Dookie

Does anybody else have to think about their names of characters in quite some detail. Sometimes names just don't seem to fit a character and so I am left searching through thousands of names on online name banks. Even then I normally have to choose my own name.

So does anyone have trouble deciding on that perfect character name? How do you all choose your names? Personally I like Japanese names. They rock and always fit a cool character.

ooghost1oo

Sure.

If I have a hard time thinking of a name, I'll browse websites listing 1000's of names for inspiration and ideas - medieval, nordic, frankish, elven, etc. I'll check out language pages (like how to speak orcish, how to speak elvish), and tavern-name generators, ship-name generators, etc.

I browse for inspiration all the time. You wouldn't believe how hard it is sometimes to come up with a simple last name out of the blue. I'll write and write up to the point where I have to introduce the name, and, despite having years of experience in the world and 1000's of names in my brain, I'll draw a blank.

Lobe

It depends what I'm writing. My humurous stories always feature characters with rather absurd names, so I tend to go for the old fashioned and rarely used. For more serious stories I often pick names with meaning (at least for the lead/s). If I'm writing thrillers and the like I just pick garden variety every day names. There are some very cool random name generators that can be downloaded, I've found them quite useful - probably quicker than trawling a list.

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Dookie

Yeah I like to have names with meanings which mean something to the story. I use www.behindthename.com for this.

midlandsmuse

I find that names for some characters are important. In which case I will choose carefully but if I am stuck for names I usually reach for a newspaper. Particularly the sports sections.

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lisajane

I have a notebook full of both guy and girl names, sorted by origin. Took me hours to pull together.

I've never used it.

Names for my characters are usually ones that just pop into my head, or names that I happen to like personally. They're almost always relatively common names, the most uncommon I think being Velvet (female). Despite this laid-back approach, I find that my character winds up fitting their name, and I cannot change the character's name once it's written.

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Hodge

Depends. For some stories, I'll just pick a random name. William, Jude, and John always work.

But for others I may want a name to mean something. I used to go over to babynames.com to pick one out, but that's too limited, so I make my own up now.

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KC

I think it depends on what you're writing sometimes. It's easy to think of names for Humor stories, like Dich Bent, Shesa Hoore, Sheila Spitzorswalloz. Most of the time I just come up with names from real life people I know when it comes to stories based on reality. For sci-fi stuff, you have a litle more room to be creative (I had a character named Coralis in one. I don't even know where I pulled that from).

Hodge

That would be a pretty crude and juvenile humor story...

True humor comes from wit and execution of a plot, not from funny names. Especially "funny" names that are commonly used in prank calls.

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Vincent Gray

One thing I always take great care in is making the names different enough. Once I have the major characters named, I'll make a list of all the uses of letters and vowel sounds and make sure there's as little re-use as possible, including place names and any other name that comes up a lot. I think this helps readers keep things straight better in their heads.

I find the phone book useful if I want to find a last name starting with a specific letter. If you get one from a large enough city you can make a good guess at how popular the name is and choose accordingly. I also like to mix and match names from film credits.

I also try to avoid 'soap opera' type names. You know the type, stuff like Trent Steele, Ambrosia Lexington, or Rick Zenith. I also go with default spelling unless I am trying to make the point that the person's parents gave them a weird name and thus probably gave them a lot of attention, like Chrysalis or Gryffyn or Aemilae. Haven't done that yet though. But I think giving characters 'cool' names makes them seem cartoonish.

Hodge

What about porno names?

Mine is William Wood. I shit you not.

bLuE_MoOn

Usually i spend ages going through many lists of names in name books and online naming sites ...but 99% of the time i end up usuing the name i thought of to start with ..the first one that popped into my head at the time. Alot of the time i use names of people i know or people ive seen or heard of.

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BrownAfro

When I write longer peices the original names that I bestow are always temporary. When I finish the work I re-evaluate what kind of name meaning fits the plot.