How do you name your characters?

[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

[arayakim]

I'm the creator of "The Remarkable Rabbit Boy"

The Remarkable Rabbit Boy

The way I name my characters is pretty simple, and pretty much based on their "thing". That is, the thing that basically defines them as a character.

Rabbit Boy - The main character, a 12 year old boy with rabbit ears, who has powerful legs and can jump super high.

Foxline - A woman with fox ears and a fox tail, with control over the bandages lining her arms

Hyperion Man - Light City's most powerful hero, with Light Powers, based on Greek Mythology's Titan of Light.

Bloodarm - A villain with blood control and a powerful arm made entirely of blood.

Goliathan - A very large and powerful entity that Rabbit Boy thinks is his conscience.

[NickRowler]

Mostly just random words and names that I think is cool or interesting. Sometimes I will do an alternative spelling of a word mostly to not confuse readers.

So...
Tabu instead of Taboo
Dai instead of Day
Nu-Mun instead of New Moon

I think my weirdest name choice is Shoo-Fly which is named after the song.

[hannahlaine]

Baby names websites... random name generators... I also have a note book where I just write down names that sound really awesome and later on I go back to it and take names from there.

The problem then becomes not re using names in future stories, also make sure you don't use a name you plan on giving your future kids... it is just awkward especially if your story goes big one day... lol

[hannahlaine]

Another fun thing to do is to go on sites like behindthename.com and their random name generator, because you can see the name meanings and name your characters something that has to do with who and what they are. I feel like that always helps and is a little Easter egg for people to find one day. lol

[JamesMulhollandFilm]

I don't think about it too much, to be honest. Unless I want the name to hint at something thematic for the character. I usually look at other stories, Facebook friends etc and I try to make sure characters name vary in terms of length; we don't want a John, Jack and Jeff as friends. Gets confusing. lol

[Kiweevil]

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[doomerC]

Ufufufu. Get on my level.

I come up with the names first, THEN the characters. So long as the name sounds cool enough, it'll find itself a match.

[PaulDevers]

Whenever I'm just enjoying some fiction, I keep a look out for names that I think are unique or just kind pretty & fun. (Lauren, Jude, Brooks, etc.) I write'm down on a word doc and when I need to name an important character, I grab one from there! If it's for an unimportant character, I just use a generator for online.
If it's for a fun and hammy series, I go with a pun. Y'know, like an evil fish dictator named Tiberius Claudius Nemo.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Really lazy with naming actually. I go with whatever the character seems like they would be names and I don't really think much more beyond that. See all the DoppelRips for example. Very little goes into naming on them.
If it's a character based off of mythology...I just use that name and add an extra letter or something xD

[Berserker]

I hit an old medieval name listing for my fantasy novel. The human names I might take as is. The non-human names I will often modify the name somewhat. As for which I pick I just go for the names that sound good to me when spoken out loud.