Name Help - Writers Forum

Madness · 01-20-2005, 07:29 PM

I'm just brainstorming for a story I'm trying to write but I've gotten stuck on some character names. I know exactly who I want the characters to be, but not what to name them, so I was wondering if anyone could suggest some names for any of the rough character persona's below.

1. Cool, calculating, confident, outgoing, sneaky, conniving, handsome, worshipped, revered, self-promoted.

2. Clean, suave, romantic, cocky, professional.

3. Mellow, shy, naive, respecting, reserved.

4. Hateful, greedy, entrepuener, love of money, reckless.

5. Irish, loyal, determined, outgoing, opinionated.

Any names that you think of would be appreciated. The story is going to have a somewhat dark, anime-like if you were to think of it as a movie, setting.

- Madness

yagotmoxie · 01-20-2005, 08:16 PM

umm... well i'm not sure if these would be good but for your first name maybe Chad Commacho and the 5th one Ceallach Miller ?

FoggyImagination · 01-20-2005, 09:11 PM

Whats the gender on these characters?

Ilan Bouchard · 01-20-2005, 09:17 PM

I would suggest making your character's name reflect more than just the stereotype of what a name might have. Someone like Geoffrey is just as likely to be tough and suave as someone named Toughy McSuave. If you're looking to make a character even more profound, choose a name that has relevance in history. Is your character power hungry and slightly crazy? Name him Nero. I read a book about a bunch of child prodigies who are too smart for their own good and fall apart. One of them commits suicide, the other develops a hate for everyone. Their last name was Glass; brittle, fragile, transparent. Use your imagination, the name can be made up, but if it has relevance it adds another level to your story.

Madness · 01-20-2005, 09:40 PM

FI - Those ones are all male but I probably won't be using all of them in the story. Any names male or female that you can suggest would be helpful.

Ilan - Your right on all your points, and I definatly want the characters name to reflect them. In fact, to clarify I'd rather if anyone could suggest more of nicknames. For example, one of the characters in the story is named Madness (which is where I got my forum name from.)

Yagot - I like the sound of Miller. Thanks.

But yeh, so just to further clarify for anyone else. Ignore if you want the stereotypes from above, just give me a handleful of nicknames and what not, and I'll pick through them myself, because it's rather hard for anyone else to give me a name based on what I know in my head about these characters.

- Madness

Philo · 01-21-2005, 09:46 PM

When I'm looking to find character names with specific meanings I usually start with a baby name site. Many of them have a search by meaning funtion. I've used http://http://www.babynames.com/ with pretty good luck.

Someone else on the forums had a similar question a while ago and one of the suggestions was http://www.behindthename.com/ which has an advanced search function thats pretty sweet. If you're interested you could do a search here and see if you can find it. I'm pretty sure it was in Research.

stereomuse · 01-22-2005, 10:43 AM

That second one looks really useful...

demonic_harmonic · 01-23-2005, 10:22 PM

A wierd little trick I use:

Just ask your character their name. Seriously. It sounds like it wouldn't work, but it does.

Don't think about a name. Put the image of your character into your head. Let them walk around and do their thing for a bit. You may start to feel what letter their name should start with. Talk with them for a bit. Don't try to make them do what you want them to, make them do what they want to do. (works for writers block as well.) Eventually, ask them their name. Either some name will come shooting to your mind, or some mumble that sounds sort of like a name will.

Or: Let two of your characters talk to eachother in your mind. One may say a name out of nowhere and youll be like 'Hey!'

Or, if all else fails, this is how i gave Norris his first and last name: I did the first thing for his first name, and I was stuck for a last name. I needed to fill his last name in quickly so I could just get on and write without putting a blank in my writing and coming back to it later. My mom was driving, I was writing. I looked infront of me and saw a red Ford.

Norris Redford. Tah dah.

mammamaia · 01-24-2005, 08:59 AM

the level of 'appropriateness' of character names is also dependent on whether the work is a satire, or a serious drama and if in a sci-fi or fantasy genre or standard contemporary settings...

without more info, it's really useless to ask for suggestions, imo, since all those factors need to be considered in order to come up with names that will work for your characters in that particular story/novel...