What are your favorite ways to name characters?

[Wes]

I love creating new characters (and character names) but sometimes naming the character is tough! Do you ever feel like coming with a good, memorable name that feels like it fits the setting and/or works for them is the hardest part of making a new character?

I imagine a lot of roleplayers have felt the same at some point. What are some methods you use or recommend to come up with character names?

 

[Cowboy]

It has depended on the character. I've had a theme that all my characters are related somehow. That's why most of them have the last name Canterbury. Hehe

So for my first character, since this was a Japanese theme site, I took my favorite anime character, Trowa from Gundam Wing, and the last name of that Japanese admiral that said "I feel we have done nothing more than to awake a sleeping giant."

Trowa's wife is inspired by my own wife. Her name is Starliner and she's from the Dominican republic. So I called her Estrella, Spanish for Star, Hoshi, Japanese of Star.

So then when I made Sanda, Estrella's sister she had the last name Hoshi. Sanda is Japanese for Thunder. Although, given her latina heritage, I probably shouldn't have given her such a Japanese name.

Sanda and my only non Nepleslian character Setsuna we're both inspired by my other favorite anime, sailor moon. Jupiter and Pluto we're my favorite scouts so Sanda is based of Jupiter (hince the lighting tattoos) and Setsuna was sailor Plutos name in the show so I just used it.

Let's see, all my characters are pretty much named after where I got the inspiration for. Jack Canterbury from the Aubrey/martin series. Thomas Canterbury from Tom Dodge from the movie Down Periscope.

Caffran and Vana are inspired by characters in Dan abnetts Gaunts Ghost books. Although Vana's name is little more complicated. In Gaunts Ghosts there is a deaf sniper named Nessa. Nessa is also the name of one of the Valar in Tokens work. Nessa's sister in law is named Vana. Thats where I got the name from.

Simple no?

 

[ajax228]

I'm good at pulling names out of no where sometimes I take two names and shove them together and bam I suddenly have a name from a character that's from a game or something purely by accident. Sometimes I also use random name generators. Delmiras name actually has a translated meaning.

 

[demibear]

I think of the ethnicity of the character then either pick what sounds nice to me.

 

[Soban]

Often I'll use something like name meanings for something I think would be cool or meaningful. However, random generators can be cool too. I made one for Separa'Shan

 

[Kai]

It depends greatly on whether I'm making a PC or an NPC. PC's will usually have names that are either important to me or are related to the character idea I have in my head. Sometimes, I'll make something based on an anime, game or other media character I like, and just, change a few things around to make it not a total rip-off. When I'm making NPC's, I'll typically do one of three things: The Random Origin Employee generator, Name the character after something that I like (Sierra Merkur of Origin is named after the Ford Sierra Cosworth and it's closely related sibling, the Merkur XR4Ti) or, I just think of outlandish and funny things that really shouldn't be names, like the semi-famous shuttle pilot Hurgh Fuglynaim. I also named a one-off NPC Marin Ara, as in spaghetti sauce. Sometimes, names just pop into my head and I build a character around that name.

 

[Wes]

I have a number of methods I use:

• I want names I can remember so I often use names that have something about them in their name:
  • Poppy Pink (has pink hair)
  • Flanna Rose (Flanna means redhead and rose is a red color)
  • Gabriela Lively is named for her enthusiastic personality
• Random Generators
  • Japanese or other ethnic names that fit the character's background
  • SARP's custom random generators for Neko names, etc. see Random Generators on Star Army Space Roleplay
  • Markov Chain Generators (scrambles words), see Procedural Name Generator
• Baby name websites or other name websites that say the meaning of names, like The Meaning and History of First Names - Behind the Name
  • Ahn Haneul and my other Korean characters
  • Wambui Babatunde
• Names from Japanese military history
  • Aoba Kuranosuke is named after a ship and the given name of an admiral
• I keep a private wiki page with name ideas when I come across one I like and want to use later.
• When I make a lot of NPCs, I often go by the alphabet, making one that starts with each letter.

 

[Yuuki]

For Yamataian names I either pick a common Japanese name (Hitomi, Emiko) often off a baby name list or something (wiktionary is surprisingly helpful), or I break out the Kanji dictionaries and go for valid but extremely rare ones (Tachiko, Kuroko). I even do stroke count analysis on them, lol (Tachiko is very lucky, Kuroko is not).
One offs are usually in a moment on inspiration I can't articulate any method for ("THE JULIUS"). Sometimes try to make sure it's something that is somewhat symbolic of the character (Kuroko can mean either "beauty mark" or "the mostly unseen people in ninja suits that change the scenery in Japanese theater" both of which work as a physical and metaphorical descriptor, respectively), but not always. I guess it's too chaotic to quantify.

 

[Yuuki]

It probably helps to have thousands of people living in your head already.

 

[Yjmirskaen]

Typically I will go through a thought process when I make names for character.
1) Is the character male or female
2) is the character human or non-human
3) how do beings of this nature talk (example being kobolds yapping in shorter worded sentences)
4) is the character related to a specific territory or place that has a kind of weather
5) is the character religious
6) if the character is religious what kind of gods can we draw from?

An example is Yjmir, she has her first name drawn from Ymir the first giant, her last name means Snow in old Nordic dialects, and I went with this because the place she originated from is frigid and her people warrior poets.

But for a different example I can point to my DND character Rixa the lucky. Rixa is a blue Kobold who is played as being obsessed with getting Tiamat-sama to notice her. So I take the word Risk and change to sound more like Kobold yapping with Rixa. And the lucky would be her title given for her ability to not instantly die as a level 7 Kobold Paladin.

 

[Yuuki]

(Sierra Merkur of Origin is named after the Ford Sierra Cosworth and it's closely related sibling, the Merkur XR4Ti)
Sometimes, names just pop into my head and I build a character around that name.

I did the opposite and built a name around a character! Mimi Merkur, a An Origin Mimic Computer ST, was designed to be a stand-in replacement for Sierra Merkur. She's the Mimicom to mimic Merkur. Mimi Merkur.

 

[Waffles]

I think of the ethnicity of the character then either pick what sounds nice to me.

I use that then one of the many name generating websites, finding one that fits best

 

[hyralt]

I pick common Japanese names like Yuuki but cross reference them in the wiki to make sure they haven’t been used yet.

Kwabba-an: I had an idea that if ants had a spoken language it would be like African clicking languages like Khoe and found a list of Khoe names.

Kari Sunde: I found a list of Norwegian names and picked a couple that could easily be written with Japanese phonetics. According to google translate, I ended up with “curry sundae.”