Names for characters

Kouneko

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Hi, I came to ask how you guys go through the process of naming characters, I've always had difficulties with this and wanted to know how others do it
 

Ilikewaterkusa

You have to take out their families...
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I just go with whatever sounds the best to me. Give beautiful sounding names like Alicia, Cecilia, Karl to the mcs and give ugly names like Pat to the extras.
 

Anon2024

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I will look at names of people starting threads like this and think, hmm that’s a good name to give my smut character.
 

ConansWitchBaby

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I outsource. In other words I roam around until I hear a name that is mildly interesting. If not I default to Bob.
 

Kouneko

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I will look at names of people starting threads like this and think, hmm that’s a good name to give my smut character.
Well if you make one with mine send the link please or else the dog will keep me as a hostage
 

OtherSlater

Because The First Slater Died.
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Start with their nationality and look up popular names from there. Mix and match when needed.
 

Anon2024

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Well if you make one with mine send the link please or else the dog will keep me as a hostage
Female character okay? Or does it have to be a male? Next reincarnation cycle I’m thinking of putting in yakuza.

link of novel is in my signature
 

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
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I think about it in the shower until I come up with something just right.
 

RavenRunes

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Either corrupt or mash up a word in another language that means something (Arianlach is 'silver leaf' in Welsh) or take a real world name and switch the letters around/bugger on with spelling til it makes something that looks like a name. From those methods I have Henarian, Melysarian, Kerren, Koth, Siris, Rhaen, Arianlach, Leiryn, Kaithenal, Gúl, Collen, Morien, Sersa, Rurien.
 

K_Jira

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Name generators mix and match. Personally, I often used Reedsy name generator since they also state the meaning of it.
 

Gryphon

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It depends. Yes, there are name generators, but that's kind of not that good in my opinion. Yes, theres no thought process when naming your characters which makes writing go by faster, but then you're eliminating potential story options for why a character is named a certain way, or maybe what a name means within a story.

For instance, my main character in my current story is Ty Peon, which people said I need to use a name generator because the name sounds ridiculous, but I can't do that because his last name is incredibly important to not only his backstory and character, but also the story and themes as a whole.

Basically, what I'm saying is give some thought to how names will work within your story.
 

Ai-chan

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Hi, I came to ask how you guys go through the process of naming characters, I've always had difficulties with this and wanted to know how others do it
If you're a new author, Ai-chan suggests not being too fussy about your character names yet. Some new authors have this misconception that the names have to be meaningful and fitting to the character like how Naruto's characters are. You can do that, but you don't have to. All it does is put a stumbling block on your progress. The most important thing is not your character's names, but your story.

That being said, Ai-chan programmes a random name generator to provide Ai-chan with billions of different randomized names.

Examples of characters named by random name generator are
1. Nefesukaya (Nefeskaya) from Hero Prince(ss)
2. Eruberu Sentanaria (Albell Sentnaria) from The Bride's Groom
3. Hefumefu from Masked Knight
4. Furimu (Freme) from The Tavern Mistress (title may change when published)

If you want to use the program Ai-chan made, just open Race Generator then either download and double click or right click and run in your browser. Having to see all those codes may look scary, but that's just harmless HTML 5. The license is Public Domain, which means you can use it however way you want in whichever capacity without crediting Ai-chan or mentioning the name of the program. Though it would be nice if you thank Ai-chan for it if you find it helpful.

Or if you're suspicious of Ai-chan, just google 'name generator' online. There are plenty of sites that provide premade random name generators.
 

TheTrinary

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Hi, I came to ask how you guys go through the process of naming characters, I've always had difficulties with this and wanted to know how others do it
I think the first step is deciding where they are from. Especially with fantasy stories, there needs to be a consistent feel to the names based on world building.
 

AliceShiki

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Tbh, names hardly ever matter. Like... If you have some name-related prophecy or whatever, then you might need to choose your names carefully, but otherwise... Names are just there to help your readers remember which character is which.

Because of that, there aren't really many limitations on what names you can choose... Just try to follow some basic standards, like...
  • Don't make names too similar to one another... Having a Yuu and a Yu in the same series might cause confusion to your readers, for example.
  • Make sure the names don't sound dumb, nor hard to pronounce. Penys and vksahuywrwepqui are probably not ideal name choices.
And uhn... Really, that's all I can think of as rules for name choosing? You can also make characters from similar nationalities have similar names or whatever, but it's still all optional at this point, and most readers probably won't even notice it.

So, to actually make a name, I'd suggest you either...
  • Make something up on a whim on the spot. Which is like... I dunno, you feel like a character should be named "Aria"? Then name her Aria. No need to overthink it.
  • User a name generator until you find a nice sounding name. I personally like https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ , but there are plenty of others... It has a lot of categories to choose from, so just keep on refreshing a given category until you find something that you like and then roll with it.
Oh, and on a side note, place names, group names and surnames can actually be done in a very simple fashion of merging two words together. Usually adjective + noun, but any two words that sound nice together can work... Some examples I'm making on the spot:
  • The bandit group of the Grey Wolves
  • The noble family of Evenstar
  • The dukedom of Greenlush
Or if you prefer some names from famous authors... Winterfell and Greyjoy from Game of Thrones and Redcliff from Dragon Age are also good examples.
 

UnknownSaint171

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Hi, I came to ask how you guys go through the process of naming characters, I've always had difficulties with this and wanted to know how others do it
I think it depends on the type of story you want to write. Just look at JP and KRs
 
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