Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hello everyone!

As I work on my writing project, I often struggle with naming the characters. My imagination is really horrible on that matter. So, I thought I might share the things I've used as a source of ideas and ask what others use.

So, what I've used so far:
Names of stars/constellations (mostly in Latin)
Latin names of plants/animals
Nordic names (for dwarves)
"traditional noble" names (for human nobility)

Still, I'm short a few ideas to name some remaining characters, so I'd like to know what other people use as inspiration.

I've combined letters from names of people I know to create new names. My WIP has a character named Murid. I took the first three letters of my last name and combined them with the last two letters of my wife's maiden name. I've done similar things with animals to create new species.

I used that with the Latin names. For example, I took the Latin name of an apple tree (Malus pumila) and used snippets of it to create the name 'Lumilan'. The issue with this method is that I need to find two words I can play with instead of just one.

I've used a couple of different approaches. I often choose names based upon how they sound when read aloud. The other approach is to choose a name that seems to either reinforce or contradict the initial impression the character creates. The ones that amuse me the most are the ones that appear to contrast in some way.

Sometimes, I'll just use placeholder names until the actual names come to me, then I'll replace them all. I completely changed the names of two supporting characters right before I published my debut novel.

I'll often just choose random names I heard somewhere, or make up something that sounds good to my ear. Sometimes, I'll name a character after somebody I know.

There are lots of "baby names" site with names of various origins. I use that a lot. I also try to find names in mythology, with meaning or common point with the character I am writing. I try also to find historical names and see the history of the person who bear it and if there is some interesting point for my character.

Emmanuelle wrote: "There are lots of "baby names" site with names of various origins. I use that a lot. I also try to find names in mythology, with meaning or common point with the character I am writing. I try also ..."

I do this, too. I usually take a name from a culture I'm not familiar with.

Ben wrote: "Sometimes, I'll just use placeholder names until the actual names come to me, then I'll replace them all."

Yeah, I do that too. Unfortunately, the book is being worked on for 3 years already and I'd prefer to have more than placeholders now. The characters I'm looking to name now were originally to appear only once (maybe twice) so I did not intend to name them but eventually decided to use them in the sequels and so I realized a name would be good.

Baby names are something I might use when naming human characters but not so much for elves.

Tomas wrote: "Ben wrote: "Sometimes, I'll just use placeholder names until the actual names come to me, then I'll replace them all."

Yeah, I do that too. Unfortunately, the book is being worked on for 3 years a..."

For elves perhaps try celtic perhaps? There are some nice sites where you can actually find ethymology, origin and meaning for various languages. Good luck!!

I often use place holder names, as has been mentioned, or I'll use a name generator to help me out until I get a feel for how I want my names to sound. There are some really good name generators out there in addition to the tons of baby name sites that can be helpful.

Here are the name of two sites I find very nice to use:
Behind the Name : the etymology and history of first names

I love it because you have to meaning, origin and you can search by letters, type of languages etc.

And the other is more specific
Nordic Names
you can find the various 'nordic' origin, you can look by letter as well as by meaning.

Have fun!

There are a lot of ways to approach this and a lot of pitfalls to avoid, I think.

But in brief it's good to keep this in mind: “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.” ~ Confucius

In light of that, there's really no one path that works for all books. Consider your genre, your setting, your time period, the world's political, social, and cultural settings.

So you might want to look at all that and set naming conventions between the different geographic regions, political or religious groups. Think about important historical figures in the book's world that characters might name their children after (saints, philosophers, kings, warriors, heroes, mythological figures, etc.).

I'd suggest, however, trying not to be too cliché in the names you use. Tolkien set the standard for naming conventions in fantasy, but that came with a negative effect: how many elves and dwarves and whatnot in other fantasy books have stuck to Tolkien's naming style? Dwarves with names containing multiple consonants that end up sounding Norse, Elves with florid, poetic names. Orcs with short guttural names or names with nasty connotations.

You get points for originality (at least until your names are all unpronounceable).

Also, consider the tone of your book. If the book is a bit snarky, comedic, satirical, or even mildly self-conscious, then names that would never be used in the real world but which reflect upon the characters' personality or what they represent in the story are fine. But if it's a dead serious book you don't want to name someone Mr. Flirtypants. Just wouldn't sit right.

Simplicity has its pluses, and caveats. Common names are great when you don't want to confuse readers by throwing odd names around (or if you want to lull readers into a false sense of security before you drop the weird storyline on them). However, it's too easy to define "common names" solely within the scope of your real world experience. This can make things look too monocultural.

Pet peeves: names that just look like the author was making stuff up to be exotic, like names containing lots of Zs, Ks, Xs, and lots of hyphens and apostrophes. The problem there is that (aside from just being hard to pronounce) they can jerk the reader out of being absorbed in the book's world and force them to think about the process of the author coming up with a 'kewl' name for the Grand Poohbah of the Hyperbolic Fifth Dimensional Caustic Wizard-Priest from the Alien Tax Evasion Cabal and Quixotic Deli Slingers, whose name of course would be something like Z'kgglegwwyxzzz-Flitoggze. Personally, if I had a character like that I'd just call him Fred.

... In practice, though, I'm often with those who look at baby names.

I particularly like Sanskrit names as that is one of the great poetic languages of the ages.

I also like to take parts of different names and put them together. So you take a part of a name that you like the meaning of, and you tack on another meaningful part of another name.

A book I have in progress right now has a space ship, a generation ship, called the Sahadurga. On a list of Sanskrit names Saha showed as meaning "Enduring." And Durga (aside from being a goddess's name) can mean "impassable" or "something difficult to defeat or pass." So, the space ship's name in English might be Enduring the Difficult Passage, which is what a ship built to carry people across space for thousands of years has to do.

I also see that the word "saha" means "with." So it could also be interpreted as "With Durga" which would also be good since Durga is the fierce form of the mother goddess, a slayer of demons and a protector. If you were venturing across the dark void of space, you could do worse than go with Durga.

I may have gotten the definitions incorrect, but to me it's more important for the name to sound good and (at least in my mind) mean something that fits the story than for it to be technically correct.

Human name: Steve.
Elf name: S'Tev'e

I do the baby name but will also go and research for names by ethnicity or the most popular names in a specific year or decade. Then again, sometimes a name sort of sticks in my brain and won't go away until I use it. *growling*

Micah, I'm there with you on the fact that I hate names that are difficult to read, let alone to try pronounce. That's not just a lot of Z/K/X and ' but also special characters for me (so I avoid ¨,´,ˇand whatever else you can put above a letter). I want the names to be something that won't confuse the reader and should be easy to read (and hopefully easy to pronounce as well).

Anyway, thank you again for sharing your opinions - and I hope more people will come to add theirs.

First question is always what kind of story you have? Hard-core high fantasy? Contemporary? Sci-fi? Any aliens? Etc.

If you build your own world, you set your own rules for names too. Just try to be consistent.

Ideas and tips that may help here and there:
- Try to pronounce it, knowing the language they speak. Everyday names should fit reasonably well into common speech. One of the reasons we tend to use nicknames.
- If the character has a clear ethnic background (by blood or upbringing) do some research on related names. As mentioned, baby name lists are a good start. Don't forget to check for similar words at least in the most popular languages though. You don't want to end up with a good sounding, innocuous looking name that has a funny meaning in another much spoken language ;)
- For main characters and ones with special role, it is sometimes a good idea to investigate the meaning and/or origin of the name.
- Names vary by language (sometimes even within a language), region and time. In most cases they are not wrought in stone.
- When looking for a 'random' contemporary name, I sometimes look at the end credits of a movie. You can surely end up with a good choice.

Zoltan: yes, it's very close (if not) high fantasy and I'm missing a few elven names in this specific case, though hints for anything in general can be useful - for more than just me.

Zoltán wrote: "- When looking for a 'random' contemporary name, I sometimes look at the end credits of a movie. You can surely end up with a good choice."

Whenever I see a big list of actual names I usually come away thinking "Man ... real names are so much weirder than fiction!"

I get character names from all over the place.

First novel, I named my central character Delbert (Del) Brewer as I wanted something that felt old-fashioned and redneck. His love interest has two names: Nadia (meaning "hope") Popescu (meaning "priest") is her real name and her stage name is Ruby Hart (meant to conjure an image of a playing card or Valentine). Del's friends are Lamar Kennedy (another redneck feeling name) and Apryl Kennedy (which is meant to say "redneck rock 'n roll"). His parents are Bill (short, simple name) and Sybil (slight hint that one needs to pay attention to everything she says).

Second novel, I named my main character Ben Chad Starn (an anagram for Bandersnatch - his first appearance was in a short story that is overflowing with references to Alice In Wonderland). Other major characters are Patrick Masters (he's a boss and a manipulator), Mim Johnson (first name after a John Updike character, last name 'cause it's common), Debbie Adobe (because I love the sound of it), and Claude Bonhomme (first name sounds like "clod" as in "dirt", last name basically means "good man").

I could go on forever. Out of all my stories, I have hundreds of characters and nearly every name has a reason behind it.

I have found inspiration for names in numerous places. Once I was at a stop light, I looked up and saw the name of the road I was at, and that gave me name I needed.

For ethnic sounding names, baby name generators are great. It can be time consuming to find one that "sounds" right. The good thing is some include the translations or meanings of the name. Thus, if you want a name that means "flower" and "lightning", you can browse until you find it. Likewise, good ole google translate will do the trick too.

@Dwayne: be careful :), "Bonhomme" is a little more complex than just " a good man". You could look for "Bonhomme Carnaval" for Québec and "Bonhomme Michelin" you'll have a surprise :) also, when playing with figurine you can say "jouer aux petits bonhommes" and, finally it can also have a slightly negative connotation in French and French Canadian. It's like your old uncle, with his bad jokes and dubious behaviour at party. :p

Emmanuelle wrote: "@Dwayne: be careful :), "Bonhomme" is a little more complex than just " a good man".

I checked in at least five different surname dictionaries before I started using the name. They all say it's an old French surname that means "good man". I know about Bonhomme Carnaval and Bonhomme Michelin. They don't have any impact on the meaning behind the surname.

In the stories, Claude doesn't talk about the origins of his name and the narrator mentions only once that Claude's father is of French descent. It's too late to change it, as he's appeared in one short story and a huge novel and I can't go back and rewrite them. Lastly, I wouldn't change it if I could, as I adore my little Claude just the way he is.

Dwayne wrote: "Emmanuelle wrote: "@Dwayne: be careful :), "Bonhomme" is a little more complex than just " a good man".

I checked in at least five different surname dictionaries before I started using the name. T..."

I wouldn't change it either, in real life, lots of names are meaning something funny in another languages. I didn't meant to sound as if it was something bad and I am really sorry if it came out like that. it's just that we were speaking about hidden meaning and, being French I couldn't pass this. I tried to add some pseudo 'smiley face' to show if was all in good fun, and, once again, I am sorry it came out badly.

I tend to use names that add a layer to the feeling of place and time. In the past I used the names of obscure saints in book centred around a modern version of the inquistions. I also used trades in foreign languages were is suited the mood and time. If the names are just random and don't add something - even if it's not obvious - I tend to look for something that does.

Emmanuelle wrote: "I didn't meant to sound as if it was something bad and I am really sorry if it came out like that."

Oh no. No. You're fine. Maybe it's because I rambled on a bit that it seemed that I was upset by your comment. Not at all. I was excited for a chance to ramble about Claude a bit. Thanks!

Dwayne wrote: "His love interest has two names: Nadia (meaning "hope")"

A bit late reply to that: I've used this one as well, as the inspiration for Princess Nadyenne.

My latest idea is that I might use google maps or something and try looking at the names of Greek towns. Maybe those will help for some ancient-sounding name inspirations.

I use Fantasy Name Generator, especially with this sci-fi book I'm doing (about a bounty hunter from 2323 who hunts alien wrongdoers). Kinda helps. I mix the names around or improvise.

I started using baby name websites a while back and I haven't looked back since. It often takes me a while to find a name that fits and sounds right. My fantasy world is kind of a mish-mash of names I got while trying to make them "sound like fantasy names" and names I just made up and names from various countries around the world.

Sometimes, like in a certain town or short story or family there will be a "system" but these systems are loose and often overlap or completely don't apply and I think that's realistic as when you look at names in the real world things are never cut and dry and origins and sounds and meanings of names can surprise you.

I assume OP and most of the responses relate to fiction. My challenge was writing nonfiction for a memoir: I used an interesting mix of actual names (family, individuals still in my life) and pseudonyms for the many who were flawed in some way but are not around to defend themselves or express their perspective

For my first novel, many character names were exit signs on I90 heading into Wisconson. Like Dane Delevan.

I invent a fair amount of character names. Being a fantasy author, I can get away with doing that. Not all my character names are wildly eccentric or difficult to read/pronounce.

I also compile a list of interesting names which I might find elsewhere, maybe in newspaper articles, or even the end credits of TV shows and movies. I go to my list when I need a new character name.

When I'm stuck for character names, I use Fantasy Name Generator and also Behind the Name.

You have some good sources. You might also try using baby-name books intended for expecting parents. Some of them will give variations of a name and the connotations associated with them. For example, William, Bill, Billy and Willy. Each, according to the books, tells something about the personality projected by the name. I did that and it helped me.

I bought a book from my local library some ten years ago which was all about first names - the history and lists of popular names (both UK and US) plus names in the Middle Ages, meanings, history etc. Its been absolutely invaluable especially when it comes to getting names 'set' in the right era. Might be worth checking libraries for other such books. This one is called First Names First by Leslie Alan Dunkling.

Nice! Thanks for the refernce!

Most of my British, Canadian, and American characters have relatively generic names (with one major exception), as I try to portray them as common people in uncommon circumstances. All of my Russians are straight out of the NHL players list but I usually mix the names around.
One character has an exceptional name. A former co-worker had a great name: Sabrina Anne-Marie Magdalene D---e. I told her that it was such a great name that if I ever wrote a book, I would name a character after her, and I did. I changed her last name, and changed Magdalene to Madeline. I felt that it really helped to underscore the religious aspects of her family history and upbringing, and give more depth to the crisis of faith that was central to the events of the book.

The four major factors that influence my naming conventions are:
1. The region/ time place where I am writing (I use census data for this, or records of deaths)
2. The name's meaning, as they sometimes plays into the theme or various subtexts I am going for, sometimes my writing has elements that isn't immediately clear, but is there if the reader can identify it. I use multiple thematic elements, and names are just one of them.
3. the language affect when spoken, which isn't often, but being an auditory writer, who a name sounds sometimes plays a small influencer on its selection.
4. In creative worlds for speculative fiction the language created and the general milieu can determine name creation.

I also find random name generators a good starting tool. In addition to the ones that have been mentioned, I like this one, which is based on US Census data. It offers an option to generatr only rare/obscure names—and that can be pretty fun.

Namey! A random name generator