Forums » RP Discussion » What Is Your Method For Names?

This page has been a lifesaver for me. It has a lot of categories, and is pretty easy to navigate. 10/10, would recommend.

i always used name books / web sites if there ethnic identity is important i start names from there country but i also like to look up the meaning that relates to a character trait is longer then 5 letters i go for a nic name.

leoandra- lioness nic leo
callista- most beautiful nic calli
Duvessa- dark beauty nic duv

I feel like I'm kind of all over the place when it comes to how I get my names. At one point I would just say some nonsense words until I heard a good one. Maybe I'll name them after a favorite character. Possibly randomly generate one from a website especially if the character is a certain nationality. Perhaps there's a name I've always like and really want a character to have it. Sometimes I look for meaningful names to match the personality. Although what I believe usually happens is I draw up the character, and while looking at the image I go through names in my head till I find one that fits.

It depends where and what the characters are or such

10 or 12 years old me thought that everything about Japan was sooooo cool when I discovered Bleach (from a 'let the bodies hit the floor' music video too. Oh dang.... And because it was on the side bar and one of the characters had orange hair... I thought that the scene (Ichigo fighting Kempachi) was from Fruitbasket (which I know nothing of)). I was always looking out for some word translators and the name just had to be some word in Japanese because 'it looked/sounded so good~' No. No it didn't. At the time I also did some Bleach and Ginga series mixture characters. They were horrible xD All these rip-offs.

I also used to just 'ramble up' something very stupid at times. It was like words thrown in a mixter in my head and such. Seriously, most of them made no sence. And probably I tried to make them sound 'Japanese' too.... ... I really wasn't good with names.

If the character isn't human-like but some sort of animal or creature, I tend to go to Google translator and looking up different words in different languages (and from there it's first to the nation that I think the character fits in. Italy or Russia or Germany or such) and then the best sounding one wins

Human characters (that I can't draw so they are 'canine people') I give a name according to the nation they are born in. I usually search for 'Russian boy names' or 'French girl names' or whatever it is that I'm looking for. then I grab the coolest ones and check their meanings (if they have some) and pick the one that fits the character the most. Same with surnames. Sometimes when I can't decide or it just gets stuck in my head, I give a character a middle name

i'm generally pretty terrible with giving my characters names. they'll often go months without having one or just having some kind of placeholder name; my preferred method is putting syllables and words together into various names until i get something that feels good and fitting for the character, and that can take a while for me. a lot of my characters end up using their placeholder names indefinitely just because i can't put together anything i like enough, though sometimes it's for other reasons (character background, someone else helped me name the character, a pre-existing name just fit better...)
this is all for first names, though. last names are even worse for me, they're almost always just filler or something. why do names have to be one of the hardest parts. :c

mostly i save a ton of names to a http://www.behindthename.com/ account and then mix and match whatever names i like. i'm on there almost every day so i have a fairly big list of forenames and surnames to choose from. i also have some notebooks i've written names down in for whenever i'm out and see/hear a name i like and i find myself mostly taking names from street signs.

My methods consist of
1. Irony
2. Weird words I found on the internet for Names
3. Latin
4. Based on people I know

Seventh Sanctum is my answer for names, haha.

^yaaaas

I actually always struggle with finding names for my stories’ characters. Mostly spent hours and hours until I was able to find that one specific and perfect name. Luckily, a month ago a friend of mine offered to try generator and I actually could not stop using it. All in all, it is so amazing when after a period of time I finally catch that ONE specific name for the character!! Pure happiness

I usually try giving names to my characters that kind of represent who they are as a character.

Take my character, Superion, as an example. His name is Luke Knight. As a Daxamite (offshoot of Kryptonians) he's a living solar battery. So being named Luke, which means Light-Giving, I thought it was interesting for him to be named that. Knight means, Noble or Soldier. So, altogether his name means Light Giving Soldier. He was a Cop turned Private Detective and they are something like soldiers, of a sort.

So yeah, I LOVE giving my characters names that kind of represent who they are as a character.

My character’s name(s):

1. Puns
2. References
3. In another language or something
4. Or what make sense with the character’s personality

Mostly I just put random sounds and syllables together.

Squimples? Yes.

Bopbop? Oh yeah.

Gintyl? Sure, why not?

I theme them around what I have in mind for them usually or I go through names til one fits the character I have created .


Both can be very time consuming.

I don't know if I have a method ... I just pull them out of the ether and try them on. Sometimes I will change them, sometimes not.

I name my characters like Pokemon gym leaders because I'm unimaginative and boring.

Also when I GM tabletop games, my table knows every NPC is named Larry unless otherwise stated.

Sometimes I just have a name in my head and I go "hey, what kind of character would have this name?" and then I start building from there.
Sometimes it's as simple as "I like this name, this character can have it."
And other times I put waaaay too much thought into it and spend days stressing over a name when the rest of the character is already complete.
I like to give characters names that reflect something about them, but in a (hopefully) slightly subtle way. As in, the name is very fitting but it's not immediately obvious unless you know the meaning of their name. (For example, Althea means healer, and I have a character with that name who uses healing powers. Or Kass, who is a ghost; I picked their name as a reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost, something that other characters have also acknowledged.) I don't always pick names like this, but it can be fun.
My favourite is when I give a character a name just because I like it, then find out it happens to be fitting because of its meaning or some association, by sheer coincidence. Or when I find out a name's meaning and decide to subtly work it into the character. (For example, Zinnia. The name was just in my head because of the Pokémon character, and also because it's a pretty flower, which is why I gave it to my own character. Research revealed that the flower symbolizes "thoughts of an absent friend", so I added a lost friend plotline into the character's story. The flower is also known to attract butterflies, so I added some butterfly motifs to the character.)
Oh and I have a LOT of characters named after plants and flowers and things like that. In one story, there's a whole kingdom who only uses botanical names in the royal family, picking plants that symbolize traits they want their children to possess. (For example, the current princess is named Amaryllis, which symbolizes determination, pride, and strength.) Though in this case, I added the bit about the botanical naming convention after a few characters already happened to have names like this.

It's just gotta have good mouthfeel and be easy to remember.

I try not to make the names too long or meandering, so nicknames are frequently employed in the case of alien / elven languages. I try to match geographical origin, too, so a little extra work goes into researching any names uncommon to the Old Testament lmao

I use a specific generator. Either I have part of a name I need to complete or I just generate until something feels right for the character.