Naming Characters

[Meg Sheath]

Hey!
I am just wondering if someone else does this. I make an awesome character backstory, personality, plot. But I have a problem when making my characters : the names. When I was younger the characters didn't need names. Every time someone said there name it was a random jumble of gibberish. Later I started to have a need for to name my characters. I felt like they weren't a good or complete character if they didn't have a name. So i started to brainstorm names and WOW! Its hard for me. Since I daydreams are like comic books and those guys have the coolest names I had high standards. When i finally came up with names, the characters felt more complete. For one when i named him I had a lot more fun with his story and plot and he eventually became my main character because his name said a lot about his personality in some weird way. I still have trouble naming new characters but i find the perfect one eventually.

Does anyone else have trouble naming their characters or spent a long time not even have a name for their characters?

[OhMyMagenta]

I'm not the creative sort, so I borrow my characters from movies/TV shows/comics with their names are already established. Sometimes I make a slight modification on the name of the character to make it more uniquely mine. Often I'll swap either the first or last name of the character with that of the actor who plays them. Given the intense personal nature of daydreams, I can't even begin to imagine how lengthy a process to name a character from scratch would be!

[Meg Sheath]

You must be some what creative to have MD! I can relate to feeling like you are not creative. If you ask me to make something other then my daydreams Im a complete mess. :) Making a character from scratch is just the type of thing where their personalities grow and change over time ( thats just me though). I also borrow some secondary characters from movies, comics, etc. who are pretty big to the plot so, Im not that creative. :)
Thanks for replying!


OhMyMagenta said:

I'm not the creative sort, so I borrow my characters from movies/TV shows/comics with their names are already established. Sometimes I make a slight modification on the name of the character to make it more uniquely mine. Often I'll swap either the first or last name of the character with that of the actor who plays them. Given the intense personal nature of daydreams, I can't even begin to imagine how lengthy a process to name a character from scratch would be!

[Leo B]

All my characters have had names for years now, but I didn't name them all at once. By and large my fantasies are all set in the wizarding world of Harry Potter, so I have a base set of characters that I took from the series and then my own characters that I gradually added in and named. I don't have particularly high standards for my names though. Two of my best friends in my fantasies are Anne and Marianne. 

[Zolik]

Not all of my characters have a name, but those who do usually have a made-up, foreign sounding name, or at least an uncommon foreign name. I don't usually spend much time thinking of a name, I just try to come up with something that sounds nice and interesting. I don't need it to be perfect. Only the most important and longterm characters get a name, for others I just kind of skip over the name or make one up that I forget almost instantly.

[Leanne]

Seeming my mind fantasys are based in the real world. I give my characters realistic names so that they feel more believable and could be seen as actual people that walk this very earth.

How I name them is kind of random and I unfortunately suck when it comes to thinking up surnames and especially middle names. They normally get named after names I like, names I've heard somewhere or are based off people I know either in real life or fiction. Most of the time it's fiction.

The main characters in my daydreams are.. Charlie, Ryan, Oliver, Evanna, Dakota, Jackson, Sophie, Lauren, Heidi, Emma, Jessica. The list goes on and they're completely ordinary names you'd most likely hear in the real world.

[Olivia]

Names have always been hard for me. Most of my characters don't have names at all. Sometimes I'll come up with a name that sort of fits, but it doesn't take me long to flat out forget it if it doesn't fit perfectly. When I do find the right name, it usually just...comes to me. Like when it's time for someone to say their name, they'll say an actual name instead of the usual gibberish. And even after all that, I still won't really use their names when I'm daydreaming. I'm so used to them just not having names that I only put them in if I decide to write out a daydream.

[Laura]

I was really young when I named my first characters who's still with me today. The rest I name usually after celebrities but the other ones yes, sometimes I'll flip on the names and some people really don't have any set names yet.

[Fallen Messenger]

A lot of the time my names come to me in my daydreams. But for my alter egos (yes I have more than one) I actually look up words from dead languages and combine my favorite sounding words that also have the best meanings. That end up sounding awesome! For example the place my story is set in is called Endrebynes it's old English and means kingdom or throne or ruler. I love it and it sounds awesome

[Alex]

All mine have names, but most of mine were taken from somewhere, either celebrities or fictional characters. I am actually a creative person, but I feel a closer connection to established characters so I take them and tweak them. My main is the only fully original one. 

[Rose]

No, every single character I have will have a name even if I don't know what they look/act/sound like. My characters' coworkers etc all have names and I don't know what half of them look like or their personalities.

Names are extremely important to me for some reason, and the main characters and the "me" character all have symbolic names.

[EllE]

I love making up names that have multiple meanings.