Forums » Smalltalk » How do you choose character names?

Just curious as to how everyone chooses names for their characters. I find that when I'm in the mood to make a character, I choose a photo to use to get a feel for their face or whatever first and then just go through different first and last name combinations until I find something that just feels like it belongs.

So what is the method to all y'alls naming madness? I'd love to hear it

Yeah I do that. I also sometimes spot a name somewhere and use it and match a photo for them. That would be for the modern ones.

That's another way I do it as well, though less frequently.

Usually, I think of the person's appearance, personality, and history, then use those sites for baby naming to search names by their meanings, but in a way that, though they have a fitting meaning, it's not blatantly obvious. Like, if I was looking for a name for a character who... I dunno. Had an association with birds, I wouldn't name them AFTER a bird, but I'd name them something that had to do with flight, or feathers, or that meant bird in another language.
Or, if I don't want themed names, I just look at my name list and pick what sounds right.
But then, sometimes I just throw sylables together until it works.

I like the thought of themed names! Maybe I'll have to try find that sometime.

My girlfriends names then musicians and presidents last names. In some characters I just randomly pick names like Savannah Davis and chardonnay Parker.

I usually go to baby name sites, and try to look for a name that relates to the character both in themes and of course in where the character is from. So if it's a French character, I use a French name (I think most people do that), and then I try to look for something relating to their character – for example, I called my character fighting for freedom Marius, like Marius from Les Miserables. I really like ironic names, such as giving the last name Burns to a red haired character.

I usually use baby name websites but I have also found these generators helpful when my brain fails me:

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

https://www.namegenerator.biz/last-name-generator.php

Mostly I end up naming aliens....so what i like to do is find something palatable, like a real English word to play off of and alter the spelling of it. The sound comes off just a bit different most times and has that true alien feel to it (for me) of course I try to stay within a variety depending on the species.

Another strategy I use is letter altering. I find a word or created/suggested name and write it down. Then I alter one letter here, another letter there, and so on until I have found what it is I'm looking for. Sadly this has cost a lot of trees their lives. RIP dear trees and thank you for your sacrifice. 💖

I do this so often, like with my Greek faun "Andronicus", a classic Greek name (plus his folks were fans of Shakespeare). My character "Dhoruba's" name is Swahili for "Storm", he was originally an electricity elemental adopt (it was way too close to Marvel's Storm so he ended up rebooted as a regular old human but the name stuck).

Sometimes I'll blend words together, like Rangus, my cowboy rancher: "ranger" and "Angus", ranger being his former occupation and Angus translating loosely to "one strength", given he's highly religious and a paladin where setting allows. I designed a race of tundra-dwelling snow-elf. In tracing back the origins of the word tundra, I found the Finnish "tunturi", which I turned into the word Tuntarian and also vaguely into my character's name, Trinitera. You can always start with a word that has meaning to whoever you're trying to make and build from there!

Behind the name is my go to for name inspiration.

Well to be precise, sometimes characters just "tell me" their names and other times I sit and look at the lists till something jumps out at me.
I usually will stick to culturally appropriate names but not always. You DO get non french people with french names for example,Non religious people still use biblical names.. and so on. So I tend to go with what feels appropriate but it's not a hard and fast rule that it has to be in that language. After all, not all German people have "german" names, not all English people have "english" names, not all Welsh people have names that are in Welsh... So you kinda just use a bit of sense there and acknowledge in your bio if a name is unusual for the culture or location, because man, i've attended school with kids with some DANG WEIRD names and it does get remarked upon.

which is another thing to consider. If your character has a dang weird name, do people ask? Are they embarrassed by it? Do they shorten it to something less obviously weird? (Yay character building! lol.)
So yeah, sometimes a name can also be part and parcel of your character building. I like to get it done early in the process, I prefer to know someone's name before I flesh them out completely.

Sometimes I can't resist a little joke or two in there, a silly little subtle reference only I get heh from their name meaning. Ahem.
Thing is, that a name with "meaning" only makes sense if it's either a chosen name or there's some sort of predetermination at work. Realistically, calling you kid "harper" is unlikely to magically turn them into a musician, but could give a hint as to the parent's expectations or wants for that child.
So I tend to avoid "thematically appropriate" names UNLESS it's a little personal joke or it's subtle enough that only i'm likely to get the reference.
I say that, but then I named my Zombie a name that literally means "wept over" so... but in his case i'm going with "his dad was a jerk"

A lot of the time though, if i'm having a meaning name, it's gonna be something like giving a bird person a name that means "cat" for my own personal amusement.

But most of the time it's just whatever name "looks" right.

With my aliens I tend to pick a naming convention. A language it sounds "closest to" for inspiration for example, which is a lazy way to do it but not uncommon for sci fi at all. (Just look at Star Trek)

For example my Spider people all have names that are Swedish and rather obscure, this is entirely because the name I chose for their species happened to be inspired by the Swedish word for "weaver". It felt wrong to not then use a similar linguistic rule for their names.

It's lazy but it gives cohesion to a group if their names sound thematically similar.

When naming non humans I like to think of whether that culture has any unusual naming conventions or traditions and incorperating them (like in D&D Gnomes apparently collect names, as in, they have like 30 names and pick whichever they like best at the time when introducing themselves to non Gnomes hahahhaha)

I also quite like, I think it's Nameberry? for naming siblings. If i'm having trouble figuring out sibling names i'll try that too. Because most of the time, a family will have names that have at least some similarity to one another, you're unlikely to get one kid named like Cleopatra and another called John in the same family you know? Not to say it doesn't happen, but it's less believable.
I tend to try to figure the parent's sort of... attitude I guess, toward naming their children. Were these parents a bit conservative? Are they jerks? Did they forget they were naming a child and not a dog? (like poor Harris' parents who he swears just hated him from birth) lol.

I start with a first name most of the time (unless naming siblings, then I already tend to have a surname) and then move on to other names. Sometimes i'll bother with a middle name if it feels appropriate or lends to the flow.
Often with surnames I literally pick em out a random generator or point on a list haha, they just have to sound "right" or flow. Unless it's culturally or universe appropriate to be otherwise, they are just random.

Another factor I had to consider recently was that in one long running rp we ended up with waaaaay too many characters with names starting with the letter A, so when I came to create a new character for that one of the self enforced rules was "all the A names are getting confusing, no A names"


tl:dr - I mostly just fudge it and pick names out of a hat hahahaha.

This site: https://www.babycenter.com/babyNamerSearch.htm

I found A CRAP ton of names I liked and then compiled a list and THEN I choose from that list.

I literally do things like this when I am stuck, though sometimes I will go with a meaningful name, if, say, the culture believes in giving children such names. For example, a lot of older cultures tended to do that, and I believe some middle eastern cultures still often do that.

I either choose names from a baby name site, choose from names I like, or I go for the easier option, going to a name generator. I usually generate a few names and mix them together and change them up. I try not to use names from generators just as they are because there's probably quite a bit of people using it too.

I usually chose first names by googling 'names like ______' the blank being another name I know I like but already have a character with that name; and when I see the name, I know it's the right one. It's hard to explain. I chose last names based on where the character was born, their class (lower/middle/upper socioeconomic class). Sometimes I use the name generator in Scrivener if I am super pressed and uncertain.

It also depends on genre, usually for fantasy/historical I go with floral/very feminine first names for women and very gallant/masculine first names for men, and last names are based on birth place and class again.

For me it depends upon the character. Usually I start with the character concept/archetype, and then an image, and then see what sort of personality they're gonna have, and then I look for a name that I think fits them. but that isn't always the case. my main character that I've played for the longest time. His name is an anagram of two of my favorite fictional/historical characters.

Mostly it really all falls down to personal taste for me, and what I think sounds good in my head really, but their is always a reason for their name.