Young Writers Society

So I'm writing a fantasy story, and I keep trying to play around with names but I can't find one for the main character I like! Does anyone have any ideas??????

fantasy story eh? well im pretty good at making up names...in my school groups anyways. just uh can u describe ur character u know the basics...looks gender personality stuff..and then i can make a name ifya still need one.

<3in me for me...im always there

Moved.

Gwapo, please remember to use correct grammar and punctuation. Chat speak isn't allowed at the YWS. Thanks!

When, I'm looking for a name I usually try one of two things:

1) take a regular name and spell it backward.
examples: Ilene --> Eneli or Adam --> Mada

Once you have it backwards you can mess with endings or vowels sounds until you like it, like with Mada, I took it and added a er to the end to make Madaer which fit one of my characters to a tee.

2) take a regular name and replace one of the letters with a different one.
examples: Katelyn --> Kadelyn or Emily --> Amily

note: these are all names that I have already used and are merely here as example, but feel free to use the techniques.

Thanks that helps a ton! I'm gonna go try that now.

Also, if you just shift your fingers on the keyboard over one space (or up or down or whatever) and type out a name or characteristic or just a random word, you can get pretty cool names. Or just close your eyes and type a jumble of letters. Rearrange them to get your desired effect.

i think it would be easier to give you advice on names if you described the character a bit, like gwapo said.

Use other langauges, i use latin sometimes; or just make up a word.

Hey thats exaclty what I do! Just go here
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/lat.html
and type in a word that relates to your character.
Example: If you character is brave and cunning just type in Brave and use the latin word for brave as his or her name.
It works for me all of the time.

Names have always been a problem for me too ... lately I've just taken to picking out a name at random that suits the character, whether I like the name or not ... but then all my character's were (in the story) originally picked out of a bably name book, so I don't know if that would apply to your characters. You could think of a name like I do, them fiddle with it to get something more fanasyish. The problem with writing names in fantasy is that the names have to fit in with the language and culture of where they came from.

Hello.
When looking for names, sometimes I make up new names using the techniques mentioned by others here.

Usually, though, I take the lazier path and crack open"1,000 baby names". There are many varieties of names in these kinds of books, which only cost a few dollars and are in my opinion essential to writing.

I use odd names of people I know, like Axel, Blake, Loyd, Floyd (my twin uncles), Lucian, Pierce, Sirius Watson and Blaise (aren't those awesome names? I especially like Blaise and haven't used it yet) I also like names with Zs like Zane or Zan or Zacharias

I have a few tips, but they require you to really think and research. They're not the easiest way to find names for chars but they work for me. And who knows? You might learn something new in the process. The second tip might be confusing but I tried explaining it the best I could.

One thing you can try is looking up names with your ethnicity.
For example; I am Native-America, Irish, Scottish and English. So when I write, if I am in a real jam, I fall back on my personal background and look up names and the meanings behind them. One of my newer character's name is Garrick; liked the ring of it and the name fit well with the character's strength. An English name.

Another tip I could suggest, although this may not apply to you specifically and might not work but if you enjoy cultural backgrounds/history like I do, you can try reading through something that interests you; look at how the culture functions. For example; I enjoy Greek Mythology and ancient Egypt. The names, especially in ancient Egypt are bizarre such as Ra. Ra was the sun-god, with a hawk-like head and human body. The other good thing about this approach is you could fall back on this tip if you ever were in a writer's cramp. This concept is the easiest, I think, to form a story, like how did Ra form a hawk for a head or how did he become a God? Greek or Roman have interesting names too. Again with this tip especially, it will probably require you to research and read...alot.