I was having this conversation with MMJaye, and she was observing how hard it can be to find the right name for your characters. First, I was reminded by this hilarious comic by Tom Gauld:
Then, I remembered all the research I went through when I was looking for character names for my epic fantasy series, Pearseus (in my sci-fi collection, The Power of Six, I cunningly avoided using names). The people on Pearseus are the descendants of Earth’s high society, so they’d be from all over the world. It’s an indecisive writer’s worst nightmare; the sort of situation that keeps you up all night: I’m looking at a character that’s half Persian, half Indian. What is a common name for that, I wonder? Hmm…
So, when I came across the Character Name Generator for fun, I giggled like a schoolgirl. It’s a website that allows you to specify the age, sex and ancestry of your character, then suggests a random name. It even throws in a little suggestion for an appropriate personality, based on the Myers-Briggs personality test!
Even more surprising was the fact that there seem to be dozens more of similar websites and applications! A particularly interesting one was a free software called, appropriately enough, the Character Name Generator. More customizable than the website above, it also allows you to specify whether you’re looking for an obscure or a common name.
But wait – there’s more! Are you a fantasy writer, wondering what to call not just your mage, but also that cafe in the 9th ring of hell where he was accidentally thrown by that portal? Well, the good people at Fantasy Name Generators have created an entire website dedicated to spewing names for characters and places!
If your book is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, what better resource than the Fantasy Name Generator – the place that will give you not just any name, but an insulting name like Cheesefinger or Twitface, if you so desire? This is an invaluable tool for fantasy or science fiction writers, as it allows to specifically ask for names with apostrophes, vowel-heavy names, names with dashes etc.
Oh how I wish I had known all this a couple of years ago… Anyway, next time you’re stuck for a character name (or, why not, a baby name), be sure to check out one of these great resources to help you out!
What’s your favourite way of coming up with character names?
Naming your Characters the Easy Way this article is very excellent, I liked it very much.
Thank you for sharing this information. Here also various types of name generators then go here and check all generators.
Thanks for the link! That’s one impressive collection alright!
Brilliant! I’m bookmarking this page. Better still, I’d like to reblog if you’ve no objection.
I am that indecisive author of the cartoon. Even worse is when I change a name and Find/Replace doesn’t get them all. Or I forget one of my contractions.
I love reblogs and am very grateful for them. I, too, have such a hard time picking a name 😀
So far, main characters names seem to come to me easily. I actually tried to “rename” a character once because I wasn’t fond of the name that kept coming to me. It didn’t work. I just never could connect another name for whatever reason to that character. I have trouble with secondary characters.
Great suggestions and sites, Nicholas. Nice to meet you.
Likewise! Glad you found the post useful and thanks for visiting and commenting! 🙂
Very handy to know – although strangely enough, most of my characters sort of introduce themselves, so I never seem to have this problem 🙂 Only one character ever gave me trouble in this sense: Danny Markson in The Lady of the Pier. Every other character name kinda breezed into my head.
I love it when that happens! 😀
Do you ever find, a considerable way through your story, you have made a huge error with a name? I ask because I recently did. I had an innocent name and poured traits into it that many friends would abhor. As I came to the close of the story, I suddenly remembered I knew somebody with that name and that though untrue, there had been rumours about his personal life that resonated with my character and would cause people to start the rumours again. I wasn’t concerned about legal action but I was horrified what I may have done to him so I had to find a new name and carefully reread every word!
Oh no, that’s awful! 😀
Actually, yes, in Mad Water I changed the names of not one, but two characters, so I know exactly what you mean! 🙂
This is all very interesting Nicholas. I haven’t attempted to write fiction at this point. I don’t know how you all do it and keep all the names straight.
Lol – in my case, I keep a doc with all the names etc so I don’t get confused! 😀
What?!! I never heard of any of them…whatever next? They sound like fun! Have to say though, a lot of my characters come from mythology. They have names already. Those that didnt kind of suggested their own names…
I know what you mean; sometimes, I, too, “hear” the name as clear as day. Other times, however, I struggle with that (I had to come up with a name for an inn for Mad Water; nothing seemed to fit).
Another thing I’ve done, of course, is name characters after people who contributed to my Indiegogo campaign! This was one of the more popular perks, and it was good fun, too. I have this very supportive neighbour who’s nuts about tanks and artillery (he plays World of Tanks on a daily basis). When I needed a character to fire a big cannon in Mad Water, I didn’t exactly have to struggle for his name… 😀
In naming my intelligent termite characters in The Termite Queen and subsequent books, I had to use names that mean something appropriate in my conlang. Thus, the Champion Ki’shto’ba means Of the Invincible Mandibles. I try to make sure the words are reasonably prounounceable, although some of my readers may question that! In the Ki’shto’ba series, where I’m retelling Greek myth, I checked out the meanings of the Greek names (Paris = wallet), then adapted the termite names (the Paris character becomes Roi’za’chu or Bucket Face, because instead of being found in a wallet, the nymph was found in a bucket).
As for my human names, when I wrote The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars (WIP) and needed names of Russian origin, I checked out hockey players because I’m a hockey fan and there are lots of Russians playing hockey!
I’m going to check out the character creation links that you supplied!
That is awesome, thanks so much for sharing! And welcome! 🙂
Ha! This is great! I find too, one of my big problems is if I make up a name sounds fine in my head, but then when I say it out loud, it just doesn’t sound right at all. Maybe that’s just me 🙂 I will totally use this resource – thanks for sharing!!
A pleasure! Hope you find the post as useful as it sounded in my head, when I first thought of it! 😉
I looked at popular names by year for my most recent project. I wanted someone to come across as vanilla as possible, and she’s Patty Hall.
On other projects I’ve used my daughter’s graduation packet and mixed and matched.
Nice one! Especially since you’ll have names from different backgrounds etc, so it won’t have be to mainstream. Unless, of course, that’s you’re going for!
I use a baby naming site and a baby naming book. I choose by meanings of names or whatever catches my attention. It depends on the importance of the character and my attention span at the time. Love that fantasy name generator.
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Meet New (to me) Authors Blog and commented:
Some useful Character Name Sites 😀
For the most part, I google the popular names of the year my character was born, ignore the ones I identify with people I know, strip away the weird ones and try to find something that has the right feel. Then I look at the etymology of the word in case it has an unfortunate meaning.
For the more fanciful names, I tend to look for biblical names that are heard now but not widely used (also how I chose Nathaniel as my oldest son’s name).
I try to avoid both the common and the weird. My biggest issue is surnames!
That sounds delightfully complex! 😀 I can’t deny the results, though; I love the name Nathaniel! I hope you’ll find the new info useful, then… 🙂