# minor characters names



## valiant12 (Jan 26, 2016)

How do you name your minor character ? There are a lot of minor characters in the book which I'm writing at the moment and I have run out of cool unique names for  the characters. 
At the moment I need a name for a white  40 something male character. He also need a family name. The character is wise and mature but he is kinda boring.
I also need first and last name for a female character. She can be described as very prim and proper.


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## Garren Jacobsen (Jan 26, 2016)

For myself, I just smash sounds together until I find a neat sounding name. I usually start with sounds that are parts of names and then hand wave myself into a naming convention. Like I have a character in one WIP called Bertraud. I got that from smashing what my niece used to say my Dad's middle name was (Bernardo, which is close to Reynard I guess) and Lestraud. I liked the sound of it and said I'll keep that. Another is Garren who is an amalgamation of his parents name and I decided that each firstborn son would be named by smashing the first part of each parent's names with the father being first and mother second. This is reversed for daughters. The second child gets the second syllables in the same order. Anything after that the parents just make up and it's usually single syllabic. 

I say just start tossing sounds together and see if that sounds like your character.


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## Heliotrope (Jan 26, 2016)

Actually, I prefer typical sounding names for minor characters. When an author throws too many strange names at me all at once I get way too confused and have trouble keeping them all apart... like trying to learn a new language and trying to keep track of what all the new words are referring to. In LOTR he at least kept the same sounds, so I knew if someone was a dwarf based on the sound of the name, but which dwarf? Who knows. I would glaze over until I got back to a name I recognized.


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## Garren Jacobsen (Jan 26, 2016)

^ That's a good point. I suppose it depends on how minor a character this is. If it's just a pass by name it would be pretty typical but if it is a more important minor character then I'd go through my naming conventions.


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## Drakevarg (Jan 26, 2016)

I keep a list of stock names by appropriate culture, derived semi-randomly from a baby names list, and pair it with an appropriate surname (occupation-based in cultures where that's the convention, heritage (i.e. Johnson, Birgisdottir) where that's typical, location based (von Lichtenstein), etc).

Generally speaking I reserve "Luke Nounverber" style names for important characters or families - such names usually come about from having an impressive reputation. Bob Skullcrusher is called that because he or one of his ancestors had a reputation for crushing skulls. Actually come to think of it, I'm similar with location-based names. I usually reserve those for lords and such. "Jeff von Tinsletown" usually implies "Baron thereof" or something similar.

But yeah, in summation I just keep contextual tables for generating names quickly. It's kind of a given when you run tabletop games and somebody suddenly wants to know what the blacksmith's name is.


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## Deleted member 4265 (Jan 27, 2016)

If I'm stumped for a name I read dictionaries in foreign languages, pick out words that sound cool/ fit the character and then fiddle with them until they're unrecognizable.


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## valiant12 (Jan 28, 2016)

Can somebody suggest me some female names for a character ?  I'm looking for a dainty prim and proper upper class name.


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## Miskatonic (Jan 28, 2016)

Behind the Name: Meaning of Names, Baby Name Meanings

Not a bad place to look.


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## X Equestris (Jan 28, 2016)

I give cultures a naming system similar to a real world culture, so that one can look at a character or town name and guess at the nationality.  Personally, out and out fantasy names just feel weird to me.  It comes down to deciding an ethnic background for the minor character and looking over lists of names in the corresponding language.  So, for example, a character from the Marches would have a Germanic name, while one from Mklaria would have an Ethiopian one.


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## Miskatonic (Jan 28, 2016)

X Equestris said:


> I give cultures a naming system similar to a real world culture, so that one can look at a character or town name and guess at the nationality.  Personally, out and out fantasy names just feel weird to me.  It comes down to deciding an ethnic background for the minor character and looking over lists of names in the corresponding language.  So, for example, a character from the Marches would have a Germanic name, while one from Mklaria would have an Ethiopian one.



Ditto here.


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## valiant12 (Jan 28, 2016)

> I give cultures a naming system similar to a real world culture, so that one can look at a character or town name and guess at the nationality. Personally, out and out fantasy names just feel weird to me. It comes down to deciding an ethnic background for the minor character and looking over lists of names in the corresponding language. So, for example, a character from the Marches would have a Germanic name, while one from Mklaria would have an Ethiopian one.



I use that method a lot when I'm writing non fantasy.


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## TheKillerBs (Jan 28, 2016)

I use fantasynamegenerators.com, choose one I like and then fiddle slightly with it so that it fits the phonetics of the language the character would speak.


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## A. E. Lowan (Jan 28, 2016)

I collect names in an Exel spreadsheet, derived from people, various baby name sites, and fantasy name generators.  I have hundreds of them, now.

The name generators I use are:

Fantasy Name Generator

Fantasy name generators. Names for all your fantasy characters.

Name Generators

Yafnag - Fantasy Name Generator

I also collect name lists from cultures around the world.


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## FifthView (Jan 28, 2016)

I had posted some info in another thread about the Everchanging Book of Names name generator.  You might find that helpful for generating names on the fly.


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## Zack (Feb 1, 2016)

I just borrow names I like, either use 'em, slightly modify the spelling, or mash up names to make something cool. Or, you can look up names that mean something. Let me explain, I have my main character and a minor character that'll only be around for a few scenes here and there. The minor character is named Garrick (cause I like the name Garrus - Yes, from Mass Effect - and it fits the character's looks). However, my main character is named Caine which means "Hunter." Now if my character was female I'd probably go with something completely different, but I'd be apt to spell "Caine" either Kaine, K'haine, C'aiynne (if it's a nonhuman), or any other form that would produce the same sounds, heck just add vowels to make it look cool (ie: Caaiyne). Or extra consonants (ie: C'hainne). Since it's your world you can play with pronunciations as well. But that's just me.


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## Wolf M (Feb 3, 2016)

valiant12 said:


> Can somebody suggest me some female names for a character ?  I'm looking for a dainty prim and proper upper class name.



Depends. Are you using real-world names for all your characters, or have you made them all up?


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## Erudite (Feb 4, 2016)

I read into the backgrounds of the culture, tie it to a culture in our world, and choose names from there. A lot of my Draconian names are Slavic in nature.


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## valiant12 (Feb 4, 2016)

Wolf M said:


> Depends. Are you using real-world names for all your characters, or have you made them all up?


I use mostly real world names.


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## Gurkhal (Feb 4, 2016)

I just use the same system that I use for main characters. They are all people after all and I doubt that they or their parents thought of them as "minor characters".


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## Wolf M (Feb 4, 2016)

valiant12 said:


> I use mostly real world names.



OK. Here are a few ideas: Priscilla Wentworth, Abilene Staffordshire, Gemma Cummins, Gwendoline Hodson, Kailyn Dabney. Of course, these are all English names . . .


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