I tend to like more classic, plain-sounding names like Paul or Peter or Lillian. I find (only personally, of course) that it's easier to relate to a character when they have a realistic name. That being said, however, mythology and astronomy books are awesome to have on hand if you're looking for something different, especially if you want a name with a meaning behind it. Www.Behindthename.com is also a great resource for names, and has a partner site for surnames.
I use babyname websites and try to find a meaning that matches my character. But really, the character picks the name. I mean, they just feel like a certain name to me.
I try very hard to avoid the exotic names. With something like Annabella Marie, you automatically think of a tea-party princess. On the other hand, a character by the name of Sarah could be just about any type of person, from any background.
When I can't find anything from my own mental list, I check out Behind the Name. It has a random name generator (search categories can go by ethnicity or fun stuff like "witch", "rapper", or "Kreatyve"), name search by meaning ("earth", various colors, "dark" or "light", what have you) or a anagram name generator. Behind the Name also has a surname branch and a list of top names in various countries.
If my setting is in a certain country i find names for that country. My Stepping Into Static story has the characters named after a trait.
Celeste - heavenly
Desiree - Desired
Armel - Stone Prince
Reinmund - Protector
Tonia - Invaluable
Settimo -Seventh
Ambroise - Immortal (okay that was plain DUMB because he's a vamp but still i liked the name)
^^ they're french because they were all 'created' in france.
Jonah [exception] - Hebrew for Dove
Even though he is French.
And i go 'baby names for *insert year*' and scout out until i like one. Or i steal from books (like Jem from To Kill A Mockingbird. I studied it in class and his nickname Jem is now my MC's name, or another one which had the character Christopher called Topher. Nobody calls a Christopher Topher!!)
I usually try and take my friends whole name and switch the letters around to make a name. Sometimes I'll add and take away if I need to, but I usually use that method.
Or, if I don't do that, I just look for odd names, like Wednesday or Sofa.
Both could be girl names, if you think about it.
Another thing I do is look through books of mine or at the library for cool names.
(I will NOT use a name if I don't like it for ANY character, minor or major, so I'm kind of picky. =P)
I'll use "exotic" names for fantasy characters - then I find I'm inspired by books, odd street names, etc. For books taking place in the real world, at least realistic ones (i.e., ones where there is no magic, no superpowers, whatever), I use more normal names - for Country Boy all of the names just came to me and I didn't have to actually pick any of them. And then I have the occasional oddball - I have a character named Tuesday, for example.
Well, either I go on google translate and turn something about them into another language (usually Latin, Itallian, or French) I did this a lot for my first novel, for example Morte's name means death, and Ambriel's means something like light or pure, heh. I might stick a load of words together in a mixture of languages, a character I made for a storybook is called delirumorsus, and it sort of means insane bite. Another character, Foumal's name means something like evil crazy XD. Otherwise, I go for my list of names, which are actually all female, although some are unisex, which are still slightly strange and based on nature, I have some characters called River, September, Phoenix, Cascade, and Ember. If that doesn't work, I spend ages on baby name websites. I kind of go for the common with a twist names, I think I have a character called Alexio.
~Tinkem
"The rabbit always squeals in the jaws of the fox, but when has another rabbit ever rushed up to save it?" Damon Salvatore ;'( please, my lump, he just needs HUGS <3 Need a review? Just ask Just keep writing, just keep writing, do-do-do-do-do
I love maps as pretty posters, but they're also really good at giving me names. I keep this list of names that I like, and I've only ever used a few in a story, but a lot of those names come from a map or a signpost I've passed. Most great names are in existence and use already
I still like that dictionary method I rambled about in 2008. I mainly use it passively, though - if I see a cool word somewhere, in any language, I write it down as a possible name.
"Your jokes are scarier than your earrings." -Twit
"14. Pretend like you would want him even if he wasn't a prince. (Yeah, right.)" -How to Make a Guy Like You - Disney Princess Style
I like storys because my dad is an authour and my dad writes lots of storys. Dad is in a competition.I wrote a story abaout the beach and it is 10 pages long at the moment. My dad should get to number 5 to be in the lead and he is on 41 at the moment. The beach is my story it is abaout a shell a macig shell that made the people go under warter home that was really big and the king and queem lived in the home.I have always wanted to be a authour. I have also written a story called the zoo. It was all abaout a baby that went to the zoo and the baby opend a cage and a lion came out of the cage and the baby ran awey.So we couldnt find the baby until the next day the baby was ok the baby wasnt hurt or anything.They are all the storys that I have wrote but I am thinking abaut writing a story called it's not me.I have made a mother story calld nater it is all abaut nater and waldlaf.The beach has 129 wards in it at the mament and the zoo has 91 wards in it. I prpbley write a bet o9f the beath a dey I am finesh the beach of at the moment a wont to get 1000 wards like my dad.I have rote sins I was born.
I look up foreign words for things, then sort of twist them so they sound like names. Example: I have a character named Dunama, which is a twist of the Hebrew word for powerful.
Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can. -Elsa Maxwell It is more important to have fun than be funny. -Dr. Laurence Peter I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. -Dr. Seuss
Ingredients labels? That's genius! I had never thought of that before. For me, I like to get my characters really well worked out, their voice, strengths and faults, mannerisms ,etc. before I name. I do this by referring to all of my characters with initals indicating their identity. For instance, before naming my two main characters they were YG (Young girl protagonist) and YW (young woman protagonist). I really like to give names that have some historical, mythical, or literary meaning behind them that have significant meaning for the characters, and you can definitely find some interesting fantasy/scifi appropriate names especially in mythology. (Look at JK Rowling: Severus, Sirius, Minerva, etc.)
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