Character Names

I feel like my names just come to me, they're like I see the pictures i'm going to use or I picture the characters in my head and they just fit the names I choose. Not like the name meaning but they should be named that. Idk.

I'm kind of obsessive over names in my writing, they have to fit the character's back story for one. In The Shadows' Child, since a lot of the characters were born in different time periods and countries, I spent a lot of time looking for era-appropriate names. After that I usually look at name meanings to narrow it down; for example in Irish Ceara means 'little dark one', Michael was named for the archangel, field commander of God's armies and so on. All the characters' name meanings are somehow linked to their personality or their roles; I'm a bit of nerd about that sort of thing.

I usually just browse baby name sites until I find something that fits my character. But I'm pretty bad about falling in love with one name and using it lots of times.

I write before I name my characters and tend to name all the unposted stories several names the same; I have several characters called Riley and several characters called Lucian, for example. Before I pick names, I just put a proxy in the story its self and highlight it. Needless to say, none of them have been posted here (yet).

I am really bad about reusing a character name when I find one that I like. I just have a problem finding a name that I can actually tolerate using, because most of the time I know someone who already has that name, so it makes it hard to use it. Last names are really bad too.

For my past few stories, I've been guilty of looking up baby names and going from there when it comes to names, because I'm just horrible at coming up with one on the spot. I'm kinda anal about last names nowadays, too - it always has to match the character's heritage, or else it just won't feel right.

It took me forever to realize that I have two Anthonys, two Amys, three Joshuas (Josh, Joshie, and Joshua), and two Jameses. It wasn't intentional.