Naming characters

[dzebra]

In my writing, the most difficult thing for me to do is come up with names for characters. I presently have a 5,500 word short story made up of characters with no names, but I have been wanting to expand that to a long story. To expand as much as I want, names should be implemented. I'll go back and edit some in.

How do you get names for your characters? Is there some giant pool of good names to choose from, are they selected randomly, or what? I think I'm mostly looking for an algorithm to match a name to a character, if such a thing exists.

[Mortis Anarchy]

Baby Books...the ones were they have lists of names. Or websites...such as behindthename.com...its my favorite.:D Google!

[Bakiryu]

just a random name from the top of your head that YOU, the AUTHOR likes and feel it fits the character.

Band names, ethnic names, random letter combinations....

[motherhubbard]

phone books

also, my family tree is a very interesting source of names that you would find in the ozarks a hundred years ago. I wonder if the whole country had names like these...

[Mortis Anarchy]

phone books

also, my family tree is a very interesting source of names that you would find in the ozarks a hundred years ago. I wonder if the whole country had names like these...

Good idea! Phone books and family trees!! Thanks!:D

[dzebra]

Ha! I looked in my family tree and I have a lot of ancestors in the "Butts" family. That's funny.

But yeah, I like the idea of a baby names book, that could help me pick a name that maybe means something relevant in another language. Thanks guys.

[JADJARHD]

I always pick the most dysfunctional characters and name them after my friends. That way when my friends read it, we get to laugh about it.

[Pensive]

I have read so many Urdu afsaanas (stories) that I never have problem in choosing an Urdu name. I can fairly deal with English names also. Otherwise, there are always symbolic names which I love to use like 'May' or 'Hope'. Like 'Sorrow'.

I would say baby-books is a good idea too! :D

[hedbanger]

When I need a first name, I look up baby name sites (there are TONS)

As for last names, I get a book (like an encyclopedia) that has tons of authors/editors, and pick someone.

[rabid reader]

I like anagrams take a word or a name of a person that you want your charactor to emulate. FOr instance, in my shorts if I want to create a quite/witty/analitical charactor I always name him Albert Tonnew. Its fun and easy, fun becasue you can take words and add a creative touch to them to make them names, easy becasue so long as you can pronounce the name, the organization of the letters matters very little.

[RobinHood3000]

I use a lot of names from my favorite comic book characters, but a lot of other times, I pick something ironic and, if it fits the tone, blatant (like Jock for a high school football player).

[Bakiryu]

Japanese anime! You can always find cool names. (I'm currently obsessed with the name Cunningham for some reason :blush:)

[the silent x]

if there is someone in the story that i relate to, then i give them my "second first" name, such as, my name is ---- but i like the name Lance Patrick Pointe or somehtign like that, so his first and last name say something about him, Lance Pointe, sharp, all around great at fighting, yadda, yadda

[hedbanger]

Another good way is historical or political figures.


I had a side character in a series named William Rehnquist x)

[Bakiryu]

I like to use names that mean something in another language: Like Koryu which is Japanese for Garnet or Ryu which means dragon.

[Conspire]

I've never had a problem with character names, it's the part of writing that I've always enjoyed the most. I've come across a few useful sites that have unusual but not completely nonsensical names that I've always loved to use. I find using names that mean something that represents the characters personality to be a bit cliche and not all that realistic. I don't think anyone I know has parents who named them based on the suitability of their names original meaning.

Anyway, before I begin to rant I'll finish with, google is the single most useful invention when it comes to naming characters.

[aabbcc]

At one point in my life I was interested in the origins of names, so I compiled quite a great list in one notebook, of various European first and last names, their meanings, etc. A lot of that you can find online, actually.
Whenever I think of naming a character, I simply skim through that notebook and choose the most appropriate name (most of the time, however, I simply do not name my characters and thus solve the problem :D).

[bookclover]

How do you get names for your characters?

Someone suggested the phone book and I do that too. Also, I write down names I like (when I meet new people, read the newspaper etc)

[jhuka]

I also use the phone book, or I take a long walk through a graveyard. There are a lot of great names there, and the histories are there with you as well.

[libernaut]

character in a myth that paralells your character in some way or another.

[Aiculík]

It depends on what I'm writing and what I want to do with the character.

If I'm writing a short story and the main character is just some ordinary guy I'll choose some ordinary, quite common name. And sometimes I even omitted the name, I just used pronouns.

But when I was writing a phantasy story - where there was a big Empire with different languages and dialects and even some phantastic unhuman creatures with special languages - I invented special names. It was great fun. I based it on the European languages, but I modified it - I wanted it to sound different, kind of historically, but yet familiar, so Matthew became Matiasus, Matevs, Mathe, Mattys, Matus, Mattitya etc. depending on in which "language" it was. If it was some creature, I simply invented the name depending on sounds. It was great fun.

[Taliesin]

The names of people who send you e-mails like : You won *insert big sum of money and lots of exclamation marks here*", "Lengthen your penis for only *insert small sum of money here*" or some other spam.

[applepie]

For me names depend on the character. Sometimes I choose a name and fit the character to the name. Often, I start to write, and after I have a good image of the character I name it. Some characters are harder to name than others, but I find picking names for my characters can be as hard as it was to choose names for my children. It is great fun, though. I can name them whatever I want without my husband's approval:D Mythology is another good place to look for names. I've recently used Castor and Pollux as names for a set of twins in one of my stories. When writing fantasy, you also get the fun of inventing names and words. I'm currently doing this, and I love it. If you really have tons of trouble, pick up one of those "10000 baby names" books. They're an awesome resource, and often they have some really uncommon and unique names. Good luck to you on choosing names.

[zealouza]

.... Just listen to what your heart says;) that would be a perfect name to your characters:p

[KatnissEverdeen]

I usually make up names that have the key to the Character. For example, Nightshadow, she is (in the book am writting) a deadly warrior. That conbination of words came to my head when I first wrote about her.