I try to think about the names so much into what their meaning would be in my story. If I have a character with certain characteristics or would do certain actions I would like their name to reflect that. I just came up with names for a recent story that I was working on and it took me a few days to get their names down to begin writing. The reason being is because it took me a long time to find a name combination that would match what I had in mind.

To help come up with names, I use a few different name generators as a based and then from there I'm able to customize the names even more. I don't just use them for character names as well. If I'm looking for a organziation name or a villain type name that's how I go about creating them too. Sometiems I may spend a lot of time trying to get the names to be entertwine with other characters. When certain things changes in the story I go back to see if my character's name would need to be changed or say the same or vis versa.

So ya for my writing, there are many things that I take into consideration before finalizing what the character's name would be.

A lot of my character's names were given to them years ago, so it does somewhat feel like they always had that name. I mostly just picked names because I thought they sounded nice. I tend to like names tied to nature or elementals.

I did change some of my character's names mostly because their original version sounded a bit too odd.

I guess my strangest names go to Shoo-Fly and Zombra.

Shoo-fly is a plant. Shoo-Fly the character has plant powers. Tho he was actually named after the song. He is sort of clingy so the lyrics "Shoo fly don't bother me / For I belong to somebody" is fitting for his character.

Zombra is just the words "Zombi" and "Sombra" mashed together.

Usually the names are based off what their parents personalities are, and what they would have named them. Since that’s kind of how names work in real life, it’s fitting. Sometimes I do just pick something just for the sake of a silly pun I thought of, or to go as a “set” with another character.

In all the books I write, male leads have names that take me quite a long time to nail down, Silas, Magnus, Zeke, Andras, etc

Women leads ALWAYS have a nature name, Rain, Sky, Ocean and Snow.

My naming theme for Niji Chikara is really on-the-nose Japanese names. For example, Chishiki means "knowledge" and Yukai means "fun."

The name "Niji Chikara" itself is the name of the in-universe magic that the girls use to fight evil, and means "rainbow power." I picked it because of the girls' color theming, pretty self-explanatory.

There are some other notable names that show up later on, but I don't want to spoil too much just yet, haha.

Only characters I remember putting effort into naming...

1) Akala Maya - Akala (perception in Tagalog) Maya (illusion in Hinduism)

2) Eman Cruz - Eman (from Emmanuel meaning God with us) Cruz (cross)

Lucia Liwanag - Lucia (light) Liwanag (bright/light depends on context)

I could talk about this topic all day, I put A LOT of effort into my characters names.
Y'all heard of my chickens Friar, Bucky, Gallus, Bress, etc, but I'll add a few new/lesser-known chars

Bantee (from banty, describes his aggresive character as well as another word for chicken)
Nixworth ("nix" and "worth", meaning he has "no worth" as a rooster. He's a breed of chicken that is commonly "dubbed" by humans bc of alleged "lethal genes" -- their chicks/offspring die young. (yeah, his is a sob story, but we'll get to that in time...)
Poppy and Penny: in my recent episode, based off two hens that my mother and I were a bit attached to, now remembered as two unfortunate hens fallen victim to--uh--beheadings.

(humans)
Seth (nolastnameyet) - derived from Set(Egyptian god) and constant antagonist to Horace - they're gonna bicker alot.
Jaime Zemay - actually made up, heard it somewhere, but means "supplanter", and she's a gotta-be-tough kind of--chick...
Carl (nolastname) is also one I just made up, no meaning looked up, cause he's a bg character XD

Aaand, there's Halaka(Persian bird myth/god), and Bhuta Murga? ("Ghost/demon chicken" XD, still a WIP)

As for chapters/episodes...somewhat an effort, though for my current arc, we got parts 5-2, 5-3, Part 6, uh, yeah. No creativity there XD

wow, dis long. told ya I'd talk all day...

I'll do Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days first, because that's my signature story:

The story got its name from an old 1980's song, Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days. This song was my anthem as a teenager, and the title perfectly describes how I remember those times.

The song:

The characters themselves are all real people, but I changed almost all the names. In order to keep myself from forgetting the fake names and who they applied to, I used the same letter to start the fake name as the real name had (for example somebody named Jason may have had his name changed to Jonathon - these names were not used in the story, I'm merely using them as an example here). The only names that were not changed were those of my family, myself, and one character from early in the story who had a name very similar to mine (pronounced the same, but spelled differently). I did not change this name because I thought it was cool.

Most chapters get their names from music - either a song title or a song lyric. For example one chapter is entitled "Something's happening here (what it is ain't exactly clear)", which is a lyric from a song by Buffalo Springfield - it is actually the first words to the song "Stop children, what's that sound". Another is called "Losing My Religion", which is a song by R.E.M.

Now, for Finding Daecon's Way:

The story title also comes from a song, but not quite as directly as WNHCD. Finding Daecon's Way gets its name from a song by Rush: Finding My Way.

The song:

The characters got their names in different ways. Daecon, the main character, was originally going to be called Hunter, and indeed a good portion of the story was written before I changed it to Daecon. The file name for my first draft is still called 'Finding Hunter's Way.docx". Owen got his name because I thought Owen would be a good name for a cranky, stuffy middle aged man who could change into a bear. Owen's husband's ancestry is Egyptian but he grew up in Greece, so he has a Greek name (Leander). Their son also has a Greek name (Evander).

For some reason, for the royal family (including Daecon) I decided that all of the characters had to have names starting with D. Daecon's fathers' names are Darion and Dionysius (Dionysius is also Greek). Darion's father (Daecon's grandfather) was named Dontarion. There was a bit of Tolkien influence here - if you've read LOTR you'd often see things like "Gimli, son of Gloin, son of Groin". Similarly, it's Daecon, son of Darion, son of Dontarion.

As with WNHCD, many of FDW's chapters come from music, either song titles or song lyrics.

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I have a list of names for each of the different cultures in West but none of them have a greater meaning. I'm more interested in names sounding like they suit the character/where they're from than anything else.

Only one race has an unusual naming convention-- that's the Eriad, or 'Hunters', in the West. Out there a Hunter is given a unique first name but take their mother's first name as their last. Jed's mother was called Rehel, therefore he is Jed Rehel.

I do have a character called Argon which turned out to mean 'lazy' in Latin or something and honestly that's perfect because he's a lazy artist type. But sometimes not looking into the meaning of names can come back to bite you. I've been told there's a character in West whose name means 'worm' in Portuguese. Whoops. 🤷

The names I give my characters have to be unique and does not need to have a meaning. I usually have a little book with me where I list down interesting words or combination of words that my brain randomly comes up with (sometimes in the middle of the night when I stir awake from my dreams). I use these words as names. They may not have any representations to cultures.

Zov'ha - I actually named her sister first, who has a similar sound with an "-ia" trail. The apostrophe in both the sisters' names is a glottal stop. Most words and names in Asenya (their country) are spoken with glottal stops. They were originally designed in a very arabic theme, but I later gave them a Siberian background.

Marana Skjakov - I was a bit lazy with this name. But that's because Marana was not supposed to be a main character in this book. She just walked straight into our lives, didn't she? Her name just came to my while writing the chapter.

Aekis - Aekis was originally Dr. Zekus.... ehehehehehehe It's sound sad I know. Anyway his inspiration comes from Aeacus - a mythological king of the island of Aegina in Greek mythology. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina. I just loved the name so much with so many vowels! So I decided to keep the pronunciation but change the spelling.

I put little to no thought, to me the most important is how they sound and 'could the character pull it off"

Milo Anani (though Anani does mean little cloud in a language I forgot which fits his air-tendancies)
Corym Bloom (he does have flower imagery but I got the name first lol)
Lila Thornhill

Fae
Calixa Elliptica
Lockwren
Ezra James Trice Ostium (Human taken by fae)

I think names have a lot of power in a story. They can give hints at each characters future development, or they can mean absolutely nothing at all. That's kind of the fun game you get to play as the author, you get to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the readers and see if they start to pick them up. I have characters where I spent hours picking out the perfect names for them: (Tork, Karna, Kido, Ina), and characters that I used a name generator: (Isa, Penny, Layla). It all depends on what you want to do with the character.

Yes, names carry power, for example, my cahracter malik means king in arabic, which shows what the stories about.

Names are incredibly important to the characters in Apparent Secrets. I won't spoil any of the hidden meanings, but anyone with knowledge of botany, literature, or Latin could tease out a few of them.

Additionally, many characters share inspiration for their names from my favorite songs or artists. Warren Maker, Ramona, Khazmine, and Zayzann come to mind for that.

For funzies, here's how Zayzann got his name. (Excerpt from Chapter 04: The Arrival):

She still wasn't sure what this was about, but she leaned forward anyway and duplicated what the creature had done. He smelled like sun-dried laundry, and something natural but inexplicably foreign that she couldn't place. This action seemed to please the creature, and he smiled at her warmly with crinkled eyes and a serrated grin.

“Well, now that that is out of the way… Do you have a name? Something I can call you by?” Iris asked.

The creature swiveled his head again and spoke some hopelessly alien word or phrase that could not possibly be repeated or transcribed. Iris was certain that she was missing whatever strange organ was needed to make that sound on her own and chuckled lightly.

“Ah, yes. I suppose we’ll need a nickname then.” She glanced around her bedroom for inspiration and eyed a stack of books lying on the nightstand of famous painters she fancied. “Well, we can’t very well call you Freida, and you don’t look like a Vermeer. Bosch seems rather mean… How about Cézanne?”

“Zayzann…” He mimicked.

“Close enough. Zayzann it is. ‘Zayne’ for short, okay?” Iris grinned.

Character names are very important to my stories, but might not be obvious to readers. Chapter titles are also always a vague clue as to what the chapter is about. In "French Cup", chapter titles are often a very funny and out of context line from the said chapter. My readers for that loved to "find the punchline", as it were, in the chapter lol. Finally understanding the context of the chapter title lol. It was often a good, extra laugh. For example, in the chapter entitled "The G.O.A.T", the chapter's punchline was that it was about a literal baby goat and the characters suddenly finding themselves in charge of the goat Three Men and a Baby style (or rather, Three Drag Queens and a Baby).

Character names are often complex in my stories. For example, with a little research, the reader can find that Sana's name in "Lyra's Magnum Opus" means "calm" in Japanese. He is often a calming presence to everyone. He makes tense situations disperse into peace just by being there. He makes people refocus their problems and look at the big picture. He is also extremely kind, the sort of person who will crouch by the roadside and pick flowering weeds for you because you need cheering up. The name is perfect for him. Then there's Tetsu, his husband. His name literally means "iron". Such a strong thing. Tetsu is Sana's strength throughout his journey. Always reliable. He often tries to appear strong, even lying to most people about their situation, trying to bring strength to others by not letting them know what's really going on, therefore shielding them from sad realities, protecting what they need emotionally. He is the strongest character in the book for what he goes through as Sana's caretaker, and also with the unfortunate job of taking care of everyone else emotionally.

Names have weight. Chapter names are something else that can have meaning for your readers. I enjoy so much with coming up with both.

Coming up with character names is so organic, I don't even think about it at the time. In fact, many of the characters sort of express who they are and what their name is before I even put them to the keys. It isn't until later that I realize the significance of their names.

Anywhere:

Gen, short for Eugene, morphs into "Genya", a favored character for Mika's siblings. He looks scary, but really he's gentle and shy, a protector, and fiercely defends those he loves.

Mika, which I learned from my half-Japanese friend means "Beauty", or "beautiful." This is incredibly important to his character as he seems himself as damaged thanks to the abuse he endured at the hands of his parents. Gen doesn't see the scars, only the beauty that is within Mika's heart and soul. In a letter Mika receives from his later father, Yuki, his father tells him that he is his "beautiful Mika, my treasure."

I'll Destroy Hell for You:

Hero was always meant to be the one that saves Hawk from the demon is was, is, and carries within him. It's his unwavering, unconditional love that urges Hawk to become the person he was always meant to be.

Hawk was given his name by an old Native man who likened him to a red-tailed hawk he saw one day, souring free and alone in the sky. That defines the life Hawk lived for a thousand years before he found Hero. Ultimately we learn that is the name he was given by his parents, though he didn't remember it for various reasons, and it's the strength and fierceness of the bird that becomes the symbol for Hawk's soul and person.

Children of the Veil Part 1:

Toji's name in Japanese means many things, among them "distance" or "path." At first, I just thought the name sounded really cool and embodied someone who was laid-back, a bit immature, but fiercely loyal and devoted, especially to the one he loves. Given what Toji goes through in his life, the meaning does become rather symbolic, as he has to traverse a path fraught with conflict in order to get to, and stay with, Natsu.

Natsu means "summer" in Japanese. It was a name I always wanted to use after learning of it from one of my favorite anime. It also sounded like a great name for Toji's boyfriend, the way it embodies warmth and unyielding compassion. Natsu also arrives at Helman Hall in the summertime, and the book's events take place during a summer vacation. Plus, when you put the two names together, Toji and Natsu, it flows naturally and fits perfectly together, just like the couple themselves.

I'm Going to be Fine:

Harley was named after the motorcycle by his father, Ford, who has a thing for automotives. The bike is loud, rough, and looks incredibly mean in the right setting. However, it offers a sense of freedom and security to those who know how to handle it correctly.

Windy was an easy one, especially given how she blows into Harley's life unexpectedly and ultimately helps sweep away all his pain, forcing him to face his trauma and deal with it head on. It takes time, and Harley fights it because he's not willing to accept the help he needs, but he knows what Windy is to him and clings to her.

Oh, damn, I just realized something...the greatest feeling and joy someone has when riding a motorcycle is feeling the wind blow through their hair and around them as they ride an open, unknown road. It's scary and can be unnerving at times, especially when the wind is fierce, but the rider keeps going despite it all.

Declan sounded like just the right name for the man Harley needs to get his heart going again. It's strong, yet gentle, fierce, yet kind. He's loyal, accepting, loving, honest, and passionate about the ones he holds dear.

For every character, the name doesn't define them, they define their name. Even if it had a meaning completely separate from who the character is, ultimately, they make it their own, giving new meaning and new life to the name given them.

I've always loved building character and their backstory and motifs from their names.

The names of my novel's main characters, and some of the places' names, have a lot of significance behind them.

• Gael Rubrene
  "Gael" means joyful, and part of his character arc is to rediscover the joy/passion of the work that he's mostly lost due to burnout. "Rubrene" is a chemical substance characterized by a distinct red colour. Fittingly, his powers are based on alchemy, where the fourth and final stage of their magnum opus--signifying the completion of the alchemical process--is called "rubedo" (hence why the philosopher's stone is typically colored red).

• Celestine Alcott
  "Celestine" means "heavenly" or "of the sky". She's the daughter of a former Gatekeeper who died after failing to stop an Anomaly attack from destroying a city, and is now carrying the burden of his failure.

• Elthrea
  The novel's setting. From "El" + "Threa". "El" is the Hebrew word for God. "Threa" is an anagram for Earth. This will play into the lore of the world in the story, such as the spellstones, Gatekeepers, and Anomalies.

(and I know I haven't updated the novel for almost a month now. had some real life issues that made me put writing on hold. I haven't abandoned the story, though. Chapter 5 is halfway done)

Thanks. I've reported the incident to the police, so I'm still waiting for them to follow up. I still need to go to the bank to settle my accounts, but otherwise, the situation has stabilized.