My weakness...

[tanzy]

In all my experience with writing (which is not that much) I have a LOT of trouble with names. Is this common? I can spend weeks just tossing names around in my head. Most of the time I just throw a name like "bob" in when I start. That way I can get my ideas on paper and revisit the characters names later. The thing is, every time I come to some idea of a name, I am changing my mind within 5 minutes. Do you guys have any techniques or tips you use when coming up with names? One idea I had was to do a little research into the symbolism/history of different names. That kind of seems to cliché to me though. Another idea I had was to spend some time playing MMO games like Dungeons and Dragons online and just look at different player names for ideas. I feel guilty doing that though. I am thinking of this right now because have 2 weeks of free time and this is a perfect opportunity for me to start writing something. Once I get started I will be hooked again. Thus it will be easy for me to set aside more free time in the future when things pick back up.


Thanks,
Tanner

[Éclairer]

Are you writing fantasy? If you're stealing from Dungeons and Dragons, I certainly hope so.

You can always use places (Europe's got some crazy stuff going on over there) ... surnames too. Mixed up Latin words are always good. I would suggest making a bunch of strange sounds until you hit on a combo you like, but that can be extremely irritating for the reader as writer's have some kind of aversion to phonetically spelt names.

As far as actually sticking to a name... can't help ya there. I have the same problem until I find the perfect name. The perfect name will stick.

Try picking names that look appropriate to the character as oppose to ones that sound appropriate. Words are spoken in the reader's head, but they're seen first.

[IrishScribbler]

A lot of times, I'll find a name that means a specific character trait for that character. For example, my MC's love interest's name is Liam, which is Celtic for guardian. He becomes a sort of guardian for her toward the end of the book. In another example, the MC's father has pretty much abandoned her for his new wife and children, and MC's half-sister's name is Abigail, which means Joy of the Father.

[David Gonzalez]

I've the same problem, except I don't play MMORPGs anymore(I evade them), as for names, I do take my time after it fits my character and the character style. I'm picky like that I guess.

Sometimes I create my own character names, or I take a little from this and that. Or check a list of names in google which is also good to search. Sadly for me after reading a long list from a site I didn't pick any somehow =/

[Chasing the Horizon]

I have a hard time coming up with names too. I refuse to use one that doesn't 'feel right'. Its really important to me to have the right names for my characters because once I use a name for a main character, that name and person are permanently connected in my mind. I've found my book of 20,000 baby names extremely helpful for first names and the phone book good for last. Place names continue to be a pain in my rear, though.

I try to keep the names fairly simple and easy to type/say. Its annoys me when I'm reading to have trouble figuring out the proper pronunciation of names.

[Cerridwen]

I'm glad I'm not alone. I never had this problem while writing short stories, but when I began a novel, it just seemed to smack me in the face. I looked up meanings for some of the original major characters a cpl years back and even chose a few based solely on their sounds or how they made me feel.

I thought I was done with the name game...until my newest bout of block lifted and I felt the familiar sting again.

Just tonight I used my son (OK, I tied him down, tickled him until he almost pee'd himself, and bribed him with cheeto's) to help me narrow yet another semi-major character's name down. From this name, I also chose her parents names.

If I put this much effort into writing the story, it may have actually been finished by now.

[tanzy]

Are you writing fantasy? If you're stealing from Dungeons and Dragons, I certainly hope so.

You can always use places (Europe's got some crazy stuff going on over there) ... surnames too. Mixed up Latin words are always good. I would suggest making a bunch of strange sounds until you hit on a combo you like, but that can be extremely irritating for the reader as writer's have some kind of aversion to phonetically spelt names.

As far as actually sticking to a name... can't help ya there. I have the same problem until I find the perfect name. The perfect name will stick.

Try picking names that look appropriate to the character as oppose to ones that sound appropriate. Words are spoken in the reader's head, but they're seen first.


No it is not stealing from D&D, an MMO is a massively multiplayer online game, and the names are user created. Each player has their own avatar they name themselves. I just like looking at the different names and looking at the sounds of the names and that helps me think on my own names.


Edit:
Thanks for the replies, it's nice to know I am not the only one with name trouble.

Éclairer you said "Try picking names that look appropriate to the character as oppose to ones that sound appropriate. Words are spoken in the reader's head, but they're seen first."
This got me thinking more on what I 1st thought when I read names in books. It makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks.

[TheIT]

Two suggestions:

1) Take a look at the "Learn Writing with Uncle Jim" thread. I believe his suggestion is to use a placeholder for minor characters until you figure out an appropriate name, i.e <CANNONFODDER> or <BUDDY>. Once you decide on a name, use Search and Replace to replace the placeholder with the name.

2) For generating fantasy names, there are several threads down on the Science Fiction/Fantasy forum which deal with how to find or create interesting names. Baby name books with lots of alternate spellings are good resources.

I find suggestion 1) extremely useful otherwise I get bogged down trying to think of the perfect name for minor characters rather than writing the story.

[Alex Bravo]

Ah, the beauty of a word processor. I change names frequently, and use search and replace to do it. What's worse is sometimes I change a name a dozen times, and many times, it was to a name I had previously. Now, the problem with changing names frequently is when I speak to someone who read the book when I'm talking about sequels or adding plots... Remember XXX? And they say who? Oh, I mean YYY who is now XXX but I changed his name, etc... And they say, but I like the name YYY!!! ARGH!!!!

[Riddler]

Play around on HowManyofMe.com and try to find a first and last name that doesn't show up in the US Census.

[Mr. Funktastic]

You could buy one of those big books of baby names, go to a random page, pick a random name, and work with it until you turn it into something you like..

Or, you could just read every name in the book.

OR... you could take the name of something you come across, something that may not be a person, and fiddle with it until it's a name. I've done that a few times.

[smiley10000]

I find the random name generatiors very useful.

This one is my favorite: Behind the name (http://www.behindthename.com/random/) because it gives you the meaning of the name. Most of my characters for my NaNo WIP came from either this site or AW screen names :D

There is also:
Baby Names (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/) this list is great as you can pick a decade and find out the most common names used in that period. This is great for shorts or if I want an everyday name.

Random Name (http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm) this one allows you to choose the obscurity level and gives last names as well. It can have some interesting results.

Serendipity (http://nine.frenchboys.net/) also has some neat name generators.

Can you tell this is something I've thought about a little too?
;)10000

[Saundra Julian]

I sometimes go to the obits to find names that were popular in a by-gone era...

[PeeDee]

I generally find that my characters turn up with a name, or at least have some sort of name by the time they come onto the stage and become active. Sometimes, but rarely, the name is premeditated. Even then, it's something along the lines of "I'd like to write a character named Rachael. I haven't done that yet."

[Simon Woodhouse]

If I'm trying to create a name, I like the way it sounds to be appropriate to the character. I try to let the character's personality suggest the way their name should sound. I say the name out loud a lot, rolling the syllables around on my tongue. If it's not right, I keep modifying it until I come up with something I'm happy with. I tend not to give the characters stand in names. If I did, I'd start thinking of them as that name, and it'd be hard to change it.

[PeeDee]

If I'm trying to create a name, I like the way it sounds to be appropriate to the character. I try to let the character's personality suggest the way their name should sound. I say the name out loud a lot, rolling the syllables around on my tongue. If it's not right, I keep modifying it until I come up with something I'm happy with. I tend not to give the characters stand in names. If I did, I'd start thinking of them as that name, and it'd be hard to change it.

I tend not to do this, simply because in life, we tend not to be named for our personalities. If I name my son, at birth, "Runs With Wolves" I have no idea if he's going to be terrified of wolves or not.

[blacbird]

For me, names seem to be the least of my problems (there are many others). For major characters, they evolve right alongside personal characteristics, and I rarely change them. For minor characters, I tend to be pretty arbitrary, picking a name that works, is easy to read and doesn't sound either too clichéd or exotic. My bestest mostest decentest unpublishable novel contains minor characters surnamed Barnes, Mathes, Yount, Heywood, Blaine, Bell, Josephson.

caw

[janetbellinger]

I use names I like and try to avoid names of people I know well. I am limited in my current novel in that ithe main characters have to have names that were in use in the 1950s. I couldn't very well have called them modern names like Brooke or Meghan.

[UrsusMinor]

I absolutely have to get the names of main characters right, or the story won't move.

While in real life there can be little connection between personality and name--though I would object that people are to some extent shaped by what they are called when young--I think that good character names function much like good written dialogue. We aren't trying to transcribe life with accuracy, we are trying to give the illusion of life and reinforce the story's themes.

There may be a well-educated, old-monied, elegant art collector and philanthropist out there named Elmer Skuggs, but, with all due apologies to Mr. Skuggs, I'm probably not going to use that name for the refined aesthete in my novel. And my hillbilly probably won't be named Harrison Grosvenor Bennington IV, either. (At any rate, if I used those names in those contexts, it would require some sort of raised-eyebrow notice in the story.)

I don't think a name should overdo it in terms of thematics (Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, for example, might be a case of overdoing it just a bit) or shorthand chracterization, but I do like for the name to do some work.

A brilliant but low-key example of naming: Orwell's "Winston Smith" in 1984. The distinguished "Winston" piled atop the indistiguishable "Smith" subtly reinforces the central dynamics of the plot--individuality versus the sameness enforced by political bureaucracy.

A novelist and teacher I know says that when a character is refusing to come alive for him, the first thing he does is jettison the character's name, and often all the problems sink to the bottom with the old moniker. Madge and Tiffany have different tendencies.

[Azure Skye]

I have a baby namer book that I've used in the past. Sometimes, I'll name a character for a specific trait they have and others I've named for some other symbolic reason.

Don't worry too much about it. I've had one character go through three names so far. I think I'm done with him now. I hope.

[Cat Scratch]

My weakness is chocolate and men who play guitar...

I'll often name characters after former co-workers or classmates of yore. Like Jeff, the kid in first grade with the permanent kool-aid moustache, he came back to life in my novel as an assassin.

[farfromfearless]

If we're talking fantasy, I like to think of names in terms of geographic location of the character's origin (if you're like me, you've probably created a map in your head or on paper...), and how the geography might affect speech - coarser pronunciations of normal words in more remote locations; more refined in closer proximity to larger populations; and in dense populations you might find a melting pot of races and accents that also affect speech. Stick to some basic rules of thumb for masculine and feminine (French is a good example of this); historically a lot of sur names were derived from a family's trade or a persons occupation (coop, cooper, cage, smith etc.), or from clans (see the scottish/irish for that). The Irish have some wonderful examples of names that combine mythic hertiage and more common heritage (O'Grady, O'Leery, O'Kief, etc.) the O' designation is explained in numerous ways, but the most interesting is its connection to the Tuatha de Danan.

Experiment, use real names as a phonetic basis and build on them.