Young Writers Society

I like it when last names have significance, but when they don't, I just find the name that sounds best with the first name? Picking random letters of the alphabet and arranging them in sensible patterns works for me. *shrugs* Or using last names you've heard around.

If it's set in modern-day times, I just open up the telephone book, and there lies a treasure trove of material, fresh from life.

If it's set in past times, I'll usually decide what ethnicity/nationality/background I want to pull things from, and then type something like "Irish last names" or "Russian surnames" into Google and see what comes up. If I'm writing historical fiction, I usually do a lot of research to make sure that the names I'm using are consistent with my location and time frame, but if it's fantasy I'm often a lot less exact and will even switch around a couple of letters until I think the name has a nice ring to it and sits well with the first and last names.

This is probably something a little strange, but I always like to make sure that my characters' first names don't have the same number of syllables as their last names. I think it sounds better when they don't match up, for some reason.

http://www.last-names.net/


^^ I can find them based on where they are from, which is nice!

Phone books are also nice. Sometimes I'm letter specific, so phone books are good for this.

Typically, I scour the newspaper or old magazines for good names. As I am also a big fan of the Sims2, I have plenty of baby name books for the first names. ^^

Hey,

Watch a movie. Read end credits. Find Last Name You Like. Easy!

I use last names for all my characters they just don't seem too whole to me without one. I don't always write it into the story, but I usually have their name listed somewhere in my notebooks.

My methods are coining random words that sound good to me, looking for boy baby names under their nationality, the phone book, or last names I read in the newspaper or I hear in school. The problem for me when using the phonebook is that I butcher pronunciations often so I don't use it too often unless I want a certain letter and I can't find anything.

I like to use tributes, sometimes. Like, in my police procedural story, I named a character after Brad Pitt's Detective Mills from Se7en, which was a big inspiration for the story.

I take an ordinary word, or an existing name, and twist it around.

I tend to take almost any sound and turn them into names. Some examples:

Toquanoh - Toe-Quan-No
Lorienk - Lore-Eee-Ank
Arieska - Are-Eee-Ess-Kah
Storan - Sto-Ran
Longistara - Long-Ees-Tar-Ah
Grantania - Grr-Ann-Tahn-Ni-Ah
Shinarca - Shin-Are-Kah
Holicarca - Holy-Car-Sar

go on google search and "name meaning" ussually ottl be baby name sites, but then search for names that can be used as surnames and meanings that go hand in hand with the character.

thats how i give my characters names and surnames

hope it works

I pretty much just use whatever comes to mind that sounds nice to me. It eventually grows on the character after awhile, and then I can't imagine the character without the last name. The last name starts to mean to much to me, especially if there are a lot of its prominent family members in the story (i.e., the Marquet family in my story, Silent Harmony, has gone from hardly more than a slight antagonist to a family I love, despite being evil/crazy)

I don't often use last names. As for first names, I'll make them up or use a common name. I don't go for ones like Ed or Frank though.

This is probably something a little strange, but I always like to make sure that my characters' first names don't have the same number of syllables as their last names. I think it sounds better when they don't match up, for some reason.

i do the same thing.

haha, oops, i just posted that twice.