Character Names

I depsise character names that are too unusual and just... stupid, and names that are way too plain. It puts me off and I leave the story. I think I like it right in the middle: meaningful with a good ring to it, not too weird or too boring.

I do the thing with the list of names too, but it's just unusual names of Welsh/Cornish/Scottish/Gaelic/Germanic origin, for my whole epic 'Laina' thing, on a crumpled piece of A4 paper shoved in the back of where I'm writing it. Plus names I've invented X]. Every now and then i just sit with that piece of paper and invent names all over it. There's some vaguely crazy stuff... *gets paper* Mosa, Delune, Carnovan(actually, I've turned that into a surname), Echan, Marisel, Chrosto, for chrissakes, that's the name of one of my main characters! I love being able to go OTT with this thing...

songbird.:

I depsise character names that are too unusual and just... stupid, and names that are way too plain. It puts me off and I leave the story. I think I like it right in the middle: meaningful with a good ring to it, not too weird or too boring.

See the thing with names is, they usually have personalities attached to them. Ashley's mean andinda slutty. Stephanie's a bit of a follower. Taylor is sweet and fun and usually doesn't get too bothered about labels.

Katrina is pretty. Gertrude's a beast. Jake's kinda hot, maybe has razor stubble and grey eyes. Harold is a nerd. Susan is a hard worker and cares about people.

Is it just me that has these...name prejudices?

I get my names in menny different ways,
like the name of a friend or family exp. Miranda from Diaries of a Teenage Vampire is named after my new baby sister,
or it cold be a name from another book/movie I like exp.Elizabeth from Elizabeth,
or it cold be something that came out of my one mind exp.Nocten from My Neigheor's a Vampire(not yet posted)

I have preconceptions with names too, usually based on people I've met with those names, or just what vibe I get off them.

I often make my names meaningful. Like, for a story about a beauty-obsessed world, all the girls' names meant 'beauty' in different forms.

I name characters when it feels right.


I usually go about thinking of a perfect name and sometimes I don't even look at the meaning. It just... is.

I name OC's what I feel matches their description, I think. Like, with my OC in PA, her name is Ainsley. I met a girl named Ainsley once, the sweetest - yet most stubborn girl you'll ever meet in your life, and that's what my OC was. So she was named Ainsley.
I also base them off people in RL, of course. :cute:
It's all depending, really. I try to avoid the name Aiden, however.

I believe one of the most annoying things to name a character is Helena, or something else from a song. It irritates me to the max.
Same goes for extremly odd or hard to pronounce names; unless they fit the character. I named my two OC's after people I know in real life. Emily was kind of shy, yet one of the sneakiest people you'd ever meet and Daniel was someone who I can see growing up and murdering someone under intense stress.
So, I based my characters off of them.

A lot of my characters are called Cory. Purely because, once, when I was asked what I would change my name to, I saw the word "Corinthian," Among others and thought it sounded beautiful and vivid.

So Corinthian

I find it so hard to name characters... I can search for names for ever and just not find something.
I try to stick to something that would fit though - like I look up names with certain personality traits or something that relates to my character.

Sometimes I try and match the name to the area, for example one of my stories is set in Wales so I looked for Welsh names. I ended up with a Gaelic one... So it didn't really work. :tehe:

I have lists of character names saved as a word document that I got off of here. I just went through every letter, picking the most bizzare and beautiful names I could find.
When naming characters, I like to use names you don't (or at least I don't) here everyday like Linnea or Adelaide or Zaylee. I guess I love using uncommon names so much because there's so many people with my name (Danielle).

I got my character's name from my favorite fanfiction in the whole world. But I changed the spelling and preserved the pronunciation.
Most of the time I get the names that sounds right with my character's personality.
just like lyrical_dujo, there are name prejudices that I consider when I pick names

It's always hard to choose names. Like, I never know what to choose and I usually end up recycling names.

I don't really put muchthought into names unless it's a fantasy fic.

in real life, your parents would pick the name because they liked it, they're naming you after some relative or they're gonna follow a name trend like fruit or where you were concieved and all that.

Names aren't always so entwined with the character's personality. I just try and aim for a name that sounds normal.

I choose my character's names by figuring out what their personality is going to be like. But a lot of the charaters that I have already have been made with the help of one of my best friends. We're writing a story together, but we won't post it and we have like 50+ characters that we use on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, I connt choose a favorite.

I use the names of people I have met over the years. Like Joy is a girl I met at Jamboree, which is a camp. Lani is the name of the bassist in a band called Elemeno P.

I just think up any name that may go with the personality. For example, I'm writing a joint story and the girl in it is named Lily. She's just a normal teenager.

I would never name a character Helena. Because everyone knows why! :cheese: And I don't even like MCR.

I usually name my girl characters Terra. Because I think that is a cool name and most of the girls are cheerfully violent, funny, tough rockers with wacko hair. :D

I wrote a massive list of names ranging from Milo to Caspain and everytime I pick a characters name it comes off that list, if it doesn't sound right, I pick another until I find one that fits or until there's none left.
I have one for girls and last names as well.

I like giving my characters names that spell out something goofy with the initials. It's kind of like an inside joke I have with myself...:shifty

I keep a Word document with a huge list of names that I add to whenever I hear or read one I like, and I usually just pick from there. And I love unusual names, because there's less of a chance of someone having the same name.