Young Writers Society

Well, usually the names just appear in my mind, totally without explanation. But when I can't decide I look at those baby names sites.
My favourite is www.listadenomes.com.br
The site is all written in Portuguese, so even if you need any help you can e-mail me or something...
(The first thing to do is click in the "lista de nomes" box)

Great! You know in writing a lot of stories, you should have a lot of names stocked n your mind. Haha. So I literally write the names I like and randomly thought about and keep them for future purposes

I look up the top ten most popular names in the year my character would have been born --- yes, I know it involves some math. I find that the names are more realistic that way. Of course, disregard this if you are writing futuristic stories...

If I can't decide on a name, I look on baby name sites or flick through the phone book (what else? )

I usually struggle with last names more, so if I have a first name, I'll use a random last name generator online. You can type in the name and each time you press a button it will generate a last name after the first name- it's really helpful because they're always quite random and unique and you can see how well the full name fits together.

I use a tip that I picked up on from No Plot? No Problem!, which is to harvest names from spam email. In my junkbox at the moment I have a Lyn Susannah.

LOL if you don't wanna do a website, just do random stuff like sounding out random things or do something like throw a spoon down stairs and see what sounds it makes, that is usually what I do.

This may not help, but I usually just put a single letter and then start adding random letters until they make since. One of my character's name in my novel is Valkaryot. So try that if you'd like.

I usually like a name that means something about my character, so I Google "Names that mean..." And results from Yahoo answers are the most helpful.

My two favorite sites? Behind the Name and its sister, Behind the Surname. Both are awesome. They have lists of most popular names by year, names from around the globe, etymology explanations, etc. Their links sections is awesome, too. The Medieval Names Archive is particularly awesome, and Encyclopedia Mythica is pretty addictive.

I tend to choose names that 'suit' my characters, dictated by (1) their country of origin or their parents country of origin (be it real or fantastic), (2) meanings, and (3) what sounds right.

I don't like to think over this issue for too long. Frequently, I take the names from the circle of people I know, taking into considerations the associations raising inside of me when hearing the name.

I usually use www.behindthename.com. I peruse what I want to the name to mean, and pick accordingly.

Hey, it sounds strange but baby name websites usually do the trick. Try www.nameberry.com
they're good as they categorize their names into different sections and it's good if your looking for unusual names.
Another thing you can try is searching "names that mean..." into Google. For example, if your character's distinctive feature was her beauty you could search "names that mean beautiful".
Hope that helps xxx

I just read a bunch on manga and when I find a name that I like I make sure to make a note about it on my computer. Sometimes I look online, I shall definitely be adding this page as one of my sources.

I have TWO ways of getting names!

If I need a real, human, already in use name then I go to the credits of a movie. I'm never disappointed.

If I need a fantasy name then I throw random words together and then narrow down my ideas.

The main genre I write in is fantasy, so what I generally do is take a name idea I find from here, and rip it apart and rearrange it, until I find a name that I like.

I read (some) of Tolkien's Silmarillion, and found that using things like: Rond, bor, lian, and dior, as prefixes/suffixes are incredibly handy. Thus, my characters Myrond and Liandior were easily named, but still have unique names. I sometimes take names I find in that generator, and add these suffixes to them.

Sometimes I just take 'real' names, and play around with the spelling, swapping out random letters until I get a spelling/pronunciation I like. I wanted a character named Patrick, but his name looked out of place, in my fantasy novel, so I played with it until it evolved into Patrikk. Same with my Will getting dubbed Wylsim-- similar, but more fantasy-ish.

This site is my best friend, when it comes to last names. It adjusts the last names it suggests, depending on what you put in as a first name-- so you don't end up getting a suggestion for Zynyk Smith. Elsewhere on that site is a generator for first name suggestions-- which I also use quite a bit. They're far, far, more normal than that first site-- while still (mostly) unique.