Naming Characters?

For last names I recommend writing down the last name of everyone you used to know but are no longer in contact with. Or if you have a kid in a public, write down all the names in the school directory. One of my big character-name bugaboos is when every single character (American) has some super-Anglo last name. A whole cast named this way sounds like soap opera characters.

For first names, I recommend checking out the social security baby name web page. You can search for popular names by birth year, which can help you if you don't have an ear for that type of thing. One of my other big naming bugaboos is a whole cast of characters with anachronistic names. TV shows do this a lot. The female names Janet, Jennifer, Jasmine, and Jayda all belong to different generations. It's fine to give a character a name that doesn't "fit" with his/her generation, but you need to know that's what you're doing. If you do it with a whole cast, it makes your story sound disconnected from reality.

There are many name generator websites on the internet. Some are specific to a genre, some are baby name generators. You can also look up the "top 10 baby names", as there are plenty of those articles out there as well. So try doing a quick internet search, including for last names.

One thing about writing prehistoric fiction........ no last names


When writing other forms of fiction... the telephone directory always helped with last names.

Another thing, you don't need to give every single character a first and last name. You only need them if their last name realistically crops up in the story, e.g. if they're called by their name at the doctors or some such thing. When writing anything set in any time period where people have (had/will have) surnames, I only put them in when I really need them.

Phone books. Newspaper (web) articles. Googling "Common German surnames" and other such phrases.

I also do a lot of that "throwing noises together until it sounds right." Plenty of real world surnames seem pretty outlandish at first glance.

First names usually come to me right when the characters themselves come to me. Most first names in my stories are organic to my thought process--then I go back and make sure none of the names are TOO similar, to the point where they might confuse the reader. As for last names, I agree that not everyone needs a last name. When I do need to use a last name, I just try to make sure that it fits with the character's backstory & where they come from.

I use the website Behind the Name to find surnames for major characters when I'm writing about the real world. They have lists of surnames broken down by country of origin, so I can make sure my characters get a last name that matches their heritage. For minor characters I just grab a surname off Wikipedia's list of 100 most common surnames in America.

For real-world first names I usually use the Social Security website and pick something that's in the 500 most common first names for their birth year, unless I have a reason I want them to have a specific or unusual name.

I use baby name websites occasionally, especially if I want a name to have a meaning. (I grew up with Harry Potter and fall into the Significant Name trap waaay too often.)

For my current project, honestly, I named one of my MCs after a character from the television show Castle. I don't even remember where the other MC's name came from--I think I just plucked it from the air after deciding on her brother's name. Their surname I stole from somebody that I used to attend a church group with. It all just fits.

If you're really stuck for names, try a phone book or list of names/surnames online. Then do as you do with fantasy names--throw different ones around together until something sounds good.

I use the baby name lists that you can find online. I also try to keep my names within the same groupings to make it flow better. Right now I am using Irish/Scots names for a new Urban Fantasy novel.

Mine often come with names. However, when they don't I retreat to the Behind the Name generator and keep going through them until one sticks. They include surnames in the generator so I usually end up with both names.

Unfortunately, it has been known to give me a whole story name just from a character.

Cece Garrett, my current MC, came from that name generator.

I hunt around for names with meanings that reflect the character and the fantasy setting. Many of my characters end up running through several trial names until I find one that really fits.

Language dictionaries are a great resource. Behind the Name is also great. Just diving into a Wikipedia rabbit hole can be inspiring!

In my current book, I'm making an effort to move away from First Name Last Name, because there are plenty of other cultures that do not follow that convention. Researching these different cultures can lead to new ideas about names as well.

I usually find first names by going to the Social Security Baby Name website (as lianna mentioned), looking up the character's year of birth and scrolling through the top 1000 names. I find last names by looking up various lists of last names online, and searching through them until I find something I like.

Religion0 said:

So, how do you? Especially last names?

Click to expand...

I always know what ethnicity they are. For some reason this is important to me. I'll sometimes even research subcultures within a country to make sure I've got the right province with regards to common character traits.

Religion0 said:

So, how do you? Especially last names?

Click to expand...

Several ways. For standard US names, I often stick with the basics. Occupational names, such as Baker, Cook, Carpenter, King, Candlestickmaker, and so on. But you can also grab a phone book and randomly open a page and stab a finger to find a name.

For foreign names, I'll sometimes look in the various lists of foreign name meanings. Then pick a name that might have a meaning for the character.

My favorite though is to go back to my own list. I keep a running list of random names I've thought of, now in OneNote on my computer, tablet and phone, synched through Microsoft Office 365. I've pulled character names, pen names and other things from this list. These are names that just sound right for something, like Elroy (Roy) Higgins, Bettina (Betty or Tina) Hutchins and Rafael (el Tigre or Tiger) Machado. Haven't used those yet but they've been in the list for a while.

Last option, pick names that are on the most popular boys/girls name lists for the year/time frame the would have been born. Names like Tiffany, Amber, Ruth, John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Pretty much though, if you can't think up a name, then you're probably not that good at thinking up a plot or even a premise. And a name is a lot easier to change halfway through the book than the plot or premise is.

Though a quick lesson here. A thousand and eight years ago, before word processing software was mainstream, I was at a tech demo of the then new Word Perfect software. The sales/tech/demo guy showed how easy it was to change the phrase "complaints to customers" to "complaints by customers", which occurred multiple times in the demonstration memo. Replace "to" with "by" and the document instantly changed every instance of "complaints to customers" into "complaints by cusbymers." You don't want your protagonist, Bill Harkins from Billings, Montana to become David Harkins from Davidings, Montana.

Jeff

WeaselFire said:

Pretty much though, if you can't think up a name, then you're probably not that good at thinking up a plot or even a premise.

Click to expand...

I disagree.

Creating something and naming it are entirely different processes. How many authors here have completed a dozen novels but are consistently stumped when it comes to thinking up titles? Finding the perfect name for a character can be equally challenging.

Phone book.

caw

Maze Runner said:

I always know what ethnicity they are. For some reason this is important to me.

Click to expand...

I think ethnicity is important, at least for main characters. Their heritage not only informs what they look like but also what kinds of family traditions, foods, and religious beliefs they may have been raised with.

WeaselFire said:

Pretty much though, if you can't think up a name, then you're probably not that good at thinking up a plot or even a premise.

Click to expand...

That's a frankly ridiculous claim. I often have a much easier time coming up with an entire unique culture than I do naming the country containing it (I have a system for character names but place names are my nemesis).

Chasing the Horizon said:

I think ethnicity is important, at least for main characters. Their heritage not only informs what they look like but also what kinds of family traditions, foods, and religious beliefs they may have been raised with.

Click to expand...

Yeah, there are certain cultural consistencies, but of course it's easy for it to end up stereotyping. But I think it's good to at least consider those cultural consistencies and then decide if your character would be someone who goes along with them, or consciously or subconsciously is against type. I think!

I have students, so I keep a list of the interesting monikers. However, I write fantasy, so I'm usually making something up and I don't worry about it being a real name.

For fantasy names, I used to find the random word verification generators on blogs sometimes come up with something reasonable. For example (looking at my data file), "Tagomav", "Chaliono", and "Sisardi" are all things I got off a blog that I thought sounded like plausible names.

With fantasy naming, you're going to be treading on thin ice with some people. I have friends whose pet peeves are made up fantasy names that are hard to pronounce or remember. I can understand this, as I'm currently reading a book with a lot of names with unfamiliar (to me) dipthongs and sound combinations, and I'm actually having trouble remembering who is who.

But I also have friends whose pet peeves are real-world (or clearly derived from the real world) names in fantasy settings.

I have a critiquing friend I go back and forth with about whether it's acceptable to have any place or person names in the pov character's homeland actually be mundane monikers like "New Ford" or "Rose" or whatever. I say yes, if the name is meant to translate directly to a word or phrase used in the current language spoken in the pov characters' homeland. He says no, because if you're writing a story set in Tokyo and translating to English, you don't translate the place (or people names) to their literal meaning from Japanese. Tokyo is still called Tokyo in English translations, and not "Estuary" (or whatever Tokyo means in Japanese).

The argument just confuses the heck out of me, because I want to have a setting that feels a bit like it has a sense of history with names for people and places that range from being in old, archaic dialects/languages (conlanged), but I have a smattering that are "in English" because they're supposed to have literal meanings in the extant language spoken in that country in the story's "now," and I don't know how to get that across otherwise. But I see his analogy re writing a story set in a foreign culture on Earth. he argues that my approach only works if you plan for every story set in your world to be in your current protagonists' homeland. As soon as you move to another country or culture, you run into the "translating Tokyo to Estuary" problem.

The take home message, I think, is no matter what you do, some folks won't like it. I would personally avoid having very modern sounding names (like Fred or Suzie) in a setting that doesn't "feel" like 20th/21st century US or UK, however.

The WIP is a fantasy set in a land inspired by Africa, so I looked up Swahili names and surnames. Some characters also have Arabic names, plus a few that are either made up or slightly altered from British names e.g. Beatrex instead of Beatrix.

Finally, there's a group of people whose last names are either
derived from natural substances (Earth, Ash, Dust, etc.) or from what they can do (Fold, Weave, Raze, etc).

It depends on where the character is from. I hate books filled with odd and unusual names, but no common names, so most often I just pick a name out of the air.

I don't much like fantasies without easily pronounceable, logical sounding names, either.

Just give the character a name and get on with it. The character makes the name famous, not the other way around.

Roxxsmom said:

I have a critiquing friend I go back and forth with about whether it's acceptable to have any place or person names in the pov character's homeland actually be mundane monikers like "New Ford" or "Rose" or whatever. I say yes, if the name is meant to translate directly to a word or phrase used in the current language spoken in the pov characters' homeland. He says no, because if you're writing a story set in Tokyo and translating to English, you don't translate the place (or people names) to their literal meaning from Japanese. Tokyo is still called Tokyo in English translations, and not "Estuary" (or whatever Tokyo means in Japanese).

Click to expand...

Actually sometimes place names ARE changed by translating their meaning to the local language. English speakers may not call Tokyo "Estuary," but the United States are "Gli Stati Uniti" in Italian and "Les Etats-Unis"* in French, both direct translations of the meaning.

When I lived in Italy, the spelling of my name didn't change, but the pronunciation certainly did. The different inflection patterns of the languages made the change necessary to have normal-sounding conversations.

Additionally, foreign abbreviations are sometime transformed into words in their own right. Sticking with Italian as an example (it's the only other language I speak):

Warner Bros. = Warner "Bros" pronounced like "brass" but with a long O sound and a flipped R.

UCLA = a two-syllable word pronounced "Ook-La"

I guess the point I'm getting to is that there's a whole range of ways to change or retain names across language borders and they seem to be applied on a case-by-case basis rather than by any overarching pattern haphazardly (don't you love it when you think of the perfect word)? Someone whose name is also a common word may well choose to adopt the translation of that word as their name if they went traveling. For example, someone named "Rose" may like the idea of being called "Rosa."

*I know there's supposed to be an accent over the "E" but I'm on an uncooperative computer.

I come up with mine in different ways. In fact all four major characters of my current novel got their first names differently:

1. A sort of unusual name, which I got from an actor in some play I saw at least a decade ago. I liked the name and had it floating around in my head. It's usually a last name, so in the novel it was his mom's maiden name, but for me, I just liked it.

2. Character originally had a different name, which I liked a long time ago but didn't anymore. When re-naming I went to the old Social Security name site and looked at the most popular 100 names the decade he was born. His name is number 90 or so, though apparently that decade was the name's peak of popularity (a nifty resource once you have names in mind is this page from a baby name site, which charts the popularity of the top 1000 names from 1880 to now: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager ).

3. I just named her after a movie star popular at the time the novel was set (though the movie star is about her age, so obviously her parents didn't name her for that reason!)

4. I was reading a novel where a character once or twice to referred to another by the nickname version of his name. I liked the nickname and used it for my character.

I also have a super minor character, the ex of one of the main ones, who I vindictively named after someone I don't like, haha.

I like this topic. I wrote a blog post about it a little while back.

Mostly, my characters kind of come with names. I write historical, so I just choose names that seem appropriate. Mostly, I don't know quite where they come from, though my knowledge of appropriate names comes from my readings in the era.

More than a few of the names I've chosen came from real people, however. The character Everett was named after Edward Everett, a renowned 19th century orator, and a boy named Jack was named after a real boy named Jack who was a slave on Georgia plantation in the 1830s. I took the first name Ovington from an ancestor of mine.