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Last Names



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Fri Dec 08, 2006 7:57 pm
WarthogDemon says...



I know there's a thread further down, though my thread's a bit different. Instead of first names, how do people come up wiht last names? So far I'm just deciding to click the Random Button on Wikipedia utnil I get someoen with a last name. How do others pick last names?
  





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Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:59 pm
Revere says...



I actually don't use last names in my stories. In a short story especially, they are not completely necessary - it doesn't add any signifigant characterizarion. I've actually read some stories with characters with no first names, and they can be much more characterized than a character with a name. Characterization isn't just filling in space with descriptions about your character, it's about their actions, their dialogue, their interactions with others, etc. etc.

So to answer your question, I don't think you need to worry about it that much. If you really want a last name, though, you can just use last names of people you know.
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Fri Dec 08, 2006 11:45 pm
Emerson says...



I totally and entirely agree with Green River! Last names are not needed.

But, While planning my novel in October, I found it helpful for me to give my characters last names because I could then know where they were from more specifically, even though it never came up in my story.

Sometimes the last names were randomly chosen, ex: Diedrick Strauss. Sometimes I made last names and hid stuff in them, ex: Sasha Nabokovna Yenovich. (I hid 'Nabokov' as in Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita) I hid things in names to honor those people I like. Sometimes I make wild connections, like Adrian's last name (which I can't remember right now...) was the maiden name of Oscar Wilde's wife. Which I didn't completely like though, which is why I probably forgot it.

So, as you can already tell, I'm really random with last names. Sometimes they come out of no where, and other times they don't. Last names are best, I think, when they give the character a sort of...spice. like Strauss makes me think of Germany so Diedrick reminds me of Germany.

You can google for last names: "German Surnames", "French Surnames" I like this site: http://www.last-names.net/ (Look at the left side menu)

That was a lot I just said...oh well, I hope it helped you!
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Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:15 am
Poor Imp says...



I collect surnames, or at least, notice them when I come across them.

And I can't manage to write much in any setting in which characters ought to have surnames without giving them. They're all named, one way or another, from memory. ^_^

Film credits have the best length of odd surnames if you sit around to watch. ^_^
ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem

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Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:43 am
Myth says...



Poor Imp wrote:Film credits have the best length of odd surnames if you sit around to watch. ^_^


I thought I was the only one who did that :P

I hate using surnames because I can't come up with any, so I look at history books because they have a lot of weird names/surnames. Sometimes I make them up.
.: ₪ :.

'...'
  





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Sun Dec 10, 2006 6:55 pm
RoxanneR says...



Yep, I'll join the sad-people-sitting-around-and-watching-film-credits-to-find-surnames-for-my-characters club!

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Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:25 pm
Pushca says...



i live next to a cemetery, so i walk around until a find a name (first or last) that works.
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Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:48 pm
Fishr says...



And I thought I was the only one Pushca! Guess not. ;)
The sadness drains through me rather than skating over my skin. It travels through every cell to reach the ground. I filter it yet strangely enough, I keep what was pure and it is the dirt that leaves.
  





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Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:52 am
sabradan says...



Claudette wrote:I totally and entirely agree with Green River! Last names are not needed.

But, While planning my novel in October, I found it helpful for me to give my characters last names because I could then know where they were from more specifically, even though it never came up in my story.

Sometimes the last names were randomly chosen, ex: Diedrick Strauss. Sometimes I made last names and hid stuff in them, ex: Sasha Nabokovna Yenovich. (I hid 'Nabokov' as in Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita) I hid things in names to honor those people I like. Sometimes I make wild connections, like Adrian's last name (which I can't remember right now...) was the maiden name of Oscar Wilde's wife. Which I didn't completely like though, which is why I probably forgot it.

So, as you can already tell, I'm really random with last names. Sometimes they come out of no where, and other times they don't. Last names are best, I think, when they give the character a sort of...spice. like Strauss makes me think of Germany so Diedrick reminds me of Germany.

You can google for last names: "German Surnames", "French Surnames" I like this site: http://www.last-names.net/ (Look at the left side menu)

That was a lot I just said...oh well, I hope it helped you!

Quoted for truth.
"He who takes a life...it is as if he has destroyed an entire world....but he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the world entire" Talmud Sanhedrin 4:5

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Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:37 am
Leevee says...



I tend to use generators and the like. There's one based off of US Census data, and you can chose how unique you want the name to be.

I also use http://surnames.behindthename.com/ when I'm looking for specific meanings or nationalities.
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Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:32 pm
Mickiemoo says...



well, I mostly use last names of people i know(teachers, friends, famili, celebs) or i sometimes put two names together, EG, in one of my stories, there's a character called Elizabeth Carper(Cooper & Harper, who are in torchwood(Gwen COOPER & Owen HARPER))
  





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Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:13 am
Snoink says...



I hate naming my characters... especially their last names! I don't know. I don't think of last names being particularly revealing, but I know lots of people who can tell what country or ethnicity the person is from, just by their last name, and I don't like that at all. It's too stereotypical!
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Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:16 am
Icaruss says...



I search them up in Google. Most popular surnames in a given area. Easy stuff. Or just pick them up from names I know, from unknown celebrities, or something I read.
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Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:51 am
Alteran says...



I write down randome words sometimes and rearrange the letters until i like the way it sounds and sometimes my chracters are born in my mind and it's all there.
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Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:47 pm
Poor Imp says...



Snoink wrote:I hate naming my characters... especially their last names! I don't know. I don't think of last names being particularly revealing, but I know lots of people who can tell what country or ethnicity the person is from, just by their last name, and I don't like that at all. It's too stereotypical!



But people are defined, 99% of the time, ethnically, or however you'd like to put, by their surname. Stereotypical? Oy, merely typical, don't you think? Surnames are more fun than first names, all around. ^_~

Though my fencing coach is Polish, and has a name shortened by his grandfather (not wanting to sound Polish) so that it sounds Italian. !_!
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