Thread: Naming Characters.

Here is something that for me is either very difficult or extremely easy. There is no in between. Sometimes I see the character and I can instantly name him/her, other times the process is a lot harder. There is also the problem with unusual names, sometimes I find that too many within the same story can put the reader off therefore the original name that comes to me is often scraped a few chapters later when I read through it.

I have written a story through once and am looking to redo most of it but I have been thinking about names and I think that too many of mine are strange/unusual. It is set in modern day England and three of the main characters were called.

Poppy Darling.
Gabriel Drew Fox (Gabe)
Angel Darque (Male)

I just thought that all of these together made the story a little unbelievable.

How do you come up with names?
Does any of what I have said apply to you?
Also suggesting a name for a badass demon fighter would give you brownie points =]

x

I have good luck with the phone book for last names...first names are a bit harder...but any time I hear an unual name I write it down...

Name for a badass demon fighter? hum...how about.... Balthazar Melchior?

Usually some name sites help. Seventh sanctum has lots of good names, if you're writing fiction and the sorts.

In my opinion, as long as your names aren't common to the genre you're writing, it's usually the characters that make the names, not the names that make the characters.

Take Harry Potter for instance. 15 years ago a name like that would be seen as common here in the UK, but now it's a world-wide phenomenon.

Don't worry to much about the names, just write the story. You can change them at the end, after all.

I quite often use real names and swap them round, so I know Pete Green and Dave Brown, bing I have two names, Dave Green and Pete Brown.
Is that a badass fighter of demons or a badass demon who fights, either way Eustace Cummins has got to be a winner

How about Badazz MacDemonfieder?

I have an uncle Badazz.

Yeah but my names comes from royalty....any guess where I might have found them, yall?

I love strange names. I lean toward "hippy" flower-child named characters such as August, Summer and Sky to names such as Cable Fox (which I thought was so cool when I named him). In the end, what has ended up helping me a lot is Behind the Name: Random Name Generator because it has rather common names, and then it has options for fairy, goth, witch names. You can mix and match to see what background you want. Just keep clicking till you find one that works!

For example, randomized as possible demon names?

Ezer Abel
Clodovicus Archelaus
Mitica Conrad

Hahaha. You never know. =P

I find Genealogy (<- this is a link) pretty useful, but honestly I mostly just choose names randomly. I try to find something that sounds not completely common yet not completely ridiculous. A name just weird enough to be real, if that makes sense.

I've found most of my recent character names on people's name tags. I got "Constance" from Disney and "Midge" from a department store. Love them both.

See names are very important to me, they have to fit the character and I find it quite hard to write a scene if the names aren't right. For instance I decided to start planning something recently and it hasn't gone far because I can't find a name for a certain girl. Sigh. I'm going to try some of the suggested sites though, thanks guys x

Here is something that for me is either very difficult or extremely easy. There is no in between. Sometimes I see the character and I can instantly name him/her, other times the process is a lot harder.

Yes indeed. For me, the "extremely easy" side of it comes when I have the character perfectly pictured in my head. I've always thought that certain names perfectly match certain people, so when I can "see" the character, it's an easy step. If I can't, however, then the name has to come first - which is hellishly difficult. If this is the case, then I'll usually select a lucky-sounding letter and flip to the corresponding page in the phonebook. But, like you said, I can't write a scene if the name isn't right. More than once, I've had to go back through my half-completed story and change one name, to make myself happy. "Find and Replace" is a genuine lifesaver. :p

Surprisingly, at least to me, with my last major story (a 16,000 word novella, written for a competition), the protagonist's name came first. It just appeared in my head as I was sitting at my computer, and I thought it so powerful that the entire story - including plot, antagonists and supporting characters, AND their names - just fell into place around it. That story was the most fun I've ever had writing. ^.^

I completely agree with you T.G. everything you've said is like exactly the same for me. Sadly this time I have a character in my mind but I just can't name her. The name for my other major character came easily but this one is really doing my head in. I know the type of name she needs but I can't find the right one.

I'm very verbal with names. I tend to see what pronounces well. And I go by sounds most of the time, like what sound would I like in this character's name and so on.

The naming process begins before the novel is written. The idea is played over and over in my head over extended periods of time and in this time I refer to my characters by name. Most of the time the name constantly changes over the days either because I don't remember the one I coined the day before or I find a cooler sounding name that shares similar sounds. Eventually a name sticks and that's the one I go for.

Weird.