How the hell do you people come up with names for stuff?

[Lysander_Works]

Random_Name_Generator.exe
I have it running in my brain when I need it.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

I open a random name generator and generate until I find one that sounds decent. Or just ask forums where people usually come up with good ideas.

 

[Nevafrost]

As for character names, I just take random names I saw in different series(s) and see if it fits the character. For example:

Iris Evergarden (From Violet Evergarden)
Aylin Elric (I don't remember this one)
Elina Ackermen (From AOT)
Harlin Hoeinheim (From Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Eren Wistaria (From both AOT and Akagami no shirayuki-hime)
Zen Wistaria (From Akagami no shirayuki-him)
Austin Wistaria (Likewise)
Erwin Wistaria (From both AOT and

 

[GoodPerson]

Well, your question has been answered. If not once, then multiple times.

So, generally, if you don't want to use any tool or RNG stuff,

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Well, your question has been answered. If not once, then multiple times.

So, generally, if you don't want to use any tool or RNG stuff,

View attachment 28446

I shall channel my inner Jap and write a novel for the title.

 

[GoodPerson]

I shall channel my inner Jap and write a novel for the title.

What the hell is an inner jap?

 

[quagma]

Usually i just combine two other words together.

 

[SailusGebel]

I will copy @John_Owl reply that I find very interesting.

quite honestly, my naming is either wildly random or deliberately focused on a specific theme. for instance, in my stories, foxgirls are always named after alcohol (real world alcohol), and their personalities reflect the presumed traits of the alcohol. Bailey? shy at first, but once you get ehr to really open up, she never shuts up. Yaeger? Stubborn and hard to please, definitely an acquired taste that not everyone has the patience to tolerate. but if you can stick it out, she's loyal almost to the point of being clingy.

furthermore, wolfgirls are named after stones and metals, though not always directly. Instead of Steel, I'd name a girl Stell. or Leeticia, shortened to Leets. and again, they reflect the personality of their namesakes.

That said, humans and dragons/dragonkin are usually named from a name generator, usually with some form of alteration to the listed name. My current running story features Aise. the generator name was Æse. i went ahead and just made it Aise (pronounced the same as Ice. fitting, as he is the son of a Sea Dragon)

 

[GoodPerson]

I will copy @John_Owl reply that I find very interesting.

Boo, low-quality mind!

 

[doravg]

Fantasy name generators. Names for all your fantasy characters.

Countless generators for countless names. Some say it's the best fantasy name generator site around, which is very humbling to hear.

www.fantasynamegenerators.com

Character Name Generator • The ULTIMATE Bank of 2,000,000+ Names

2,000,000+ names right at your fingertips. Discover the right one with this ultimate random name generator. New names are added every week!

blog.reedsy.com

Or you could just reuse the same names again and again, and get your characters tangled up. (like me, for the most part) XD

 

[Zagaroth]

"No Need For A Core?" Was inspired by the title of the anime "No Need For Tenshi?" (note that Tenshi is the MC of said anime.) I utterly blanked for a title and this was what I came up with. There is no other relationship (though that does remind me that I have been meaning to make a cabbit for the dungeon at some point).

I used reddit.com/r/namenerds to ask for some ideas for the names of my 3 MCs, I had some specific concepts and themes for the characters.

The specific area the story takes place in has a mashup of that world's equivalents to western and eastern cultures, so I have some family lines that carry a tradition of using a particular naming style, and some who feel freer to use names from multiple couples. For one family of mixed elven and human lineage (mixed on both sides), they decided to use Japanese-equivalent names for girls and French-equivalent names for boys, matching the names of the parents.

If I have a naming convention, I have a pool of names. Fantasy Name Generator is a great place for that.

Some names are just silliness. Magical rabbit-bat hybrids are rabbats. I have a pair of bats named "Belle" and "Freya" (belfry, as in "bats in the belfry", a phrase used to describe someone who is eccentric or crazy)

Some are thematic; I have an orc champion of the goddess of the sun and cultivator of civilization and I gave her the name of Bellona, who was a Roman goddess of war. There's a Carbuncle floor boss named Hildegard because she is a protector.

Some are just because they feel right. One of the MCs has a father named Ricardo who is a traveling merchant with a roguish past, and I liked the name for him.

Sometimes I take a word thematic to a character, look it up in an online dictionary that shows the etymology, pick an old version of the word and then tweak the spelling a bit to find something I like.

There's so many ways to find names.

 

[supremechadd]

I use a lot of biblical names for my stories, they are usually classics and sound fire. Otherwise, I just google random words with a meaning I want in another language and copy the latin alphabet version. If you aren't selective, they might sound a little wacky.

 

[Loewenmensch]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is ChatGPT or whatever else your AI poison of choice is. I tell it the language/nationality I want, maybe some details about the character, and maybe a first letter or number of syllables or something I want it to rhyme with.

For example, in my current project, I had a character I wanted to call Jenny (after a character in an old poem), but I needed a last name for her. My story it set in a German-speaking country. So I prompted Google Gemini:

Please suggest a German-language surname that scans similarly to, and sounds good paired with, the English first name "Jenny."

"Beck" was the first answer it suggested, and I loved it: Jenny Beck.

I don't write a lot of outright fantasy, but I've done some test prompts and it also gives back good names for eldritch gods, fairies, alien species, people from specific ancient cultures, etc.

This technique is vital for me because I find it very difficult to write a character until I've settled on a good name.

 

[Succubiome]

I usually make titles by making a joke or reference to another work or genre that describes the story I'm writing reasonably well.

Or a portmanteau! Portmanteaus are great.

 

[MintiLime]

Words in other languages! I start with a meaning and then google translate a couple times, butcher the spelling, and voila! Something that sounds cool!

A lot of science words (like genuses and stuff) work well for that as well. Naming places based on biomes and stuff works for more natural sounding names- For example, I have a village name Ferner’s Glenn. Fern + glenn lol.

 

[Sylver]

Imagination

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

I just do it in the moment and don’t second guess the name.

 

[J_Chemist]