character names

[AmonRa]

i've been thinking about writing a short fantasy story recently just for the fun of it, and i've been wanting to get away from movies and video games and do something creative instead. i have the story drawn out in my head, what happens, what the world looks like, what the chars will be like etc etc. but im finding it hard to come up with fictional place/character names. so how do other people come up with names? is it just good imagination or could i use one of those internet name generators?

help plz ^_^

[Circus Cranium]

Just play around with it in your head, try to think of something original. I've actually gone as far as to look up names I've given characters to make sure they DON'T exist!

[Mark Robson]

If you look back through the older threads, there's quite a large number of posts about this very subject. I think that the title of the thread is the same as well! You might find something useful there.

[AmonRa]

ah yeh sorry, i probably shud have done a search before hand

[Maxwell Jennison]

You can find a good deal of name guides on the internet (Onomastikons I think they're called), many of which have meanings to them. If you have a mage that uses fire spells, for example, you can use a name that means flame in Celtic. It does take a little while, as you'd be sifting through page after page of old names. (I used to know a good site, but it seems to be down now).

Going to your local library and getting a book on baby names is also a good idea, especially if it has names from around the world or from different periods of time.

As for locations, you can name a town or two after the geography. For example, a town that lies on the center of a river could be split into North & South Creeksbend, or the like. You can name geographic locations after key figures (much like how we rename airports and streets after political figures in the States). So if you have some high king that's well respected throughout the land, you can name a marketplace after him. Or, if you want to be cute, you can name the haunted woods or something after him if he's a particularly bad ruler (this wouldn't be tha name on the map, of course, but the people might commonly refer to it that way). The George Bush Swamplands. Things like that.

Personally, I take out a piece of scratch paper and start putting down "tag names" (the one name the character is called most often, like Dan or Frodo). When I come across something I really like, I try to expand it out to a full name that still fits the character and the naming scheme I'm working toward. I do this by pulling stuff out of thin air.

After you get your character names selected, double check them. Make sure you didn't accidentally take it from another story or famous person or anything. I suggest that, at the least, you google your names. Then make sure that the names go well together. If you have names like Illysara de'Astimar and Dave Patterson together, something might be off. Also, if any two characters are inseperable, make sure their names sound pleasant together. Sam and Frodo doesn't sound too bad. But calling them Malakado and Richreevich would make it a pain to read about after a while. A good rule of thumb that I use is if my character names put me in a stuttering fit, I go back to the old drawing board.

Don't be discouraged when nothing comes to mind immediatly. After all, it is a process that takes time (it should if you're putting thought into it, anyway). Have fun with it; don't think of it as a chore.