I think some of my characters might have problems with being named after the third assistant to the director of Kung Fu Hustle. Or, God help us, the lighting technician from the Colour of Night.
Seriously though, I've heard of a lot of people using this technique for baby names. I guess it works for them.
Gone, gone from New York City,
where you gonna go with a head that empty?
Gone, gone from New York City,
where you gonna go with a heart that gone?
I usually use the random name generator at 'Behind the Name' (uhm, you can Google it... too lazy to get the actual link). It helps if you check some of the boxes or you end up with the fairy names for your characters.
I find surnames are more difficult to find so i find two words that relate the the character and translate them into another language. Then i use the new words and forge them into a new shiny word!!!
I've been writing so long that I have a huge mental database of names... and since I put a lot of stock in meanings, my friends find it amusing to ask me what their or anyone else's names mean. A majority of the time, unless it's really unusual, I know, which really is wicked amusing sometimes.
I do the movie thing too, occasionally, though it seems to be unconscious. For example, for an RPG I'm quite fond of I just created a new character named Francisco, better known as Cisco, who's incredibly fond of and talented with horses. Of course, right after I send the profile off I realize why that name popped into my head--that's the name of Kevin Costner's horse in 'Dances With Wolves!' That sort of thing happens to me a lot, actually...
I have the habit of taking everyday objects and using them for names, like Wires, Bracket and Lime. That or I take words and them spell it wrong to see what turns out, Science become Sencie and Plight becomes Plyte.
I use video game credits when I need Japanese names for fanfics. Thinking about it, I use names from video games anyway...
please grant me my small wish; (love me to the marrow of my bones)
He began to wonder why he had felt uneasy at all. It was like a man wondering in broad daylight why a dream had appeared so terrible to him at night. — Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
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