How did you come up with the name of your protagonist?

eldritchtroubadour 2025-01-31 18:49:21 UTC #1

For The Ascendant's Path, I looked up names that would somehow fit the image I had for him or that sounded cool. In the end, the latter won and he ended up as Caelan, which is Irish for Slender. Not the most meaningful, but damn if it doesn't sound a little cool.

As for Leopold, the deuteragonist, it's something to evoke nobility and grace, which is the furthest thing from who he is, but who he pretends to be. It means something like Brave People in Old German, which is very fitting I think.

Anyway, what's the story behind the name of your protagonist?

MelancholicOtaku 2025-01-31 20:13:27 UTC #2

My character Elyn is named after my grandmother ,also the name has connections to the moon which is an important factor in my novel.

Maxouco 2025-01-31 20:15:05 UTC #3

Do I have to say more?

Rigalance 2025-01-31 20:20:07 UTC #4

My protags name is Luna D. Gold

Luna is named after my farm in stardew valley and my animal crossing town

D. is one piece reference and it has significance that will affect the story later

Gold is Gol D. Rogers and Gold is 1st place and she's the first character shown in the book.

kyupol 2025-01-31 22:23:51 UTC #5

It "downloaded" to my head. Only to later find out her Claudita means "lame" or "enclosure"

To come to think of it, enclosures are among her abilities

NewAgeComics 2025-01-31 22:54:04 UTC #6

My protagonist name is Jack
Jack is not just a protagonist I created for this story but I've actually created jack far before I wrote this story and as for his name, I guess that's probably just the first name that came to my mind

ArtGremlin 2025-01-31 23:22:59 UTC #7

My protagonist is named Xivian, but it was originally Xivion. But at some point I forgot how it was spelled i think and changed it. I also thought Ian sounded better as a nickname than Ion.
Not sure what made me think of the original name. it just sounded right. He used to just be an evil guy with ice powers, but then he became the main character somehow.
WAIT HE’S LITERALLY ELSA FOR THAT she was originally evil based off the snow queen but then got turned into the main character ahahahahah how did I just realize this…
Well now I have to use this picture

why did I make this but I’m so glad that I did

ambermdo 2025-01-31 23:30:53 UTC #8

My character Dorothy is from the 1920s, and I needed a name that sounded old fashioned and was common around that time

LWriter 2025-02-01 02:22:57 UTC #9

There’s a lot of stories, but if you’ll indulge me, I’ll do the main 2 of each of my Big 3 ^^

SANTA FAE

Sherry & Mort, which originally came to me as I was watching my favorite sitcom of all time, Fraiser, who only drank Sherry and Port, and it did strike me as fancy lol. Changed Port to Mort cause of the dead nature, so it worked for me, and then just gave them fuller elvish sounding names out of that 🧝‍♂️

HEIRS OF DIM MAK
The main character of Reina, a Venezuelan like me, was inspired not by royalty but by my favorite Arepa 🫓 (our signature local food) called la Reina Pepeada (spotted queen) lol. Dim Mak herself is a title, meaning Death Touch in Chinese, and a common phrase for moves that kill instantly, which is what she does as the world’s deadliest assasin and fighter. 🏽

FRONTIER-0
My very first original story, and the two protagonists, Captain Lily and Astor Roy, were very whimsical. Lily was a name I liked and stuck with, but when I developed the character further, and since she was partly inspired by a Korean friend of mine at the time, she suggested I give her a Korean name as well, which became Eun Nari (used only by her family), which means Silver Flower Astor on the other hand was just a pun on Asteroid (Astor Roy) lol ️

Kermittyfrog 2025-02-01 03:21:56 UTC #10

For Saylis- c.ai chat that randomly selected a name for me lol

And Matts... well I can't remember because it was 3-4 years ago TvT

allenT 2025-02-01 04:52:40 UTC #11

My anthro cat protagonist Maor is translated as 毛兒 in Chinese, which means 'fur child', a simple name that is easy to remember & be empathetic to the character. (and also easily translated to other languages)

Leyelle 2025-02-01 12:58:33 UTC #12

I have a friend named Callie so I thought about naming my FL Callie, but then for some strange reason I also wanted to name her Texas. So I did both. Her surname is Callaway so her bff/roommate/technically not (in the loosest sense of the word 'technically') not-boyfriend calls her Callie. Her first name is Texas because her parents are a couple of extremely state-riotic Texans.

Oriflamme 2025-02-01 14:49:49 UTC #13

For my first protagonist, Corrine, she has pink hair, and in super smash bros Ultimate I would often play as pink Corrin.

As for the deuteragonist, I am an idiot because I named her Rose, which also means pink in french even though she has jet black hair. I chose that name because it was meant as a clue to her origin as an outsider. People who live inside caverns would have little reason to name someone after a flower.

eternityoz 2025-02-01 18:26:44 UTC #14

My protagonist, Kaito, has his name in Japanese origins due to my very first inspirations being from anime.

The name's translation roughly means "to soar over the sea", which is a rather abstract meaning when compared to my other characters, whose names tend to reflect their powers, positions, or traits. Since Kaito's power involves being able to freely mimic the powers of others, I decided his name would do well to symbolize some extent of that freedom. There's also deeper foreshadowing regarding the name's meaning, but to say those now would be major spoilers.

yaziroburrows 2025-04-22 02:02:00 UTC #15

I usually just use a random name generator until I find one I like xD
Fantasygenerators.com has a LOT of good name generators and I have used it for basically any name I use. Sometimes I'll take a name and adjust it, but since I work a lot with fantasy and I don't need them to have meaning, I just generators.

mohdadeebace 2025-04-22 06:03:24 UTC #16

Oh!!! It's really not a long story - the name just striked my mind so hard that I decided on it to be the name of the protagonaist

samconnely 2025-04-22 12:45:22 UTC #17

For mine, I went with "Iria" because it felt soft but still had this edge to it, which fits her vibe, quiet but not someone you’d want to mess with. I actually stumbled on it while messing around with name generators, then tweaked it a bit. No deep meaning, just that it clicked when I said it out loud.

Red_Dog 2025-04-22 14:31:44 UTC #18

Sadie Lurker:
For her first name I basically sat their think up names until I thought of one that looked like it fit her. As for the last name the HP Lovecraft story "The Lurking Fear" came to mind almost immediately.
I also thought up in the very beginning that Sadie would prefer the ambush the feral monsters instead of fighting them outright so the last name, Lurker felt right.

The_Chosen_Z 2025-04-22 16:05:49 UTC #19

Rose Hikari, Rose because it was one of the first things I thought of and Hikari because of Dawn's name in Japan

bumblebeelz 2025-04-22 18:11:18 UTC #20

I almost always use a name generator. I just keep rolling new ones until I get something I like. Then I change a few letters to make it unique. That, or I'll pull names from media I enjoy.

For my current protagonists, 'Vexarok' was a name spat out by a generator that I tweaked. 'Rolec' was lifted from a minor side character in an old video game.