Coming up with names

[Exeivier]

http://wordsmith.org/anagram/

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

[gateofselidor]

Real world, contemporary settings are quite easy, you just look through a baby name website until you hit something that works. Historical settings take a bit more research, but there are a surprising number of websites that have collected together examples of names from various cultures and time periods. Fictional settings are the most difficult because if you want to make up names and do it well, you need names of people from the same place to actually sound like they have roots in the same language. It takes a lot of planning, and you have to think about things like which sounds might be more common in male vs female names, whether you want the names to mean anything, the structure of a full name (how you want to use the first name, family name, any other indicators you want the name to contain) and lots of other factors. It can be a lot of fun if you like working with constructed languages though.

[hierogriff]

Two main characters of Outside the Box are called Danny O'Blake and Brian Rooks. O'Blake is supposed to be like oblique, as Danny is a "lateral detective". Rooks refers to the chess piece, which moves in straight lines. (which is why the 8tracks playlist is called Oblique/Castle!)

The Detective Inspector is called D, which is one of those names that was a place holder until I could think of a better one, but it stuck!

Malcolm is a reference to Ian Malcolm of Jurassic Park, and Ms. Clump was the frumpiest name I could think of.

[MelJam]

I like all these ideas
I expected most people to have their own methods, but it looks like there really are a lot of ways people do this
anyway, thanks

[jessiepolfliet]

When I came up with names for my characters, I didn't put to much thought int it. So a while ago I was on a website looking for meanings of names. I typed in my characters names and surprisingly they all fit with that character. But that was just dumb luck, I put more effort now in names thinking about land of origin, family history, deeper meanings.

[alakotila]

I'm with you on the not wanting to use names of those you know. A friend insisted I use her name in my first novel attempt and well, soon we weren't friends and I soon did not like the character, either! Ah, high school. But I learned my lesson there.

I use baby name books and websites like babynames.com. Depends on your genre. I hit up thrift stores and flea markets for older baby name books. They have cool, somewhat out-of-style names, which works for my fantasy comic (Spidersilk). I wanted to avoid very modern or common names, and also avoid making up too many of my own for fear they were hard to pronounce and/or remember.

For names I consider:

• meaning -- does it fit them perfectly? Kind of opposite? Their features? An emotion or trait?
• Ethnicity/culture (if applicable) -- consider for family and given names. Research commonality and naming methods for that culture
• nickname possibilites
• difficulty -- someone will mispronounce their name, but that is not a bad thing. Could be hard to remember
• cultural connections/nuances/history -- did someone famous have it? Were they great? Terrible? Is it religious? Would it be insulting for such a character to have this name? Are you trying to say something by using this name?
• variety -- don't give all your characters names with M at the beginning … unless you're trying to say something with that
• backstory -- if your character has an unusual name for your world in your comic, is there a reason?
• homage? -- if applicable. Maybe you just wanna pay homage to something. Make sure it is not an unusual name -- the thing you are paying homage to will always overshadow your character. So don't name your elf dude Fenris, that won't go over well. But you can look for names with Fen in them, for example.

I just dig up all the names that strike my fancy. I usually scribble an image of the character next to my list and try to determine what name fits him/her best.

[punrai]

Of course, it depends on what kind of comic you're going to do. For example, in my webcomic Bet on it, as it is a slice of life, it uses real names that I search in baby websites XD also, they're related to the character's origins/nationality/idon'tknowhowtoexplainmyself (???) like Hana, Noora, Hector... (although Bet on it isn't placed anywhere really). But, in my upcoming webcomic that I'll start working on this summer, as it's placed in nowhere, the names are totally made up: Ho, Giu, Za... (ok, they kinda have meaning. Giu comes from budgie > gie > giu because when I first drew this character when I was working in the design totally reminded me to a parakeet hahahaha. Ho and Za are also other known words cropped from spanish and english but I won't say the original words because it might be spoily).

And also, looking for a name that suits the character because of its meaning is also a really interesting thing to do!

[bob_artist]

I've used a variety of methods to choose names. Sometimes they relate to the character by meaning (sometimes as a sort of Easter egg), and sometimes I choose whatever just sounds right. For Demon of the Underground, the story takes place in a fictitious world below Chicago, and a large number of the supporting characters are named for Chicago streets. The trend started because I did a lot of my early brainstorming during long commutes to work while listening to the traffic report.

And what's the point if you can't have a little fun with it? Therefore, there is one lady in the underground named 75th...

[igneriss]

Action of my current comic takes place in an alternate version of XVth century Europe, so I just looked for normal names that could show what countires are my characters from (or, at least, what would they be from if it was our Europe, as countries&borders are different CX). With some I also looked for the meaning, or named them after people of similar profession or story c:
Actually, I usually name my characters so their names mean something or have a similar sound to something that exist to give some hints CX (for example, I named my poisoner Cyana after cyanide ; u;)

[jayorten]

When choosing a name, I name my character based on what they look like. I just have to look at them, and a name will pop into my head based on their appearance. If the character looks like a George, i'll call him George. Or, if he looks like a Stanely, I'll call him Stanely. Pretty simple.