How do you choose your characters' names? (chat)

[destinysWalrus]

I tend to be a bit weird about names sometimes. Like picking meaningful names or thinking about what the name 'feels' like. Though I admit I do like random name generators sometimes.

So basically, I want to know how other people picked names for their characters.

If you remember the origins of certain character-names of yours feel free to post them (though I'd suggest not putting the actual name, just the origin - unless you want everyone to know that character's yours... *shrug* Doesn't much matter to me)



Mine:

Dead Characters
1 - Suzy - I was in a phase where I liked that name
2 - Myre - Shortened form of the name of a dragon from the Elvenbane books
3 - Skif - Stolen from the Valdemar books
4 - Lucia - First name that came to mind
5 - Maya - Stolen from one of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney characters (English name)
6 - Izora - Random name generator, I think
7 - Eyeball - Was in one of my 'weird-character' moods, picked first normal word that came to mind
8 - Diana Widdershins - first name stolen from Anne of Green Gables character, last name a word I rather like meaning "the wrong way, counterclockwise"
9 - Triannon Akayla - first name from an online choose-your-own-adventure I run, last name probably random generator
10 - Katia Rookwood - first name from Prequel webcomic, last name from random generator
11 - Rhona - probably random generator

Living Characters
1 - (two names) - first name from Valdemar books, last name a word I like meaning "in the dark"
2 - (changed name) - original name from Merlin books by T. A. Barron, current name.... pulled out of thin air
3 - (two names) - both names from random generator
4 - shortened form of the name of a dragon from the Elvenbane books
5 - a word from a language in the Valdemar books, meaning "beloved"
6 - (two names) - played with words from a song in Hebrew (I think) which mean "I will sing to the Lord"
7 - (two names) - referencing a race from Discworld books who are rather fond of "drinking, fighting, and stealing"
8 - (two names) - first name's an Irish name meaning either "kernel" or "fire", second name's a gemstone for joy
9 - a name I like the sound of
10 - a character from the Anne of Green Gables books with many nicknames
11 - (two names) - first name's a name stolen from Acorna books, last name's a variation of a species from same books
12 - the name of a dragon from the Temeraire books

Overall:

Normal Names: 4ish
Stolen from book/game/comic/music: 15ish
Meaningful: 5ish
Random Generator: 3.5ish
Other: 2

Edited for dead character names

[AniCator]

I use my brain and it tells me things and I then use those things as names.

The process usually goes like this:

• Me: I need name, brain.
• Brain: Ok, hold on mate I'll go have a look.
• Me: *hums*
• Brain: What about Foster Frecklebottoms?
• Me: Hmm... Keep the first name. We're going to need a different last name. Something more cool.
• Brain: Hyggins?
• Me: Deal.

And that's how the cookie crumbles.

Edit: Just as a sidenote. I don't think coming up with a meaningful name is really useful since your characters become meaningful through their acts most of the time. Not their names.

[destinysWalrus]

I use my brain and it tells me things and I then use those things as names.

The process usually goes like this:

• Me: I need name, brain.
• Brain: Ok, hold on mate I'll go have a look.
• Me: *hums*
• Brain: What about Foster Frecklebottoms?
• Me: Hmm... Keep the first name. We're going to need a different last name. Something more cool.
• Brain: Hyggins?
• Me: Deal.

And that's how the cookie crumbles.

Edit: Just as a sidenote. I don't think coming up with a meaningful name is really useful since your characters become meaningful through their acts most of the time. Not their names.

I am mildly entertained by your brain's process of coming up with names, though that's probably how I do it when I don't steal names from places.

As a reply to your sidenote: What I meant by a "meaningful name" is something that fits the character idea I had when I started the character. Like, if I have a character who's going to be kinda ... 'prickly', I'll look for a name that suits that - whether through name meanings, abuse of google translate (by running related words through the translator until I find one that looks good as a name), or just the way it sounds when I say it.

[Armulus Satchula]

I often combine two words from something i'm currently looking at.

Calendar... Monitor... okay, those are the letters i have to work with.

Malen Coiter.

I've also used http://www.babynamesworld.com and built character names based on the theme i wanted for the character. So maybe i have an angry woodsman. I might look up a first name that's origin is angry and last name deals with a forest or wood working.

[Xander]

My currently living ones -

1. Named after an OC character of mine from some bad fanfiction I used to write. First name is a name I like, and surname is the name of his sister, who was a canon character in the programme.
2. First name is the name I like from the first one, plus my paternal grandmother's maiden name. Clan name added later in his life.
3. Diminutive of that first name again, plus a random Slavic surname that fits with the diminutive as it's Russian.
4. First name I like (I know, I know), plus another random Slavic surname.
5. Spanish first name and random Spanish second name, although the first name is one I've read in history articles and I liked the sound of it.
6. Another name I like, plus my paternal grandmother's maiden name.
7. Random name, plus name of her wife.
8. Another name I like, plus the maiden name of the mother of a friend from years ago chosen at random.
9. First name given to him by a friend, surname is that of his now deceased girlfriend.
10. Random name, surname is the name of the town.
11. Only has one name, a name I like that he doesn't share with my four oldest but does share with 6.
12. Only has one name, I like that he doesn't share with the first four but does share with 8.

[Snickie]

Deceased:
1. Hanatewakusoshiseotadashiiteteriyakisuzukihondacivic - Ryan Higa's joke long name. He went by Amura, which is the name of a sushi restaurant in Orlando. He was my Asian character and thus had an Asian name.
2. "Chee" Sue Peter - It was something of a pun.
5. She had two names in her lifetime. The first, Isabella Machiavelli, was a name I liked, and Italian. When she left the Pok group in shame and to go relearn how to talk, she didn't want anyone to recognize her, so she wore a facewrap and took on the name Menvra Botticelli - Menvra was the Etruscan god after whom the Roman Minerva was named, and Botticelli because it's still Italian (but she didn't know that).
7. Stella Kras - This character was modeled almost entirely after my dog, so naturally she held the name as well. She adopted Drake Kras's last name.
8. Narrator - because he was a narrator. (No, his name was not Ze Narrator. Narrator was very picky about that. )
11. Madrid - It was either Madrid or Mildred. I rolled a dice and went with Madrid.
12. Seck - Name of an evil character group on an old PC game.
13. Elizabeth - named after one of my cats.

Living:
3. Snick - after my cat Snick. Only naming her because it's painfully obvious I play her.
4. Clever pun, female spoof of one of Ally's deceased characters.
6. Modeled after a real person I know irl
9. Spanish character. I just wanted a cool-sounding name with a q in it. The only one who figured out a name after she spawned.
10. Real first name.
14. Street name in my town.
15. Street name in my town.

[kicking jay]

Much of the time, I let wherever I end up settling choose my char's names. Otherwise, I use a random name gen or something. Either way, I often adopt the name of the town they live in as their last name.


Of course, there are those chars who start out with the name and personality of some other character from a work, but they usually end up way different from the original character as the years pass in Cantr.

[*Wiro]

My current favourite characters didn't receive a name until day 2 or later. The ones that spawn pre-named aren't as good, though with time they usually recover from the poor naming.

[Doug R.]

I use my brain and it tells me things and I then use those things as names.

The process usually goes like this:

• Me: I need name, brain.
• Brain: Ok, hold on mate I'll go have a look.
• Me: *hums*
• Brain: What about Foster Frecklebottoms?
• Me: Hmm... Keep the first name. We're going to need a different last name. Something more cool.
• Brain: Hyggins?
• Me: Deal.

And that's how the cookie crumbles.

Edit: Just as a sidenote. I don't think coming up with a meaningful name is really useful since your characters become meaningful through their acts most of the time. Not their names.

This

[Poldora]

Dead:

No.1 - Username I used in general from when I was into elvish themed names
No.2 - Male version similar to number 1
No.3 - My name
No.4 - Loved the name at the time
No.5 - She was going to be blonde and wanted something that meant light, loved the sound of it.
No.6 - Kinda went with an a ending theme before kicking myself later.
No.7 - Loved the name - still do
No.8 - Wanted a twist on a name
No.9 - Wanted a red head and a name to match
No.10 - Loved the name - still do and now have another character with it as this one was short lived - very different though.
No.11 - The nickname my uncle gave me
No.12 - Adore the name
No.13 - Loved the meaning
No.14 - From a book - made me think of honey
No.15 - The meaning, love the name as it is now
No.16 - Liked the origin, inspired by my old history teacher
No.17 - Couldn't think of one, wanted stereotypical male in a sense
No.18 - My uncles first name
No.19 - Loved the name - still do
No.20 - From a book plus as my twentieth character wanted something to do with my birthday
No.21 - Loved the name, and the meaning
No.22 - The meaning

Deads since returning:

No.1 - Program on tv
No.2 - Love the name and the connotations
No.3 - The name of a fictional wolf plus meaning
No.4 - Love the name
No.5 - Loved the name before, and again
No.6 - Meaning

Alive:

No.1 - Meaning
No.2 - Cute name
No.3 - New username which I use and the main character in a novel I'm trying to bring together
No.4 - Love the name, reminds me of an old obsession with a time period
No.5 - Boys name which I like the sound of
No.6 - Meaning
No.7 - Book I once read
No.8 - Love the name
No.9 - Reused from before
No.10 - Loved both the name and meaning
No.11 - Meant lioness, which was perfect for what I envisioned her
No.12 - Welsh origin, love it
No.13 - Inspired by a hoodie


N/B: By meaning, I often do try to find the perfect word origin to match a particular look, not always actions.

[SekoETC]

Dead characters:

1) Maline. This character is going to be a painter. Take the Finnish word for paint, add a common surname suffix, no that doesn't sound a good name for a woman - drop a couple of letters until it sounds better

2) Seko. Finnish word for crazy or nutjob, since the character was a sort of a village idiot

3) Sven Tufva. Name of a literary folk hero spelled a bit wrong.

4) Jaina Hunter/Valjean. Originally name of a Star Wars sequels character I liked, last name Hunter because her back story was that her father was a hunter and taught her everything she knew. When skills were implemented, she was suddenly awkward at it, so she took the last name of a recently deceased character.

5) Hannah Romain. I don't remember where this one came from but it just sounded cool to me.

6) Jonas Kooth. Again something that sounded cool to me. Vaguely Dutch?

7) Gahak Jordan. I think the first name came from slamming the keyboard and taking a stream of letters that sounded right, then adding a common surname.

8) Maryan Tusca. Something that sounded cool and sort of Italian, because this character had dark hair and generally looked Italian.

9) Dove Trevol. Random last name that was later changed. I don't remember where I came up with the first name.

10) Pharap Jahrot. Most likely hit random letters on the keyboard and picked a string that sounded good.

11) Yvonne Rapothraw. For the last name, hit random letters on the keyboard. First name - I don't remember. Seemed to fit the character.

12) Nayome. Twist on Naomi.

13) Gunilla Ekholm. Random Swedish sounding name.

14) The Dark Incarnation. A title rather than a name. Was supposed to be sort of ominous.

15) Marceidus Starborn. First name twist on Mercedes, a character from "Once Upon a Time... Space". Last name Starborn because she believed to come from another planet.

16) Jay. Random short name (this was a village idiot)

17) Bessie Rae Gardner. Three part name, sounded country and sort of old fashioned.

18) Kenneth Ignathius. Baby names world.com, both names mean short-tempered or something, but the last one is spelled a bit differently.

19) Haydee Beckett. Original name was just something that sounded cool, but she got traumatized as a newspawn and refused to tell her real name to people unless she'd known them for years, so everybody called her Secret. That was like the coolest thing ever.

20) Eevi Kuolemanenkeli. Random Finnish name, later adopted the last name Angel of Death because she wanted to kill sleepers. Lived alone for the rest of her life.

21) Brighton Hakim. Both of his names mean light. I don't remember for sure but maybe he had dark complexion to make it a pun. Not sure about this one.

22) Kahalata (later just Jack). Originally a twist on Kalaghata spelled differently, but he quickly adopted a more common name and very few people ever knew his spawning name.

23) Ayana Calandria. A cool sounding name. Baby names world may have been involved.

24) Originally spawned Faith, got gender confused after a traumatic experience and went with a male name from Rent musical (Roger).

25) Bernadine Aikens. I again wanted something that sounded cool, although it was hard to pick between Bernadine and Bernadette, but you can all agree Bernadine sounds cooler.

26) Cole Bach. First name probably chosen because it means dark one. Went with a cool sounding last name, had to be short.

Living:

1) Baby names world.com, for small dark one.

2) Cool Celtic sounding name. Didn't remember there used to be another character by the same name on the same island, fortunately that one was long dead.

3) Named after a Moomin side character, got a last name in game from another character, because first she was going with Rabbitkiller, and the other character thought that's an awful name for a beautiful woman.

4) A name that sort of sounds like a type of potatoes.

5) Was supposed to be some sort of an omen that bad things would happen to her, and some have but she's still doing relatively well.

6) Both names mean easygoing or something. Was his initial personality.

7) A traditional long name. I envisioned her friends would give her a shorter nickname but she didn't really have friends, so she became very stiff and formal.

8) Spawned without a name, took a name with an environmental theme, then later came up with a cool sounding adult name.

9) I'm not sure where this one came from, probably just sounded cool.

10) From a Vampire Weekend song.

11) I figured this character would be like the crazy cat lady from the Simpsons and came up with a name that sounds fitting.

12) Name means lion. African theme.

13) Spawned without a name, let town people suggest and repeated the first one that sounded suitable. It stuck.

14) Cool sounding random name.

15) This one just popped into my head so I had to spawn him.

[bnlphan]

I often take names of people I know or have known. Exaggerate they personalities and wham..I have a character, their looks and their speech patterns Or I just name one after one of my dogs. Otherwise its famous people. I have characters based on Jimmy Buffett and Ernest Hemingway.

[Snowdrop]

1. Goes by a nickname, but proper name is what I was/am considering possibly changing my name to IRL. It includes my maternal grandfather's mother's maiden name as the last name. I thought it could be a good way to get used to seeing the name and testing it out a bit.

2. I based my character off a photo and a character from a UK soap opera. The first name is actually the name of the brother on the soap, but I thought it suited my guy. The surname came from a fishy movie character

3. I wanted a very average sort of woman character, so I gave her a very average name.

4. I was either coming to the end of, or just finished watching a playthrough of the game Beyond: Two Souls. So this character got a first and last name from characters in that game.

5. I don't know if it was really my intention, but this character's first name is the same as what I call my car. The surname is from the inspiration for the character's appearance.

6. I just wanted this character to have a short, simple first name. So that's what they got. They're the only one for which I had no idea for a last name, so they haven't given one out at all. But I've since decided it will be after their profession - once they get that off the ground, like.

7. Another simple, one-syllable name. Has always had a last name though, which makes the full name into a bit of a pun. Just never actually told anyone it due to the character being happiest when not having to say very much.

8. The last name sums up this character's appearance. The first, I wanted to sound quite short and sharp to match their personality.


I have a couple of names lined up ready for if I have future characters. The first will basically describe their whole personality. The second character was inspired by the surname of a real life customer at my parent's shop. It amused me and I instantly thought it'd be a great name for a Cantr character I'd team it up with a first name that, along with a sort of catchphrase I'd intend for them to use, will hopefully help inspire the characters around them to nickname them with something verrrry similar.

[*Wiro]

I wish people would at least post the dead names. Would make for an interesting read, right now it's all a bit vague for me.

[SekoETC]

You're right. I'll edit my post.