Coming up with names

[Raven_C]

I guess that just depends on you For me, I tend to choose names based on feeling -- in other words, if a name seems to just suit the character, whether or not I know the reason for it, then I just go with it. I don't really spend a lot of time looking for meanings in names, but that can be important to some creators as names can reflect character/personality. In one of my stories, I have characters named Ira and Claude. At a glance they seem like old-fashioned names, maybe even names for much older people (at least in my view). Yet my characters are not old or old-fashioned. Haha. It's just that a lot of times the first few names that pop into my head are the ones that stick with me.

I like looking at Behind the Name when choosing names for my characters (again, I don't look for meanings. I just look for decent names. lol)

[noctuidae]

Usually I choose it because it sounds pretty, and I tend to use 2-syllable names because my characters aren't grand enough to have anything longer. I'll come across a name in a book or in a movie or even in the movie credits and keep it in my mind, but otherwise I default to pointing at passages in my Bible with my eyes closed. Sometimes the name is relevant to the character but that's always been a coincidence for me, and I may or may not build part of the character off of the name because I'm a sucker for symbolism.
Although in one case, I asked a friend to name a character for me and she purposely made the name meaningful to the character :B It depends on how you roll. That's how my friend rolls.

Oh! And depending on the setting, the name should suit the character's background/culture. 17th century China probably doesn't have anyone named Ellison, for instance. An alien from the neighboring galaxy might not introduce themselves as Paul.

[MelJam]

An alien from the neighboring galaxy might not introduce themselves as Paul.

that would be funny though

but I guess it is a bit much to make every one of them to have some deep meaning...
it's just that whean reading stories with those long royal sounding names it really gives me a feeling that there is a history behind those characters, or at least it helps (though that wouldn't apply here anyway )

Behind the Name

thanks I'll take a look at this.

[williamjbowles]

Everyone has different methods for naming.
Some people just pick names that sound right, but I usually don't do that except for less important characters. ("What should I name this random co-worker? Hm... 'Doug' seems okay. Okay. His name is Doug.")
For more important characters, I usually do one of the following:
1) Look up the meaning of the name, and pick something fitting. But if it's too obvious, it just can seem tacky.
2) Semi important characters I'll sometimes name after people I know. One of my protagonists has eight siblings, all of whom I named after my professors from college.
3) If 1 or 2 seem too obvious, anagrams can be fun. I once named a character Angie Milan (in the story, she is a writer), which is an anagram of Neil Gaiman.
4) If its a fantasy setting or something like that, I'll invent the names myself. But even then I pick the sort of sounds and patterns that that fictional culture uses in their names, usually loosely based off of real life languages.

As you can see, I usually put a lot of thought into my names. Maybe too much. What method you use and how much time you put into it depends on what works for you.

[williamjbowles]

Behind the Name is my favorite website for finding names for my characters! It's really a great resource for any write/storyteller.

[TristanJensen]

I go with the first ones that pop into my head (I'm really just ad-libbing everything....)

[Exeivier]

have a notepad always with you, i remember one time i was passing a menonite community on the road, and saw a roadsign with a perfect name for a fantasy place, i thought i'lll remember it for later, and lost it forever ;_; ( i've passed a couple times again now but i don't remember well the site/location and nevernot yet seen it again)

now i have a file with names and references i try to add stuff now and then, it's even fun to use sites for anagrams to come up with some crazy names and concepts.

[getsuart]

I've put different regions with cultures as a basis that looks like ours in my webcomic. Then I played with the different culture and mixed it.
So, when I give a name to a character, either it remembers where he or she comes from, or it's just a name that I liked. Sometimes, it goes for mythical or historical references.

I know a lot of people don't like the fact to name a character with a name meaning, but sometimes I find it nice. As long as it isn't too obvious, like @williamjbowles said.
I like anagrams too, I got two or three for family names (Tyrfing => Fyringt, the name of the heroine's mother. They also got a sword on their emblem).

[rainbowolfe]

Tbh, I use a lot of name generators and also babynames.com
I'll spend at least 30 minutes on one name, and even then I might eventually switch it if I think of a better name. Meaning isn't a huge thing for me unless I plan to do something with it in the story later

[Doubtcent]

I usually don't worry about names, even leave my character's nameless, especially while writing. Only when I know exactly what name to give them do I ever give one. Usually I give them one that means something about their character, or better yet, something that means the exact opposite for an ironic feeling.

Also keep an eye out for a name that sounds good, that has a nice ring to it. (Ichigo Kurosaki, Edward Elric, Lag Seeing, even Monkey D. Luffy sound fun or excitin without being to exotic)

Other times, I just use normal names, just as placeholders. I don't like to use exotic names much, although I like to use names that are also other words. For example,

Spite:
verb
1.
deliberately hurt, annoy, or offend (someone).
"he put the house up for sale to spite his family"
synonyms: upset, hurt, make miserable, grieve, distress, wound, pain, torment, injure
"he did it to spite me"

Which I then spelled Spyte. He has a mentality not to want to offend anyone, so I gave a name that means to offend. Even if the name isn't real, it had a great ring to it. To me, outrageous names are sort of overused. You don't really hear the hero being named "john" or "carl" much. For another project, that I had designed but won't get to for some time, the main Character's name is Orson Smith. I liked the name Orson because it sounded like OSN, or old sin nature, and he was going to be a bit religious. Once again, irony, but with a normal-sounding name.

[SpavVy]

When I have trouble with that I often go to those websites that have all kinds of baby names xD good for women who are expecting and authors lol most of those sites tell you the meanings. One of my good friends writes stories and bases the characters off of his friends and in his recent story he gave his characters Latin names. So for example one of the characters he made was based off of me, I'm an artist and I'm pretty good with computers so he made a female character that is computer savvy that can find all sorts of information and he named her Ars which means art in Latin. Sometimes I name a character after I design them which is what I did for the main protagonist.

[globuline]

Interesting question.
I used to pîck a random word (or one that could have a link to my character's personality) in a foreign language dictionary (for me, Spanish and Italian), change/add a letter or 2, and that was it...
Now I avoid naming my characters as much as I can (my comic doesn't really need names anyway). But if I need to, I go on the web and choose from a list of common names.

[patrickj]

Names are a really interesting topic, I can spend hours deciding on names for game characters, and for own fictional characters it's even worse. I've been writing on a story for over two months now, spending up to an hour per day, and thus far only 3 of 11 characters have names. Until then, they are referenced by nicknames and aliases like 'joker', 'bff' or simply 'she' (That became kind of confusing after a while, especially when I called another character 'her'...).

When activaly searching for names I get my ideas from about everywhere, actual names I've read and heard, things, places... playing a bit with letters and sounds you can turn about anything into a fitting name.

The more difficult part is actually deciding on a name. I usually go by sound and associations it arouses first, but where realistic names are due I also place a lot of weight on the name fitting the character's ethnics and culture to create a believable world. Trying to mimic the parents' decision can help a lot. Posing a lot of questions and imagining situations is also helpful: Strangers' reaction, possible nicknames, associations, (hidden/foreign) meanings,... it just has to be fitting on as much levels as possible for me to decide on a character's name.

[elle1234567]

I just picked the most generic names I could think of since my characters are meant to portray average soldiers and not be particularly exceptional.

[VermillionWorks]

As other people have mentioned, baby name sites are great for both common and more unique names.

I will suggest this though as it's something I've personally learned a lesson about when naming characters: Giving a character say, a pretty-sounding or kind of gothic name is all well and good, but I'd try to avoid going too far in their themes.

Ah, this is better shown than explained...

A decent 'dark' name: Damien Keiler
A bad 'dark' name: Damien Darkheart

A decent 'pretty' name: Liliana Smith
A bad 'pretty' name: Liliana Luna-Pearl

[Diabolo]

For my webcomic, I like to have meaningful name, that is to say names coming from words used in different language, that relate to the character's personality or features.

My method of doom : i chose a word i like in my own language, that describes well a character. For example, if my character is calm on the outside, but has a potential of destruction, I choose "ember" and I type it into Wikipedia. Then I open every single language with an alphabet I can read in a new tab. After that, I proceed to closing the translations that do not fit, because of the sonority, lenth or whatever. I end up with a couple of meaningful pretty words I can use as names for a character in particular.

[kazukitakamura126]

For names I usually like to make them up, sometimes it is an actual name and other times its not. The reason I do this is so my characters are unique. However, if I am not getting an ideas for names I usually look one up and give them a name based on their personality or role in the story.

An example of one of my made up names is Zethero Chiever. This is the name of the protagonist of my current comic. After a closer look at his name it does symbolizes his role in the story. He has "hero in his name and he is a freedom fighter so I unconsciously placed his role in his name.

[Zanreo]

Well, the character names for Consolers are the same as the company names, so no problem there xD

As for my other characters (my anthros, who I haven't drawn in forever)... well, a lot of the time I really just make up most of their names. And when I say "make up", I mean "play around with some sounds and letters/keysmash down some letters and mess around with that until it sounds like a cool word/name". That's how my characters Chaletica and Derana got their names. As they are anthro animals in a made-up world, I don't feel like all of them has to be "standard" names (though some of them are, for those I just looked at various names and thought "yeah I guess that fits them", or just had a name pop up in my head.
As for last names... Usually a keysmash too. Except for Derana - her last name is Hanecco, which is the Japanese name of the Pokémon Hoppip - as a subtle reference to the fact that she used to be a Hoppip-anthro. Hey, it works with the rest of the names, so why not.

[MylCreates]

To be honest I don't know What ever pops in my head and I say "hm yes, they look like a So-n-so".
Some characters like Sage Forever from Death Prince I named because he's a kind of a zombie, with pale green skin, so Sage is another word for green and since he lives forever, well, that's where his last name plays in.

A lot of my other characters have really wacky names, like Sketaldaz from Hacheeachkee. I purposely make them sound strangely-foreign due to the fact it takes place on another planet. though I try to keep names originating from the same planet somewhat similar.

[Exeivier]

http://wordsmith.org/anagram/

you can come up with great stuff if you get a little creative