Of course this is the first thread in the character development forum! I was just thinking of asking this same question. I am writing a book at the moment and after 20,000 words I thought I'd better get an idea of how other writers decide on their names. The name for my name character right now is a placeholder I randomly came up with for a previous attempt at writing and for some reason it has just stuck and now I quite like it... Now looking it up online, I find a rather unfortunate (and poorly written) Urban dictionary entry describing dried faecal matter left on one's bottom. Lovely.
When asking for advice on names people need to state the genre. A random name picked from a phone book, or mixing the first and last names from two actors is fine if you’re writing straight, modern day fiction. But if you’re writing fantasy we’re talking about an entirely different train of thought. Although having said that it would be quite refreshing to have your middle-earth dragon slayer be called Keith Thomson.
Assuming it's an English name, I pick a letter first then choose a name beginning with that letter. If it's a name from another language, I'll look into online name lists if it's not a language that I know many names from. For fantasy/science fiction, I just make up whatever comes to mind. I have one race that I created for a series of short stories featuring a Time Lord character that I've worked on whose names all start with the letter Z or V. Male names start with Z, and female names start with V. I might be dealing with them a lot more too, since I have some ideas that feature them and another race I've created. I haven't really worked out any rules for names for the other race yet.
There are a few faves I use over and over, and others I choose by their cadence. One syallable, or three. What Might sound best in any particular story. Sam or Samuel. Mary or Marilyn. I do a lot of genealogy, and names move in and out of fashion. Hepsida was a popular name for girls back in the 1800s. So, names will depend on your genre and period.
I just go through a list of popular names until I see one that I feel fits the character. Not much to it, but it works for me, for some reason.
I don't know why but names come to me instantly without thinking about it. Whatever pops in my head, I just use it.
Depends on the situation. One character is a female teacher who's name went through several iterations. The story took a turn such that I settled on a last name that would be a target of mockery by a couple of high school bullies. The first name was of one of the people who influenced the character. She is a protagonist supporting character.
I use Fake Name Generator mainly. It probably sounds funny but in my case it's just more natural and human. It makes me feel like the choice is actually a matter of fate and luck. Also it draws a certain distance to the characters which is important for me since usually I tend to put too much of myself in them. If I were to come up with my own names, I would come up with some pretentious and awkward abominations. Besides, the name, with all the details the site provides, can be quite suggestive and inspiring.
I love deciding on names. I usually start with the surname as I find these easier to come up with - I often take inspiration from the end credits of films or from sports - and then it's case of finding a first name that fits.
I once had a professor with a thick Indian accent, and I would make up names based on what it sounded like he was saying. Fortunately the text was a good one, and I didn't have to understand everything he said, like Vybidoo. (y/2, or y by 2)
I personally try my best to avoid names that convey a special meaning. In the real world, people can't see into a crystal ball and predict how the child will turn out and name them accordingly. I like to think the same way and treat my characters like real people. Their names are either family names or just... names.
I use US census data and search for specific decades and common boy and girl names and surnames. I pick from the top 20. For secondary characters with an interesting quirk I'll pick a less popular name. I'll search each constructed name to ensure it doesn't compete with someone popular to avoid reader confusion (or thinking about someone else when they read about my character).
I usually have an idea of how I'd like the name to sound, and probably a first letter of the name. Then I run through some names beginning with that letter and see which one sounds and feels good. If I deviate from the letter I'd initially wanted, usually it feels wrong. I get quite attached to names - if I come up with a name and I don't use it, I tend to keep it for future books. My MC's name Lynx went through three different premises before landing on his own story. I'm still looking for a story for Soren, Arashi, and Tathelion. Most recently Malachai 'Kai' finally found his story that I'm now developing, but I came upon the name Kai some 10 years ago.
When writing fantasy, I use websites that have glossaries of ancient words. I got the idea from Tolkien. The Sumerian glossary was very interesting. When writing another genre, I use the last name of someone who reminds me of my character. And then I use any first name that comes up in my mind.
Sometimes I'll research to find the perfect one (ex if I chose the name Bridget for a fire bender) or other times one will just come to me randomly. It really depends.
It's a difficult one to answer. Sometimes you'll pick a random name just as a placeholder and before you know it, you think it's the perfect name. The reverse is often the case too. I picked 'Jacob Grey' for a protagonist in one story, hated it for weeks but now love it. I picked 'Drogue' for another protagonist in another story, hated it for weeks and still hate it now. Sometimes I'll look up names I could associate with the theme of the story or an element of it. Sometimes I'll sit there making stupid sounds with my mouth until I hit upon something that sounds remotely interesting. I find more syllables make a name sound grand and interesting but not always. You can buy a book of baby names. That's not a bad place to start, and whose to say you can't take an already existing name in there and replace a letter, or take two names and amalgamate them? Just throwing random stuff on the paper sometimes works. 3 ... 2 ... 1 GO Benestine Prott Merindo Gallabron Shinatingle Mellendrathrop LOL. It probably didn't work but it was fun.
For the first names I generally use names of family members who have died a while ago. None of my realizes seem to mind but it would probably be a good idea to make sure that no one in your family has an objection. For last names , well, I generally try and. find a last name that “sounds good” with the first names of my characters.
Naming a character can be fun as well as frustrating. My MC from one book was going to be named after the storm that heralded her arrival on the mainland, Csilla, which itself was a derivative of the word storm from a language I made up for the story. I ended up not going that route and she went through two other names before one finally stuck. She's now named after the grandmother of another main character. An SC from another story is actually named after a character trait. Honesty. Through some trial and error she ended up with the name, Inesde. Another from the word 'callous' was named Calliouse, which is far closer to the root word, and also tells more of his personality. And another uses a real world name as a surname, but one with some inherent gravitas to it, Arlington. So there are any number of ways to come up with a name.
I use a website called "Random Lists" (not sure if posting links is allowed), you can generate hundreds of names at a time. There are also generators for other things such as places, addresses, occupations etc.
Since I write a lot of fantasy, I often have fun coming up with naming conventions for different cultures. To give an example, in the book I'm writing now, in the primary culture, first names are almost always multi-syllable, with feminine names typically ending with I, A and less frequently EL, and masculine names ending in O or OS, though there are more exceptions to the rule with masculine names, as long as they end in a consonant (IC, AN). Last names are two-part, typically one syllable each, with the first half of the name coming from your mother and the second from your father (Mi'Lan, Cal'Rin) And I have a general feel for the types of sounds/common letters used in names, though it isn't really formalized. Then I brainstorm a list of names, occasionally mashing together names with appropriate sounds from baby name lists, then pick the ones that I feel best suits a given character, or have a nickname that suits the character (I think I've called Val 'Valenci' twice in the entire book...). I'll often start characters off with temporary names as well, just to get me started writing.
If I am basing a story in a specific country, then I tend to look up names that are specific to that country to give the character a little more..well..character. I like to pair my character with a name that mirrors their personality. For instance, if I have a character who is supposed to signify light or good, I would look for a name with that specific meaning. I found that randomly giving names out to characters who are of any importance to the story is a bit bland.
In a children's fantasy I've written (still looking for a publisher for it) set in an English village or small town with strange creatures lurking nearby, almost all of the characters' surnames (and some of their first names) were borrowed from people who've written about English/British legends. (The main character, for example, is a young girl named Jennifer Briggs, who was named after Jennifer Westwood, the author of "Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain" and Katharine Briggs, the author of "An Encyclopedia of Fairies".)
