What are the names of your characters?

And,

how do you name your characters?

Just askin', since I seem to have the trouble of naming mine.

Any tip or advice? :)

For mine it was easy naming my characters, as my premise revolves around Christian Mythology. The problem is I have literally more than fifty characters -- both major and minor ones -- to keep track of.

There's Lucifer/Satan, my protagonist; Lilith, a mysterious fallen angel (originally, in Hebrew Mythology, believed to be the first wife of Adam); Yeshu, or Jesus, bastard-born and suffering from Asperger's. Then there are the demons in Satan's legion: Belphegor, Beelzebub, Abaddon, Astaroth, Asmodeus, Malthus, Mammon, and Stolas; the demons in Belial's legion: Dantalion, Leraje, and Eligos; the demons in Leviathan's legion: Morax, Akos, Phylin, and Haures. Then there are the archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Sariel, Remiel, and Lucifer (who later becomes Satan). Then there're the 12 Disciples. And another 24 characters I have yet to name, who are part of the High Council who has usurped God. Noah and his family. Adam and Eve, and their children. Mary and Joseph, and Elizabeth and Zaccharias, and their son John (a different John from the John in the 12 Disciples, and from the John of the book Revelations). It's a wonder I haven't gone mad with all these to keep track of. (Good thing I won that character builder/profile log at the Kick-Off. :P)

So, there.

In novels where I'm required to think of names for my characters, I usually cheat. That is to say that, since I read a lot, I usually just copy names of characters in the books I've read whose characteristics are similar to my own -- sometimes I modify them. Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson & The Olympians, has done this on several occasions throughout the series (he named Percy after Perseus, as stated in The Sea of Monsters). Tolkien named Frodo's biological father Drogo; Martin named a khal in his series Drogo. Sometimes, I choose my characters' names based on origin and etymology (where applicable). Alternatively, you could just mix together names (although, people have varying opinions on this).

In books that I read, I don't mind character names. But I find that adding a bit of history to your characters' names usually generates a few hundred words.

Whoa, 50 characters?! That's quite a load to handle, haha.

I just pick names in random, but most of them are names I really like. I sometimes try to fit the sound of the names to the personality of the character, like if the character is the gentle girly type, I'd give her a flowery sounding name. Right now, I'm working on a contemporary story so I just grab the names I really like.

I also have some outlines done in the historical romance genre and for that, I research names on the net (the numerous baby names sites are so cool, lol) and pick names that have specific meaning and try to incorporate that into the story to give the character more identity.

Off topic: That chibi Tamaki icon is just way too cute! *pinches his cheeks* XD

I tend to pick names based on personality, year they were born, or ethnicity. Occasionally I get names from unusual people I know.

Sometimes though I make my names 'in-jokes': one recurring character of mine has a name that is related to a trend in a fandom that I was involved in at the time I began writing about her.

what's the trouble in using weird, made up names? I tend to make up names, or just complicate their spellings to give my character more individuality. Most names are much too common for that.

I guess I'm more of an oldie this way, but I like to come up with common names with proper spelling for my characters. Most of my stories are about ordinary people whose lives get shaken up irrevocably by the end of the novel*, so I tend to choose ordinary names that fit their personalities.

For my American/ European characters, I tend to abuse a lot of baby-naming websites, especially for Celtic or Mediterranean names. (And it's not limited to white characters, either: my July novel had an African American rapper-turned-actor named Payton Bartholomew, which sounds more like a New York law firm.) With Filipino characters, on the other hand, I tend to develop the character first before choosing a name, especially since some of these characters tend to have parallels to people I know in real life. The only exception I could think of right now is the one I chose for my titular lead character, Veronica, since there's a song with her name in it that plays a small role in her story ("Veronica" by Elvis Costello) and she gets teased a lot for having an unusual name.

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*Legend has it that both Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum chose the names of their most famous lead characters (James Bond and Jason Bourne, respectively) because they felt that the names were boring enough to hide their real identities as trained killers. I like to think that I work on the same principle, except that I don't have enough car chases in my novels. Hee!

Take into account their culture of origin and any quirks regarding naming it may have. As examples, the 'Magnificent Seven' (not the official name) are:

Thaddeus Andrei Tristan Rotheran (The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Caltheri, but just call him Thaddeus; The Hero)
Meritanus Anastasian (Atlantean, with surname-forename order; The Lancer)
Kajal Djerassi (Kyleshi, fairly typical of his culture; The Smart Guy)
Uriel Vakarian (Bit of a divergent one in terms of Aschandian customs; The Big Guy)
Ishtar Alandei (Thulian and with a snake familiar to prove it)
Ephesi (Demon-Blooded, and possessed of an immense distaste for the fiendish side of her heritage)
Alain Caldren (Caltheran paladin, but they don't think he's human)

Uriel, as stated, is a bit divergent from Aschandian normal naming, seeing as Aschandia is essentially The Roman Empire WITH RUNECRAFTING!. More typical Aschandian names are hence Roman ones - Spurius Lucanus, Tiberius Coruncanius, Lucilla Cornelius, and Titus Petronius, to name a few.

Inspiration is generally available from Wikipedia's pages on personal names in world cultures.

And since I've a liking for 'em, if in doubt, it's hard to go wrong with Irish names. (Warning: TV Tropes link. Do not click if you don't have the time.)

I use regular names for the "regular" characters in my story, though the protagonist shares the same name with another character (the same names equals sharing the same fate idea), so they have nicknames. The "non-regulars" have names with meanings, and usually named after objects of nature. My characters who have secret superpowers are named also normally.

@Stella: The part about Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum giving boring, ordinary names to their lead characters to hide their true identities sound sensible. I also would like to operate on the same principle.

For now, the only confirmed character names are:

Jeffrey Ryan "Jeff" Jenkins (the main character)
Daniel Mitchell "Dan" Harkin (Jeff's best friend/in-ring rival)
and cameos from different WWE Superstars and wrestlers from other promotions.

Okay, I admit, I'm mad for names. If it's non-fantasy, I scour baby names/name meaning sites so that the name has a kind of symbolic relevance to the character's personality/past. Sometimes though, I just use a name that stuck on my memory because it sounded strange, elegant or pretty. :D

If it's fantasy though...well, that's where the random name generators come in. :)) I change letters and syllables until the name sounds 'right'. And then there are times when I go looking for surnames, change it a bit and use them for first names.

Names in my current novel: no last names yet, i have yet to determine if their last names are important enough to be in the novel. anyway...

Main prot: Danny
the rest:
Rex
Hannah
Jake
Alex

and I think I may have a Rene in there somewhere...

Same as Preziös Fränze and Jaeh, actually. X3

I use a mix of baby names websites (for name with meaning), generators combined with gut feeling (for last names), favoritism and bias (since I tend to abuse the use of certain names over and over again, especially for the female lead) and at times, I base the characters on people that I know in real life so I tend to twist their names.

If all else fails, point to a friend and ask them for a name. Whatever name they give, I either use or twist. XD

Names of characters for my upcoming novel:
Vaughn Laess
Allaynia Linnett
Caitlynn Straey
Janus Straey

And currently trying to think of a name for a young boy. :3

I can spend hours trying to look for the right name sob Usually, I pick them if they, er, sound right. Bonus if the chosen name attributes to their personality, background, fate, etc; an amusing happenstance if the name says the opposite (like how Fotunato of Poe's Cask of Amontillado is, well, not so fortunate).

I'm very dependent on baby names sites sob, expecially behindthenames.com. Although for this novel, I had to google for Filipino names and, after scouring, these are what I got:

Ira: duwende, main character
Basil: human, actually Basilio Natividad
Malaya and Liberato: human twins, passengers of Caylao
Alisto: Tikbalang, bodyguard to the passengers

Well, er, at least vaguely Filipino, I suppose xD;

It got something to do with my title. :)) I'm writing a fantasy novel about dreams. My female protagonist is Zerah Aislin Jones and the male one is Kian Ankanoush. Aislin means dreams/visions in hebrew or jewish, can't remember. While Ankanoush means fulfiller of the dream. It has something to do with their love story too. haha. :D

My 4 Mains:

Aya Hirono
Nana Kozakura
Saika Chitose
Yuri Chiba

I read somewhere, from a writing blog I suppose, that you have to remember to choose names that are:

1. Clear
2. Suitable
3. Unique
4. Meaningful



As of this moment, my tentative character names are:


Juliene Cortez, for the main character. I actually know someone who has this name and she pronounces it, "Joo-leen," and she has a PhD from Johns Hopkins, which is absolutely cool.

Jamie Gonzalez, Jamie Oliver plus that Filipino chef who appeared in Bobby Chinn's World Cafe Asia: Philippines.

Nadine and Caitlin, from Junior Masterchef Philippines. HAHA!

Rioko, Ewan, Ray, Chen, Vinnie, Almira, and Nirvana Cortez, all of these names are stolen from people I know.

Most of my characters are based on real people I know and I sometimes just take the first letter of that real person's name and change it to another person's name. Like, for example, my friend's name is Aia and I have another friend name Almira so I chose Almira for safety reasons. The last thing you want is for a friend to realize you're writing about her quirks on a page.

I use the phonebook. When my family was invited to funerals and wakes I'd just walk round and look at the tombstones...wherever there is a name or a noun that pleases me I write it down for future reference, just in case.

Stock names:

Elizabeth Browning
Rosemary
Cathal and Catalina (uh. Fraternal twins.)
Roux
Galatea

I have yet to try choosing Spanish/Filipino-sounding names, orz

Am I the only one who hates naming characters? Maybe it's because I'm not particularly good at it, but I really have a hard time doing it- I'm so self-conscious of what people would think with names. I also have this bad habit of judging people's stories based on names alone. It's horrible. D:

i conceptualized names by mixing my favorite characters' name...Xdxd ^_^
but mostly, i name names that are uncommon and is unique.

On the subject of names, I like to give inherent meanings to why they are named such. Just use a different language and it sounds fancy XD

I didn't that for my current one though... I just used the name that I heard in head.

Chase River
Harley Morgan
Seth Moreau