Advice On Making A Name For Yourself... And Your Characters

by Tsuriel

posted on 07/28/2009

As a kid, I used to wonder where writers came up with all the cool, original names for their characters. After years of dabbling in fantasy story-telling and role-playing stories, I've developed a few methods of my own that I will now share with you.

Whether you are writing fiction, playing D&D, or taking part in online story threads, your characters should have at least one name. Make it unique and memorable. The easiest way to get a unique name is to randomly generate one. Use Scrabble tiles, Boggle cubes, Alpha-bits cereal, letter pasta. Grab a handful of letters and arrange them until you like the results. Feel free to toss out what you don't like and grab new letters until you have a name your character can wear comfortably.

For a virtually generated name, simply close your eyes and hit a few keys on your keyboard. Rearrange the results as needed. Or search online for a name generator. I came across one for Lord of the Rings fans that gave you names for hobbits, elves, humans, dwarves and orcs!

A basic but novel way to get a special name is to use a common one but alter the spelling: Turn Frank into Phranque. Cecily might become Sesaleigh. Consult a phone book for odd names, too.

Play Doctor Frankenstein and take bits from more than one name or word you like: Jefter from Jeffrey Christopher. The National Biscuit Company did it years ago, becoming Nabisco.

Taking a hint from the slasher movies, hack off letters from either end of a name or word: Liz comes out of Elizabeth, Misce from miscellaneous.

As any Scrabble player is used to doing, anagram a name. Rearrange BRIAN into RANIB or NIBRA.

My new favorite way to name characters is to consult foreign languages. Thanks to engines like Babelfish and others, the world is your baby name book! Try translating a characteristic about the unnamed person, but take care about meanings. "Rana" may mean 'queen' in Hindi but 'frog' in Latin. It might give your readers a smile to recognize the origins and meanings of some characters' names.

There is one word of warning I'd like to add with regard to names. Be careful not to over use an initial. I've gotten confused when several characters' names start out the same. Much as I love Tolkien, Sauron and Saruman are far too similar for fast readers not to trip over now and then.

Bottom line, have fun being creative! Make your characters stand out as unique individuals.

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