A random thought about names

[zenzi]

I was wondering how the people here come up with their character names? I myself tend to try and find real life ones that are in accordance to what culture I think the character grew up in. Like for example my character in adylheim grew up in a place that seemed German so I named her Zenzi, a german name. I know others have other ways of naming their characters and some even go by the High Fantasy tradition of oh I know I'll name him Ecer cause he has latent ice magic and thus has to be some clever rehash of what he can do.

So I thought sense we still have no idea what we are going to do with this yet I would post this up to get some brain storming going.

Comments

[perowans]

I don't use random name generators nor do I flip through a book of names. Instead, I just... think them up. Something that sounds appropriate. I don't try to give their names any explicit connection to secret abilities they have. The key is that it reflects their culture and gender and sounds cool. I also tend to spend like an hour fiddling around with a name, morphing it here and there. Like I started out with Guatama and an hour later I had Gwyshton. But for not so major chars I just make them up on the fly. Don't know how to describe it any better than that.

[dray]

I usually wind up making my names genre specific to fit in with the world, either based off of other names that I've seen used in that world, or based off of the kind of culture that the settings using.

I've got a couple of (old, old old) Matrix-fandom characters whose names are based off of things -- Crank and Guardian... which is cheesy but hey, the whole fandom was cheesy. XD

For my friend's fantasy setting, her dragon-based culture utilizes a lot of latin in its naming system so the character I play there, Laedo Ledo, was name-picked after poking through some latin to english translators.

For games that are based in the current day, I look through the most popular baby names of the year that my character was born to try to pick something that sounds appropriate. (One thing that presses my buttons for some weird reason is seeing an RP set in the current day in some small town where 98% of the characters have these pretentious, completely unlikely names that are popular now amongst the teen and preteen crowd, but wouldn't have existed back when said characters were born! XD Arg!)

I don't know. My names are usually pretty unoriginal. I like doing the research before throwing a name together or else I wind up with something like 'Agate' which doesn't fit anywhere, anyhow. :x

[scarlet]

I think that the best way to describe how I name my characters is give an example of the process I go through. Here, I am just going to cite the three main characters in my writing universe (because I use different methods for each of them):

1. Isabelle Sterling
Isabelle – “Isabelle” was expanded out from “Isabel”, a character from Enid Blyton’s St. Clare’s books. As a child, I loved Enid Blyton – she was one of my early muses. I also chose “Isabelle” because it was a “royal name”. Everyone in Isabelle’s family is named after a royal character, present or historical.
Sterling – I was looking for a last name that sounded obviously rich and wealthy (something that screamed MONEY but not “Money”, you know) – and linked Isabelle to her English heritage.

2. Damien Cavanaugh
The main consideration in naming this character was the fact that I specifically wanted his initials to be D.C.
Damien – I took this from the musician Damien Rice, whose music I love. I have also always had a soft spot for this name.
Cavanaugh – It took me a very long time to settle on this last name – the longest for any of my characters. I just couldn’t find a name suitable. One night, I went to sleep keeping Damien in mind. The next morning, I awoke with “Cavanaugh baby” repeating itself in my head; it practically had a tune to it, too. Damien Cavanaugh was christened that very night.

3. Lucinda Kendall
Lucinda – This started off with “Lucy”. The character has always exclaimed, “Call me Lucy!” Lucy stuck because this character was created to be the light of Damien’s life. I expanded it to “Lucinda” because she had very conservative parents and because I thought “Lucy” was too simple a name for a woman like her.
Kendall – This was easy! I saw it on an alcohol swab (I work in a hospital) and thought, “Hey, this works!”

Of course, the fiction I write is set in contemporary London and New York City, which plays some role in my choice of names, too.