Naming Characters

Picking a name for the characters I have created is one of the best parts of creating characters. Sometimes you can end up being so fascinated with your character names that you end up with a whole list of names that fascinate you so you also need to tame your little research demon. The name of your character may change as you develop their history and personality but this is okay because unlike real life in fiction we’re allowed to choose our names without talking to a judge. 

1. Age appropriate - A 60 year old woman named Beyoncé would be ridiculous. The easiest way would be to search for popular names in the time period your character was fictionally born.
2. Setting Appropriate – very strange to find an pure American named Gu Jin Hu (unless his/her parents have very peculiar naming tendencies – a story in itself) so make sure that your character fits into the era and place of your character’s birth.
3. Easily Pronounced - Avoid names that don’t slide off the tongue easily. If you want to be more creative you can try combining two names like Daisy and Lilliana to have Daliana.
4. Nicknamed – rarely do people use each other’s real name so you can choose to give your character a nickname to replace their real name – sometimes. It may even be a source of discomfort to them.
5. Loaded names – if you’re going to give your character a name that has been popularized by a celebrity or by another great character like Oprah, Harry Potter, Romeo, Shakespeare or such, make sure the name has a big enough background to allow its use. Unfortunately choosing these names may make your book disappear in the crowd especially if your character is not as great as the predecessor or does not live up to the great name they possess.
6. Surname – don’t start the last name with the last letter of the first name. Lia Andre – you try it, it all just sounds like one word.

You can use name generators like Rink Works, search using baby name websites easily found online, phonebooks or even grave yards. When picking names that may appear in your writing avoid picking names for different characters that sound similar or start.