Your Favourite Character Names

I've been having loads of debates with my friends recently, because they all think that the names I give my characters are all too "out-there". Maybe it's true, but I want to know why I should conform to their own ideas and give my characters names like Bob and Jane (got nothing against those names, but they don't fit in my story). Why should I change the character names just because my friends want me to give my characters "normal" names. They aren't "normal" characters! If I was writing about, say, a girl who went to school everyday and had a boyfriend who might be cheating on her and had friend problems, I'd give her a name like Allie or Sarah - nice, normal names that I like and suit a girl in a regular story like that. As it is, I happen to like the names I've given my characters. Here are a few from my planned novel. At the end, we see them all celebrating Christmas fifteen years on, with their families.

The Hikaru Family

Mom - Kali
Dad - Riku
Aran, 11
Alex, 8
Kit & Rory, both 6
Maxie, 1
Bradley, 4 months old.

Maxie and Aran are girls, the others are boys. Riku is Japanese for "land", and Kali comes from the Greek "kalos", which means "beauty".

The Truscott Family

Mom - Terasinha
Dad - Theodore
Thomas Jackson, 3

The Taylor Family

Mom - Carita
Dad - Helios
Rebekah-May, 9
Angel Aki, 6 (Aki means "sky" in Japanese)

Just a quick note: Helios is Aran's Dad. Aran was born when Helios and Kali were 17, and they later broke up and married Carita and Riku, respectively.

Two questions - a) What do you think of my character names and b) Do you think there's a problem with "out-there" names for "out-there" story characters?

Please feel free to post some of your character names here!

I think your character names are really good, so long as they fit the character. There's a pretty good balance of "normal" names in there that they're not too weird.
I love trying to find "out there" names, but sometimes I feel like the characters should be weird enough to fit them, and I'm afraid that they aren't, so I make my names more normal...
Some of my characters:
Joan Weaver-Late 30s
Jason-Her son, 16
(Re)Becca-Her daughter, 18
Andrew (Andy)-Her late husband
Steve-Late 30s, abusive boyfriend she's trying to run away from

I have other characters for that particular story, and they all have just as boring names...any ideas on how to spice them up?
Other names I'm fond of using: Brooke, Derek, Lucy, Jane, Will...
I really need a new name bank. Back when I was more into LOTR I liked using Arwen and Eowyn, but I got over that.

My favorite character names are ones that are unusual and pretty, but not completely bizarre. I was writing a book called Flying Colors until about six months ago, and their names were my favorites. When you took on the job my main character was training for, one of the duties was to give up your name and any ties to society, like titles. Here are some of their names:

Main character: Jara Delacy (De- is a title; a military name)
Others:
Garrick Woodard
Violet Tanager
Angel De Fraisia (De only is pronounced Day and is a noblity title)
Oliver De Derachella (Yes, that's a militant noble there)
Benjamin Staller
Eldafire (formally Jenna De Kinklic)
Oriole
Brackencolt
Willowflower (Formally Candice Weed)
Jaggedboulder (affectionately called Jags)
Shroudedmoon (Formally Jedidiah Farmer)

Now my names are much plainer, but still odd enough to fit my tastes. I find it easier to spice up names if you go to a baby name site and look up meanings related to your person. for instance, my "bad guy" in Colors was Untroth, troth meaning faith. He betrayed the country. You can also try other languages. Ancient pieces of literature are other sources. I currently have a character named Perdita, from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, which is a totally awesome play, if anyone cares (what by Shakespeare isn't awesome?). Have fun with it; naming your characters is the best part!

My favorite character names are ones that are unusual and pretty, but not completely bizarre. I was writing a book called Flying Colors until about six months ago, and their names were my favorites. When you took on the job my main character was training for, one of the duties was to give up your name and any ties to society, like titles. Here are some of their names:

Main character: Jara Delacy (De- is a title; a military name)
Others:
Garrick Woodard
Violet Tanager
Angel De Fraisia (De only is pronounced Day and is a noblity title)
Oliver De Derachella (Yes, that's a militant noble there)
Benjamin Staller
Eldafire (formally Jenna De Kinklic)
Oriole
Brackencolt
Willowflower (Formally Candice Weed)
Jaggedboulder (affectionately called Jags)
Shroudedmoon (Formally Jedidiah Farmer)

Now my names are much plainer, but still odd enough to fit my tastes. I find it easier to spice up names if you go to a baby name site and look up meanings related to your person. for instance, my "bad guy" in Colors was Untroth, troth meaning faith. He betrayed the country. You can also try other languages. Ancient pieces of literature are other sources. I currently have a character named Perdita, from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, which is a totally awesome play, if anyone cares (what by Shakespeare isn't awesome?). Have fun with it; naming your characters is the best part!

Those are all some pretty awesome names, and so are yours, houself25! I love Brooke and Jason, but that's just because they're characters in The Sleepover Club and I'm still a fangirl of that show from back when I was about ten. Three years :err:!!!

And, in answer to your (rhetorical) question, EVERYTHING by Shakespeare is pretty darn awesome.

I thought that the names that you have for your storys are exotic, fun, and cool names. Why should we all have to stick to the basic names that are in this world such as Mary or John. Here are the names to some of my charectors in my newest short story.

Mom-Anastasia
Dad-Akbar
Anya, 10 year old daughter to Akbar and Anastaisa.
Edward, man who overthrows the royal family.

I love the name Rory. Do you use it as a boy or girl? I really like it for a boy and have used it a couple of times (maybe I'm biased since it's my dad's name!)

Other names that I like are Emory, Elliott, Murray, and Liam.

I agree in using a mix of average names like Ben or Lily with less orthodox names. It's neat that others are such name-o-philes :)

I think names should ideally fit the characters and story. Fantasy and science fiction writers often have a lot of leeway when it comes to names because, if they've created their own world, who's to say that more unusual (or even made-up) names aren't common there? Even in more mainstream stories, sometimes I like to choose slightly uncommon names.

The guidelines I use for naming:

* Should be appropriate for the setting of the story.
* Should work well for the particular character.
* Ideally, I also try to have names that can be pronounced fairly well, but I'm kind of flexible on this. I couldn't pronounce "Hermione" when I first read Harry Potter at the age of 11, but I think that's a good name for her.

I'm better now, but when I was younger, whenever I would start a new story, a lot of times I'd used the same names. For a while, all my main male characters were named Eugene. :P

My characters:
Ananya
William ...you see I absolutely love this name, and hey it suits him too..
Marianne
Ariana

I like the name Jamie. I always use it for one of my character names.

I am not too creative when it comes to names. It is one of my downfalls when it comes to stories. There are so many possibities for names, and you can never pick the right one :lol:

It all depends on the setting of the story, really- if I were writing a book or short story set in,say, early 19th-century rural China, I wouldn't name my heroine Kristin. As long as the name fits, anything's ok.

I tend to labor for a while on character names. But sometimes I'll have a name pop into my head and the character will spring from it.

My all-time favourite character name from someone else's fiction is Professor Grubbly-Plank. That is the best name EVER. :lol:

I was writing a fantasy novel years ago (which I haven't touched in a very, very long time) that had two mercenary elves named Duvok and Rublar (Duvok very short; Rublar very fat). I always liked those names. And the main character in that story was named Aaron.

I kind of borrowed JKR's idea of having names mean something, so I always use latin dictionaries or try to twist random god's and goddeses names or do stuff to normal english, just to get a good name. I don't like using normal names that much, just because i want to be as original as possible with this stuff :lol:. I've been using tons of names that start with Au, and i've been playing with the sei in the middle of Poseidon.

Every single story I've ever written (or had the idea for) has taken place in the modern-day, even sometimes there can be futuristic concepts and such. I usually don't have way out there names, but I don't stick with the most typical and overused names ever. One that it seems I always use is the name Allen. I don't know why, I just really like that name. The only name I've ever used that IMO would make someone say, "where does he come up with that?" is Raposhethrinius, which was the name of an island-native dude for a story I once came up with.

I don't think your names are too out-there, and a lot of them are pretty normalish anyway....I figure your characters are Japanese or part Japanese, though...or at least have parents who are the eccentric types of people who would give Japanese names anyway. Otherwise I think it would be too out-there. I mean, for the parents, it's a bit odd that all of them seem to have really unique names too....I assume in your story they're all acquainted, and I don't know, that is a bit strange.

I use really normal names in my stories...I'm a big fan of the name Gwen for some reason. I actually wrote a story with main characters called Linda and Jane. Once I met a girl named Corriander and thought it was a really neat name...so I think I'm going to end up using that. For males, I've used Alexander, Alan, Kaden, Jesse....I guess I'm boring-ish with names. I don't usually like them to mean anything that fits the character because that's just not realistic to me, but it's still interesting when I read a book in which the author does that.

I'm writing a less out-there story now, about kids who go to a normal comprehensive school and have normal teenage problems. So, what do you think of the names -

Adam Taylor - aged 14, MC.
Allie "Squirt" Rowlands - aged 14
Peris "Loser" Harper - aged 14 (eccentric parents named him after the street in London where his father was born, Peris Avenue)
Aidan Marks - aged 15
Angel Stone - aged 15.

I'm about to post chapter one of the story to the boards now, so...read it and see what you think :D

Honestly, I like to use ordinary names for the most part. If I'm writing a story based in the "realistic fiction" universe I often will look for names being used around me. For one novel, I had a group of girls who coined themselves on their unfortunately androgenous names:

Antonella "Toni" Leonardi
Filomena "Phil" Piekarczyk (please don't ask for pronunciation, I asked my polish friend for the name)
Mackenzie "Mack" Dwyer

others from this piece include

Massimo Montesano
Raymond Mellard
Kim Gorshuck
Bree Jameison
Lisa Brennamen
and Kyle Thompson

That's the only "normal fiction" I've started but I have some others where they are rooted less in reality and are more science fiction the names get stranger. Some Favourites include:

Stone Rigby (originally named Digby after a street in my city, but I changed it, because Rigby sounds better)
Cleary ("Cheaters" or "Cheats") Scofield
Molly Scofield
Emerson Scofield
Ingrid Bonks (that one always puts a smile on my face)
Maxwell Hostess

I like using a bit weird or uncommon names, but only if it suits the character it is given to. I often have meaningful surenames when I write in English, but almost never in Norwegian because it mostly sounds weird.

I once wrote a little story about Harry Humble and his neighbour Peter Porch (I think it was Porch, I'm not sure though) for an English essay. It was important to me that their surenames said something about the characters, so I just sat for a while reading in my dictionary until I found some good names.

The weirdest names I ever made, was for a Norwegian essay about a girl named Tomine (a pretty uncommon Norwegian name) who survived a plain crash an found an undiscovered native population. These natives only spoke with vocals (except the incredibly handsome king), and all the female names started with Ea (example: EaUoia) and the male names with Ae (example: AeEiaoiaåia). That's a bit difficult to pronounce, and definitely bound to sound weird! But it fitted in my story, and I was 13 at the time. Then (two years ago) I used to be very creative in a strange way, so there you are.

Right now I'm particularly fond of the names Jenna (only for English stories, sounds a bit weird when used in Norwegian), William and Mortimer. I don't know why, that's just how I feel now ;)

[QUOTE=katsumi;5128707]I tend to labor for a while on character names.QUOTE]

Me too! I take great care in picking names that are fitting and all that.
for historical fiction, I think the name David is perfect for almost any male character. I have used it several times. For girls, (in historical fiction) I like the names Anna, Hannah, Sarah...common and normal names. For more modern stories, I like way too many names to list. Let's just say, I have way too much fun with it.

Ethan is right now my favourite character name. I love the name Edward too, long before Edward Cullen came about and no, I havent read or plan to read Twilight either.

Just go with what you see fit. However, make sure that the names you're giving your characters make sense. It wouldn't fit to have a Canadian born girl, whose parents originate from London, England, named Luminita.

I like the names Amylisse (prnounces Amuhleese) for a female (no last name yet)
And Lanis Mars for my male character.
Tregard (Trehgerd) is another i like for male
and maybe Krad for maybe a bad character
im not good at coming up great with names

I like strange names, names you dont find everywhere. Like "Sirius" "Remus" "Albus" "Septuimus" But i also like really pretty names "Ginny" "Lily" "Luna" "Sarah" in one of my stories my two main characters are; twins, "Jessi" and "Kessi". and then there's a whole slew of names i just love! "Nick" "Johnny" "Kaye" "Irial" etc etc.

I like strange names, names you dont find everywhere.

Uncommon and/or a bit strange names is my favourites. It would be a bit boring if every story had the same character names. But sometimes I use common names just for the change! :D

I think names should ideally fit the characters and story. Fantasy and science fiction writers often have a lot of leeway when it comes to names because, if they've created their own world, who's to say that more unusual (or even made-up) names aren't common there? Even in more mainstream stories, sometimes I like to choose slightly uncommon names.

The guidelines I use for naming:

* Should be appropriate for the setting of the story.
* Should work well for the particular character.
* Ideally, I also try to have names that can be pronounced fairly well, but I'm kind of flexible on this. I couldn't pronounce "Hermione" when I first read Harry Potter at the age of 11, but I think that's a good name for her.

I'm better now, but when I was younger, whenever I would start a new story, a lot of times I'd used the same names. For a while, all my main male characters were named Eugene. :P

:agree: My guidelines are quite similiar to yours; I find that some names fit a certain character whilst others do not. To me, for example, Caleb feels like it fits a character who is mature, quiet, but has strength in him. On the other hand, Thomas seems to fit either someone who is more serious and Percy-like, or, on the other extreme, someone who has a sense of humour and is overly outgoing.

I also try and fit it to their era they're living in (I tend to go for history), and also, perhaps their ethnicity as well. For example, my character, Thomas Seamus Eames is Irish, and both his middle and last names reflect that. :) Speaking of Irish names, Seamus is definitely one of my favourite names. I was going to add 'Patrick' to his middle name as well, but thought that it was Irish enough already. ;)

My names also tend to be as authentic as possible for those from other countries like Asia and Africa (like I'd ever written anything yet set in Asian/African history!). If it's the USA, I tend to choose any name that pops into my head like Jasmine or Sarah. Jasmine's another of my favourite names: it has the feeling of one who means well, has a kind heart, but sometimes might not understand where someone is trying to come from.

Am I the only one who feels it uncomfortable to use the same names of good friends they know as the names of their characters? For example, I'd never name a character, say, Anna or Miriam because I have close friends by those names. Perhaps a middle name is okay, but first name is, for me, out of bounds. :shrug:

Am I the only one who feels it uncomfortable to use the same names of good friends they know as the names of their characters? For example, I'd never name a character, say, Anna or Miriam because I have close friends by those names. Perhaps a middle name is okay, but first name is, for me, out of bounds. :shrug:

It depends on which kind of story I write. I wrote a short-story once, where I used two of my best friends's names. I was the main character, and the story was told by me. As I didn't give any description of the characters (a short-story should have only those details that are important to the plot), it didn't matter if the people who read the story (that is, me, my teacher and my four best friends) knew the names of the characters. And it was my two friends that, when I asked them if they had any good name-ideas, came up with their own names and mine.
They didn't like the fact that they died, though... I told them I had had the plot ready, and wouldn't change it just because they wanted me to. :p

My favorites include:
Hurkley
Oss
Desiree Hogsnout

Not quite sure of namin them after friends, only the good people though, imagine naming the evil characters after your best friends, that wouldn't work!

The characters I've been using in my books all have very ordinary names, all of which I have RPed either in the past or are RPing right now. The characters I have in my first book include:
Jack Wilksinon - 23 (he is the main character in my first book)
Moira Grant-Thompson - 23
Adele Vasser - 22
Andrew Jackson - 23
Taja - 10 (she is a girl from India who is helping Jack)
'Bapu' - age unknown (he is the important man from India that Jack has to help)
Penelope Wake - 30 (she is Jack's cousin. The last time Jack saw her, she was 17)

Well, currently, I'm only working on one non Harry Potter related story. There are two main families:
The Stevens:
Dad--Peter
Oldest Son-- Aaron
Youngest Son/Middle child-- Andrew
Only Girl and Youngest-- Alexa

The Andersons--
Mom-- Rosiland
Oldest Son-- Mitchell
Youngest Son/Middle child-- Michael
Only Girl and Youngest-- Meagan

For the stories im writing so far:

Story A-
Main character- Mariah
Others:
Peter- Her "father"
Lei-Her best friend
Emily- Her other best friend
Adam- A suitor
Lucy- Annoying lady
Henry- Her dad
Ani-Her mom
Prince- nameless

Story B
Main Character- Lily
Rose- Her younger sister
Matthew-Her youngest brother
Tyson-Her younger brother
Benjimen/Ben-Her other younger brother
Annie-Her mom
Peter-Her dad
Edward- Her dad's friend
Thomas-Her dad's friend
Alexander- Other main character.

Story C
Casey Smith- main character
Lily Smith- Her 7-year old sister
Luke Smith- Lily's twin brother, and Casey's 7-year old brother(duh)
Vickie Smith- Casey's mom
Jaden Smith- Casey's dad
Samantha (Sammy/Sam)- Casey's best friend
Allison Brown- Evil popular chick. Queen of the school. Hates Casey and Sam
Adrian Gold- Foregin exchange student..... ;)
Rose Gold- Adrain's younger sister, Lily and Luke's new friend

:D

And now Im trying to think of a 1700's name for a girl....

Well, the story I'm actually writing has not title but takes place in a sort of magical world.
The main are:
Allan James Carter
Christopher John Evans
Lunette Evanna Lukman

I thinks just Lunette has a weird name but they come from the real modern day!

Let's continue:
The Langleys (guardian family) are:
Noahela (Noah)
Anna
Derek
Trisha

I'm working in the rest, but I have these weird names for this story I'm not sure to make:
The Rowe Siblings:
Zephyr (she's a GIRL)
Einar
Nilsen

The Fantasy and Hazard Sleuth Series are other thing:
Megan Dawson
Jason Rowell
Samuel Gunther
Lily Bradley

The New Fantasy Sleuth Team:
Zoe Dawson
Zeth Evans
Izabelle (Izzy) Rivers
Zack Levins


My old friend wrote stories with really weird names outta this world and took place in the modern days...now that's weird :cool:

My favorites include:
Hurkley
Oss
Desiree Hogsnout

Not quite sure of namin them after friends, only the good people though, imagine naming the evil characters after your best friends, that wouldn't work!

I named an evil character from a story called Dear Diary...
Jessica Lee in honor to my worst enemy since second grade
although that was the last year I saw her.

I love character names that lend something to the plot but that's not always the case. I have loved many common names, not for the name itself but how they fit seamlessly with the plot.

I love 'Florentyna Rosnovski-Kane' from Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer.

I love using exotic and extremely non-popular names. Like names that no one has ever heard before. I also like using names that mean something. I've started to go to a English to Latin dictionary online for my names now. I think of a character that I want to write, think of a word that would describe her or just fits in with the story and have the dictionary translate it Latin. If the word sounds okay and could be used as a name, then it becomes my character's name.

I'm also in love with using the name Lily or Lillian. Don't know why... I've already named three of my characters in three separate stories Lily. Without really thinking, too. *headdesk* I need to be more original.

I'm starting a book that I have been planning for a long time, and my character names were chosen with both inspiration and care. Note they are Russian apart from one German one.

Konstantin Sarev (the protagonist and my fav character name)
Alexander Payari
Nicholas Payari
Andrey Payari
Viktor Polzin
Natalie Polzin
Edward Polzin
Anton Gass
Voddy (Dmitri) Ivanov
Oskar Budny
Karl Budny
Jasper and Kasper (twins)
Mikhail Krapin
and many more....

For me, choosing character names is fantastic. I love it!

I certainly like unusual names, the stranger the name of a character is the more I get intrigued by the character. Giving characters, good and appropriate names, attracts the reader, to of me it was the reasons I liked many characters from different books, Artemis Fowl fro instance was a book I'd have never dreamed about reading, for all I knew it was a children's book, and had a boy who was named after a Greek Goddess, anyways, I decided to give it a go, and when I reached the third cool I was impressed when Artemis explained how he got named after that Goddess, saying that she was the archery's Goddess, and he was named after her because of his ability to hunt his enemies down.
When I try to name my characters, I usually give them names of thing and people who have significance in my life. My first character ever was named Crystal, and some people taunted her and called her Crasy (i.e crazy, but really she was intelligent :lol:).

i have an entire list of names that i like, but i still keep with certain names. i tend to go for more "normal" sounding names, cause my characters tend to be very average. and my weird characters i tend to give average names so they're kind of the opposite of what you'd expect.
currently i'm working on a story (you can read the first drafts of the first 10 chapters or so in my LJ http://britreads4fun.livejournal.com) where there are several american characters and several international characters. i think i focused more on the names for the international characters than the amercians. for example:

Emma Marshall-Main Character/narrator
Anne Marshall-Her mother
Abby Brown-Pregnant College Student
Gunter Krause-German Traveller (oh, if you do read the story, PLEASE let me know what you think of his accent)
Jesse Long-Stage name of yet to be real-named Asian-American rocker guy (any ideas? the baby names site didn't really help...)
Alan Forrester-recently divorced father
Penelope (Penny) Forrester-His 7 year old daughter
Alyson (Aly) Forrester-His 6 year old daughter


The story's about the people in a boarding house that Anne and Emma just opened, fyi. These are the characters that have come up so far...i have a few more planned but they might change.

I like to choose character names base don their locations. For instance

Fantasy worlds use more creative, unusual names:
FEMALE Sensai, Jadis, Eratina, Mauvis, Glycera, Vuola, Cianna, Receletta, Karris, Emangeline, Horitia, Fiorelina
MALE Olivski, Sontier, Jargosque, Shinon, Anec, Evan, Lozenger, Dushan

Real-life characters have more common names
FEMALE Nancy, Anna, Ellen, Casey, Donna, Bridget, Samantha
MALE Riley, Joshua, Steven, Raymond, Darren, Johnny, Felix, Keith

Zelda!

Lupinsangel: I think it's good that you use the names you want your characters to have. I like it when characters have a little odd names that aren't so normal. My username here "Haplo" Is a name from a book that doesn't have normal name and i like it very much. I'd rather read about Carita and Helios than about Sarah and Bob.

A name I like to have in my stories is Balthazar. I don't know why but I just like it very much.

I suppose a few of those names are a bit out there, but its your story (not your friends'), so do whatever you want.

Hmm... I think that Lily is just awesome. :)

Unusual names = awesome (as long as it fits)

My only suggestion is to pay attention to the syllables in the names you create. You can have an odd spelling or unique name, just try not to make it more than 2 syllables, 3 tops. The more syllables a name has, the more it will slow the reader down.

Quick example: Breaking Dawn's Renesmee bugged the stink out of me. I could see where she was trying to go with the name, but every time I saw it, my head had to sound it out (Ren-ay-ez-meh). Forgive me for butchering the phonetics but seriously, 4 syllables? After reading it the first several times and trying to work my way through it, I gave up and my eyes just started glazing over each time the name popped up.

In other words, be as creative as you want, just don't forget your readers!

- Inigo
(In-eh-go... 3 syllables, o snap!)

Well, Hermione has four syllables but it fits. I know what you mean. It needs to flow when you read it.

A lot of people have commented that either they love the name, "Sarah", or they hate it and would never use it because it's too common.

I just find that a bit funny, because that's my name.. :P

I can never use names of people that I already know. I can't do "Madison", because then the character would have to be a snob, and I can't use the name "Luke," because then the character would have to be amazing and smart.

Well, Hermione has four syllables but it fits. I know what you mean. It needs to flow when you read it.

When I read "Hermione" I think (Her-my-nee) so I only really hear 3 in my head, but I guess it's technically supposed to read something closer to (Her-my-o-nee) so I definitely see your point. But yeah, it just goes back to whether the name "flows" and Renesmee just didn't flow to me. I guess that's why I've always gone by the 3-syllable rule, anything in excess of that makes ME dislike my own characters (baaad).

- Inigo

This is really dumb, but I sometimes spend hours on baby-names sites trying to figure out names I like for my characters.

I do that, too. I wouldn't call that dumb. My favorite author growing up, Ann M. Martin, says she buys baby name books to pick names out of. Looking on the site is basically the same thing (and you don't have anyone thinking you're buying the book to name your unborn baby).

I don't want to be published, but I write stories to entertain myself, and I have a hard time choosing a character's name. I mostly like elvish names, gaelic, etc... you know these names that sound very ancient?

Have you tried going on baby name sites? They usually let you sort names by gender, origin, popularity, age, etc.

Choosing a name is definately a hard thing to do... I am an aspiring author well (hope to be published one day) and everytime I start a story I always go through tons of names. And it is not just the first names that are hard, but the last names as well- they have to fit just right or else it doesn't work right. I tend to start with the era I am writting in and look to see the most popular baby names of that time and then work my way from there. And I always try to pick names that aren't hurd much; most of the time I stay with in the 100-300 most popular names, but there are expections with certian names.

I just pick names I like, especially ones like Kendra "All-Knowing" for the smart ones, and then names like Spider for the creepy ones. Definitions are a great help, they really help to shape the character, so yeah, the baby-name sites are perfect.

Yeah, the definition of a name is really important; it's what really help the character to form.

My particular favorite character names belong to a crime-fighting duo: Tuberculo and The Boy Lunger.

For Earldust, the novel that I'm working on right now, I try to go for ''real world names'', but ones that sound kind of different. For example, my main character is called ''Camillia Cana'', and a secondary character is called ''Alexander Trevellian''. Both of them would not sound exactly out of place in real life, but they are still different enough to get by.

And using baby name sites is a good idea. The approach I like best is to analyse, however, how the names, especially surnames are constructed.

I always go on baby name cites and I usually like to use god and goddess names, but it takes me awhile to choose the perfect one. Ex. Two of the main characters in my story are Selene and Rhea.

I agree that baby name sites are a good place to start for first names, but for surnames (especially for those of us who write high fantasy), it's better to study how they are constructed in the real world, and then build parallel structures in the world of your novel. For example, most surnames in real life are tied to clan (what clan/family your ancestors belonged to back in mediaeval times, geography (where the original holder lived) or profession. Additionally, if one of your ancestors did some famous deed, he might be named after it, and his son might inherit that name.

It's often fun to build up similar names in your own world. Obviously in high fantasy, geography is different, so geographically linked names will change. Your world may or may not have clans, so that's optional. Professions may or may not be constant, but famous deeds will have to change.

For the two characters above, ''Cana'' is a city, and ''Trevellian'' is a clan name.

Well, I'm still trying to decide on character names for upcoming novels, if I ever start them, but I've got a few ideas to use for two novels. Both are psychological thriller themed with intense variation in narrative patterns between character perspectives, one being about doppelgangers and the other about the Jungian concept of the Shadow. After nearly eight years of being unable to start a novel due to a lack of interesting and unusual names, I've created the following name pool for important characters that I'd like to pick from:

Females: Lidane, Emilia, Aura, Linnea, Grace, Clea, Virginia. I'd like to include Layla as a nickname for one of these as well.

Males: Janus, Vergil, Gabe, Jude, Walden, Favian, Dante, Devin. If I follow up with the Layla idea, I may or may not nickname one of these "her Majnun."

Among all of these, however, the only full name I've already paired is Devin Petrucci.


@ Fiachra: You may want to be careful. Alec Trevelyan was the former partner and best friend of James Bond and main villain of the film Goldeneye.

@APolaris: Huh, I've never seen the connection, then again it's been years since I saw that movie. I blame my subconscious. =/

When I write stories I try to go with unusual names. Probably because my name, Jessica, is one of the most common names in the universe, and I would hate for that to happen to a ficitonal character I might create someday.

I have to say, I LOVED the name Luna :) And Hermione. They're so unique. Except they're so associated with HP now that nobody else can ever use them without being sued for plaigarism.

One of the names I really like is Tassanie. It's my cousin's name, but I've never met anyone else with the same name. It also sounds really pretty and kind of foreign, which I like.

I also used to have a thing for outlandish names, and always tried to make them a little different. Ex. Fayla, Reed, Nevva, it gets really bad but I still like these names XD. I once used Thaddeus I believe, and love it.

But over the years I've begun to develop a sincere love for the magic of ordinary names. Such as James. I absolutely adore that name. I also like Madeline [When pronounced as Mad-eh-lie-n], Roland, and Emilie. See how I do a less common spelling of Emily to make it look less plain? I just love the way these names flow, and sometimes a normal name can become magic to a writer. That's my opinion at least.

Or you can be like Jo Rowling, whose names are all unique and wonderful within themselves!

I just give characters names that I like, no special meanings or anything to them. In my first two novels the main characters are Erica & Jemima in the first one and Susie & Jill in the second.

I too want to be an author. Recently I have been brainstorming names. some are common and some are not:

Loa
Sphen
Jenna
Chris
Halley
Tayla (this is my favorite)
Caleb
Luke
Jocelynn
Jamie (female)
Evelyn
Sean
Jacqueline
Jayden
Addie
Alene
Trent (another one of my favorites)
Tresha
Zac
York
Jerome
Lauren
Dayna
Alexa
Jaden
Tallia
Mayra
Ayla
Mavi (last minute thought but still one of the best)

I love having creative and unique names, but I try to refrain from using them in order to not have them sound too 'Mary/Gary Stu-ish'. But I do love the names Emilie, Hayden, Lysander, and Aaron :) I use them when I write stories for school.

I found this (www.behindthename.com/random/) website for generating names. I usually try to choose characters' names on my own, but I think this site can be really helpful for coming up with unique names. I got a few nice names from it, :D.

That's a nice site, though not very helpful for me, who writes mostly Fantasy and/or Science Fiction, building my own worlds — which means I like to have my own unique names that aren't necessarily similar to a specific area in our world. Though I'll definitely find need for it when writing for school. :agree:

Names I've used are:

Nathaniel
William
Sage
Jace
Evan

Isobel
Sofia
Liliana
Niamh

Not that strange really, but I don't see them as common names. (Especially not where I live!)


And this (http://nine.frenchboys.net/index.php) website is actually quite good for names, character info, places etc. It means using a lot of help, but I find it good for inspiration.

I found this (www.behindthename.com/random/) website for generating names. I usually try to choose characters' names on my own, but I think this site can be really helpful for coming up with unique names. I got a few nice names from it, :D.

Oh wow, thanks for posting that! :) names are actually the thing I struggle with most, I don't know why, I just have everything else so well thought out and then struggle at the last hurdle.

My favourite name I've used so far is Lexi, for a character in story I'm writing.

My favourite name at the moment is Imperato :lol: It was the surname or something of a publisher for one of my history textbooks and I thought it sounded very Harry Potter-ish. I am determined to use it in something, though. I also have a chapter or two of a long since given up story somewhere in my house with the main character's name being Kayla, which I quite like, I might reuse it sometime.

I'm sort of obsessed with names, and I really like this thread. :)

These are some of the names for people in a story that I'm currently writing:

David Hansen
Daragh O'Hanlon
Simon Bennet
(these are the only three with last names too)

then there's:

Graham
Lily
Riley (female)
Callum
Noxon (male)
Vala (female)

There's also dog named Jersey. :)

Well, the most interesting thing I've made up is the name Mark Collins, and I'm pretty sure there are millions of people with that name. But that was my intention, it had to sound like a normal, ordinary name.

I grab good names from everyday life. I was tutoring a kid the other day, and his last name was Kesselring. I told him that I was stealing his name, and that someday he'd see he'd see it in a best selling novel. I think he was a little weirded out :lol:

I tend to use names of famous people because I feel confident if I do that. My main characters, the twins, are named Ian Misha Devyn and Everett Chris Devyn, which are, basically, my favourite names.

My MC is named Shiloh. His boyfriend is named Noel. His best friend is named Shannon. Shannon is not a girl. (:

I like to give at least one of my characters in anything I am writing a Welsh name. I like Medi (girls name, it's Welsh for September), Eira (again girls- Welsh for snow) and Seren (Welsh for star)
I'm beginning to veer away from Seren though because there seems to be a lot of people I went to school with who are naming their daughters Seren.

12 yr old girl-(Per)Seph(one)
14 yr old boy-Xavier
Mom-Katie
Dad-Raemonde,Pronounced Raymond.
Aunt-Shelly
Uncle-Mark
I tried to stay away from all tiny names,but it happens.

I used to work for a Human Resources department of a big corporation and love love loved filing personnel files because I got to see some really awesome names. I ended up copying the list of employees to an excel spreadsheet and splitting them into first and last names and alphabetized them so I could mix and match them and get more unique names like Marta Johanson rather than something boring like Mary Johnson. The first is still a 'normal' recognizable name but it's more interesting than the second and automatically tells you more about the character like where they might have come from.

For me, names are very important and I usually only give names to characters after they've developed a bit so that the name can fit the character. Unfortunately, I have so many ideas that I rarely stick to one long enough for it to actually grow into something. I like Samantha a lot. I use usual names such as Michael, Rebecca etc but I also like using less usual names or making them up. I once named a dog Peroni...I don't know why but I think it might have had something to do with the fact that he liked pepperoni :lol:

An extended list of names-
Russian girl-Svettlana
Polish boy-Philip
Prissy American-Tammy
Nerdy British Girl/Guy-Tabitha/Nicholas
Jock boy(American)-Tyler
Goth Guy/Girl-Shane/Taysia(pronounced Taysha)
Owl me for any help.

I like to keep my names simple: like Avery and Evan, I think are good.

I've been known to change names in mid-stream. :whistle:

I like really simple names.

Charles
Grace
John
Julie
Hank
Carrie