Character Names!

[John_Owl]

Either I create a character for the name (if I think of the name first, such as the dragoness Nephy in my oneshots and Lay the Dragon novels), or I use fantasynamegenerators(dot)com.

Though with spells, items, and rarely characters, I make them something to laugh at. Like in my novel Two Faces, I have a spell that generates hot water. the spell's words are literally just a google translate of "Hot water to wash", then swapped back and forth between english and latin, with a few minor alterations, until it roughly means "try to wash". because it's a fun little joke for me, the author. and if any of my readers know enough latin to get that, then cool.

 

[C_P_Tuck]

Bouncing off a random thought...we all know (or, well, should hopefully know?) that character names actually carry a ton of context. Hopefully you haven't named your urban fantasy's British character "Guan Yu," or your high fantasy goblin warlord "Mahatma Gandhi." If you did, well...shame on you, I guess.

Anyways! What are some character names you came up with, and what strategy did you use to make them? To list off a few I had...

Felicir: I loosely built this character with Lucifer in mind, and scrambled the consonants to make the name.
Ilias: I tried to think of a name that would be both suitable for a dragon and still somewhat familiar to readers in a good context. Ended up taking the name from the old classic "Iliad."
Parma: Loose romanization of a Korean phrase that literally means "break magic"!...And also a city in Italy, apparently.

Someone else mentioned it I think, but I'd like to really drill down on it with my alternative.

Basing names off of the language of the character or their home region. It not only makes planning a little easier for you, but it also ties them into the region you're writing (or gives them a good start to a backstory if they're traveling to a new region for the story). But I actually take it a step further. I've always loved how older names in the real world have had special and almost prophetic nicknames, so when I make a character, I try to give them a name that matches what they are or will become. For instance, a recent creation of mine, Shuja Okoye. Shuja in Swahili means "Warrior" or "brave fighter". The Okoye name is attached not only to the heart of Kenya, but also to a prestigious line of spear-wielding warriors and martial artists. Just with the name, I've given him a rich attachment to a place, a people, their family, and given a rough outline as to just who Shuuja is and what he cares about.

That being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a name generator. fantasynamegenerators.com is a fantastic and accurate resource (best I can tell in the five languages I've learned). But you should at least try to make the name thematic, and something someone might actually be called. I've lost count of all the unnecessarily complex names I've seen. I'll never forget Ryokumono Sakuzashimotodato. A classic example of trying too hard to make it match the language.

 

[PoorWordsmith]

Bouncing off a random thought...we all know (or, well, should hopefully know?) that character names actually carry a ton of context. Hopefully you haven't named your urban fantasy's British character "Guan Yu," or your high fantasy goblin warlord "Mahatma Gandhi." If you did, well...shame on you, I guess.

Anyways! What are some character names you came up with, and what strategy did you use to make them? To list off a few I had...

Felicir: I loosely built this character with Lucifer in mind, and scrambled the consonants to make the name.
Ilias: I tried to think of a name that would be both suitable for a dragon and still somewhat familiar to readers in a good context. Ended up taking the name from the old classic "Iliad."
Parma: Loose romanization of a Korean phrase that literally means "break magic"!...And also a city in Italy, apparently.

I mostly use Google Translate from Latin, Greek, Roman to English or I'll just use Name Generator..

 

[quagma]

i usually just combine two words together and base the character off of that. I'm not really great at coming up with names.

 

[Kamelingil]

I search the names of real people

 

[wresch]

My novels include characters from various countries. To come up with reasonable names I either use "Most Popular names in X" or I upload either the names of their Olympic winners or their main politicians. Generally gives me a good range of character names that won't be laughed at by locals.

 

[Dylanslittlehobbies]

I just use names i like or use names as referenced to things I like in my writing

 

[Suczka]

Name? Is that the thing I ask the GPT chat to generate for me whenever I need something to call a character or place?

It depends on setting. In real world I look for period/location appropriate names.

For more fancy stuff.
I think of a trait of my MC than go to google translate and try different languages until I find translation that sounds cool. Of course I do not use popular languages like English Deutsche french ... Japanese i use only if story is in japan.

Sometimes i look on this site for names for my MC or important characters. https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/ancient-celtic
It is quite good as you can select gender and culture from which to see names.

For less important characters there is that: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/dungeons-and-dragons.php