How do you choose your characters' names?

[Antaus]

With me I usually find something that sounds interesting, then fiddle with it. It can be totally made up, from a pre-existing word, or combination thereof.

Examples

Talinchanakaris - totally made up and an intentional jaw breaker

Magnox - derived from the television brand name Magnavox. Magnavox - av = Magnox

Spartac - Sparhawk is the name of character from a David Eddings book I read a loooong time ago. Hardtack is a type of biscuit. Sparhawk + Hardtack = Spartac

 

[C. A. Stanley]

There are so many ways you can do this...

I like to merge names. I tend to translate a few appropriate words into a couple of languages that have similar characteristics (not necessary linguistically, for example, Iceland and Russia are both cold, that'll do for me!), then mix and match and see what fits. Or I translate and use it as a foundation... One of my continents (hot, mainly desert) is called Ahtesk, improvised from the Turkish word for fire - ateş. The god on this continent is name Sham, from the Arabic word for sun - shams.

Or I take inspiration from history, or TV/film... I absolutely love the names Ragnar and Floki from Vikings, and so a lot of the names in one particular culture are Norse-inspired.

Rearranging letters is also an interesting method. Take a name that has letters you like (you may favour k or y or l), then spell it backwards, or swap some letters / syllables around. Probably a poor example, but the first thing that came into my head was Simba; this could become Abmis, or Sabim. Or add letters, Abmissa, Elsabim (I may actually use these names!). Depends what flavour you're going for.

I try different methods, and see what results fit the bill. It can be great fun, and checking out a word's etymology and translations is always interesting.

 

[Eric Hawke]

Basically switch around/add/change letter in existing names. Consider the character's personality, and give them a name that has the same "feel". Also, don't give main/secondary characters names that start with the same letter, it can get confusing.

 

[Crimstone629]

Personally, I typically name my protagonist in one of two ways. I either translate a word related to them into another language and maybe alter the spelling, or I think of names from the real world culture closest to the fictional one my protagonist belongs to. Sometimes I look up names from a specific country or time period, but not always.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Seriously! Don't listen to me on the subject of how to name characters! Y'all seem to know what you're doing. I've never researched the meaning of a name in my life. (I don't think.) Most of my characters end up changing names, too. I keep naming my characters after words I like. Bad idea? They don't always make much sense...

Has anyone ever had a character that just COULDN'T be named? I have one character for whom I've changed the name like four times and it STILL sounds wrong.

 

[Insolent Lad]

A few books ago I found I suddenly needed a name for a minor character so I called him Nidanem — pronounced need-a-name...

 

[Noxius]

First I find out how I want them to sound. Skandinavian, asian, german, or completly made up ith no connetction to our real world? Then I start with any name that comes to my mind that fits there, and write it down. Then I just play with the letters, change them, the constellation, etc., until I have something that I like.

For example, I have elves in my story, and I want their names to sound fantasy-like and to not be like names in our world, the closest they come to probably are Tolkiens elven-names.

I took the first name that came to my mind - Sabrina. After ten minutes of changing it around and throwing in some sounds that I felt like they would fit, Sanaera came out, which is now the name of my protagnist.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I don't know. A name pops into my head, if it sounds good and culturally appropriate, I run with it, if not, another appears. No real methodology.

 

[FifthView]

I have an acquaintance whose vehicle license plate looks like a great name. It slaps me in the brain every time I see it. I won't reveal the plate number for privacy reasons. But the problem is, there's only one real probable pronunciation for it, although it has six letters/numbers, and that would be something like "neo." Been used, done before.

I started reading a book last night in which one main character is called "Sheyne." Looks great; I love the look. But it stabs my brain in an unpleasant way because I know it's basically "Shane" w/ the author trying to be clever. (But then, I'm like that with real world people's names when I know the parents were trying to be clever with the spelling....)

 

[Gurkhal]

Here's a more expanded post from me regarding names, and in which I have illustrated with an examples in order to show how I do it. The character comes from a story translated into "the captive duke".

The languaged used for the character is Occitan (can't say exactly which dialects so I think that I've mixed between them fairly well). The personal names are from, to my knowledge, historical sources while the family name is from an online dictionary on Occitan where I've pretty much taken a word and corrupted it.

The example character is the following:

Duke Folquet de Agenara - With this name I wanted to draw association to being foolish and thus I took an Occitan name with a beginning similar to the English word "fool" and the "Agenara" name is based on "enganar" which is Occitan for "fool". The reason for his name being associated with fool is that, well, the whole story is created by him being played for a fool and regretting his mistakes which have hurt people close to him.

I hope it may help someone somewhere.

 

[Brian Scott Allen]

Oh it depends. I look at class and culture primarily. For example, I have a lawyer character from a rich family in another world. He is called Bertraud, it sounds all fancy. Then I have a young thief who is the first born of his family. His name takes the first half of his father's name, the second half of his mother's name and smashes them together to get Garren. Then I have a character on earth named Jude. Another character is named Wyet because he is a gunslinger like Wyett Urp and he is an angel of Death in mortal form to boot but was born to a low class family. I just kinda go with my gut more or less.