real people that resemble the character. So its like a tribute in a way.
Normally I come up with a concept first then background for the character such as ancestry, general personality traits, personal background etc., once I have all that I take their race or nationality into account and Google it. Usually I have to go through a few sites before I find something I like, then I start making a list of possibilities and narrow it down from that. In the end if I don't think any names I find suit my character I make one up from how I imagined their name would sound.
I will either make them up or look up names from different cultures such as Roman or Celtic then i might even switch a few of letters around once I find something I like. However I am really struggling with a name for one of my main characters in my current WIP so I have given him a temporary name for now, once I finish the novel I will then work on a good name for him. Names you can always change at a later stage.
I'm writing war stories that feature British soldiers right now, so I took all the surnames from early Victoria Cross recipients. Another character got named after Julie from the Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset," because I listened to that while writing.
It depends on how the character originates in my head. One story idea I had for a long long time had a character with no name. When I knew him better I just put myself in another characters shoes and asked him 'What's your name?' and it came to me! Sometimes it is really easy though. I have one character who is an anomaly in the world, the first of a new species so, of course, his name is Adam. I also have a story based from the European witch hunts so I took names (surnames mostly) from those and mutated them as names do change over time. Mostly I try to let the character tell me who they are. Let the name suit the person like my evil scientist - Dr. Michael Winter.
At the beginning I chose names for the sake of my character having a name. Later on I may change their name to something more appropriate, or the original name might stick. For protagonists I like to use names that I like (and NOT the names I plan on giving my future children) and antagonists I chose names that I am not fond of. Apart from the above, the only time I give my character's name a thought depends on their social hierarchy, for example I may give my character a double barrel name if they are upper-middle or upper class.
I called my character Aterston. I don't know if it's a real name,but it sounds good. I got it by just dropping the first and last letters from Waterstone. I might do this all the time now.
I usually use name choices which have something related to my story, contributing to the message, or relating to the title.
For my serious Fantasy writing, I make up my characters' names based on their respective culture's fictional language. Since I am creating those languages myself, I may or may not have an actual vocabulary suitable for creating believable names, but I at the very least make sure that there's a consistent theme of sounds/letters/structures throughout names used by the same culture. Sometimes, I just jumble up the various characteristic sounds until I find something usable. Special naming traditions, the existence or absence of last names, etc. are also things for me to take into consideration and I try to mix them up a bit. Instead of sneaking in hidden meanings, I make sure the names (and fictional words in general) don't have any roots in languages that don't exist in the setting (none of Earth's languages exist in mine) and I also usually try and make sure that any in-universe meaning of a name given at birth doesn't relate to the character's later role in life - people don't have meaningful names in reality and I like to keep things realistic in that respect. Sometimes, a name ends up similar (or seemingly identical) to a real one, especially if it's short, but I try to keep those instances plausible as mere coincidences and like to keep in-universe justifications ready, just in case. For non-serious writing... well, I just throw all that out the window and use whatever seems to work.
I have a Cryptex tube that has nine options consisting of the full alphabet. I spin it and simply name my characters as follows. Unfortunately my last character was named wazxeplik and no one wanted to read my book.
I am very, very picky about names. Sound and meaning are paramount. My current work takes place in a "similar to Earth" situation and has a lot of named characters. They have nationalities of sorts, so sometimes I use names that are rooted in the culture that they are based on. Some characters have names I just like. For instance, one character's area is roughly based on Ireland/Scotland/Wales, but she has a French name because I like it and it suits her. My main characters are often inspired by people in my life, or are composites of interesting people I have come across over the years. Some of their names are modified versions of the people who inspired them. Interestingly enough, almost all of these modified names were actually "real names", albeit not very common. I have Googled them all just out of curiosity, and they almost all brought up actual humans!
My characters usually pop into my head, and I just pick a name that matches them or is reminds me of their complete opposite, a personality, or a love of something/a hobby/job the MC has. An MC in a short story is named Andy; he's evil and chaos personified. The story behind his name is that he's named after Andy from Toy Story... probably the least threatening character in the world. Another MC of mine in my novel is named Drystan: it was a cool name, a modified version of Tristan, and I happen to have been watching YuGiOh, the Abridged Series at the time. So, Drystan it was. Yet another MC in the same novel is named Saito Ryuu; Ryuu meaning "dragon" in Japanese. He's the head of a yakuza clan and the name suited him for that role. It also depends on the eras I'm writing about. I went to an American West-inspired baby names site for an American West short I'm outlining at the moment. I went to a Japanese site for the current novel's names, since it's set in Japan. Is the MC a female gaming nerd? Nerdy girl name. Is he a sexy rock star? Something cool that another MC can scream out during sex (and usually taken from bands I listen to). I've used sites like Seventh Sanctum, which is an amazing generator site, as well as behindthename.com (and surnames.behindthename.com), Springhole.net, and ChaoticShiny.com.
Sometimes I use a name generator, sometimes not. It all depends on the character. It's hard to describe, but sometimes when I find a name, I just know it'll fit the character. Even if they're from a different country than mine (US), there's always a name that just works for them.
For me it's sort of the feel I wanna get from the character and it reflects in the name. Tonya Harding - No nonsense, very militant. Secret nerd. Logan Blackhawk - Hardened military man who's seen action D'Angelo Peers - Adventure seeking, foul mouthed ruffian Dennis "Slig" Wolfe - The everyman. Award winning military sniper. Part time Pirate. Part Time Husband and father. Full time cool guy. Nalia de Fey - Extremely gifted psychic. Runs a voodoo knickknack shop in Jersey. James Howard - Pastoral father figure and great at giving advice. I like the names to kinda fit the roles. Like you could picture someone with that name doing what they do. So I kinda fumble around with certain phonetic sounds that hit that sorta feel and work a name out of it. It can take a very long time for me to have a solid solid name for one character. Edit: Oddly enough I decided to go off the wall for one of my protagonists and came up with a name I thought was unique: Moretto Carlone. After a quick search I found out that both names were the first name and surname of famous Italian painters Moretto De Brescia and Carlo Carlone. He's a character that has nothing to do with art but by golly if it's not obligated...
Sometimes the name just comes to me when I'm figuring out a character or when a new character is introduced the name just comes without thinking. Other times I have to seek a name out by looking at lists of names and trying to find one that reflects the personality and traits of the character.
I usually have two methods on creating a name for my characters. Either I write down a bunch of names I like, put them in a hat and draw a name or I use name generators.
I like using names that hint at the character personality. For example Veronica Fox to me sounds seductive and alluring. Also the theme and genre of the actually story and the environment helps in this area. For example f set in 1920s gangster and I have a geek type personality with a dark side I might call him Walter or Norman or perhaps Milton.
Erm, I have a note in my phone where I collect names, whether real ones that I find interesting (I once met a bloke called Imhotep Baptiste at the pub - I mean... hell!) or just various sounds that I like the sound of. If neither are appropriate for what I'm writing, I'll fire up a baby name website and pick a country. I'm currently on a bit of a Scandinavian kick, so a lot of my character names are currently coming directly from Icelandic, Norwegian, etc. baby name websites...
I use baby name websites for my characters too. I try to pick names to suit the character, but I try to avoid names that sound too unique or unusual, just to keep a bit of realism.
