Name suggestions - how do you name your characters?

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:07 pm

"Calligula"?

Princess · Post by **Princess** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:28 pm

"Cant Stop the Music"?

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:06 pm

Biev wrote:(come to think of it, no one ever says Biev right either. Bee - ev. Bee- ev. It's not that hard...)

I can't really think of another way to pronounce that, but I thought that was just because I couldn't get past the similarity to a certain Ukranian city.

Corgan_dane · Post by **Corgan_dane** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:11 pm

Klik is named after an old rp character I had.
Deadhead got his name because he's...well, a skull-head reaper. It's in no way connected to the Grateful Dead.
Penny is named that because it's short for "Pentiam," which is a spoof of Pentium.
Herbert is just a funny name. Might have been influenced by an old ad campaign for fast food.
Chaos is chaos.
Sludge is sludge.
Death is death.
Persephone is from mythology.
Kewpie is named after a doll. Not sure where I picked it up, really.

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:43 pm

TRI - *high5* Most people say it like beef

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:56 pm

If you need a villian name, use one that comes attached to e-mail spam.

The movie credit idea is a good one, too.

Many of my characters were given obscure "real" words that describe them or their occupation.

Rock_dash · Post by **Rock_dash** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:17 am

Ken - Name was held over from a prototype version of the story, when the character was named "Kenya"
Sam - Short for Samara, can't remember why I gave her that name

Korina - Had a classmate named Korina, and I always liked the name.
Torgny - The only one out of the main four with any real meaning. It's scandinavian for 'Weapon Clatter'.

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:29 am

Shishio - I named myself after my favourite fictional character. (Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin.)

Shannon - I like the name.

Red - His real life counterpart once said he was Red Foreman. (Of That 70's Show fame.)

Ashton - Like the name.

Ashton - Ditto.

What I would like to know is how George R.R. Martin comes up with the names for his A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Also, anyone know of any good name sites other than Behind the Name, Baby Names, and other such junk?

NotQuiteInsane · Post by **NotQuiteInsane** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:38 am

Here's a few from my bookmarks list:
Totro, the Fantasy Name Generator
squid.org name generator
Kleimo Random Name Generator - uses data from the US Census to generate names
Blazonry US Name Generator - another one that uses US Census data.
Noemata Random Name Generator
Chris Pound's Name Generation Page
Seventh Sanctum - Name Generators
Alien Names - the "original" name generator (allegedly). Tends to come up with a hell of a lot of unpronounceable names, but it's quite good as a source of inspiration.

These should keep you lot going for a while

ChibiJess · Post by **ChibiJess** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 10:05 am

I like using Babynames.com. I search for something with a meaning relevant to the character. However, my current characters got their names from serveral sources:

Pandora: From Greek mythology
Seri: Serenity, which I really liked the name after my childhood obsession with Sailor Moon.
Nida: From Babynames.com - it means Elf (which she is)
Damien: Eh - it's a good stereotypical name for the Devil - and it fit.
Hope: Also from the Pandora myth.
Chance: Name and design came from my boyfriend's Mage:The Ascension character. The character was just too amusing to not use.
Perceval La Year: My great grandmother was intent on naming her first grandchild "Perceval Rhondalear" Thankfully it didn't work, so I used the name.

So, yeah - that's how I come up with my character names. They just randomly pop into my head, or I look them up.

EvilChihuahua · Post by **EvilChihuahua** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:10 pm

I know that J.K. Rowling uses Latin words for her character names. "dumbledore" means Bumblebee, for instance.

I used to be absolutely awful at name making, but I'm sitting on a few good ones for characters in my future projects now.

KOMP · Post by **KOMP** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:53 pm

erik, david, naomi, colm (short for malcolm, taken from actor colm feore)
aria (had this name on my tongue for the longest, short for ariana)
evan, kojiri (hate that name) elias, jacob, annaliese.

ah i dunno random names i tend to like, i'd use them over if i could.

erik = *rhymes with* generic hero. since he's kind of a parody also of generic b-movie punisher type anti-heros.

Sincerely · Post by **Sincerely** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:14 pm

I used to use babyname generators ALL THE DAMN TIME. Got to be a crutch. Even when it didn't make sense for the character's name to be modern enough to show up on a baby name site, I still used it.

For my comic I was very, very careful about all the names I used. Except for XI's name, which came from years and years ago and I couldn't bring myself to change it. For those of you who don't know, XI is pronounced Leven, like Eleven (which it is the roman numeral for) but without the Eh. A lot of people write her name out Leven, which I don't mind, but I always write it XI.

Doll · Post by **Doll** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 7:25 am

Doll is Doll because she's a doll.
Don sounds a bit like Doll...

Yep, I'm that unimaginative.

Steve Hogan · Post by **Steve Hogan** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 11:05 am

Helen Highwater, Lionel LeTrayne and Laura Mercy are all puns (Jaime Hernandez did this sort of thing all the time in Love and Rockets)

Clive Garrett and Professor Hoodoo just sounded right for the characters.

The Blood Rose's name Tanya was an homage to "Tanya Malichite", the slinky evil agent from the movie A MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE.

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 1:20 pm

Shishio wrote:Also, anyone know of any good name sites other than Behind the Name, Baby Names, and other such junk?

Well since you asked I've found some gems at Name Nerds and some of the places they link to, and the Social Scurity Baby Name Website (catchy title) has a few good long lists if you want names people actually use.

Biev wrote:TRI - *high5* Most people say it like beef

You mean something like "Beeve"?
And I thought "Steve" was annoying.

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 2:09 pm

*nods*
You are my new best friend!

Stinkywigfiddle · Post by **Stinkywigfiddle** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 3:39 pm

I usually strugle with choosing a name for a while before I find one I like.
But sometimes they seem to come with the character.

I like old-fashionish names. Fia, Lilith, Lynn, Enid, Bartholomew

But last names I just make up whatever sounds good.

And then there Is Head Doctor, Dr. Therapy, and Boobhead...

So there's really no one method I use to pick out names.

Princess · Post by **Princess** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:38 am

I wanted all my characters to have stupid lap dog type names. It started with Snowball.

Snowball:
Named after her white hair, and it sounds cute but vaugely filthy.
(I have ruined animal farm for so many people. )

Lieutenant General Pepsi von Hellswine:
Pepsi is just the stupidest name possible for a man...(in the print comic he's called "Pepi") Von Hellswine just sounded badass (he pronounces it "von Hillswin") It took weeks to think up a name that dumb.

Uschi:
It's actually a very cute swiss name, not Japanese.

Generalissimo Beh Wang:
Random word generation...there is a pediatric brain surgeon with the same name...

Dr Max Keigles:
Named after the hero from "where the wild things are" . A keigle is a pelvic
floor excercise.

Paris:
Paris Hilton. I'm always explaning that Paris is a boys name.

Muffin:
One step up from cupcake

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:05 am

princess wrote:Generalissimo Beh Wang:
Random word generation...there is a pediatric brain surgeon with the same name...

Is he a General too?