Character Names!

My main character is Clytemnestra Karen, but she goes by Karen. (There's a reason for her name being Clytemnestra, I swear.) I'm rethinking the middle name though... might go with Pamela, but Clytemnestra Pamela is a bit of a mouthful. It's after her aunt, though. And then that way she and her aunt could go by different nns... her aunt could be "Pam" and she could be "Mel." Hmmm. Dunno. I probably shouldn't be working this stuff out with less than a week to go, but whatever....

EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention, I'm a bit of a name nerd so I looooove coming up with names. :)

I'm another one that loves names, although it might not look like it from the rather run-of-the-mill names most of my characters seem to have (I try to strike a balance between memorable and realistic). This time around, my main characters are Zack Galloway, Olympias and Augustus Turati, and Sam Rivera. (Other major characters: Kittredge and Melissa (Adessi) Maddox, Petey Adessi, Otto Kowalski, Ryan Galloway, Max Garcia, Tyler Lake-Galloway, and Tina Smith, who is half Chinese, half Norwegian.)

Of course, I still need to create a bunch of characters. These are all ones that are left over from the story this year's Nano is a sequel to...

I'm pretty boreing in this book. The mains are Scott Forrester, Angela (Angel) Goddard and Deacan Cainin. Some of the secondary characters are Nobel Darke, Paw and Kitten. In another YA sci-fi adventure book I am working on the Mains are Horatio Hornblower Traskington (Trask) and Clang the cyber cat. I quite like finding names for my main characters because I believe they need to have some greater meaning to the work or the character but I hate trying to think of names for all the bit players.

The Critique Circle site has a name generater tool that throws up names from ordinary to obscure, depending on what you want. Although I found some of the ordinary names quite obscure.

http://www.critiquecircle.com/tools.asp?page=names

Is the site if you are interested.

Jeff

My characters told me their names before I even started coming up with plot points, so I guess this year I'm writing a character-driven novel.

The cast for this year includes:

Rachel Armisted
Lauren Patrick
Courtney Ryan
Tyler Shannon
Drew Hartigan
Justin Meadows

There will be other assorted minor characters, but these are the majors.

I worked out a few more names. Clytemnestra's parents are Linda and Dean, and her younger brother is Dean Jr (though he goes by their last name, Jackson). Her best friend is Jamie Christine Thompson, and her main love interest is Roman Alexander Vivas. These are all subject to change at any time, of course, but for now that's what they are.

Yep, I love names. I guess I'll be writing character-driven as well, names are there before the plot. These are mine so far:

Storm Lancey
Christopher Lancey
Katherine "Kate" Lancey
Stephen J. Lancey
Kody (no last name yet)
Tess Brooks
T.J. Spencer

So they are all American/English names. I'm thinking of adding a Tyler ("Ty") and possibly Cassie somewhere. Unless I change my mind ;-) Also maybe some cats: Sassy Socks, Salem and Sabrian. No clue why all cat names I come up with start with an S.

Edit: Kody is now Kody Montana. I thought it was really stupid because it sounds like Tony Montana, but now I'm actually using that as a running joke :-) Ty and Cassie have found their place as well, they are Tyler Cavalier and Cassandra Aubarn. As for the cats, only Socks made her way in so far. Then, some secondary characters have shown up:

Silver (has no last name)
Jonathan Paddleton
Allison Durbey
Ezequiel Johnsten Barnes
Peggy-Jane Zelezny
Elizabeth ("Liz") Montana

my names tend to be slightly strange, and it can take me ages to come up with them. for this story the main ones are:

Nutmeg
Sammy
Layla
Jade
Luke (formerly Lucifer - the Devil)
Kay
Ternalice
Ben

these don't quite illustrate my point about strange names, but i have had in the past: Zanedron, Abyam Lashira and Nomi to mention but a few.
demon names are an awful lot easier than angel names (my story's about angels v demons with some spirits thrown in for good measure)

Count me in as another fan of names! I have so much fun coming up with new ones.

My current cast of characters is:

Mercedes Moreno
Angela Moreno
Cecilia (Ceci) Moreno
Victoria Cabalini
Bill Stafford
Lena Buckman

Mine are:

Tessa Fowler
Daisy Macauley
Alicia Mullen
Chris Gallagher
Jillian Korman
Kyle Macauley
Gregory
Theresa

There are a couple of other characters, but I haven't named them yet.

I agree, coming up with names is one of the best part of writing!

3 MCs:
Anika (Annie) Clare Tanzer
Finley (Finn) Haskell Tanzer
Samson (Sam) Flint Tanzer

And looooooots of secondaries... just because it's so fun.

Elkinor (Elki) Flyten
Isabel (Isa) Flyten
Trela Colvin
Corazon (Cora) Rutlew
Francisca (Frankie) Youngsten
Ivanka (Ivy) Colvin-Wellspring
Delia Bowdoin
Fernanda (Fern) Conley
Nevah Westwood

For me, I can't write until I have the characters name correct. Most of the time when I am struggling with something it is either because I screwed up point of view or because I gave my character the wrong name.

Often, as soon as I have their name, then the story flows.

My MCs

Kira Nichols -- her middle name is probably Elaine but I won't know till I start writing.
James Nichols -- his parents forgot to give him a middle name.
Annika Demsteader -- her middle name is probably Linea after her grandmother.

I love names! I have to come up with them before I start plotting or my brain refuses to work for me XD

For the novel I'm doing this year I don't have a lot of characters, but their names are:
Casey Anne Martin (the only one I figured out a full name for. It just sort of came to me)
Des (Yes, just Des with no last name. It's explained in the book.)
Chester Laurence
Lucy Martin

I enjoy making up names very much. It's very fun for me. The names i pick tend to be a little on the multicultural side...I think it's because of where i'm from, and my friends...My school (and city really) is like a miniature united nations, I swear. Anyways, here's the five main girl characters. Oh, and the main guy.

Hannah Gold
Leah Gold
Jasmine Edwards
Liane Kim
Maya Patel
Sunny Wong
Alex Petrakov

I've just noticed something...although i didn't use last names or first names of people i chose, they are common surnames of all my friends, and all people i know. Especially Alex...I think there are at least 50 Alex in my school...don't know them...but it's a common name.

Like many others, character names are almost as important as plot for me. This year's list is rather short, but I've got a week ... ish.

- Alex (MC)
- Viv
- Maya

This weekend I *must* not feck about and find some good names to use!!

I love coming up with names! Usually, to procrastinate actually writing, I go on those baby name websites and find name that perfect suit my characters. I really like rarely used names, like Cadence and Celeste.

My character names for my novel are Faye Aston and Aedan Yuma. The second one is strange on purpose, just because the guy is strange.

Names make a character but sometimes plain, usual names leave room for the reader's imagination.

My MC is Catherine Linney.

The antagonist is Gabby Brooks.

The love interest is Felix McKenzie.

And that's that. :)

Names, for me, are usually hard to come up with. It may seem easy (or is easy) but I just have a hard time thinking of names that go with the persons personality (or just sounds cool^^)
My MC names are:
Damien
(^^^^most likely the narrator unless I change my mind)
Warren
and Kelsy

Last names are especially hard.

I have a hard time coming up with names because I'm a little picky. I like the name to have the right meaning and sound right for my character. I like unusual names, but I also want to be able to pronounce the names, so I'm a little hesitant to use a name I've never heard before. :-) I have an especially hard time finding last names... Once I find a name that fits my character(s), though, I'm very pleased! That's the part of picking names that I like: finding the perfect one.

The names I will use are Seth, Damian and Lucy.
I guess they fit the character I made for them. For me it isn't hard to think of names, because I know a lot of different people, so each personality has a different name. Most of the time I take that name and change it a little so they will be unique (sort of)

most of the time I don't use last names, because they won't be used anyway. Maybe one or two times in a story. So I take one last name and put it when it's really needed.

This link is courtesy of Insp_Nelson from the Helpful Orgs & Sites board. Normally, I fiddle around with my baby name book or check the baby name web sights. When I saw this thread I couldn't help but get lost in name, places, blah, blah, blah. It's an awesome sight! Especially since I'm still undecided on last names... and may change the name of my protagonist (he doesn't know it yet... so.... ssshhhh, he's already having a tough enough time without the additional stess of losing his name too).

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/generators.htm

My MC is Gabby Becket (named after a friend's daughter,and the Red Sox pitcher).

I have an As Yet Unnamed character, so please advise:

He is about 16/17, either a runaway or otherwise parentless under unknown circumstances. He lives in a makeshift building in the woods, and is a bit of a found-object/performance artist. Most townies don't trust him. Free spirit, with a unique sense of morality i.e., he is the living test case for "if you are starving, is it moral to steal a loaf of bread?" argument.
-F5iver

I've been toying with the name Burke for a character and for some reason it fit that description in my head. Hope that helps some!

I love to give my charcaters unusual names - I think a boring name in a character can lose your readers' interest. Names that are old-fashioned, or generally not used are good too. Loads of people hate the name Gertrude, which is why it would make an interesting name for your heroine.

Some of my characters....

Alexa Kiryk ( orphan, last name made up by the lady who runs the orphanage)
Ms Molly Vannet
King Lionel
Queen Angelique
Princesses Ana-Marie and Alise
Prince Adrian
Mokni

I love coming up with character names. :]

My MC's names are:

-Aidan James Riley
-Damien "Dames" John Matthews
-Arianna "Air" Janelle Montegue

I'm absolutely thrilled when I find the perfect name for a character. But that also means that I OBSESS over it for ages before I finally settle on a name. And I'll often change names, although I don't think I'll have time for that in November.

I did find this name for my second-to-mainest character, Effemia. It's sort of kind of a fantasy-ish novel, so she's not that weird. But it hasn't crossed over the line to freakish names like Slurpkishtan.

Anybody got a male name of the sort?

Anyone give their characters names they don't like?

For example, my main character's name is Arthur Andronicus March. For good reason, I promise. He hates his name just as much as I do--maybe more.

His secret crush's name is Molly Brown (enter Unsinkable jokes here...for anyone who's old enough to get that).

A young, wealthy socialite: Kate Swan

And Grandmother, because grandma is much too informal, you stupid boy.

(Is it time to start writing yet? Gosh)

Creating the name is an important part of character development and sometimes theme/symbolism in my novels. It's the foundation for almost everything. I use behindthename.com quite a bit. This year, I'm doing a reworking of The Odyssey. Here are the names thus far w explanations.

Protagonist: Wes "Wise" Sojourner (Means journeyman of the West, nickname Wise--Odysseus would just be way to obvious)
Female Lead: Penny Lane (Refers to Penelope/ symbolizes a journey ending in treasure/also alludes to that famous Beatles' song, Wes' love interest is always in his heart and mind like the song's lyrics)
Protagonist's Mother: Athena
Protagonist's Step Father: Don Poise (reworking of the name Poseidon)
Antagonist: Antonio (Antonius was the main suitor in The Odyssey)
Protagonist's Little Brother: Mack (closest I could come to Telemachus and get away with it)
Protagonist's confidante: Shep (Emaus was Odysseus's swineherd, Shep is short for shepher, not exact match but close)
Penny's Father: Aaron Lane (Break it up and you get "Air on Lane" a reference to Aeleous, God fo Wind)
Don Poise's Son: Patch (A loose reference to Polyphemus, Patch implies one-eyed like a Cyclops)

See, names can be a so much fun!

So far I've got:

-Marco Fox
-Orion Harper
-Cassie Foards
-Adam "The Starky" Starky
-Yasmin Slade

No doubt I'll change my mind later. I spend ages agonising about names, but nobody really cares what they're called when it comes down to it.

Fan of names right here.
This year's cast:
Penelope McCormick
Nichole 'Nikki' Green
Samantha 'Sammy' Wiley
Ryan Ashley
Caleb Chacko
Alexander Kettles
Naomi Tantem

Some a bit crazy, some a bit normal. XD Yeah.