Character Names

It can very depended sometimes. If the settings called for it, i will go on my way to research name meaning and their country origins and time period just to make them fit, and then look for meaning and name that can somewhat describe my characters in itself. I took more care on naming characters if i were to make some long form story.

But sometimes i just f*cking wing it by trying to remember random names for some story line that isn't too long like short story or make a totally new names syllables i the setting called for it.

It depends ( : Some are named after real people or characters that I find similar in some way (even if this similarity is VERY slight). For some I wanted a name with a certain meaning that describes some aspect of their personality or life.
And for some characters they just look like being named X to me, and I can't start thinking about them with any other name.

Alliterations. I f'ing love alliterations.

Take my comic for example; Naota Nakaoka, Nikado Nigaki, John Johnson

Next week I'm gonna have my FAVORITE alliteration of them all.

If it's foreign, I ask my friends to give me names that have meaning in them.

But if it's comic booky, then HOO BOI. That's where I go crazy with the puns. For example, I have this chick who's an obsessive. She wields a cupid bow and arrow. Her name is "Venus V. Valentine".

Or this little robot who's chill and relaxed (my avatar for my future YouTube Channel). His name is "Brotherboard".

I try to make the name roll off the tongue.

Or sometimes I'm not subtle at all. Like there's an alien villain in my future comic called "Blak-Sol". Another alien superhero chick made out of candy. Her name is flat out "Eye Candy".

I often pick a name that's meaningful to the character, translate it to my language (Vietnamese), and then alter the spelling a bit. In my fantasy comic Sao and the Glow of Memories, the main character's name is "Sao." His name means "star" in Vietnamese, because he's an outsider from the mountains who's venturing into a strange world. His sister is Muua and mom is Maay. which are misspellings of "rain" and "cloud"in Vietnamese. The cloud metaphorically "gives birth" to the rain and star.

I do the same with characters inspired by other cultures too, but admittedly in a more ignorant way. Naru's a trans man who strives to become King and become recognized in a patriarchy that doesn't recognize transness. His culture is also a bit inspired by feudal Japan so I just google translated "becoming" in Japanese, and called it a day lol.

There's picking names that fit the culture/worldbuilding/etc, but it seems like this question is more about how names fit into the meta, which I come at from two directions

Some stories are more literal for me. I want names that have the right 'vibe', but it's also about finding the name the character would, realistically, be given. Some people choose their names to reflect their self image, but most names are something a parent chooses. It reflects their priorities, sensibilities, and dreams for their child. The difference between a character named 'Chastity' or 'Athena' or 'Meadowlark' or 'Sue' may not or much about the kid, but it tells you a great deal about the parents.

On the other hand, if a story is more silly or symbolic, I might start leaning more into meaning. I really like themed sets. In a comedic story, this often takes the form of filling in side characters on the same pattern, like 'all first names of actors who have played superman' or 'all types of ancient grain'. On the more serious side, it often takes the form of character's names complimenting each other in a way that somehow contrasts, like both being synonyms for different definitions of the same homonym.

I lean towards the first though, and my process usually goes something like:
-What makes sense for them culturally (language, era, class, etc.)
-How did they get their name? What did their namer hope to portray?
-What vibes do I want the name to have?
-Okay now scroll through name lists or throw together sounds until something feels right

I usually just think of what I want my character's name meaning. So for example my protagonist, Juvia, she can wield the power of water so her name literally means "rain woman". Side characters I would try to think of the same thing and if not sometimes I use a name generator lol.

Several of my ocs are demons, so i chose names that caught my eye like Abaddon, Leviathan, Nemesis, etc.

I'm using modified versions of old languages. Most of the names have a cheeky reference to their role in the story or to their personality. I also have other reasons for this nomenclature. I always love to have rules for nomenclature of characters, locations and lore elements.

@powerplantanimations Yeah, alliterations are the best (Maybe because my name is alliterative)

So I had a few original ideas of what names I liked. Such as Anastasia and Evangeline, however, with Evangeline and her amnesia, I wanted her to have her real name. One that she learns eventually as she grew older.

One friend of mine, her natural tongue was maybe Sindarin and wanted to help me with elf stuff. We eventually decided on the name of Tara-nu-fuin. Or, for short, Tarnua. It is as made up as it gets, and I truly love it. I think it is incredibly unique, and it is the name I am most proud of.

The rest of my names are randomly generated if I have no idea what to do: i.e. Vance, Ragnar, and Philip. Another name I am proud of is Leona, I think it is incredibly pretty, and I like it.

A lot of my character names has self-made names with an eastern flair, and in some case they have other meanings in other languages.

Maor: I base it on Chinese sounding of 'fur child'. (Maor also means 'light' in Hebrew)

Amin: a common Arabic/Islamic male name. I base it on Chinese sounding of 'fellow/people'.

Sanariya: I want something exotic about this name, like 'Kurapika' in HxH. So this name is base on Indian/Arabian meaning of 'spendid singer' (a very feminine name)

Tery: As a bear man,he has a baby brother named 'Tedy'. (teddy-bear, see?) So I name him similar to 'Tedy'.

Bounder: First I thought I self-made this name but coinsidentally it also means 'dishonorable man' in dated English. I still think it suits him.

Tudo & Sanwi: This turtle sibling names are a pun. It comes from 'X-tudo Sandwich'.

Jen: I just think her design with ponytail feels like a "jenny/penny" name to me.

Welp, I've been pronouncing that wrong in my head this whole time XD

It also depends for me! Sometimes I choose names that just simply fit the setting and other times they have deeper meaning. (ie "Stellar" is a nod to her job studying celestial objects and "Suli Lux" is a reference to the light she brings into the story.)

I do all of the above, for a lot of main characters I will choose names that have some meaning behind them while secondary characters mostly have meaning while others are more generic. And while I do try to have names fit the setting like Rookie or Hudson which could be names still used in a future setting, I like to bedazzle in some more unique names like Kiorif and spoon to show a little variety.

Lol I always go on baby name websites XD Sometimes I use words I like or just make up names

I pretty much just go with my gut on names, there's not a ton of reasoning.
Sometimes I'll go with a name that represents/means what they are to the story. But mostly I just rip names right out of mythology, as my work deconstructs and rebuilds various mythologies to work with my story ideas.

As someone who delivers the post it's easy for me to collect names I like during the day. In the UK countryside there are a lot of unusually named houses and houses whose names relate to their historic function e.g. The Old Smithy or The Farriers House. A lot of place names in West are quite literal for that same reason.

As for 'people' names they all have a certain vibe but, really, I don't think about them too hard. That bit me in the arse though because it turns out one of the fundamental character's names means 'worm' in a different common language which is kind of unfortunate

A lot of the names for my characters are just random and weird.

Crow Worth - I like crows and his sister name is Raven. And there is a place called Ravensworth. Their dad’s name is Rook which is also in the crow family. Sometimes I will give family members a theme, I think I was inspired to do this because of Akira Toriyama.

Sugar Land, Brad Bail and Mr. Blueberry were also named after places.

Ken Kumo - because I like spiders. I don’t remember why I named him Ken maybe because it was an uncommon name.

I have some characters who used to have another name which was sort of weird or stupid and I gave them a new one.

Examples
Tong - Tony
Cloud - Claus
Rah - Rahm
Enaj - Elijah

I also have characters who’s names are weird spellings to words. This is mostly done to avoid confusion.

“Look it’s Day” vs “Look it’s Dai”
“I am Taboo” vs “I am Tabu”

Oooh have I got a website for you!

This site is a random name generator and I def use it when I get stuck. It also says what the name means so you can keep spamming random until you get a good one (there’s also a gender neutral option!)

You can also reference real life things, such as slightly changing names of your friends or TV characters. For example, in my comic I have a dog character, and because my comic is about demons I called him Dante.

You can also do what Rick Riordan did with Annabeth and just mash two names together to create a new one. Or you can just change the names of certain words, for example the Nomai species in Outer Wilds are based on the word Nomad.

Good luck!