Young Writers Society

Lena.Wooldridge wrote:Names really are not all that important. I never actually name the characters for my short stories. When I'm writing the actual story, I just type in "John" or "Dan" for all my male characters (the majority of my MC's are males). It's really not all that important at all. I only go into deep analysis of the names when I'm picking out one for a character in my novels.

I completely agree with Lena, although some characters in my short stories do not have names at all. The important thing is the character's traits and personality, which can be shown in great detail without them needing a name. Obviously characters in novels need names, and I have two ways of looking at how to think of names.
1. When parents name their children, they have no idea what their personality is going to be like, so the name may not suit them at all. You could just pick a random name for a character and create a personality that suits it, or one that doesn't.
2. On the other hand, you could build a brilliant, believable character, and then spend hours and hours trying to conjure up a name that suits their personality.
Personally, I usually choose the second option for my main characters, and the first for minor, less important characters. I also like to create character profiles for each of my main characters, with their full names, date of birth, where they live, etc, even if I don't use some of those details in the story - I even cut out pictures from magazines that I imagine my character to look like. I find that it just helps with getting to know the characters and making them more believable.
Also, I actually hate it when the main character of a novel has a ridiculously common name like 'John Smith.' It really gets on my nerves!

In real life, people sometimes remember a person's face rather than their name, but in a story, you cannot see their face, only imagine it, therefore, names are important in identifying characters.

I usually look for character names by meaning. Generally, I create my character and have a good sense of his/her personality, and then pick a name that fits (baby name sites/books work best!)

DrunkOnWriting wrote:I usually look for character names by meaning. Generally, I create my character and have a good sense of his/her personality, and then pick a name that fits (baby name sites/books work best!)

This is the same thing I do.

I always like a story behind the name. I use thinkbabynames.com because you can type in a trait or occupation or something and you'll get names with that meaning or the name of someone that fits the description you want. If you are looking for a girl's name for a robber and look it up up in the engine, it'll bring up Bonnie "...accomplice of the bank robber Clyde Barrow..."
I use it for last names, too, when I'm stuck. It gives surnames and there are names that are both. Thurston: Thurston Howel III or David Thurston.
When looking for time apropriate, I'll use that site or there are several sites that give lists. Just google, common names of sucha sucha year. (last names too)

My way of naming characters is a bit weird.

For this novel, I struggled picturing my characters, so... I googled them.

Yep, I googled my characters. So Liam Hunt would be 'Green Eyes Blond Hair Boy'. The dude that comes up is a young Alex Pettyfer who looks EXACTLY like him. It helped a lot. When I saw the photo, his name popped up straight away.

I guess it worked!