While it is true that most writers out there like to give their characters average everyday names (David, Molly, Tim), it seems to me that there will always writers like myself who want to give their characters fancy, off the wall names, sometimes ones that we made up ourselves (or at least think we did). But how will you be able to tell when the fancy names you pick don't fit?
For example, in a fanfiction idea that i'm considering, but haven't written down yet, four of the somewhat original characters i've added are named Talos, Sierra, Alexis and Sirocco. Now for Talos, his name seems to fit, since Talos in mythology was a mechanical device and the character in my story is a robot. And Alexis is a pretty fancy yet common name, so no problems there. But I'm no longer certain about the names Sierra and Sirocco anymore. I recently found out that Sierra is specifically a girl's name and the character in my story with that name is a guy (a male falcon to be precise, but still). And Sirocco, as i recently learned, is the name of an Arabian Desert wind, while the character that bears that name in my story is a blue timber wolf, there's no correlation between wolves and desert winds.
What can be done?
For example, in a fanfiction idea that i'm considering, but haven't written down yet, four of the somewhat original characters i've added are named Talos, Sierra, Alexis and Sirocco. Now for Talos, his name seems to fit, since Talos in mythology was a mechanical device and the character in my story is a robot. And Alexis is a pretty fancy yet common name, so no problems there. But I'm no longer certain about the names Sierra and Sirocco anymore. I recently found out that Sierra is specifically a girl's name and the character in my story with that name is a guy (a male falcon to be precise, but still). And Sirocco, as i recently learned, is the name of an Arabian Desert wind, while the character that bears that name in my story is a blue timber wolf, there's no correlation between wolves and desert winds.
What can be done?