Young Writers Society

Yeah I need help, and I admit that I do. YEAH ME! lol... any ways I'm stuck on a stupid last name so I need help... really baddly... I don't want last names I just want ways to make up a last name...

Thanks ~Stevie Marie

i don't tend t bother with last names, but if you're looking for a last name for a character in a fantasy story, then

here: http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/

is a useful site, it randomoizes words to form names

I take last names that are familiar to me and that I think are interesting. Like changing the name 'Irving' to 'Irwing' and so forth.

I pick a nationality and the search "german surnames" or something on google, then scroll through the pages sometimes for hours before I find one I like. It should sound good with the first name, and maybe its meaning can have something to do with a character trait or something. Also, first names can be used for last names.

Me? I use the phone book. I decide what letter it should begin with by the first name, and then I go search through that section of the phone book until something catches my eye. Sometimes I'll alter that name after I find it, but it helps me get started.

Use my imagination.

My last names either A) are annagrams, B) have etymological roots that correlate to the character's traits, or C) combine two words to describe the character.

My last names are not chosen to "sound" good, but when I write fiction pieces there is not one line that is not intentional, so perhaps for your purposes you would find this tedious and laborious.

You can check out www.last-names.net. I haven't really used it, but I hear its OK.

Agh I use this for no apparent reason.

I choose an item and spell it backwards.... And sometimes I use this trait as first names too... Other times I make up names... I never really use real people names of people I know because I can get hit... otherwise I just make up funny names and names I have heard in the distant pass that seem to have gotten to me...

Esorder Burman (Red Rose)
Rat Finkle
Nervim Hassperpass

All names I made up... and nobody can take these from me... I am currently working on a story about them...

Strange enough I get some names from FONT NAMES like... Palatino or Maiandra or Sans (as in COMIC sans LOL)

I've never really bothered with last names much, as they tend to relflex what the character does, for instance, if he was a fletcher, he would be called Joe Fletcher, or Steve Baker, and so on, but when i need magical sounding names, first and last, i always look to my book on Celtic Myths and Legends, pick a few names at random, such as Taliesin, then look at another, say, Pryderi, and either leave it at that or mix them together, to say, Taleri. thats the first thing i normaly do, or if i'm really stuck i go and find my well thumbed copy of Lord of the Rings and look at the appendix at the back which is full of elven words, which i chop and change like the celtic ones.

I use my Dad our my imagination but those are good tips

What I do is look in my yearbooks or books I've read and so forth and take one last name and move the letters around or add more to it. Like instead of David, I'd have Davidson. Sometimes I'll even make some up like Lafayette. I don't know if I heard it somewhere or what but yeah.

Duskglimmer wrote:Me? I use the phone book. I decide what letter it should begin with by the first name, and then I go search through that section of the phone book until something catches my eye. Sometimes I'll alter that name after I find it, but it helps me get started.

Careful!!! People can SUE you for that!!!

I ... *continues in small voice* haven't done last names yet. It's not important yet, and anyway, in my setting and time period last names were usually job descriptions. (eg. Smith was for a blacksmith, or gold smith, can't remember which. There's Fletcher, for an arrow fletcher, Miller, Shoemaker -- however you spell it, etc)

i use anything; songs, bands, authors, brand names, etc. the bible is rather handy for surnames, too. it's hard to find a good name, but you know it's right when you do.

Sometimes I think finding a good name is a bit like finding a good story idea: you just can't tell where it's going to come from.

I tend to have huge problems picking names for my characters. (See the Character dialogue thread for an example of this. ) But when I do find them, I tend to pick them based on how they sound, I guess. Sometimes I'll hear a name I like and change it a bit. E.g., one of my characters has the surname Larriway. I got that from the real name Larrimore and changed the ending. My only other last name right now is McFarley, and I'm really not sure where I got that.

I guess it also depends on whether you have a modern-day character or a LOTR-type fantasy character or whatever. I've got a fantasy character in one of the storybooks, and for her name, I pretty much just put a bunch of letters together that I thought would look good and sound somewhat elvish-ey. (...and be almost impossible for anyone to pronnounce properly. Even her author... *shruggs* )