Naming Characters

[cherrystark]

I guess my process is basically wandering around the house repeating names, looking in books etc. until something says "that one!"

I changed one character's name a dozen times before I landed on his current name. Nothing seemed to fit right until lightning struck and I was like "Yes, he's a Prince. That is is last name."

[WillowTree]

I pull up a list of most common names from whatever decade the character was born in usually

[WinterFall]

Hmm, I've always thought of character names as interesting topics, especially for authors and creators such as ourselves. Well, I prefer unique and one of a kind names, but I also like it when they're easy to remember. Like memorable but unique names. Examples of these kind of names are Zylith, Verose, and Zelan from Freaking Romance in Webtoons.

But if you'd ask me how I come up with names for my novel's characters right now, my novel is set in Japan, so therefore, my characters' names are Japanese. But you see, in my opinion, Japanese names are quite interesting and they fascinate me, because they have meanings behind them. Kind of like etymologies.

For example, in my novel, one of the protagonists' name is Mayumi, and her family name is Sakuragi. Mayumi can be written using different kanji characters (a kind of Japanese writing), and it has quite a lot of meanings. It can mean elegant, gentle, beauty, truth, reason, or spindle tree. Her family name, Sakuragi, can mean cherry blossom tree. I guess you could tell that I researched a lot to name my characters!

[Lahin]

@therosesword

don't ask I have no idea how that happened

Aww. I was going to ask right now.

I named my characters from their core traits(Plus, names I really liked). Where I grew up, everyone is given a name which has a definite meaning (lol teachers used to legit ask us in school what our names meant). I'd have to say it influenced me a lot to think like this.

Giving someone a name that means something puts them in a spot where they will feel like they're supposed to live up to the name they were given.

I'll say from my experience, I have a three-part name and part of it means "virtuous” in the language of its origin. And I've pretty much felt like I needed to be virtuous all my life.

Given, the readers won't know unless I tell them that my mc has the same meaning as mine in terms of his name, it's a nice little thing I can feel good about.

@WinterFall I spent a whole two days looking up names. Hours of looking at kanji, the meanings of which I didn't know, taking them and putting them in google translate, seeing it it sounded nice.

But I got the result I wanted. Now I don't have to worry about this for a pretty long time.

[therosesword]

In the language of my paternal forefathers my name means swordmaker.

[therosesword]

Kind of like naming a cat.

Had this one kitten and we went through: Mortimer, Duncan, Doolie, McTavish etc. etc. Then he ran through the living room. He was very long legged and at that age when he was running his legs would go every which way and I said he looked like John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. We went... BASIL!" and that's what he was. He was also a scaredy cat so it became Basil the Brave.

[therosesword]

That's often the perfect idea. I knew a woman who was born in the 1950's. Her last name was D'amore. A popular song the year she was born was "Melody D'amore." Yup... that's what her mom did.

[Lahin]

That's really cool!!!!!!

[therosesword]

Yeah, I kinda like it.

[cherrystark]

Nice. My familly does the same type of thing whenever we want to name something: car, pet, stuffed animal, whatever. We brainstorm names together and the name we keep coming back to is the winner.

[Utamee]

Oh, good topic. I really struggle for naming characters. I can change their name like more than 10 times during writing the story.
Because of this, I tend name them like before posting. lol.
so, I just write this A, have this personality etc, B, this kind of person, C, D, and so on..
When they need to appear I will abruptly name them.

[Black_Conscious]

Are there types of names you gravitate towards?

Ah yes!
I gravitate toward the meaning behind names and who wored that name currently because one of the names I have chosen for my characters are based off of great people such as a queen female called Kandake her story of defeating a King of Greek is amazing so I used what that great lady has done and put it into my character characteristics as someone "strong"

It is also the same with another who I am trying to figure out a name for, currently I have the name Hotep which means "to be at peace" I believe, it is somethin that certain people say to each other, like a greeting.
But I am workin on it

Are there types of names that you dislike and would never use?

hmm that is a good question ngl, well for me that is, I guess it really depends on a story that I am writing but then again I always try to seek out names that are Unique to a character instead of "Common" names.

Do you ever look at a character, whether in your own work or in another and think they could have been named something different?

As of right now yes, it is the person I had mention called Hotep I really couldn't think of anything else but the meaning behind it is what kind of made me think "well, lets see here," so I am trying to playout a scene in my head that goes along with both the story and the character and the name

[joannekwan]

One name I will always avoid using in projects: Joanna
It's too damn close to my name and I'm always irked when people get my name wrong and call me that instead. I will also avoid using my name Joanne since people might think that's narcissistic.

Anyway, as for my characters, if something doesn't pop into my head naturally, I will look through behindthename.com and search by name meaning (using a word or trait I associate with the character), or name origin (if I have a background in mind for the character).

Sometimes I'll do some methodical thinking. Patience for example.
Her story is set in 1900's fantasy America and I wanted one of those monikers named after a trait, like Grace or Prudence, but one not as common. I had also originally drafted her as sort of a 'pet' to her monstrous partner but didn't want to go with the obvious Petunia. I settled on Patience for the sound of the syllables and the imagery and associations that come to mind when I hear the name. It just sits well with me. c:

[skippyjoeskilling]

I agree with the short name things. Whenever I read a book where the characters have very long names (especially fantasy novels where I can't just google the pronunciation) I kinda just skip over it in my head.

I like to steal names from real life or history. The last big writing project I did I named most of the characters after country musicians. Dusty, Porter, Dolly, etc. just because the names all sounded interesting and the characters listened to a lot of country. Most of the rest of the names I got from a true crime book I was reading at the time, which loosely inspired the project. I like giving the characters names that are obviously nicknames too, because I think it tells a lot about them.

Randomly, I've written like five things where I've named a character Roscoe. It's not a conscious choice, I just love the name and keep using it.

[Stargazer31]

Most of my characters are from norse mythology, so I use their traditional names. Original characters have names that are either based around Norse names (Gunhild, Sigrun, Ingrid, Greta, etc), or are simple names (Luke, Trollarella, Alva.) Luke Eli Smith is homogenous to Loki Liesmith.

[Puck]

I sometimes use names of tv characters when the characters have similiar character trades because
I connect the name with those character types. Ashley for example is a good female villain name
for me in a slice of life kind of story, the name sounds a bit arrogant, evil but also good looking to me
because of a character called Ashley in one of the series I looked as a kid.
There are lists of names that many people connect with attractive people and some of those
names really work well.

Medieval story name finding is easy and there are good lists for that

[domisotto]

I think I just go with the story’s setting to chose characters’ names.

I guess my most questionable venture is Volya Wolkov (Will of the Wolves), but usually I don’t go that crazy.

For contemporary stories, I prefer simple names, and I usually look to figure skaters to see how names combine with surnames & ask for people from those countries to help me to avoid unusual or bad combinations.

For fantasy names, I look at historic lists of names. Yes, some of them are unusual in modern times, but they are also gorgeous and often sounds good to the ear. Names lost to times or simplified with use usually are complicated or come from the dead tongues, failing to adapt to the new hosts. Or, on the contrary, was nothing wrong with them, but they got destroyed by baptismal names after the country’s conversion.... sometimes they even got brought back or reinvented in search for national identity as an alternative to Greek, Hebrew and Latin roots.

Lol, anyway, I love names!

[cookieroach]

Naming characters is so hard for me. I’ve just accepted that I suck at it and can never come up with cool names. Instead, I scroll through a mile worth of name lists and pick a name that “feels right”. I try to not be too serious about it. I really look up to people that have a good sense for naming!

[cherrystark]

My given name is one that embodies a certain trait. I have a list of similar names that I try to avoid using for characters because the trait might be too much: Dilligence, Deliverance, etc.

[Cyena]

I like names that have a meaning behind them. When I create a character, I'll first think of their personality, appearance and background. The name comes last for me.

There are a lot of lists on the internet with countless of names and their meaning or origin. So I'll go through these lists and pick the ones that fit my character. Maybe the meaning of the name refers to a certain personality trait, or something that is important to them. When I have a few potentional names, I pick the one which I think fits the character the most or looks the most unique. It's always nice if it's a name that you can shorten, this could serve as a nickname

I'm currently planning a story in which the main character is constantly lying to herself and others. I gave her the name "Vera" which actually means "truth"