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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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Do you name characters after friends? Get inspired by characters in other books? Randomly pick names?
I tend to do a combination of things depending on the genre I'm writing. If I'm writing fantasy, I have a habit of researching names. I like to have the name reflect their appearance, a personality trait or perhaps a power or destiny.
In one of the books I have posted here, Embers to Ashes, the main character is a girl named Axelia (I call her Lia for short). Her name means protector of mankind in Greek and it's pretty much her destiny to protect her loved ones and others from the evil tyrant taking over the land.
How do you guys go about naming characters major and minor?
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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With my fantasy book I decided to give my characters a medieval England feel to their names so they all meshed well. For the main character I always pick a name I really like because I'm going to be typing it a lot. Then again, with Bon Voyage I picked the name Gwen out of thin air but it suits the character so it stayed.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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A variety of things. Name generators for ideas, baby name websites, pull them out of thin air. For surnames, I have a dictionary of surnames and I just randomly open to pages and pull one that tickles my fancy.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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Steph, when you pick a surname, do you make sure it rolls nice with the first name?
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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It usually does flow. That's part of what draws me to a name. It's really pretty loosey goosey on the process. But they generally do flow in some way.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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Someday I'm going to write a character with an absolutely horrific name and there will be tons of jokes about it.
I'm actually working on a spoof of the typical YA romance novel and the "bad guy" is named Rich, after my ex. I make sure my heroine only calls him by the name Dick (although I still don't know how people get Dick from Richard...) and I make a ton of bad Dick jokes. I crack myself up 
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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whatever seems to fit the character. I don't make the names flow together, no. I haven't started creating names for any fantasy novels yet though.
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Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 38
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If a character is from a certain time period or ethnic background, I research names that will not be anachronistic or not used for that culture. Like, there weren't a lot of Cindy's running about during the Middle Ages and there's not a lot of Prudence's about today.
There are a lot of websites for names, baby name books, family names, sometimes a play on a real person's name, like using their initials to generate my character's name.
Yes, my character names have to flow for me and I like for them to have meanings that fit the characters also.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 102
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For most of my characters I do a ton of research to pick just the right name. And they have to sound good together - to me at least.
I match the name to the time period -->
http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/babynames/most-popular.asp
I ensure the name is culturally appropriate --> http://surnames.behindthename.com/
http://people.howstuffworks.com/baby-name-trends-ga2.htm
http://www.babynames.com
http://translate.google.com
I pick words that convey or translate to who the character is and what's important about them. For example, my MC's surname is Harbinger because that's her role.
Though sometimes, the character just comes to me already named, like my librarian character, Mrs. Z., and my henchman character, Carl.
Finally, I ensure that no two characters appearing in a scene together have names beginning with the same letter or sound.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 226
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Ooh...I love naming characters. All my main character names, even for short stories, have meaning. The book I have up now is based on the Andromeda/Perseus myth and actually is a reimagined version of that story. Andromeda isn't a name I could use for Regency England, but it means "princess," so I chose Sarah, which also means "princess." Percy...well, that's a given. I had someone suggest I change Percy's name originally because she always associated it with wimpy characters. Granted, my Percy is more beta than alpha, but I think he's pretty darn hero-like, despite his name.
Titles for my characters only have one requirement for me: to be not a real peer in the UK. I have no desire to be sued. *grin* Beyond that, I use maps of England and try out different street names to hear if they work well with "Lord" in front of them.
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I usually scour baby naming sites when I need to name a character. After a bit of scrolling, something usually pings that just seems to fit the character.
I try to avoid naming characters after people I know in real life, just to avoid any chance of someone thinking a character is based off of them.
Every once in a while I'll shoot for a name that actually means something. Celtic names are my usual go-to for that and there's a great site, namenerds.com that has a whole long list of names for it.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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It depends on the character. Sometimes I'll have a name before anything else. Sometimes the name is the absolute final aspect of the character to be nailed down.
Baby name sites are good if I want something exotic or want a specific meaning. That happens more than half the time for major characters, less than half for minor characters.
The most memorable name research I've done was for a character who was a foundling at a hospital in Israel, who kept the Israeli equivalent of "Baby Girl Doe" as her name.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 49
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I find names all over the place. Baby name sites are a great place to start, but not the only place I've found.
The Social Security name database is a great source for period names (just enter the year your character was born and get a list of the top 10, 50, 100, or 1000 names from that year, for both girls and boys).
For my current WIP, I looked up traditional Irish names for my four brothers (who are members of a race of ancient Irish demons/gods—depending on who you ask).
I named a character after Hank Rearden from Atlas Shrugged (completely different genre of book and storyline, but I like to think of my Hank as having similar character traits to that Hank).
I have certain names I won't use in fiction. I hate using names of people I know (or know well, at least), especially for main characters. I refuse to use the names of living family members. The last thing I want is for someone to think I wrote the book with them in mind (I didn't), or to have other people asking me to use their names for a future book (I will, but I'll probably kill you off early just for asking).
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 222
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I make all of my names up on the fly. I experiment with sounds and letters until I find a combination I like.
I came up with Kalen, the name of one of my leads, just by banging on the keyboard a bit and modifying the sounds until I found something short and sweet that I liked the sound of.
I didn't find out until later that Kalen is a spin-off of a Celtic name, Caelin -- which ironically suits him very well. But, I now have to deal with the pronunciations and accept that because I chose a name with similarities to that one, that the background of that name will be associated with my character.
If I am writing a piece with ties to Earth (sci fi...) I will refer to ancient languages and mythologies and find base words that I like and play with them until I find something I like. I did this a lot with a piece I'm working on regarding Atlantis.
I don't use baby name books or sites because I write fantasy, so I want to create names -- and naming methods -- that fit my world.
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Joined: 3/29/2011
Posts: 25
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I agonize over character names. It's my least favorite part of preparing to write a novel. I usually go to www.behindthename.com and look at meanings, origins etc. I generally like names that are sort of unique but not too bizarre or unpronounceable, but that can be difficult to achieve.
Picking out names is usually the last thing I do before I start writing, because I like to have a good sense of each character before I decide on a name. Even then, it takes me several days to pick out good names for all my characters.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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Carrie, you don't pick names until after you've built the character? That seems so weird to me. A name is so much a part of who a person is that it always is the first thing I have to know about them. I guess it's the plotter part of my pantser-plotter writing personality.
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Joined: 4/28/2011
Posts: 4
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The name needs to match the character, for me. Names have their own traits, I've found, and if the wrong name goes on a character, that character's personality tends to go someplace I don't want it to go. I may pick an interesting name off my family tree or wherever my eye strays. I've opened the phone book, looked through cast and production lists, news articles, whatever is available at that time.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 25
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I usually have names come to me by instinct, as part of the character's growth and development. I have to honestly admit that I just now gave a last name to a character from a published, widely read story that I'm novelizing. I seriously never gave her a last name before, and she existed only as "Mel" to me (though very "real" even so) before, and it wasn't a "Girl With No Name" type of story.
That said, I try to pay as much attention as I can to making character names distinct, appropriate, and memorable. I want to give them names that will stick with the reader. These don't have to be extreme and alliterative like "Lex Luthor," but I've wondered many times why the ordinary names of Harry Potter seem so memorable. They just work, but the only one of the three friends with a Dickens-sounding name is Ron - "Weasley" - except he's not Weaselly. He's almost the opposite of Weaselly. But then of course after Harry, Ron and Hermione are relatively simple and straightforward, there's Dumbledore, Snape, and of course - Hagrid.
I sometimes fear sounding cartoonish or comix-like when I'm not writing that type of story, but I have also definitely moved a lot toward names that evoke the character in more than one way. I'm more aware than ever that you only get one chance to engage the reader, and you don't want them to read a chapter and get to the end and be saying "that guy."
You know - that guy that the wizard killed his parents and left that weird scar on his head. The nerdy looking dude with the glasses. I'm only mentioning this because I think J.K. Rowling did it in the traditional, Dickensian way, and she was SO right and no one can touch her in how well she accomplished this.
I've read two of the Dan Brown books and sat through two of the movies and right now I am thinking "that guy" and picturing Tom Hanks. You know - the Tom Hanks guy.
I just looked it up - Robert Langdon. It could seriously be Joe Blow -
Not every story runs on the uniqueness of the character/s - but it sure does not hurt.
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Since the series I'm currently working on is set in a real-life specific place, I have to be careful with names - so I took an old copy of my in-laws' telephone book. That gives me a good mix-match of local first and last names - and I keep a running list of names I've used so I don't reuse them somewhere else on accident.
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Joined: 5/2/2011
Posts: 59
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Wiki clicking, mostly. Vague references to this or that. As a couple of examples, a character I had to have in the middle of a labyrinth was named Oliver, for the Agatha Christie character Ariadne Oliver. Ariadne was one of the people who defeated Asterion, the minotaur of the labyrinth. Another character was based on the "Wandering Jew" figure, and I named him Sebastian, for Oscar Wilde's fake name 'Sebastian Melmoth' (there named for his uncle's story, Melmoth the Wanderer). They aren't obviously connected, but there is nonetheless some twisted significance to it.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 19
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I like to use "The Litle Encyclopedia of Names", Nathaniel Aliman for first names. This book gives source meaning of the names as well as ethnic and cultural roots. This is helpful when you need a Japanese names or a Chinese name for a character.
For last names, it's good to be a member of an international organization like The Planetary Society. In 1999 they put out membership directory, so I get last names from members who live in a specific country. With so many names to choose from, you can mix and match and find a name combo that fits the character in your story.
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Joined: 3/11/2011
Posts: 15
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I like to use names to help me mix things up a bit. When I looked at my SF universe and realized that most of my characters could be assumed to be Generic White People, I changed some names, and that helped me find threads to follow to change other things. For example, Dr. Benjamin Alexander became Dr. Shubendra Alexander, his mother's name went from Teresa to Tavishi, and suddenly I had a whole background for his near-vegetarianism, his outcast-from-a-powerful-family history, and a lot of other things besides.
Now I try to make sure everyone has some hint of their ethnicity attached, and I try to be faithful to it. Selene Ramirez, Donte Stromei, Taro Hibiki, Keen Faolan, Luc Caprice...it makes for a lot of research, but I really enjoy learning, so it's all good.
(For the record, Hinduism is WAY more study than I dreamed it would be! Fascinating, though.)
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Joined: 3/11/2011
Posts: 7
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@Amy Sterling: "I usually have names come to me by instinct, as part of the character's growth and development." I'm with you. Sometimes I think of a character name first that seems to fit what the story's all about. The heroine of one of my current WIPs HAD to be named Claire because her whole story arc was about finding clarity and direction in her life.
For personal fun, I've been saving a list of spam email names that I use for minor characters. Sometimes they're perfect for that walk-on role you don't want to bother doing all the research on. 
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 52
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The names I use always have to mean something about the character. I'll usually get some idea of what type of name I want to use...i.e. plain, elaborate, elite sounding, or royal etc. Then, I look at what each name means and see if that matches up to my characters personality or behavior in some way.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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With the story I'm developing at the moment, there's one group of characters who share something in common and I've used six of the names to show that. Six of the names all mean the same thing, and yet they're very different names. I'm actually paying attention to meanings as I pick names and the antagonist's name is perfectly suited to a big plot point.
This isn't how I normally roll when it comes to naming characters.
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Joined: 5/21/2011
Posts: 8
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I get most of my names from the end credits of TV shows and movies. I don't use them verbatim, of course; I switch around first and last or use a slightly different variation if I can't stand to let go of the original pairing.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 52
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I love that, Dawn! I thought I was the only one who liked to walk through cemeteries to get inspiration. My favorites are the ones that have the old oval pictures of the people on them. Once, my husband and I were walking through a really old cemetery in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and we came across an entire family buried together. They had all died a few days apart. Makes me wonder if it was an illness or a fire. Cemeteries are great for inspiration.
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Joined: 6/14/2011
Posts: 3
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When I name Character's I usually use names of people I know, or am familiar with. I do this for several reasons, one of which is because usually I chose the name for the character based on traits that I want that character to have that the person I named the character for also has.
For instance... if I want someone to be kind of a smart ass, I would pick my cousin Vincent and use his name or a variation... (Vinny, Vince, Vin, Vanessa (if the character is a girl))
The reason I do this is because I know the person has depth to them and I want my character to have depth also.
I also do this by careers, especially in secondary characters. A person who works law enforcement is not going to act the same was as a waitress. So I look at those around me, see how they act, respond, carry themselves. Makes the writing process that much easier. But since i deal on the psychological side of things in my writing, I might have more motivation for doing it my way. But I notice I pick names at random (usually for minor, inconsequential characters) they wind up flat.
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Joined: 5/9/2011
Posts: 3
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I occasionally try to give my characters names with some significance, but most of the time I end up just giving them names that I like. I take into account somewhat their personality and what their role is in the narrative, but generally the main characters get names that I like and secondary characters get common names that I pulled out of thin air. I don't like giving characters names with too much significance, because that just reeks of cliche and way too much authorial intervention. I think that if you want a character to be believable, you need to give him or her a name that DOESN'T signify their destiny or whatever. Who in this world has ever been given a name by their parents (or whoever named them) that spelled out what they would do with their life? It might work in a fantasy where indeed the parents (or whoever) WOULD know what their child is destined for, but otherwise, no. Yes, a story is not like real life, okay, but in this issue I prefer it if characters don't get a name that spells out their destiny. Take into account ethnic background, monetary status (wealthy people do tend to name their children differently from poor people), things that would realistically affect your character's name, but don't name them something that you specifically looked up to mean what you want them to be, unless it's really subtle and only academic scholars who make a living analyzing things that that will find it out.
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Joined: 5/4/2011
Posts: 19
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I used to look up name meanings, but found out that it never really fits right. Instead, I usually go by sounds. Same with comedy, harder c's and k's fit with harder characters and visa-versa for softer sounds. But honestly, I mostly imagine the character's age and look up the most popular names for that year. Sounds odd, but names really progress throughout the years and there are usually some gems on these year by year lists.
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 5
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I had to laugh at myself when someone mentioned hard/soft consonants, because I do the exact same thing, except with vowels: I use a lot of longer, softer vowels for my protagonists (Abigail, James), and all my antagonists have names with short/clipped vowels (Amy, Jim). The best/worst example is in a single one of my characters, a scheming manipulator who always introduces herself by her given name, Serenity, but who goes by Sarah with her friends, with whom she is unfailingly loving, sincere and loyal.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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I come up with names in a few different ways. I have one named after a friend. I have a few that are variants on words (Adamar is from adamant), and then sometimes I just pick a name out of thin air and flex it to fit the character (Melody to Melodina). Even though I may not have a purpose to the name at first, my character end up fitting the name they're given or they develop a nickname that fits them better than their birth name. Names are a tricky business, and I've found myself changing a few to fit the character better.
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Joined: 4/4/2011
Posts: 7
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I try the Stephen King approach - pick them from the telephone directory
it actually works!
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Joined: 5/12/2011
Posts: 240
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My last book was inspired by a certain Bob Dylan song, so I had to have a Lily, a Rosemary and a Jack. I set it in the 1870s and 80s and for the other character names I chose common names for the people in that period, in the urban, immigrant-riddled slums. Some are Irish, some English, some Jewish, some German, some African American.
The way I pick my 19th century American names is by googling "Irish surnames" or first names, or whatever I need. I look at manifests of passengers on immigrant ships, I look up "popular names of the 1890s" and such. Google has lots of these things for geneologists and expectant parents.
For my futuristic story, I still thought about the ethnic backgrounds of my characters and used lists from those cultures to name them, but I also played with meaning. One character who is not super-important but has a distinct role in the story is "Vernula" which means "servant" in Latin. I also named my main characters Adam and Eve, thusly: there's an Eva, which is obvious enough and also makes sense in the context of her upbringing. But then there's Tiria, which is Welsh for earth or land or farm. Since Adam is Hebrew for earth or in fact, dirt, Tiria is Adam.
Nobody is going to notice that--except ya'll, because I just told you. But it's fun to me anyway, and it's my sarcastic joke of "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." Heh. But I made a two-girl Adam and Eve pair, so there.
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Joined: 10/13/2011
Posts: 12
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Picking names is very important to me. I almost gave up on writing completely when I thought I had to change the name of the lead character in my series! Still, there are different ways I go about it. One way I pick names is through sound. What name has a sound that reminds me of the character (Brock Carlson, to me, is a name that sounds a particular way, so I gave that name to a certain character). Other names are chosen for meaning: I research name meanings on baby name sites or surname sites. Still other names are homages to people, places or stories that I know and love. I have to live with these character names, so they better be good. Also, I try and pick names that are not too similar to each other, so the characters are easy to tell apart.
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Joined: 5/12/2011
Posts: 240
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I do homages too! I actually have a character who I decided was essentially very much like a certain friend of mine in personality and gave her that friend's name (though the friend goes by a very unrelated-sounding nicname, so they sort of have different names).
But I told my friend, "when the book comes out and says 'all characters are fictional, yadda yadda and any similarity to real people is a coincidence' that will be a lie. This is just you. But you can't sue me."
She agreed. She's a very good egg (and so is her character)!
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Joined: 10/13/2011
Posts: 12
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I try to be careful about naming characters directly after friends. I usually only use a part of a name, in case that character has to do somethin awful (or something awful happens to him/her!) I do liberally steal character traits from friends to add texture to my creations, again, warning my buddies that, just because YOU played ice hockey goalie in college and the protagonist did, too, does NOT mean I based her on you!
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Joined: 5/12/2011
Posts: 240
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I named my prostitute character in a recent story after myself for this very reason. Nobody could say it was her. Heh.
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I was really stuck on names for my NaNoWriMo novel until I decided to only give the characters names that had been used on Days of Our Lives. It sounds goofy but it got me writing, and I can always change them later.
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Joined: 5/1/2011
Posts: 3
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Hello!
Character names are fun. I get mine from different places. If I hear a name I like, I'll work it into some story. Depending on what genre it is, I look into the derivations of the names.
I've also looked through the Social Security database, and sometimes, I even get character names and ideas from writings on public washroom walls.
Enjoy!
Denise Baer
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Joined: 5/20/2011
Posts: 6
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I usually start of with the characters of X and Y. These then become Tom and Sue. Then they evolve into something else. Thank heavens for global search and replace.
The final forms usually reflect some aspect of the theme of the story - or so I like to pretend to myself. In reality the name at some point just sticks, mainly because I have become so used to it that it's disappeared.
Names in James Joyce are usually meaningful, as they are in Charles Dickens - but of course I don't want to be accused of trying to copy their ideas.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 21
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I try to keep the names real. If it is a character from another country, I research common names. Or I check the geneaology files for a given location and pick family names for that...then check to make sure that no one of a given full name exists there! Finally, I try to make the name reflect the genre and style of the book.
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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I just make them up - especially names for alien or fantasy characters. I have a tendency to think of language as having a rhythm, so the "alien" names - especially full names - have a certain flow to them.
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Joined: 11/19/2011
Posts: 7
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If it is a normal person and I need a normal name, I search online for names until I am happy with one. If they need an unusual name, I translate key words that describe them to Latin and use those as the base of the name. I could combine two Latin words or whatever. Also, sometimes I lay down thinking until I come up with a totally original name that fits the character perfectly.
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Joined: 11/22/2011
Posts: 4
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Beyond making them time period and culturally appropriate I tend to just use what ever feels right at the time. My reasoning being that a character does not choose their given name, so an evil character will not necessarily have an evil name, and a good character the same.
You should have a character define the name, not the other way around.
On the other hand if your character changes his/her name or chooses one for him/herself then make it as appropriate as possible. For this I just go to one of those childrens name websites and look for one with a meaning pertaining to the character's traits.
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Joined: 2/25/2012
Posts: 20
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I think my favorite name to date is for the story I'm focusing on now--the main character's name is Taeda, which, when I was brainstorming for the story, I didn't realize meant anything at all, but then found out it is actually part of the Latin name of a pine tree. To me, it sounds like it is a little sharp, and that's very much reflected in his character. Other names, I just wind up thinking of and using--unfortunately, sometimes I find out after the fact that the name is already taken by another fantasy character (my character Locke...I had never even heard of Locke Lamora, I swear!) =P
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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When I worked at Del Rey Books, we published a lot of original Star Wars fiction. I'll confess that some of the character names in the early books came from the names of the dishes on a Vietnamese restaurant menu. LOL! (Yuuzhan Vong, anyone?)
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Colleen.... When I read that book, that was my first thought, that it sounded like an oriental dish!
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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Alex - They were the most delicious bad guys that Luke and Han ever faced! LOL!
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Joined: 4/3/2011
Posts: 66
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The cemetery, funny enough. I go to an old cemetery here in town and find the names of my characters based on the headstone coolness factor. Last names that is. I look at baby name books of the times for first names.
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