How do you name your characters?

[kingdomfilmsest2016]

I use baby name books lol

[aqua03]

Thanks! (Funnily enough, the villains group is named royal crimson conincidentzlly.)

I think I'll flesh out their designs, backstory, and powers first before deciding on names considering I like to have my characters' relate to them inskme way, shape, or form.

[kmlangleyauthor]

I have a lot of really normal names in my stories but, when I’m really struggling to find names, I’ll pop onto nameberry for their name generator and type in a couple names that might be similar ish to the “feel” of what I’m aiming for? Sometimes I’ll get lucky and find something that is perfect and sometimes nothing at all, but it might be helpful. If needed, some letter swaps or general spelling changes to make it fit better.

As villains go, unless they’re connected like your main group, I don’t think they need to have any connecting theme. I don’t know, that’s just my opinion.

[WillowTree]

I usually google 'most popular names in x' and 'x' is the year the character was born then choose from that list so I don't think I'm of much help here lol

[Pony_wearing_a_hat]

Well for my current novel I just picked some old fashioned sounding names that fit (it takes place in the present, but I liked the theme naming) but if I want names that mean something or that are from a specific culture I'll go here:

https://www.behindthename.com/

[dewarcomics]

could name them after the variations of the Colour Red. Just throwing that out there lol

[aqua03]

Been debating doing that as well, amusingly enough.

[Freemints30]

Yup, can't name so I just run that program with the specifications I want. Nothing to fancy

[KiabIce]

I'm not sure how I choose but it's sort of intuitive and just happens. Take names from what I've seen on TV or movies, etc.

[Dysis]

1.Spontaneous: I just write what comes to my mind spot on.

2. Word meanings: I see what my character represents, and then type on google "Names meaning..." and choose what I like most.

For instance: My profile picture has sunset, so I chose Dysis (which means Sunset) as a profile name.

3.Fantasy name generator: When all fails (:P)

[allenT]

My poorly educated village folks only have simple names.

2 of my main characters named from Chinese meaning (via sound-based conversion)
Maor : Mao Er 毛兒(Chinese meaning: fur child)
Amin : A Min 阿民 (Chinese meaning: ah- people)

Some of my characters have other Asian-related names.
Some characters use objects as names, some adds -er or -y at the end of their names.

I do give surnames to my characters but only those who associated to a clan, a race, or prestigious family.

[MoseyP]

My story takes place in the not too distant future in a man-made country that has a diverse population, so I try to ensure I have a wide variety of diverse names from different points in time (I assume there was probably a phase when old names became in vogue again).

To find these names, I usually just use Google, Baby Name Sites and other sites where I can find names. I have some instances where I have used names of people I've known/symbolic names but I try to limit those if I can.

[BlunderingAlbatross]

The culture in my novel is based off of IRL Nordic ones in terms of aesthetics and nomenclature so I spend far too long on websites like Behind the Name trying to find one that fits the character Other names, particularly for places, I'll just straight-up invent from portions of other words I see around me at the time.

[R.n.P]

I leave it to my writer but surprisinly he actually takes his time with the naming or is extremely lucky since the name of my OC is Luca Vincenzo and both his names have meanings connecting to his character>
We're friends from back in highschool so i always make fun his laidback attitude a lot so i was honestly/pleasantly surprised.

[DualDragons]

Same here, I look up baby names for my characters

[Legendofgenii]

Google! Lol! That's usually where I start for most names.

The name Genii was inspired by my trip to Cambodia. The Genii are good spirits who fight evil spirits in Khmer mythology. They are featured in Assyrian and Egyptian mythology too. It's also plural for more than one magician/genie which is actually perfect considering what happens in my story.

Mostly though... I just wing it.

[Toastbuster]

I have quite a few methods actually lol. I come up with on my own, some I use a name generator for, a few are just words I think sound cool, and if I’m really stuck I’ll watch movie credits for inspiration.

[jcmraz]

Names I like mostly. I hate naming things. I'm really bad at it. So I just write down a bunch of names and then look up what they mean and try to at least somewhat match them to personalities. Then promptly forget the meaning behind them lol

[elyss]

I try to name them like a parent would, relatively blindly. A parent doesn't know what their kid will turn into and I think it gives them more believable names. My MC Cassius is named after his aunt for example and his brother Darrius was named after his grandfather.

I also have characters who havw names that are considered common for their culture and others who had parents that wanted to give them very auspicious names.

[TheGentleArtist]

I name them based on personality and what not. I use common and uncommon names, sometimes not heard of; one of my characters in my series has an unheard of name. It came about from a play on word joke XD