# How do you come up with character names?



## adriansia (Dec 9, 2011)

I enjoy  using real life referrals, how about you?

Regards,

Adrian


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## rane (Dec 9, 2011)

I tend to use the same names over and over, so usually I'll ask a friend to come up with one.  Not only do I get more realistic (if not clunky) names this way, it also helps me avoid getting too clever with the naming process.  Only after I had a character named "Caine" kill another character named "Abel" did I realize I was being a bit too obvious.  Then again, if you can get away with naming a traitorous character "Benedict" (as in Benedict Arnold), and no one catches on, go for it!


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## Vertigo (Dec 9, 2011)

First or last names? Firsts are easy- just be random (I know that some people just pull a book of baby names off the shelf and grab one that's cool). Lasts are a bit tougher because in them you have a certain amount of cultural heritage that is implied, so what your selection is will differ depending on the character in question. If you just need generics, however, then something I do is grab athlete's names.

Cleverness and significance within a name really only matters if you're dealing with a Chosen One or if you're attempting to write allegory. Otherwise, just find names that a character's family might have named them, and go with it. Don't overthink, that's really all I can say.


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## Gamer_2k4 (Dec 9, 2011)

I actually avoid real life referrals, because if I only associate a name with my character and no one else, the character seems more real.  I get my inspiration partially from names I like, but more often from those "name meanings" websites.  I like leaving Easter eggs in my stories like that for sharp-eyed readers.



rane said:


> Then again, if you can get away with naming a traitorous character "Benedict" (as in Benedict Arnold), and no one catches on, go for it!



I'm pretty sure you can't do that.  It's like naming someone Judas; the name is far too deeply entangled with implications for an author to get away with it.


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## rane (Dec 9, 2011)

Gamer_2k4 said:


> I'm pretty sure you can't do that.  It's like naming someone Judas; the name is far too deeply entangled with implications for an author to get away with it.



Sure you can!  I had a trilogy I'd written a few years back featuring a character named Eileen Benedict.  Just flipped the gender, changed a first name to a last name, and boom, clever little egg for sharp-eyed readers, but not too obvious.  I'd say it worked from the feedback I received.


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## adriansia (Dec 9, 2011)

I use real life referrals but I do not implement their characteristics into the story. Like my brother, his name is Ryan but people call him Cap for short. I added a character named Cap yet he is nothing like my brother.

And for the surnames, I avoid it since my characters are often not even called by their real names.

Regards,

Adrian


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## C.M. Aaron (Dec 9, 2011)

A book of baby names works. So does pulling names randomly out of the phone book. You could also start by giving your character an ethnic or cultural heritage then give him  or her a name that fits. Some ethnic groups are associated with certain parts of the US. If your character is from New Orleans, give him a French name. If from Chicago, give him or her a Polish name. Scandinavian names are common in the upper midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota). If your character is Catholic, give them an Irish, Italian, or Polish name. If Protestant, give them a British, German, or Dutch last name. Or if your character has a multi curltural heritage, name him Carlos O'Brien or something like that.   C.M.


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## theorphan (Dec 10, 2011)

I like to use either a website or a real life referral.  When using a real life referral I tend to change last names if I use any characteristics but most of the time the person ends up being someone completely different anyways.  Sometimes coming up with names is so hard though.


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## felix (Dec 10, 2011)

I take a while with names. A bad name can ruin a character. 

I've taken from real names for some characters but every now and then I'll come up with one myself which has a ring to it. 


I tried keeping a 'name bank' a while ago but I find that those names only became more absurd with time. A name should be improvised during the story, I feel.


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## Kyle R (Dec 10, 2011)

I just make them up. Sometimes I'll take words and rearrange the letters.

I prefer unique names to common ones.

For example, in a story I had a character named "Ketchup" and, in another, a man named "Drobiff".

Take a name like "Spencer".. I'd switch a vowel to make it "Spancer".. then drop the r.. "Spance". Voila, there's a new character name, one that is quite unique.

I feel that as the reader gets to know the character through his or her actions, the name will begin to "fit", no matter how absurd the name is. That's just my opinion, though.


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## Rajani (Dec 10, 2011)

Usually when I'm developing a character, I focus on who they are as a person and their general attitude and then try to find a name that fits.  Oftentimes I'll have a general idea of the "sounds" I want a name to have, and then try to search for an appropriate word.


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## adriansia (Dec 11, 2011)

Reoccurring names I have used so far have been;

Aiech
Caine
Sante
Claire
Mia
Chubbdallah 

Regards,

Adrian


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## Robdemanc (Dec 11, 2011)

I make mine up on the spot and I hate it if I don't have a name for a character, it causes me to stop writing until I have one.  I just try to think of a name that would fit the character.  I tend to be of the opinion that names can be changed later if necessary so don't bog myself down too much finding the right one at the time of writing.


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## starseed (Dec 11, 2011)

Hard to explain but I just know them, first, last, middle. It always just comes to me as soon as I think of the character.


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## Anders Ämting (Dec 12, 2011)

Depends.

For fantasy names, I make something up based on how it sounds in my head. Sometimes it helps just uttering a sound that sounds like a name without thinking. If that fails, I use an online generator to randomize something.

For real-life names, I go over lists of first names and surnames and try different combinations over and over until I find the one that fits.


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## YohannIan (Dec 13, 2011)

I write fantasy  so the names I give to my characters are not the usual ones you would find.  That's partly why its hard for me to find names for my characters (because the names are derived from fictional languages).  It gets harder when I have to give them surnames and family names haha.
As Anders said, try an online generator.  It helps.
And I've also tried his different combinations method. 
You could try and look up names of different languages (greek, finnish,french maybe?).  It should give you a wider selection to choose from.


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## Mortimer (Dec 13, 2011)

Most of the time I just mumble syllables under my breath like a lunatic until something clicks phonetically. It sounds unsophisticated, but it works like a treat! Often I will have to change the original version slightly, but overall it's a decent way to get some nifty-sounding names.

Also, I have mentally bookmarked some prefixes suffixes that sound totally rad to me, and when the mumbling method doesn't work, I try to do something with them. It also works very nicely!


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## beanlord56 (Dec 15, 2011)

I use a mix of Greek and Latin names for major characters, and various other languages (mainly German) for minor characters.


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## Quadrillion (Dec 15, 2011)

Make notes as you go through your day. One of my characters FIRST name is Romo. Got it from watching football. Take a last name, make it a first. Or take a word that personifies your character and change the spelling or pronunciation


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 15, 2011)

I was recently reading about the break up of the Roman Empire and the author was pointing out the martial nature of the Germanic societies that overwhelmed it. One of his points was to give translations of Saxon, names, they usually meant something like "Great warrior" or "Sword wielder", and it struck me at the time that someone writing fantasy could do worse than looking up his character's characteristics in an Anglo-Saxon dictionary.

Sometimes I have a name for a character before I start, otherwise I simply leave it blank for a bit. I find once I start describing them in detail I suddenly know what they are called.


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## themooresho (Dec 15, 2011)

Fantasy is kind of a pain when it comes to names.

For my main characters I put a lot of thought into their names, trying  to make it sound just right to fit their personality, but they're always  made up.  For less important characters, I will take a normal name and  modify it slightly.  So Paul becomes Paus, Jacob becomes Ianco, Paula  becomes Palla, etc.  For the supernatural beings in my story, that's  actually more work than even my main characters, especially the gods of  the mythology I've created.  The names are all to varying degrees based  on certain practices of Qabalah, specifically Gematria (a form of  numerology using Hebrew letters instead of Greek or Latin letters like  most numerology does).

One technique I used for a supernatural  creature was to make his name derived from the role he performs.  So in  this case, he is a spirit who defends the captian of a ship.  So I  remove take, "defends the captain of a ship", reducing it to the  important words, "defends captain ship", then I reduce it further to the  initials, "DCS".  Then I put in vowels to make it sound right, "Decus".

So  lets say you have a character who is the Knight-Marshal of the King's  Army.  You'll take the first letters of the keywords to get "KMKA", then  put in random vowels to make it sound good, and you get "Kemika".  Say  you don't like how that looks, so you change it to "Kemica".  So now you  have Lord Kemica, Knight-Marshal of the King's Army.


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## Italy (Dec 15, 2011)

For me, it depends upon what genre my current piece is.
If it's fantasy,  then I just smash my keyboard and take excerpts of the result, and combine them, like so: gjrwierdfzmuifd becomes Muifez, and sjzgiunjisarour becomes Unjiroursa. Simple. Or I mumble a strand of gibberish and figure out how that would be spelled.
On the other hand, I could be writing realistic fiction. Then I dig through baby name books, sites, and sometimes even name generators until I find a name that is uncommon and cool. It helps if the name reminds me of the character's personality. I always think of the name Carol as a good name for a story in the 1800's. It brings "the confectioner's daughter" to my mind.


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## Sunny (Dec 15, 2011)

I picture my characters personailities, and try to name them from that. Also their age, and the time-era of the book has to be taken into consideration. There likely weren't very many Zoolanders' in the 1930s. But on second thought? There like aren't many now, either! :0)

I tried using the names of people I personally know in my book, but I couldn't get past it. Everytime I would read their name, I pictured the face of the person I know, not my character. So, I had to scratch that, and now I know I can't use real people's names. Unless they aren't very close to me of course. 

At work I deal with sooooooo sooooo many different people, that sometimes when I see their name in our database, I'll steal it! Lol. I'll scroll through list after list, looking for unique names instead of working sometimes! Just because I'm dedicated to my job like that! Lol


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## themooresho (Dec 15, 2011)

Sunny said:


> I picture my characters personailities, and try to name them from that. Also their age, and the time-era of the book has to be taken into consideration. There likely weren't very many Zoolanders' in the 1930s. But on second thought? There like aren't many now, either! :0)
> 
> I tried using the names of people I personally know in my book, but I couldn't get past it. Everytime I would read their name, I pictured the face of the person I know, not my character. So, I had to scratch that, and now I know I can't use real people's names. Unless they aren't very close to me of course.
> 
> At work I deal with sooooooo sooooo many different people, that sometimes when I see their name in our database, I'll steal it! Lol. I'll scroll through list after list, looking for unique names instead of working sometimes! Just because I'm dedicated to my job like that! Lol



You must work in a call center like me.  I've come across some pretty interesting names in my tenure here, though I've never used them in my writing.  More to laugh at than anything else.


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## Sunny (Dec 15, 2011)

Not a call center, but I do talk to a lot of people. Calling a lot of people, a lot of people calling me. I feel like it should be a call center! ;0)


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## JosephB (Dec 15, 2011)

I've been struggling with this since we stopped getting the phone book.


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## Rustgold (Dec 15, 2011)

To hijack to thread.

I'm looking for a name like Claire which would be ambiguous as to whether it's a first name or a surname.

Best I've come up with is Klaranda or Klarassa; but I'm not sure if they sound fine or totally stupid.  It also needs to make sense for it to be shortened to Claire.

Thoughts?


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## JosephB (Dec 15, 2011)

There was a big trend in girl's names a few years ago -- using surnames as first names. Examples: Marley, Sloane, Madison, Brooks, Ainslee, Ashley, Chastain -- probably more I'm not thinking of. 

Those are ambiguous -- but I don't think you have many options if it needs to be shortened to Claire.


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## Rustgold (Dec 15, 2011)

JosephB said:


> There was a big trend in girl's names a few years ago -- using surnames as first names. Examples: Marley, Sloane, Madison, Brooks, Ainslee, Ashley, Chastain -- probably more I'm not thinking of.
> 
> Those are ambiguous -- but I don't think you have many options if it needs to be shortened to Claire.


Those names are too normal to use in any case.  It doesn't need to be a real name, just not completely stupid.  Not sure if those I came up with crosses that boundary from '_yes I understand the shortening from an odd name,_' to '_that's plain stupid_'.


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 16, 2011)

Hilary and Leslie come to mind


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 16, 2011)

Coming back to the topic. 





> I tried using the names of people I personally know in my book, but I couldn't get past it.


I had this feeling too Sunny, but then got past it by giving them the surname of someone who picked up on their other side.


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## Sunny (Dec 16, 2011)

Hey Olly.. I guess that works. ;0)

I wanted to, like really badly, put my nieces' and nephews' names in my book. But everytime I read it over, it felt wrong. Like when I'd write how some guy was drinking himself into a stupor, and it was my 3 year old nephew's name... it just felt utterly ridiculous! Lol


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## Jeko (Dec 17, 2011)

I write sci-fi, so a lot of my names are based around their style and cultural links, as well as making them sound nice. I enjoy coming up with good ones for villains. My main antagonist's name is Ath'Dar. He's dark, so I wanted to give him something passionate but shadowy and terrifying.

I also try using things that already exist but aren't names. Another bad guy I have is called June.
If you want to get across your character easily, you can usually do them justice just in the name. I had an evil guy who was really powerful and proud of himself. I came up with 'Lord Mavor', and it's stuck. It emerged from random inspiration from a massive cannon in the computer game 'supreme commander'. Video games _can _help you write!
Another technique I like is coming up with juxtapositions to the style of the character. For example, D.H.Machale (I think I spelt that right) has his main villain as 'Saint Dane'. I love that name so much, I want to frame it. 

In conclusion, I come up with names through looking at the characters or using something clever like a contrast or something that already exists. But then again, I write sci-fi, so my names are going to be a bit different to every else's


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