# How do you name your characters?



## KellyB (May 6, 2012)

I have been trying to think of names for my characters for a story idea I have, and I am curious how others name their characters.

Do you just make up something, use regular names, use names that actually mean something (i.e. taking a Latin word for something and then tweaking it so it sounds like a name), or do you go the George RR Martin route and take a regular name and change some of the letters (Peter = Petyr, Edward = Eddard, etc.)?

I'm mostly curious about having character names that mean something.  Do a lot of you do that?


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## Jabrosky (May 6, 2012)

I usually take names from the real-world culture that most closely corresponds to my characters'.


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## Ailith (May 6, 2012)

Depends on your setting, but I tend to use real names based on their meanings. For my current WIP I use a lot of Old English/Middle English names. Looking back to Latin root words is a good strategy as well. I'm not good at making up my own names out of thin air, so searching for names by their meanings works well for me. 

I tend to spend a lot of time on baby name websites researching names. It's fun to see what's out there, and often you can search by meanings and country of origin, which speeds up the process. Good luck on your name hunt!


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## Steerpike (May 6, 2012)

I think Petyr is a Greek variant of Peter, isn't it?

I've seen Eddard as a surname; I don't know if it was used otherwise prior to Martin.

I either make up a name entirely or browse around name sites until I see something of interest.


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## Ireth (May 6, 2012)

It really depends on the setting and the story. Sometimes I choose names I like the look or the sound of, and sometimes I choose names that are meaningful to the characters, like a girl named Ariel (after the Little Mermaid) who is a good singer, or a dark-haired man named Fiachra (which means "raven").


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## Kelise (May 6, 2012)

Some names just come to me out of seemingly nowhere. If they don't, I make something up made from a few different names depending on their meanings. 

For instance: Asenth Mariti Dunstan. ‘Asenath’ meaning ‘devoted’ (also biblical). ‘Mari’ meaning ‘easy’, ‘ti’ from many ‘quiet’ names. ‘Dunstan’ meaning ‘Dark’ and ‘rare’.


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## The Dark One (May 7, 2012)

It depends on the story. My first novel was about an actuary who, in the pursuit of his extremely esoteric duties, devolves into a savage paleolithic style existence. I needed a name that suited both of his incarnations so he was Doug Monger, who eventually became Dugmunga. The sound of a name is important to me. The rest of the names in that story were mostly one syllable names I made up that (via some vague affective connotation) seemed to suit the character (eg, Sigmund Drell or William Janx). 

In my second (and thus far most successful) novel, my wife complains that too many characters' names start with B. Don't know how that happened but the names just seemed to be invented simultaneously with the characters.

In my most recently finished novel (not yet published) I was actually quite careful with the invention of names. The main character's name is Morgen - which I chose because in German it means both morning and tomorrow. Dual poosibilities are important to the story. (His surname is Tanjenz - and you can guess why that's important.) There are other names also which were carefully chosen to go with the various characters: Blacksnake, Xeno, Don Affridge, Feargol Lukic (known to his underlings as Faecal Leakage), but reflecting on the female characters, they have much straighter names: Mandy, Clair McLoon (nee Bowyer), Dorothy. Mind you there is also Stacey, who insists on being called Alice...and all of them have quirks that make their names appropriate.

In the historical novel I'm half way through, set in Saxon times, all the characters have real Saxon, Norman or Celtic names.

Yes...it depends on the type of story.


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## Helen (May 7, 2012)

Katniss in Hunger Games. 
Gekko in Wall Street.

The names are designed to imply something about character.


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## Mindfire (May 7, 2012)

I draw names from many sources. Some of them, like Reuben, Kianna, and Elias, I adapt. Others I make up, like Blythwaine, Deowa, and Sikeda. I rarely if ever choose names based on meaning anymore because, IMO, it serves no purpose except as an in-joke. And what reader is going to have a working knowledge of linguistics/etymology? Very few. Instead, I try to choose names based on the way they sound. A name should be instantly evocative of the character it represents. Syllables are more important in my name creation process than obscure meanings. However, I may adapt or create a name and then invent a pseudo-meaning that fits the character*. And, as I've said in other threads, it's always good to name your characters consistent with the culture they come from. Different cultures have different syllabic patterns in their names. Exploiting that fact is an easy way to help readers tell characters and cultures apart.


*In my MC's native language "Reuben" means "red gaze", whereas in real life the name means "behold, a son." I'm invoking suspension of disbelief here obviously. But I don't think it's too unbelievable, given the "reu" part of the name.


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 7, 2012)

Sometimes the character has a name to begin with, sometimes I really have to work to find the right name.  I mostly make them up, but also use a few names from our world as well, the main ones being Sigmund, Ruby, and Armando.  When building a name I tend to just play around with a shortlist of syllables which sound appropriate, until I've got something I like.  

Have you found this place yet?  Behind the Name: Meaning of Names, Baby Name Meanings


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## TWErvin2 (May 7, 2012)

A lot of the name choice leans on the world--and even cultures within that world, and what would be appropriate.

Beyond that, I think a name helps a reader identify with a character, picture them in their mind's eye. So I think a name has to 'fit' the character, to a certain extent.

I internally brain storm, saying a few names. Sometimes I use a name that seems to work, but after a chapter or section, something better comes to mind, seems more on target, and that's what I go with.  I never let not having just the right name slow me up from getting the story written.


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## Claire (May 8, 2012)

I've made up names and found names on baby name websites. The thing I keep in mind is I want the pronounciation to be fairly easy to figure out. It won't always turn out that way I suppose, but I don't want to use names that the reader will invariably stumble over or easily get wrong. Like I have always thought the name Saoirse looks really cool, but it is pronounced "Seer-sha" and I seriously doubt most readers would get that. In their heads, they'd be saying, "Sao-ir-say" or something like that. I want the reader to have a shot at getting the name right.


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## studentofrhythm (May 8, 2012)

Mindfire, have you read _Tristram Shandy_?  There's an interesting bit near the beginning where Tristram's father talks about his philosophy of naming children.  This idea of names evoking the character is what drives people to take stage names, isn't it?  I imagine that in cultures that assign names later than right after birth, a similar idea motivates.

As for me, oh do I ever do a lot of work on names.  Of course that's because I insist that they make sense internally according to a system, so I have to make up at least some minimal lexicons and then decide on basic morphological rules.  One big turnoff for me is names that appear contrived (one of my problems with _Wheel of Time_).

Spelling is worth thinking about!  We're writing in English, with all the confusing irregularities of our use of the Roman alphabet.  Unless you're writing historical or low/urban fantasy, it's a fair bet your characters ain't using the same script.  (If an author hasn't thought about what kind of writing system their characters use, I have a hard time mustering much interest.)  So you should consider yourself as translating or at the very least transliterating the story every bit as much as telling it, even if you don't speak another language yourself.

The fantasy name generator thread is useful on this subject.  And I'm gonna go open another thread on the spelling question.


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## Leif GS Notae (May 9, 2012)

Mine's easy: I have a few English to (insert language here) dictionaries handy. When the character is being to shy/stubborn to introduce themselves, I get a general feel and search the books to get something close. They usually get louder when I get closer until they can't seem to shut up when I get the name right.

Tyveld and Kirtenia were the ones in my last flash fiction series I wrote, one was Norwegian combination and the other was Japanese. 

Also, to save money and library space: Google Translate.


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## Feo Takahari (May 10, 2012)

My name is almost exclusively used for idiotic comic relief characters, and I was overjoyed the one time someone used it as the name for a hero. As such, I often name my characters at random, especially in stories set in modern America. My only hard rule is that characters from the same culture should have names that fit the same conventions.


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## Erica (May 13, 2012)

I tend to take names from cultures (like celtic) that are similar in some ways to my fantasy culture that the character lives in or is descended from. I also take the Martin approach and use 'old fashioned' or 'less common' spellings of 'real world' names ... again trying to keep them in line with the 'feel' for my culture. If I can find a name that has a special meaning that seems to fit, so much the better.

Every now and then I slip in a completely made up from scratch name, but I usually present those as a 'nickname' for a more conventional name within the character's culture.


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## Graylorne (May 13, 2012)

In my main fantasy world the names are mostly made-up, but fitting in the background of each country. So people from one country have vaguely Hungarian-sounding names, others Russian, German or names like DeGry, DeAsharte. Often they just pop up in my head while I'm writing, but sometimes I have to search the internet for it. And then, indeed, sites like Behind the Name are invaluable.


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## Kaellpae (May 13, 2012)

The names I decided on for my three main characters were a variation of reasonings for names.

Ozzie - I was looking up mythological creatures and an entry caught my eye. Aziza are a tiny human-like creature that gives good luck to hunters, but the part that caught my eye was that the name means "Near to god" which I took as "Almost a god" which is the role that I wanted him to take in his arc.

Devan - From Wheel of Time, but spelled different, the town Deven Ride. I liked the sound of it and when I imagine Devan he seems like he could have come from a town like that.

Pershing Flyn - Pershing is Robert Wadlow's middle name. He's the tallest man recorded officially by Guinness. The character is a "giant." Flyn comes from a play on words between his pet's name, Stella. Flyn and Stella = Flint and Steel.

Other than those three names I just randomly choose or try to make my own names.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (May 13, 2012)

I decide on a culture to mimic, and then go find names from baby name lists for that culture. Then I adapt them.

For example, in my NIP, I'm using a lot of Albanian names, but some of them sound much to obviously Islamic. E.g. "Dardan" doesn't have associations for Western audiences, but "Muzaffer" sounds sort of specifically Arab. "Zamira" sounds a little too off-world, but remove the Z and you get "Amira" which sounds sort of vaguely foreign without too many specific assocations.


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## ascanius (May 13, 2012)

I have different language's per region and race so don't use any English.  While I don't have the actual languages even started yet, the farthest I have gotten is pronunciation keys.  I have an idea of what each language and even dialect sounds like in my head.  For instance I have one race that favors sharp consonantal stops, and in general is more glottal concerning consonants. So what I do is like just start babbling like a baby following those rules for that type of sound.  When I find something I like then I use it.  The only problem with this is I tend to over use certain consonant if I'm not careful.  In general I'm fairly good at coming up with names.  My biggest problem is trying to come up with simple common names like fred, amy, smith, etc for each language.


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## ThinkerX (May 13, 2012)

The main region of my primary world is very roughly patterned after a sort of 'fantasy europe and the middle east'.  Most of my names for that area come out of old AD&D sourcebooks I have; they feature lists of common male and female greek, roman, germanic, middle eastern, and scandinavian names.  A couple of these books even give lists of names assigned to Dwarves and Elves in mythology, which is a big help.

For my 'created' races, I decided on a few grammatical rules, and made up names at random in accordance with that.

I had to do the same with a one or two 'original' human cultures.

I also put together lists of male and female names typical for India and China for more exotic characters.


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## rhd (May 14, 2012)

Very escapist with me: Name generator sites like Rinkworks. I figure names are good as long as they sound good, the rest of time I type randomly on the keyboard and add vowels to fatten them up or chisel off a few accordingly, until the name grows on me, if it doesn't work well I change it to something else. I just realized my names were too Celtic sounding for a world I created from scratch, so I need to change them a bit. Thank goodness for word replacement tools.


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## Stuart John Evison (May 14, 2012)

As a fantasy writer and illustrator I gather my names and even some characters from traditional folktales, the old ones are sometimes the best.
Stuart of Ely.


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## Aravelle (May 24, 2012)

I don't mean to, but my names have a way of fitting the character meaning wise. The only one that is intentional is my character Ghaelwyn: gwym means white in gaelic, and she's albino. I was just playing with words in other languages and it just stuck. I highly recommend baby books and looking up words in other languages that would fit your character [honourable, flaxen haired, etc].


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## Cassia (May 27, 2012)

What I do is look at baby names websites.    I was writing an Egyptian set novel and googled Egyptian baby names.


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## Kenneth J. Ester (May 27, 2012)

I usually do what my mood directs me to do.  Usually it is to make up my own names, but sometimes I take real names and change them up.  Making up names, IMO, is very easy. Ferona, Keldis, Vaaros, Ezorin.... those just took me about thirty seconds to come up with. (So, no they are not used. Feel free.) lol 

My two favorites I have used, are... Levicus Kane (who is a Battle Priest), and Hel Bragen (a Giant dark skinned warrior with tattoos on his cheeks and back). In these cases, Levicus, came from the bible book, Leviticus, and Kane is a real name that I felt was a good fit. Hel, well, I am not sure. I think I was writing about Hell at the time and I thought of it and liked it. Bragen was the last name of someone I once knew and I just thought it sounded cool.

If I had to give advice, I would say to mix it all up in your book. Use some real names that fit the sound of your world (I used Joshua for one of my main characters), use some names that you change up (Tomas instead of Thomas), and make some up completely, like I did above. The made up names will give the story a sense of originality, but the real names will give a sense of realism because we recognize them as real names. The changed up names are just a good bridge between the two. That's the way I see it all.


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## JCFarnham (May 28, 2012)

Well. Looks like this thread is active again. Here are my thoughts.

I name my characters by "the rules of real life" (it helps that I only really write stuff set in from the present to the far future at the moment..). What I mean by this is choosing names by exactly the same methods a normal person living today in the pertinent cultural group. My name as far as I know was chosen because it was a family name (therefore important to keep alive) and "it sounds good", rather than for its inherent meaning. 

I don't personally know many people who are named for meanings for example, so that shows in my characters with my habit of using census data to randomise names. I'm sure that kind of thing happens, but it hasn't been common in my experience so far. 

If you think about it people are named _mostly_ on trend. Therefore I pick a corresponding decade of census data, randomly generate a set of 20 names, and see what I like. I don't place any massive meaning on my own name, so likewise I don't with my character, they get random names until something sticks. If I want something more out there I usually make a surname into a first name. (eg, Johnson. Though I have gone weirder.)

My favourite name so far is a character called Elkin ben Artzi. Named as such because I felt like having something vaguely Jewish (ish), nothing more, nothing less. I have once or twice twisted a first name into something a bit more odd sounding.. but it depends on the setting doesn't it.


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 28, 2012)

Kenneth J. Ester said:


> I usually do what my mood directs me to do.  Usually it is to make up my own names, but sometimes I take real names and change them up.  Making up names, IMO, is very easy. Ferona, Keldis, Vaaros, Ezorin.... those just took me about thirty seconds to come up with. (So, no they are not used. Feel free.) lol
> 
> My two favorites I have used, are... Levicus Kane (who is a Battle Priest), and Hel Bragen (a Giant dark skinned warrior with tattoos on his cheeks and back). In these cases, Levicus, came from the bible book, Leviticus, and Kane is a real name that I felt was a good fit. Hel, well, I am not sure. I think I was writing about Hell at the time and I thought of it and liked it. Bragen was the last name of someone I once knew and I just thought it sounded cool.
> 
> If I had to give advice, I would say to mix it all up in your book. Use some real names that fit the sound of your world (I used Joshua for one of my main characters), use some names that you change up (Tomas instead of Thomas), and make some up completely, like I did above. The made up names will give the story a sense of originality, but the real names will give a sense of realism because we recognize them as real names. The changed up names are just a good bridge between the two. That's the way I see it all.



Levicus Kane is a good name, there are wonderful moments when you get the right syllables in the right order.  I have a character who I spent ages trying to build (ironically he only appears in 1 and a bit chapters), it took a while to get his name but I eventually landed with Bandarel Varune.  Also you may or may not know that Hel was the name of the Norse Goddess of death?


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