I suck at names, my worst was Kakoko Tywetuia. Talk about sucky!
the worst was that he was a teacher. "Umm, Mr. Tywe.. Tywes...Tyweto... uhhh.. Sir?" pathetic huh?

The best was probably
Sarianna George who was a feminist who happened to marry George George III. Lol... my sense of humor is wack... :lol:

Awwwe, I'm lame but I loooove the name Devon. O:

Not asian or anything...
Just boring. U__U''

Mm. I always come up with a name last when I create my characters. <3

I have one name that I particularly like, but it's not because it portrays my character just because, of well...
His name is Domovoi. It always gets shortened to Domo, Domodomo, Domo-chan, & so on. xD It's amusing.

Mm. Other names.

Ketsurui - This means 'tears of blood' in Japanese. She started out Mary-Sue, then I changed her once I wasn't such a newb. She's more of just a day-dreamy savant ADD girl now. xD

Aimi - I picked this name because though she can be fiery at times, she is average at heart, & she has the soul of a fighting lover. Hence, Ai in her name.

Akita - To me this sounds very fiery, and it fits my character well. To put it simply: she's a bitch. xD

Vera - Normal Slavic name. I forgot what it means, but she's a yunger average character.

Harmony - Ha! The reason was because she is the exact opposite of my friend's character: Serenity. Harmony is a little bitchy, yet holds onto her teenage-hood. Sometimes a little slippery when it comes to her loyalty.

Julia - Once again, an average teen. She's good at hacking though. :3

Uhm. I forgot other names. D: I'll add more later?

Originally Posted by Chimama

Not so much for character, but I have aspirations to become a published author and have thought I would love to use a pen name with the first name "Alex" as it is not necessarily a name attributed to either sex.
I know Mark Twain said to write what you know, and sometimes I forget that just living where I do (Las Vegas, NV, USA) is actually a source of unique stories and perspectives for most of the world.

As far as a character, I have often imagined writing about a woman named "Lydia". I would appreciate knowing any impressions or images that name brings to mind for people.

I had a sailor/warrior type character named Lydia for the longest time. Her warrior name was Prism. She was very cool... mostly a stand-offish loner type. She had gained her powers from an interaction with a curse... it was long and complicated. But I liked her a lot. I used to roleplay her with a guy I had met on Yahoo who turned out to be a girl. o.O If that makes any sense. X-P

Anyway, other characters that I had:

Heloise Kereshitur, a vampire with a long family history in Europe. I cowrote her story with my best friend. We had it set in Victorian England. Another long and complicated one, but just dark and angsty enough to be enjoyable. ^_^

Kentarre, the queen of a city built on the dark side of the moon when Earth was in its infancy.

Lorraine, a witch in Arthurian times who traveled with her best friend in search of a set of evil talismans that disrupted their magic. She was a healer primarily, but she dabbled in divination and some other magicks.

I've created other minor characters for various stories and roleplays. I don't remember them all, though. It's been quite a while, for some of them.

I like Russian names, so far in my stories I've used Vladmir, Nikolai, Yuliya, Veronika and Viktor.

I also like flower names, Lily, Jasmine, Ivy, and Eleanor are the ones I've used.

I have a character called Jane Lister, who I intend to be a little plain, quiet (not shy, though) and not like me at all.

I also plan on using Robot Jane as a pen name.

I like using names that don't quite fit a character sometimes for contrast. I have one character named DT. You think of a tom-boy type of character, if not a boy. (I know this because back when I went by DT, everyone thought I was a boy). DT however is this happy, cutesy girly little thing.

That said, I do try to match up characters and names, too. I have Julian, Dominic, and Adien which are all "smart" and those names to me sound smart. *Shrug* The problem with naming characters to suit them is that, many people see names differently, and naming your character "Charity" to show she's nice just seems so contrived to me.

I loooove names, seriously, every time I come up with a new name I have to come up with a character to match! I love taking names from places, and using real names, and making my own up. Some of my favorites...

Made up: Daerinnid, n'Barit Kinmera, Teqatia Endruis, Daiyka Dallyete
"Real": Reginald Thrash, Anthony Arthur "Double A/Daub" Andrews, Edward Autry, Caleb Manchester
Places: Thirlane, Tarquinia
Russian: Nikolai Vasilivich Belyakov, Rusak Petrovich Talietzin, Boris Ivonin Milyukov (I admit I have a weakness for Russians)
Weird cobbles: Alin-Maya Mauritius XVII, Villam Agrippa de Soto, Hiam Juniper El'Achren
The Very Incomplete List

But the real kicker? My cat's name: Alderaan Talos Gandalf Greyhawk Vicki Naboo Ford-Patrickson. I kid you not. But it's not entirely my fault, there were roommates and friends involved. It's just mostly my fault.

But really, names are usually the launching points for my characters. I see a name and I just come up with a character from it. I don't really think that names have preconceived characters attached, I just can't help imagining what sort of person might have the name in question. Sometimes I like to be obvious about it, sometimes I like to be ironic or contradicting a preconceived notion. Sometimes I like a character history that has nothing to do with the name, the person just happened to get stuck with that name.

I just... love playing with names!

Originally Posted by Jitsumi1221

hummmm all my names for my OC's have meaning for the most part ^^

A'iel Van Roarke - van roarke means "descendant of rulers" and this char is essentially the future ruler of her people
Verdigris - means "green", and this char is strongly tied to the forest
Cypress Donahue - means "Swaying fighter" and he fights with a rapier.. fencing tend to sway on the balls of their feet
Bijou Beijo- means "jewel kissed" and shes a very exotic char covered in birghtly hued scales.

That..is so cooll! :P I love the sounds of the names, and the fact that they have meanings makes it even more intruiging. XP

My current novel has main characters Gellan Mercywind and Matteo Sunlash (both male). Gellan's parents are named Ronald and Lucinda, and they're both very good, perfect people--that's the whole point of the story, to poke fun at "good vs. evil" debates. I try to mix up personality traits, bad habits, dangerous things, beautiful things.

Matteo's father is supposed to be portrayed as the "bad guy". Salvadore Sunlash is the head of a black market organization and generally all around scary, miserable, angry-looking guy.

Two other vitally important characters are Sebessa Door and Blue Rhetoric. Sebessa comes to work for the Sunlash household, and Matteo, at the time twelve years old, is thoroughly convinced that he's in love with her. Blue (his nickname is "Bo") is Matteo's second-closest friend (after Gellan), five years older, and tries to force Matteo into a rough relationship with him.

Gellan's tutors are named Romen, Ether (or Eyther), and Briel. Other men involved in the black trade are Tobias Owlman (real name Tobias Door, though; he's Sebessa's brother) and Haven Evergold, Lucinda's nephew (Blue's age).

A final important character is Dulais Fulcrum. I found her first name by accident. Her surname suggests that she is perhaps at the center of the story, holding it up, or somehow the balance that keeps the characters together and their friendships, families, and romances intact. She is, perhaps, having an affair with Ronald Mercywind. She is perhaps linked to the black market trade. Who knows? I sure don't. :D

All right, an active writing forum! :D *happy* (Sorry, I'm new and just browsing around. ^^;)


In any case, I love to write but I generally don't have very creative names. I've used Ferra for two different characters (I made up the name for a character before I used it as a screen name). I like Ferra since it's Latin, and therefore sounds a bit foreign but not too off the wall if I were to apply it to a modern-day character. And as a screen name, I like it since it's very short and uncommon. XD

My only other "creative" name is Kithley. It's for a fantasy character (here's a pic of him: [x]). The nice thing about the name Kithley is that virtually no one else has it. I even made a Gaian account (just in case XD) for him the other day with the name. And if you search Google images, a pic of my Kithley and a bunch of tombstones pop-up. My friend theorizes that's because someone killed everyone else with his name.

Dare I begin to create a list here? I have a lot of characters, some that were based off of the names I came up with, or was intrigued by.
Some of these for example are:

(made up name}Duridane: he's a master bard, who just happens to be a fawn. he tends to be pretty annoying because he likes following heroes around and making their lives miserable, insisting on creating songs for every little thing they do. he's one of my favorites.

Calhoun Gregarian: he happens to be a weapon's master, despite having only lived for 35 years. He's the leader of a mercenary group that tries to stay out of wars, but is pretty unsuccessful at it. To date, he's been involved in the great war between the Eastern Giants and the dwarves, and the biggest war to face the world of Alamorah. He's pretty unlucky, or so it seems at first.

(made up) Zallah Kaye: She's a magician of great power and shapeshifter. However, being a Skoralauth, she's faced more assassins and murders than other 22 year olds. She was trained by the druids of the order of Orraceus to be a scribe, and translator of other languages. For the most part, she's a very cautious person and private person and doesn't entrust many people with her true origins.

My absolute favorite character would have to be Valiant Mordeu.
He's one of thirty characters I created for my Xmen fanfiction stories, and probably the most developed characters that I have.
Valiant, or Val as his friends call him didn't have a kind life. His family, his parents and grandfather were murdered in front of his eyes in the old world Romania. This was pretty long ago. Then he and his twin brother and younger sister were taken by the Romanian government to be turned into their version of the perfect warriors. His siblings and he were tortured and experimented on for many years, which ultimately resulted in him manifesting bat like mutations. Bat wings, heightened smelling and hearing, and blindness (only for a short time though). Later on he regains his sight, but is limited because he has no depth perception and limited color perception. His magic abilities, have nothing to do with the experiments that were done on him. His family line can be traced back to Merloyn (Merlin). he uses his magic and his other mutations to help free other people/mutants who are being experimented on. Later on he creates his own team to fight off the supernatural creatures that are plaguing the world; demons, vampires, werewolves, and Viktor Crave, a sort of mutant vampire. (Also, Valiant is a lot older than he appears,(17). He's actually more around 27 or so, but because of his dimension traveling and the different passages of time that occur in these dimensions he still looks 17.)

One of the main characters of the story I'm going to be writing for NaNoWriMo is Miyu Yolek. Miyu (which can mean something like binding truth (mi = truth, yu = bind)) I believe her name suits her well because in the story, Miyu will be looking for the truth about her past. I didn't even name her that for that reason! I just thought the name sounded cute ^^"

I have a few:

Lucifer Janus
Lucifer is a Latin word meaning "light-bearer". Janus is derived from Roman mythology, for its reference on being double-faced. His name is actually a play of both words. His entire personality centers around his name - a dignified psychologist in the day, a maniacal murderer at night. Additional bonus points for being a believable name. Janus is a real last name, and Lucifer's pretty common (or at least well-known).

Alexandra Wraith
Alexandra is predominantly a feminine name, though I didn't know that when I first gave this particular character his name (yes, he). Wraith is in reference of the phantasm aspect of it. In essence, his name means "a ghostly protector of mankind", which is the way Alex is.

Takeshinya Rei
Rei, meaning Law or Rule. Takeshinya is just a random (albeit rare) surname that I just thought up hastily. Rei is a well-mannered, conservative person. Apart from that, he doesn't really bear any more similarities to his name. His name is more related to his family history.

Takeshinya Ryu
Common last name, meaning Dragon. He's nothing like Rei, his younger brother. Despite being the elder brother and the heir to the Takeshinya Company, he is wild and obstinate. Eventually, he was disowned, but that's another story for another day.


Back to the topic of choosing names for your characters:

I'm of the opinion that while choosing a good name is important, it's not so important that you'll need to spend hours thinking of one. I mainly choose a name because of its connotations and its "feel". Lucifer sounds refined to me, while Rei brings to mind an adorable boy in scout's uniform. However, others may not feel the same. When I read a story with a "Dennis" in it, I first think of my friend with the same name and subconsciously, it influences the way I view the character. Only when the character seems more like a person than a fictional character do I break away from the name's influence. So, why spend so much time on picking a name which may not appear to the readers as what you intend it to be? (On a side note, this is a reason why I avoid choosing overly common names.)

I dislike overly whimsical names as well. It's alright if it's in a fantasy setting and the character is named Ranaeph'o Himomire Biras, but in real-world setting, it gets... irritating. >__>

Haha, enough of my ranting for now. I'm afraid I'm beginning to sound like a wacky old grampy. : x

If it's a real world character, I try to use a name that's likely for their parents to choose--not necessarily reflective of their character (though it may be, if their parents raise the child to reflect that character).

So the first child of a couple was named "Anne" after her paternal grandmother, and the second child was named "Isaiah" by the mother, who is a very religious Christian. ("Isaiah" was one of the few biblical names that sounded good with the family name. @.@)

If it's a fantasy character, then I'm a little more loose with the names. I just try to make the name sound like one the parents would choose and if there are a lot of characters from the same region, I try to make sure some of the names share common sounds, while at the same time keeping it different enough so readers don't get confused about who's who. It's a bit of a balancing act.

One easy name trick is to take a traditional name, and alter the spelling. Today, I came across Alex, spelled Alix. I am currently writing a story with a character Ariele. All I did was take Ariel and add an E.

I have Alexandra Locke, Edana O'Shay, Caitlin Illisade.

I tke names from history a lot. But often, you must rembmer that if your character has an Irish last name, having a Chinese First name might...be...weird. Though, there is a time and a place for the eclectic. Example, I have a character Suzume Lionheart-Kouro. She did get married, so her name changed. She used to be Suzume Kurasaki.... but that isn't a great example. Also, don't ask how she ended up married to two different men...X-x

Another thing, is to think about names that suit the character in subtle ways.

Evelyn Thorn- Unlike a thorn at all (she's quite an angel) but she deals with plants, and loves nature) Also, I didn't realize this till later, but Evelyn itself means life.

Naming a character is an art. Some people have a knack for it, others have to struggle through each character. Sometimes i sit there for hours jsut rolling maes over in my head, and seeingwhich one the character reaches out and grabs. Try writing with the character before giving them a name. Soemtimes the right one slips in.

The character name I usually use for my main character is Tiiq. Which is usually my name on websites. another name ive used is Salin whos a god of war in renyan mythology.

When I write, usually I just pick whatever name I like at the moment. Gender for names doesn't matter to me, haha. Except when I'm creating things from names...

But, example. I had a cute boy who made dolls. The name that I thought of the second I finished writing his character down was "Rose". SO HE'S ROSE. Don't argue with me! D<

Then I made up a caterer, and we were driving past a sign for Constantine Street. So his name is Constantine.

It's really a very varied process.

Best name I'm saving is Sanctuary Hall. Saw that on someone's check at work one day. She'd be one of those gals who brooks no arguement. Really, a nice person, but efficient.

I found a neat site called 20000-names.com. I usually pick by meaning and how it sounds. Some of my favorites are Aszna (one I made up) Cleveland, Chrytine, and Mica. I keep starting and stopping stories, so I have dozens of them.

Intresting OC names...well lest start with a mistake in naming, leading set of OC's are name Ea and Ewa. It is close and when you are a sleepy author well, you mix them up.. I swear that there is a sequence of pages with the wrong names.

Chava, Lune and Alexio belong with Ea and Ewa and I like them all to have more earthy names for the story they follow.

Kerry We will not even go in to her name but Kerry Fox is one of my favorite combos for a name.
Terra Star also came outta that naming round.

Isis and Thera are a recent two, and I like the layers of meaning behind them.

Leko is brand of lights and I loved the name to much not to use it.

Echo and Dain are a pair that they just fit their names.

Toshi, Saki, Tomo are all a set of Japanese words I use as names for a story that has more world creation then any thing else.

Ara, RP name that gets recycled a lot. Same with Lee, Nadia, Yujin and a few others.

For the most part I spend hours with a baby namer either going off meanings or a set of sounds I want to blend out to a name. The best part is the layers of complexity each of their names hold in regards to their story personality and the reason I made them.

I always tend to pick my character names based on their meanings, somewhat to give an idea of what the character is like, what they've experienced, etc. The best site I've found for that has been behindthename.com.

Saying that, most of my character's names have their meanings somewhere tied into the main story, such as Rin (meaning frozen; the character's most notable trait is that she's cold to other people) or Mihai (a variant of Michael; he shares his name with the prince who united Romania in the 17th century). Further examples would be:
Nikolai Volkov
Airi Funaka
Amelia De la Fontaine
Cailin Zeta Lee
Hakuya Kou

However, I've also had times where I've had character names just perfectly fit the character without the meanings having anything to do with it. Mostly the sound of the name and it just sticks. Examples of that would be:
Yutaka Karasu
Yamato Kuroiwa
Toshi Sugimura
Karen Blomgren

(I have way too many stories >.<)

A name is indeed very important because it signifies existence.

If something or someone does not have a name associated with it - any word or term formed from letters in the alphabet system of whatever language we're speaking of, which is in this case, English - then it does not exist. Plain and simple logic. One cannot look upon a dog crossing the street and not say, look, it's a dog, without knowing that it is called something, that is, a word called "dog."

In the same manner, a name given to a particular human being is significant in the sense that it can also influence the attitude that the person affects as they move and grow within their immediate environment and beyond. Hence, in fiction writing, deciding what name to give your character influences audience perception of him or her, and can be altered to what you, the author, sees fit to showcase which part of his being, personality or background should be in focus.

I once had an original character named him Joe Jonas.

No, I'm not kidding. Yes, that was before the brothers came in the picture. I just thought it rhymed really well. I personally (with no offense meant) didn't think any parent would seriously name their child Joe if their last name was Jonas.

Lessee..My current characters are all from fanfictions my friend is writing (I create the characters, he writes them).. I'll talk about the Batman Begins fanfiction ones, I suppose.

Jess Quintzel- I was trying to be subtle about this one, but I convinced my friend to give him the nickname "Jess-ter", because he's a big dork who pulls a lot of pranks. That, and "Harleen Quintzel/Harley Quinn" and "Joker" are both clown-y, so he needs to have a clown-y name, too.
Marley Quintzel- Marley was simple to come up with. Her name rhymes with her mother's. That's about it. Her full name is Maureen Lee Quintzel, so I had my friend shorten it to Marley.
Lucius "Lucky" Dent- Oh come on, he's the brat of Dent and Rachel. Lucky fits. And Lucius is his full name because I love that name. =3 Seriously, Lucius is such an awesome name. That, and his nickname can be "Lucy" for Jess. 'Cause Jess is bitchin' like that.