Character Names

How do you guys come up with character names? Every story I make I end up stopping there because I can never come up with a good name.

Well normally that would work in a complete fantasy world, but my story for Nanowrimo is going to be set in America in the very near future.

Such things exist?!?!?

Muhahahah!

http://www.behindthename.com/random/

Awesome.

When I choose characters, I sometimes name them after other people I have close relationships with, or who were in books I enjoyed.
Such as a story I wrote where the main character was named "Harry Benson", after the main character in The Terminal Man.

Why do names have to be "good". Hell take names some of the names that people like John Grisham and Dan Brown have come up with. Pure, boring shit. And Harry Potter? Come on...

It's about how interesting the character is, not what he's called, unless he's not of this world.

I never find that those random name things work so well. Then again, I work out names by what suits a person, I'm the type who will be introduced to someone, or find out their name and think "wow, she doesnt look like a sarah!".

When I think of names, I imagine I was talking to my character, in their time, and then what name it feels natural to call them, if I just wanted to say their name in a conversation, or call out to them to show them something I noticed, or ask them to pass the salt. The little things where it would be more natural to use a name than not.

It doesn't have to be "good" it just has to sound like a real name. For me, naming a character is like naming your child. You know what your child looks like and where you want them to go, you just have to find a name that will suit them well on their journey.

Ugh, I could use some pointers there myself.
All my character names grate on the ear, and come off the tongue like a Jolly Rancher with a razor air bubble.

Male lead hero's first name has to begin with "J"...

The baby name thing is a good idea, because it gives you the meaning of the name, which you can sometimes use as a subtle subtext. Not that you want to go all Pilgrim's Progress and give people Really Significant Names like Constance and Prudence, etc., but sometimes it's cool to, for instance, name a character Jacob (which means "supplanter") if you intend to make him a thief, or a guy who likes to sleep with other guys' wives.

You can do tributes, to friends or famous people/characters, but you might want to change them a little in case someone takes umbrage. There's a female character in the Pike novel who's named after the protagonist of Martin Cruz Smith's Renko novels (Gorky Park, Polar Star, etc.) Arkady Renko becomes Arkadia Renkova, and if Mr. Smith reads Trek novels, I think he'll appreciate the reference and, if he doesn't, no harm, no foul.

Alien names are even more fun. But since that's not what you're looking for here, I'll save that for another time.

I agree with Miniborg and Garamet here and think you could go either way - make them mean something, or just use names that you think 'fit'. Or a combination of the two. Anyway, there are so many derived names that you're not stuck with a stupid name even if you're hooked on one particular meaning.
Personally, unless I get a name that's sticks from the start, I sometimes find I change my mind about the name halfway through a story. The character grows and I realise the name doesn't suit him/her. Btw. I have that with first names. Last names usually pop into my head, and all I need to do is a quick search on the internet to find out who else has that particular name. If I have a name that really works (like for my main character), the name itself can conjure up the image of the person, the atmosphere I want to put into the story, the works. I have such a name now, and actually think I am going to skip choosing a first name entirely, as I fear ruining the image. It feels like a typical Dutch name, yet the national phone book doesn't list a single one (though one comes really, really close, like Vermeer -> Vermere)

Anyway, I think it's a missed opportunity not to do something with a name, at least that of the main character.

That's funny...all of mine do. What's your reason?

And for some reason there's Garamets all over the Trek Universe...

At least you catch it that soon.

I'd give anything to go back, and change Celine the android chick to Penelope.

I thought she'd be a one off character, so the first appearence it didn't matter, but now that I ended up finding other things for her to do, I cringe cuz I keep conjuring up that damned frenchie and her awful overplayed Titanic song.

Celine, yechh, she looks and acts more like a Penelope to me.
But, too late, it's out there now.

It's just the way it has to be...


Ah, found the thread again...

The J-Men

And btw:
I think it's just fine that way.

When you write fanfiction, that's not much of a problem

But still, I sometimes just go with a name that sounds ok or one that I like.

What about Mal Reynolds?

I just go with Porn names.

Seems to keep people's interest.

*Stud Hungswell agrees!*

He's special. But it still works with Firefly - Jayne.

Come on man, use your imagination, can't she have some kind of robotic identity crisis and change her name?

If you're going for realism, remember how real names are created: Parents name their child. Who were this character's parents? What resources would they use, what criteria would they value in naming their child? If you haven't done so all along, this will also force you to reflect on the character's origin and childhood, which is always a good thing.

Character names usually just sort of pop into my head. If not, there's the phone book, or (don't laugh) walking thru a local cemetary looking for cool names.

I don't lift them directly, tho. I'll take this one's first name and that one's last name, stuff like that. Sometimes change the spelling a little.

For the foster-father of my longest-running character, I used a Japanese actor from a Godzilla movie, with a minor spelling change. See, the guy's name had to sound Asian . . .

walking through the phonebook confirmed that a lot of names are taken from old professions (A. Miner or John Coal), notable features (John Little), regions or cities (Betty van Gent). Many of these sound strange when translated in English, though.. here are some real examples of common Dutch names translated..
S. Helmet (S. Helm)
H.A. Hell
C. Basement (C. Kelder)
J. Cemetery (J. Kerkhof)
C. Cherrytree (C. Kersseboom)
W. Cook (W. Kok, former PM)
T. Hedge (T. Haag)
A. Swanfield (A. Zwaaneveld)
M. Sword (M. Zwaard)
D. Miller (D. Molenaar)
M. Emperor (M. Keizer)

etc. and so on..

Same here... strange...

I love meaningful, metaphorical, ironic, or referential names. Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson. Daisy Miller and Frederick Winterbourne. Norman Bates. James Tiberius Kirk. Jay Gatsby. Modesty Blaise. Jake Gittes. Dave Bowman. Bill Kilgore. Victor Laszlo. Bruno Anthony. Frankie Dunn.

I doubt I would've caught garamet's tip to Martin Cruz Smith's Renko series (I've only seen the movie Gorky Park), but I would enjoy it all the more if I did.

In the NaNoWriMo contest, my story's main protagonist has the rather unlikely (but meaningful) name Rocco Pescaderi.

Pinky's brother?