For fantasy and science fiction I love looking up Roman, Welsh, or Indian names and then altering them slightly or giving them my own twist. Another way is to just adapt or merge normal names! Like Robert and Daniel becomes Dannert or Robbiel! Naming characters is one of my absolute favourite parts about writing!
Nice topic, actually getting right name for something (someone) is really pain in the ***, yet i always go with name generators. I am currently using (if i may) http://www.newnamegenerator.com/last-name-generator/ and always i am happy with results it gives me. It seems they do have a huge database and updates it frequently.
Personally, I find it really annoying how young authors these days find it imperative to create unique and disgustingly made-up names for their characters. Why not use actual names that actual people have? Look at the character's location in the world, their heritage, and the personalities of their parents and try to create a realistic name for them. Or else it's just really desperate and gimmicky.
The course skin of a thousand elephants sewn together to make one leather wallet.
For me, I usually figure out what type of name I need for my story and then I think of the most suitable root for it. E.g: Finnish, Latin, Indian...etc..
Then I type it up in Google and see what type of name it gives me, but I never just take one name. I always choose two names that I like then anagram them into a new name.
I always use the name finder that is built into the writing program I use, Scrivener. Not that you'll want to pay the $40 just for the name finder, but it is very, very, veeeeeeery helpful. I can have it generate random names, male, female, or asexual, with both first and last names. I can also pick virtually any origin, including Arthurian Legend, for both the first and last names, so it helps me come up with realistic names for someone with parents of different race.
Beyond this, I can tell it to start the names with a certain letter, and it can generate a lot of names at once, and allows me to save the ones that I like. And all without getting on the internet and waiting for pages to load! The Scrivener Name Generator is awesome!
But, most people probably won't be familiar with it or want to buy the program, so it doesn't matter much.
My favorite name generator online has to be Seventh Sanctum, but it doesn't do much in the genre of historical fiction or even more realistic settings, it's best for fantasy.
I am a machine, but it's only skin deep. Once you break through the crust of my humanity, you'll find the soft clouds beneath. Just don't squeeze to hard, or I'll disappear.
I have looked on many websites but can't decide on a name for the main character in my new story. Anyone got any suggestions? It's a girl with brown hair and brown eyes. She's a tomboy but also smart. Thanks.
Just use a real name! One of my favorite ever characters was called Luke, the Mortal Engines series centres around Tom, and don't forget Harry Potter! They're all just ordinary names!
You know that studded leather armour in films? Nobody wore that. I mean, how would metal studs improve leather armour?
It depends for me. The book(s) I've been working on take place in a steampunk/medieval type setting, so I looked up steampunk names and actually found a steampunk name generator. I often times pull up baby name websites and look in the name categories that fit what I'm looking for. I'll also maybe think about characters from other books, movies, actors, family members and other people I know. I guess I just take them from just about anywhere, but if I'm really stuck I usually go to the baby name websites. It's just a fast and simple way of seeing a bunch of names.
Hear me out, there's so much more to life than what you're feeling now. Someday you'll look back on all these days, and all this pain is gonna be invisible. - Hunter Hayes
I keep having trouble coming up with new names because i always can think of song lyrics at times especially when im writing and most of the time the lyrics that pop into my head are irrelevent to the plotline of the story so i stuggle between a title that has absolutley nothing to do with the story or a really bad name that even i dispise. How do i get the insperation for titles? I have plenty of ideas for stories daily from my best friends because lets face it my friends are riots but still there is nothing in my mind that helps when i get to the point i have to have a title
I want a Harry Potter reboot with Benedict Cumberbatch as all the characters~~Mem <3 Formerly Remembrance <3
For fantasy stories I love to use the Rinkworks Fantasy Name Generator. It allows you to randomly create names or (if you're willing to put a bit of time in) put in a bit of the character's name and have the rest randomised. Say you wanted a character called Sam but wanted it to be short for something. You could type in Sam, specify how many vowels, consonants, syllables etc. you wanted, and then the generator gives you a whole load of made-up names beginning with Sam.
My personal favourite online fantasy name generator is Yafnag. If you want names it is definitely worth a try, because it comes up with loads of very realistic sounding (but not actually real) names. It might also be good for a science fiction story.
If you want realistic names, thinkbabynames.com is a great resource.
What I usually do is try and match a name with meaning to a character it suits. For example the main villain in my novel is called Mortis, and mortis meaning 'death' in Latin (at least I think so) matches his evil, and admittedly very twisted and sadistic, personality quite well. I find anywhere from biblical names to words in obscure languages are quite fun to use. Hope this helped
"Doors are for people with no imagination." ~Skulduggery Pleasant
"Sanity Calms, but madness is more interesting." ~John Russel
You are going to love some of your characters because they are you, or some facet of you, and you are going to hate some characters for the same reason. — Anne Lamott
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