Hey guys, I am just starting to write a dystopian type novel but I am completely stuck for a name. It needs to be male, probably a fake name given to seem tough but also to hide identity. I've scrolled through hundreds of names but nothing works
Don't sweat it. Use a placeholder name until you come up with one you like. If coming up with a character name is the toughest decision you encounter in writing your story, count your blessings.
I used an A, B, C system until I picked names. There are hundreds of name list sites on the Web from picking baby names to names of gods. I also found some scientific terminology dictionaries useful like the Biology terminology lists on Wiki.
Ditto what Cogito said. Just start writing use a temporary name or nickname for a while something simple like The Guy or John. Sometimes the best way to find a name is let it come to you - don't force it. An event could happen in the story or someone could say something and you'll be like that's it - that's the name. Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind without having the name Scarlett O'Hara, that came afterwards. Scarlett's original name was Pansy.
This. A gazillion times this. In one of my novels, there's this secretive woman who was known only as "Ice". I wrote 50,000 words of that novel until I decided that, actually, "Ice" wasn't a great name and I changed it to "Ghost". I went on 'Find and Replace' on Word and, feeling rather pleased with myself, told Word to replace "Ice" with "Ghost". When it got to the first editing/spellcheck of the novel, I wondered why I had characters giving "AdvGhost" to people, or why I had people working in "rGhost plantations". Took bloody ages to get rid of all that...
Fake names are usually something symbolic or meaningful to the character that wields them, derived from their goals, motivations, and self-perception. My antagonist, a member of an English resistance movement, uses the nom de guerre 'Hereward' after Hereward the Wake, for example. Other ones suitable for the rebel archetype in general might be Joan, Spartacus, or Wolfe.
Fictional tough-sounding? Gorrell Tank It's the name of a car park in Whitstable, and since I first saw it, I always thought it would make a great character name.
