What's in a name?

[Jake E]

Hi all.
I've come to pick the hive mind.

How do you come up with names for your protagonists?
It is one (of many) areas that I struggle with. I can never think of a satisfying name.
I've started a new project, and i cant for the life of me think of a good name for my MC.

At the moment, he's called Dash. (Just to compound the issue, I'm not even sure if he'll remain male, so bonus points for unisex names).

FYI it's a fantasy setting.

J

 

[Rachael Burnett]

Hi all.
I've come to pick the hive mind.

How do you come up with names for your protagonists?
It is one (of many) areas that I struggle with. I can never think of a satisfying name.
I've started a new project, and i cant for the life of me think of a good name for my MC.

At the moment, he's called Dash. (Just to compound the issue, I'm not even sure if he'll remain male, so bonus points for unisex names).

FYI it's a fantasy setting.

J

Hi, Jake

In the novels I've written the names just came to me for the MC. For lesser characters, I tend to research the vibe I'm looking for. So, in my current novel featuring werewolves and creatures called strix, the narrative has a backstory to ancient Rome and so I researched names online for that period. For surnames, I used a theme in my narrative and researched French and English surnames matching this as these are featured settings for the book. For one of the lesser but important characters who are French, I searched online for French forenames/surnames matching the character's heritage. For the antagonists, I used the names of characters in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as my narrative deals with themes of tyrannical rule. In a short story that I completed recently featuring goblins, I used names from Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market for the humans. I then searched online for Gaelic names for the goblins, using the meaning of the names to fit with certain characters. In another short story, the main character's name arrived in my head and stayed, for her grandmother I searched for traditional Caribbean names, again using the meaning of names to match characteristics. In that short story, I also searched for surnames that had a certain meaning and used that alongside a suitable biblical name for the father character.

Rachael

 

[JohnBertel]

Some memory, but most sites with lists of names. The sound is the most important. Christina Rosetti - that's a cool name. Probably the variation of s-t-i.

 

[Hannah F]

Baby names plus their meanings. Names with an onomatopoeic connection to the character. Graveyards.

 

[RK Wallis]

As a young writer, I searched the internet and baby name sites and the meaning. Sometimes I just make them up. Over the last 6 years, I've used Scrivener's search. Just recently, I cracked it (sick of the searching) and went to Shakespeare

 

[Dorm Ant]

My MCs for Dogs of London were originally (in the very first draft) Jont, BJ and Hazel. Then someone commented that Jont is too similar to joint, someone else thought it was posh, and I lowered his age, so I needed a younger sounding name. Someone reckoned that Americans would think BJ was blowjob (not black jack), so that became CJ. Hazel was always going to be Hazel. Partly because I love Watership Down and partly because her brother and sister are called Rowan and Holly.

 

[Dorm Ant]

In Merula 2222, I chose Merula because it means blackbird. Terio just came to me one day. Recoska was the result of a random letter generator.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Depends on what I'm writing. I like the Behind the Name website--their Random Generator tool allows you to choose all sorts of nationalities and categories of name (including fantasy, goth, witch...). If my story is set in a particular time and place, I'll go to the birth records for the character's birth year and location and look at what baby names were popular at the time.

For my dragons, I came up with naming conventions for each species, which helped in creating names. And then at times I go all J.K. Rowling and give characters names that tell you about them if you're familiar with Latin.

Most of my main characters start off as X or Y for the first chapter, until I decide on a name.

 

[CageSage]

As per @Robinne Weiss and @RBurnett
I dig into the theme for the story, the timeline (or the Earth equivalent of it), and go with the meaning behind the name, or create a name based on those words that create meaning. Latinate words can be useful to indicate character, and therefore their names (eg Snape) give the reader a distinct but subtle rendering of the character behind the name.

So, theme, setting, meaning - one of those things will generate a name that fits the story and purpose. And the name link above.

 

[Jake E]

Great advice here. I'll definitely have to check out the websites.

Thanks gang.