Naming your Characters

[Shiny Motley]

I know we have several writers here, be they aspiring novelists, role players, or just normal fic writers in general~ And of course, with each story comes at least one new character. So, I was curious as to how other people picked names for their characters.

I think I'll start with my "main" RPing character myself, Lyn~ So once upon a time, I think during one of the times when I asked to be banned from the website, I would exchange emails with a few of my friends here, one of them being Ruko. Good ol' Ruko figured out that my real name was Carolyn because I forgot to change my real name on my email or something, and asked if he could call me Lyn. And thus the name was born. A year or so later, another friend, Kalseng, started up an RP, and I was just all "meh why not" and made a character based off of me. Of course, Shiny is a strange name to give anyone, so I ended up naming this character Lyn~ As for her last name, Sorrel, 'twas taken from one of the teachers in my school, and it sounded nice I guess? I didn't really put much thought into it, really.

Another character with a somewhat interesting backstory behind his name is Jasper. I chose that name for two, pretty much unrelated reasons~ Whelp, I guess the main reason was that my old high school was called Jasper High School, and I ended up liking the name a lot despite it being one of my least favorite places on the planet. I also have a friend named Jasper, whom character Jasper is loosely based on, so yeah. XD

My PRP character, Kelvin, was made while I was in Chemistry class one day and I was all "Hey, Kelvin sounds like a reasonable guy's name!" Thus, Kelvin was born, and his team of Pokemon (which at some point or another has included a Joule, Weber, Pascal, Ampere, Lumen, Hertz, Candela, Becquerel, Tesla, Henry, Coulomb, or Newton) were also named after various units of measurement. Even his last name, Bohr, is related to chemistry! I was such a nerd, heh...

Other characters were named kind of randomly. Diane, Laura, and Lucas were pretty much picked from a random name generator or another. Most of my other characters I think are named after people I know, though since these older characters are amazingly craptastic, I won't really talk about them ^^;

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Most names I randomly pull out of my head when I need them, but there are a lot that either have special meaning or it was conceived at a certain moment and I decided to just throw it in. Anyway, this list is about to get really long because I have loads and loads of characters in RoTN alone. If a character's name isn't mentioned it is probably because I never gave it much thought when I chose it. That includes main characters like Madison and Prof. Himee too. Likewise, if I had a reason for naming a minor character the way I did they will be mentioned. Everything RoTN related is in spoiler tags both to keep this post short and because somethings are Word of P_M.

Spoiler

Brian "Xelbu" Nosurname: He shares his first name with his creator (me) because he was originally based off of his creator. Brian has since gone through enough character development to differentiate himself as his own person but now is not the time to go there. His real last name Nosurname is pronounced no surname as in no last name. I couldn't think of one back in the day and I sure as hell wasn't using my own. His alias that he uses within Team Neos, Xelbu, is an anagram of Blue X. Blue Version was my first Pokemon game and Kingdom Hearts is my favorite videogame hence the Organization XIII naming scheme.

Axel the Infernape: He's a Fire-type so I named him after Organization XIII's Flury of Dancing Flames. Got it memorized?

Raiden Arka: From the beginning he was an Electric-type user so I went to Babynames.com and looked up names corresponding to Thunder and Lightning. Raiden is a Japanese name meaning thunder and Arka is a Norse name meaning lightning.

Eve Illuminati: Eve came from the pun of her debut chapter "Eve of Destruction" which is ironically chapter 13. Illuminati came about for rule of cool. A bit of hilarious in hindsight is that the first two syllables of her name are pronounced Eve Il or Evil. I swear that was not intentional.

Diva the Banette: It sounded cool.

Chane Turk: At the time of her debut I was playing Crisis Core so Turk comes from The Turks (her physical appearance even loosely resembles Cissnei). Chane was the name of a character in the Anime Baccano which I was also watching at the time and I thought it sounded cute.

Izzy the Breloom, Jace the Pidgeot, and Celia the Beautifly all have random names that I came up with on the spot. Luna the Lunatone should be obvious. Lucy the Chansey is derived from Lucky which is Chansey's whole schtick. Kermit the Azumarill is named after Kermit the Frog. He was originally going to be a Politoed, but I switched him to Azumarill for no better reason than I wanted to.

Zack Kaguya: Zack got his name in the Ask a Stupid Question, Get a Stupid Answer game on the forum. I asked for a male name and that is what I got so I went with it. Kaguya came from it sounding cool.

Lloyd the Golduck: Lloyd was a randomly chosen name from my head that I wanted to give someone.

Arthias: The character himself is a canon immigrant from the Chronicles of the Sword story in Soul Calibur III where you create your own character and play the story. My character's name was Arthias. Now you know why he dresses in armor and carries around a giant claymore.

Strife Maxwell: Rule of cool in full force

Nathan Xelbu: Xelbu for the same reasons as above. Nathan was randomly chosen.

Johan Kaiser: Kaiser is German for King. He was the Johto Prime Minister's son. Johan came because I was watching the Anime Monster at the time.

Creed: For the Assassin Creed pun

The Hunter Siblings: Their first names were all random. Hunter was for irony given that they were being hunted.

Kenneth Feng: Ken and Skylar were former teammates of Raiden so their names relate to his. Kenneth means Fire (Fir, Ice, Lightning trio) and Feng is Chinese for wind (The Fuujin to Raiden's Raijin) symbolizing the rivalry the two have.

Skylar Eirwyn: Eirwyn means Ice but I forget in what language since she was named 2.5 years ago. Skylar is sky where lightning and wind take place. Raiden and Ken have always been vitriolic rivals and she's been the mediator between them when things got too heated.

The Captains of Team Neos: The only thing special about their names are the first letters of their last names: SRK. If you read their appearance descriptions you may have noticed that they are each shameless (darker) expies of Sora, Riku, and Kairi from Kingdom Hearts just aged up to adults. The last names however don't relate to the owner. Alexandra Ross is the Kairi, Damian Synclair is the Riku, and Gabriel King is the Sora.

Lyni the Shiny Eevee: Named after our very own since she was intended as a cameo in the first place.

PRP characters:

Shiro Yukimura: Created as my new Unova PRP character (when Unova actually was new). Shiro is the Japanese word for white which is the version I got. Yukimura comes from Sanada Yukimura. I was watching Sengoku Basara at the time and with the Oshawott line being samurai based I ran with it.

Mizuki the Oshawott: Mizu means water. I decided to keep the Japanese theme going. I was also taking a Japanese class at the time of her and her Trainer's creation so their names doubled as shameless practice.
Kisaru the Pansear: Saru means Monkey. The Japanese theme dies here though.
Simon the Drilbur: Simon the Digger of Gurren Lagann fame
Shadow the Zorua: Dark-type and master of Illusions
Razor the Axew: Have you seen Haxorus?
Scout the Rufflet: Eagle is the highest rank in Boy Scouts. Braviary is an Eagle.

Non PRP characters:

Blake Sullivan: He was conceived as a jerkass so I went to babynames.com and looked up names meaning dark. That's what I got.

Herbert Zane: Randomly pulled from my head. Nothing more.

Unused character:
Dewy Fenwick: Named after two adorable puppies I encountered ♥ I really want to find a place to use him.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

In most cases I give my characters names that I like and there's no real meaning beyond that. In fact, I can only think of one human character with a rather meaningful name and that's Akira Yamakage. His first name means intelligent and indeed he's one of the smartest people in his year. I found his last name on a list of ancient Japanese names. I use my username as one of my character's names as well. I picked it back when I first signed up to 'Charms because it was similar to the pseudonym I was using at the time to hide my real name online (and because I was obsessed with Spanish back then). To this day, most of my Sinnoh-born characters will have Spanish names which dates back to that.

If I actually remember any other characters with meaningful names, I'll edit this post ^^

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Most of my human (or reasonably humanoid) characters are not intentionally given meaningful names - many of them manifest with just a first or a last name and their names complete based on things that sounded like they work together. Nevertheless, some of my humanoids do have meaningful names and a few are terrible puns to the nth degree.

A few examples include:

Spoiler: Pokémon Characters

• Erin McRade [RPE Timeline] - whose name is a very subtle Metroid reference - with 'Erin' stemming from a mispronounciation of 'Aran' and 'McRade' having the 'Kraid' sound in it. Coincidentally she had a brother named Seamus. Metroid refs happen everywhere around her too. Running gags, much.
• Arella Stroj [Sylvanhart Timeline] - Her real name is actually Maya (for no reason), but Arella Stroj is a name she has adopted while traveling incognito. "Arella" is a Hebrew name which means "Messenger" or "Angel", whereas "Stroj" is a Yugolavian (Czech/Slovak/Slovene/Serbo-Croatian) meaning "Machine". So, Messenger of the Machine, which is a rather appropriate pseudonym considering she was quite literally sent on a quest by an ancient, sentient machine that would take far too long to explain on THIS thread. With the Sylvanhart Timeline sort of collapsed onto its own navel and At the End of the Wilderness being dead, it doesn't really matter all that much. xD
• Glenn Hendrix [Thirdspace Timeline] - While his first name was a clear case of just-felt-like-it, the "Hendrix" part is a less-than-subtle reference to one Jimi Hendrix. Since Glenn is a musician that favors the guitar, I felt it worked all too well.
  
• Moriko "Mori" Hayashitani [Thirdspace Timeline] - Her name literally means "Forest-Girl Forest-Valley", which is kind of like naming her Planty McPlantplant, but there is a reason for that. Mori was not originally envisioned as a Pokémon character, but rather as a character for a vaguely Persona 3 inspired RP that Taryn coughed up back when she was still a thing, and since it took place in Japan and I actually try to research the setting I work my characters into (which is really more than anyone else did in that clusterfuck INCLUDING TARYN HERSELF!) I gave the character a Japanese name. The original Mori was indeed linked with plants (symbiotically attached to some kind of plant-growth deity, really). Pokémon Mori isn't' really, though she still has a bit of a green thumb and a love for gardening.
  
• Gad Van Lierre [Kalos Timeline] - Gad Van Lierre is actually the latest of five characters based on me and having my first name. His last name is a bit of a bilingual stream cross. Van Lierre is an actual Dutch name which means 'Of Lier' (a city in Belgium). However, the word 'Lierre' in French literally means 'Ivy', and as neither Belgium nor the Dutch exist in the Pokémon universe QUITE YET, I figured I might as well use it to refer to the plant. Eh. It works.

My non-Pokémon characters tend to have meaningful names - but usually, these are names that they have chosen for themselves. Emerant Cirrus, for example, can be literally translated to "Emerald Cloud" - and seeing how green is her central color theme and she is quite literally a sentient cloud of nanomachines, that would explain it quite well. Arvad, an exodimensional explorer cut off from his home dimension due to temporal shenanigans has chosen to take on a name in the Human language which means both 'adventurer' and 'exile'. Arvensis of The System fame has a name that is a common specific name for a various number of plant genera and means 'in the fields'. Characters with names they haven't chosen for themselves are often fairly random, though sometimes they refer to older characters or concepts (such as in the case of Evelyn Ryatt, whose last name refers to an older character of mine who had abilities similar to hers).

My Pokémon names are all generally meaningful - sometimes they are named after mythological characters, others they are named after foreign-language words. Sometimes they are just named something that worked at the time. I have far too many of those to list at the moment, though. XD

 

[Teapot]

Simple: All of my characters are named Steve.

 

[pokemoniac11]

All characters have random names
except Isaac witch means laughter

 

[Vaporeonn]

Never thought about it realy! xD Umm, well from the look of it, I guess the region or the maga are affecting my choice the most.. So in Kanto, I was Blue, Johto, Crystal and Joy.. because happines 'n' stuff! Hoenn I was Sapphire and Sinnoh it was Frost, Platty ( short for Platinum.. stupid limitations!) and Dawn and Unova it was White, and Wynter ( cuz seasons) and ,if I had, Kalos, I guess Yvette (frenchish ).. So, yeah, those are they. But in my first playthrough, i'm always Joanna. Deal with it.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

Well, like how they name characters in the games and anime, I try to have a little symbolism when naming characters. Take for instance the character for my avatar and the trainer cards in my sig- Dale Hudson:

When I first learned that the English and Japanese names for the BW2 protagonists come from the word resonate, I wanted to think of my own name for my character that would sort of fit the same theme. Also, since I'm an art major, I decided to look for glass related artists for possible names since at the time I thought that glass resonated light (though now I realize resonate deals with sound ). Anyway, after researching, I decided to name my character after the stained glass artist Dale Chihuly.

Dale's last name, Hudson, comes from the Hudson River for several reasons:

1. Since the Unova region is mostly based on New York City, I thought it'd be nice to have the character's name fit with the actual area
2. The last name would relate to Dale's first pokemon, Oshawott
   
3. Ever since the plot of BW2 and Keldeo's Resolute form were first revealed, I knew I wanted the main character in my game to use Keldeo when facing off against Kyurem at the end, so I thought having a Water-related last name would help hint to this connection
   • (On a side note, this also gave me the idea to have my the main character travel around with three other people- all of whom would pair up with a member of the Swords of Justice- since each of their main goals and overall character development were related to the pokemon they were connected with. For example, Dale's journey was a zero to hero story where he'd started off as an amateur who couldn't win a single battle or connect with pokemon, and end up having to grow and develop his skills to stop Team Plasma and save the world)

 

[AzureEdge]

I've always had trouble with naming my characters. Most of them come from my favorite characters, but some of them I just take part of a word I like.
For example my OC/self insert azure's name is a part of my favorite arte, Azure edge,one of the most recurring artes in the tales of series.(it's also my username!)
I just took the first part off, and blended my personality in her. She's my main OC.

 

[FalChromiforme]

Men are usually just the word "man" with different adjectives (i.e. magic man, evil man, boring man, etc.) and all my women are named after my crush.

 

[VaporeonOfLegend]

Me: -Names all OCs after herself-
MOST ORIGINAL PERSON ON PLANET AWARD WINNER

 

[pac_halo]

http://www.behindthename.com/random/random.php?number=1&gender=m&surname=&all=no&usage_eng=1

Actually pretty useful, and you get some unique names that otherwise I wouldn't have thought of, like Ulysses or Jonah.

 

[Sylvious]

I Just Look At (Insert Where The Characters From here) Names For (Insert Gender Here) And I Of Course Name Something Closer Then Any Of My Usernames In Some Website. Special Mew Is Spemew. And My Old One Pokemonace. Is Ace!

 

[PulseSystem]

Trainer Clash...........(pony don't ask)

 

[EspeonTheBest]

All of my RP characters have somewhat of an interesting back story to their name.

Levy- Usually the laid-back and Passive one. Now, when I was younger, I always wanted to Levetitate. Just to be able to float through the air and watched people below me. So, when I played The Swords Man (note this is a very long time ago and The Swords man was a game I played outside with the neighborhood.) I always was Levy. The only female Knight out of the group and my power was that I could fly. (Which means that I had my Pogo stick) then of course, I watched and Episode of Fairy Tail, and one the mages was named Levy. Boom.

Grace- usually the Aggressive one. My real name was too long to fit the space limit for Pokemon Diamond--my first game--. So my 6 year old self did the next closest thing to my name. I hope you get it.

Kallie- the brave one. I seriously just created this one for the leader of a grassy, lush town in the forest. I don't use her very much because her name means Guardian of the forest.

Ina- The name I call mostly all of my Pokemon parts. Ira was the name of the first horse I ever rode, and so The first RP I joined, I was Ira the Eevee. However, I had a typo and my IPad corrected Ira to Ina. I didn't notice the mistake until I was at least 3 posts in. XD

Cinder- Specifically used for my Vulpix parts. Cinder is the name of my Drought Shiny Ninetails that took me 3300 eggs to hatch. I was so freaking excited when she hatched.

 

[Spooky Sploosh]

Trainers and other humans: I tend to give them names that express who they are and their personality.

Pokemon: I press my face on the keyboard and add vowels in parts that "need" them.
For instance: "Tagoogleb" "Hutyuh" "4catrehg" It's a painful procedure, more painful than the nuzlocke I associate this stupid nickname scheme with.

 

[52Crossroads]

i pick names that hint at that characters history or role in the story. like naming someone Anthony because they like flowers. (Anthony -> Antony -> Antonius -> Anthos -> greek for flower)
pokemon, i name after creatures and characters from mythology.

 

[Keleri]

I used to use Behind the Name a lot to give my characters ~meaningful~ names but unfortunately that tended to result in comic book-y names or names that were a little on-the-nose (along the lines of Remus Lupin, aka Wolf McWolf).

There's a lot going on when you name a character, whether to suggest their nationality or ancestry, or to suggest things about the people who named them in-universe. And that's not even getting into the symbolic considerations.

When creating names, I try to think about the phonemes to make sure that they fit with the related cultural group (so you don't get Aeris and Bob), and to use the name structure as a signifier for the culture/species of the character at a glance.

Lately I've been trying to make sure the mix of characters/background characters is multicultural, so I look up a lot of "common baby names for x country" to get ideas and pick ones I like the sound of. For pokemon, they're often nicknamed by the trainer, so I like looking up behind-the-name type appropriate names or to pick names that say something about the trainer doing the naming; if one trainer's pokemon all have cute pet names while another's have overwrought names in Latin that tells you something about the trainer.

 

[Beten]

In all honesty, my character names are spur-of-the-moment. Sometimes, they're "normal", resulting in a character named Andrew, Maurice, Travis, etc. Other times, though, I'll go wild, which gives me names like Vrasz, Krimm, Bayenn, and so on. I never really try to find meaning behind names, either; if a name looks like it will work, then I slap it on the character and go along my way.

 

[Bluefeather]

My character's names are all unique, but if you do research on them, you will find they are not so unique. XD

Carmine: A character with red hair, so the name? I went online and searched, Synonyms of red. So creative...

Azure: Same above

Star: I actually chose this name because it had some hidden meaning that I couldn't really find...

Bluefeather: This one is actually interesting. I am a fan of Warriors, if you don't know. So anyway, I was looking for a name for me, in warrior form. So when I stepped on a Blue feather while playing in my backyard, I'm like AH! The name Jayfeather is already used so, that's how my name was made.

I have so much more, but the're all boring.

 

[Brendan Savem]

When creating characters, the name is usually the second thing I come up with, following the creation of the character archetype. I pick the name by coming up with a list of first names, between 5-20, and try saying them out loud. The one that clicks best and sounds 'right' for the character becomes that characters name, which can also go on to help craft some of the character details. Most names have a relation to a an existing character, real or otherwise. That relation can span from similar roles, similar appearances, or being very different from one another. Marcus McTavish from a PRP I'm in right now, for example, borrows physical features from Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, while they are also very different in personality and demeanour.

 

[alolatrainer]

I usually pick japanese names for my characters simply because i like the way they sound and because i love japan

 

[Shadewing]

For humans
For me I always use the names of my loved ones or family members

Sonya- a friend that I met a very long time again when I started to ride horses.

Enya- no joke. I have a cousin named Enya. We call her Lynn, her middle name.

For Pokemon
I usually go to Google Translate for these like...

Kirsha- my Sylveon who's name means cherry in some language

Rei- my Mawile's name, it means steel hearted in some language.

Other names like Stella (my Cleffa- also known as Luma) and Marvel (my Dragonair usually) I think just are cool.

For realistic animal RPs -mainly warriors-
Warriors-
I like to think of things in nature that I enjoy and then put a cool suffix to it. For example,

Rapidblaze- I love the waters, especially rapid waters. It just shows so much power

Hailflash- Hail is by far my most feared- and loved, is that weird?- natural disaster/ weather condition.

Swanfire- I love birds and Swans just take the cake for me. They're so graceful!

Shadewing- I love to hike, and being in the shade is always relaxing. Plus, as I said earlier, I like birds!

Any other animal related RP
I ride horses, so I like to use names from the horses I ride.

Strike- (a dog character at this point) is usually a dark grey color, no matter what animal. I rode Strike on an out-of-town trail ride.

Ume- (also a dog.) usually a cream color. Her full name is Umeluii (ooo-may-lil-e) I rode her once in Hawaii

Flash- (also a dog at this point) usually a dark brown color. I made friends with a very old horse named Flash at out barn and despite him being off limits to normal riders, I got to ride him once or twice. (With his owner right beside me of course.)

 

[Steel Seth]

for me, I just depends what Name pops in my head... for example

Gus: He was in the Grand Pokemon Games I wanted him to be emo but.. That's not me so, and his name Gus was kind of like a metaphor for just being gloomy or said because of the lost of his brother (Don) but again I made it to where he just goes with the thoughts and pain...
Montey: He is one of my newest Roleplayers He is in the roleplay A Dangerous Game (Pokemon Addition) he is hot-headed but does what is right for his pokemon ( Hopefully he survives)
BlazeFire: He is a Charizard and kind of the cranky one in the land he is lazy but powerful but does not care... He is in the roleplay Draconian Wars.

 

[CrazyUmbreonLady]

Most OCs I pop right off of my head, but here's a couple that stand out.

Destra: She's one of my most developed Umbreon OCs. Actually, she started off as a Nixel OC! "Destra" was a pun on the word "destroy", since Nixels hate creativity and want the concept to be gone for good. How did she go from being related to the show Mixels into being a Dark-type Eeveelution? Well, at the time, I had an idea for a Mixels/Pokemon Mystery Dungeon crossover, which was thrown out the window a few days later. I imagined Destra being an Umbreon, and she grew into being that until it stayed that way forever. I also found out that the name is Italian for "left", which fits the Umbreon Destra's backstory since she was disobedient and ran off with a Houndoom to rob places, but after being betrayed and captured by the Magnezone, become good and got on the "right" path again.

Hijixi Pizazi: My newest OC and my current Trollsona after joining the Homestuck fandom, her first name has no origin in particular. I picked it because it sounded silly and awesome at the same time. Hijixi's last name came from, believe it or not, "pizza". See, after watching "How To Make FNaF Not Scary", I started saying "pizza" when I wanted to be goofy. Since this is my Trollsona, I wanted to kind of wanted to incorporate that goofiness, as this persona slightly emphasizes my silly aspect of my personality.

 

[lil_lady_mew]

I normally chose seasonal or element type names. A name that has a real world word associates to it like, Storm, or Serenity, or Autumn, or Spring, or Rain, or Starlight, etc.

 

[Starfall]

I usually base all of my characters off of their personality. For example...
Lily (my main pokemon oc)
Lily is extremley kind, headstrong, and upbeat. I like how lilies have extremley vibrant colours, and there is a girl at my school named Lili who is extremley upbeat.

 

[Kaben and Madeleine]

My name came as a ninja name and I like it and I use it in batting games and I'm overjoyed about it.

 

[EtherealHaze]

I generally use baby name websites such as Behind the Name, 20000 Baby Names, Name Berry, etc, to name my characters. I find these websites especially useful for foreign names and surnames, and this is good since a huge chunk of my characters come from non-English speaking countries.
Some of the english-speaking characters I've created have random names that just popped into my head (for example, Lewis Emmett, the main character from a DieselPunk story I am working on at the moment). I usually have to use Behind the Name for surnames though, unless I feel like giving a character a common surname, like Smith or Brown.
I don't really give characters meaningful names, but if I do it is only on a rare occasion. When I look for foreign names I try to look for names that have a more 'random' or 'ordinary' meaning, rather than ones that mean something badass like 'wolf' or 'dragon'. Because honestly, most people probably choose their child's name based on how much they like the actual name, not on the meaning behind it (although I'm sure there are many people out there that do that to).
Even my villainous characters have ordinary names. I try not to make them sound to 'edgy' or 'mysterious', because most of my bad guys were ordinary people beforehand, and you don't really see average people walking around with names like 'Doctor Destruction' or 'Crow Mysticus Ravenhound'.
As for my Pokemon OCs (non-human since I don't have many human ones), the same things pretty much apply. I usually tend to give them foreign names or old-fashioned names (like ones from the Victorian era). The only Pokemon OC I've created that has a random name is Doctor Snivy, even though that's not actually his/her real name. Well, some of my other OCs used to have random names but I've since changed them because they were pretty damn terrible.

 

[Ashley Rose]

What's in a name a rose which by any other name would smell as sweet.

 

[Doe Rae]

I use names that I hear and I like
For example:
Aurora
Stella
Rue
Rae
Kaya

Usually it is something I have heard before : 3

 

[Ashley Rose]

I like the name Ruby. Like Ruby version... or Ruby Ringlets to describe a girl's hair. Auburn ringlets sound nicer. It's more professional. I don't like ruby ringlets. I think it's a poorly constructed idea. I like a lot of boy's names. I like my name, because it's nice and pretty. I'm bored with Pokemon. Misty's a nice name, but I think the real girl's name is Melissa. I had a friend with that name. Also, Delilah too.

 

[Nygenn]

Coming up with names for characters is always the last, big step in finalizing a character's concept for me. Names, to me, are not just a combination of syllables by which others refer to my character, but rather are titles that represent the core of their being and as such have to fit. Finding a suitable name often takes about as long as the rest of the conception stage, if not longer.

The feeling I get with the sound of a name, when I just close my eyes and sound it out loud, needs to coincide with the feeling I get when I think of a particular characters. Characters who are overall solid and strong, need names that sound strong and solid. Characters that are sly and mysterious needs names conveying those same traits for me. Special meanings, or connections to historical/popular figures fall under this category for me.

There there is always the theme of a character to consider. Their histories, origin's cultural references. The name has to make sense within the universe it's being used in, and should be one that's plausible for parents in that universe to call their child.

With all that said and done, here are some examples:

Yoshua Archon
I very much liked the way the name Yoshua rolled gently off the tongue. For that reason I decided to write it with a Y rather than a J. In the RP this character was used the name would have been quite foreing sounding, which would fit perfectly considering the character came from another world. As for the Archon part, I wanted to back up the soft mystery of the girst name with something more powerfully and regal sounding, so after some consideration I settled on the latin word for 'ruler'.

Salem Archon
Salem was the son born to Yoshua and a magical entity named Sraphim in the RP. Yoshua had eventually set off to shape his own island as a sort of refuge for magical beings and outcasts, and that's where his son was eventually born. So for Salem his last name was already set and I just needed to find something that sounded as easy as Yoshua did, but with a more magical taste to it. Eventually I settled on the name of the popular witch town.

Salem never got much screen time because he was born at the very end of the campaign, but I liked the name a lot so used it for my Pokemon RP character here on this website. Keeping the concept of being an island I set to work creating a character that gave me the same feeling as the original incarnation did, but without magical influences.

Angela Novak
Was a female character in a crime themed RP. She was the the heires to an American-Italian crime family. This greatly directed the choise in last name, and from there it was mere a matter of finding a strong, yet elegent sounding first name I could see a mob boss give his daughter.

Incidentally this character went around with the name Veronica Collins for most of the RP. This was the cover name she used to build her cop profile and infiltrate the police department as an undercover agent for her family. For the cover name she gave more preference to her American roots on her mother's side of the family, and chose something that wouldn't stand out too much, but still accentuated her character nicely. Taking on too plain a name would have raised more suspicion than something like Veronica did.

Hyuuga Sayani
This was a female character for an RP set in the Naruto universe. The Hyuuga name was already set by the setting, when I decided on her clan, so it was just a matter of finding the right first name. Inspired by the popular canon character Hinata, I wanted something gentle and sweet, but hinting at underlying strength. I quickly came to Saya, and later added -ni to make it a bit more playful sounding.

Erin Jackson
This was the name I settled on for a spunky, tomboyish, girl trying to make her way in a military setting.

Zahn'Maero Valarian
An elven mage and aristocrat I immediate decided that the name would need that musical elven sounding something. Him being a noble made me decide to go for a two part first name. With this one I really just started playing around with random sounds until I had something that sounded somewhat right, and then refined it by playing around with the spelling a bit.

For the family name I wanted something that would make you think you were dealing with an old and powerful family.

Asahina Yumemi
First name Yumemi, last name Asahina. This was to be an oriental princess that embodied hopes and dreams. So I wanted something light and airy sounding, but with meaning. I delved into the Japanese dictionary picking out words that I thought sounded right and meant something appropriate to the theme of the character. I settled on the word 'asa' meaning morning, 'hina' referencing the word 'hime' meaning princess, and 'yume' meaning dream. I made different combinations with these words until I eventually settled on Asahina, the princess of dawn, with Yume as her first name. But as with Sayani I wanted that extra syllable and decided on '-mi' with in Japanese naming indicates something beautiful. So Yumemi, beautiful dream.

Shahazadi Ab-Beth Nahrain
The naming of this character was a real blast. I apologize in advance to anyone better versed on this topic than I, but this is what I came up with.

The character is a spoiled rich, evil man that got cursed and turned into a woman long ago. Since then she's lived a life of pain, hardship, slavery and all that entails, and discrimination. She's somehow made a living as an exotic dancer and her story began when she escaped, accepted her past as punishment for her cruel ways from before, and now focuses on building a new life.

As a source of inspiration I drew heavily on the Thousand-and-one-Nights, with all the original cultures that got it started before it got largely rewritten by an Islamic Arabia. So my sources drew from ancient Persia, Egypt and India for this character. I went looking around in these, for me alien, languages and found the words 'shah' meaning prince/king, and 'azadi' meaning freedom/liberation. I was ecstatic to discover this because the combination of these words gave me a name sounding exactly like what I was looking for, and the meaning of 'free prince' just seemed to fit perfectly with the back story.
It wouldn't be the name the character was born with, but it would be the one she calls herself, beginning this new life.

For the last name I didn't really go with a proper one, and figured she would rather state where she heralded from. 'Ab-' is Arabic I believe, and sorta means 'to be from/to come from' I believe. Beth Nahrain is the ancient name for Mesopotamia, an area I could use for my character's heritage, and translates into '[Land] between rivers'.

So now I had a name that both sounded awesome, and befitting the character's culture, it also translated roughly into 'The liberated prince of the land between rivers'. How awesome is that? I could not be more satisfied with the results and felt it was well worth the time and effort I spent on finding the right name, which incidentally turned out to be at least as long as the designing and writing of the character's history.

-

I have a truckload more characters spanning a wide variety of cultures and themes, but these should give a nice indication of my process I think.

Character conception and creation is a bit of a passion of mine.

 

[Il Fantasma]

I usually just look up unusual names online and pick ones I've never heard of before or just ones that I like. For the last names, I do the same, but pick a specific letter based off the first name to start it with. Some examples of the names I use include Domino Grove Propper, Kaia Brizzi, Ambrosia Kalis, Hyde Vandal, Jadyn Zabicki, Araminta Atwood, Aleksandar Atwood, and Harper Gibbs. A couple characters I make that are based off of movies/TV shows/books/video games only have a first name, like Imani, Millie, Casper, Skylar, Larissa, Dexter, Chance, Krystal, Regan, Tinkers, Braylon, Hoodwink, Kuro, Thumper, Bonnie, Yuki, Nymphadora, Tinkerbell, Tamias, Kyo, and Kaos. I even have a couple Riddle School OCs that I named like the other characters in the game: Maple Macaron and Pristine Sluice.

I have a lot of characters. xD

 

[Fishykarp]

Edited: Revising this from a year ago. My main OC's surname, Whitman, was actually stolen from a friend of mine. Since then though, I've RPed mainly RWBY. So every character I've had has had a colour theme. And they're all puns.
Gareth Goyle, who's a gargoyle Faunus (Human with traits from an animal)
Jenny Brunneis, because Breunneis is latin for Brown and it sounds like Bunnies and she's a rabbit faunus

 

[shiguregure]

Nah that was
A) A different OC
B) Completely not the point of this thread

true

 

[Merciless Medic]

Alrighty, let me get my list of OCs out here XD

• Grace Victoria because it sounded royal and Victoria is a royal name, and Grace because it sounded pretty. Mind you, this was in an RP where it dealt with being in a wealthy family.
• Pyroshu because Pyro = fire in some language, and I just added shu because it sounded cute :3 His middle name, Rastrixen, is part fire and dragon in Draconic language and I just kind of smushed them together. His last name, Darastrix, means Dragon in Draconic.
• Mielshtrix is Maelstrom and the last part of Darastrix combined, and his middle name, Pabith, is Water and Ice in Draconic.
• Strorgos is Maelstrom and I don't remember why I chose -rgos at the end... It sounded right... His middle name, Vathylinibor, is Electric, Fighting, and Steel in Draconic.
• Shadara is Shadou = Shadow in Draconic, and Dara = Darastrix. Her middle name, Arcafiwhed, is arcane, spirit, and dark in Draconic. Before that, I had given her the name Shade because I attributed that to shadows. And at one point I gave her the last name of Holtzer, which meant forest, and I gave her that because she lived in one for most of her life.
• Catrina is basically Katrina, but I wanted to make it seem more animalistic, so I changed the K with the C. Her middle name is Grass, Ground, and Rock in Draconic, which is Shanordash.
• Lorenza is actually the feminine version of Lorenzo, who I took inspiration from a movie called Lorenzo. Her middle name is Normal, Flying, and Fairy in Draconic, which is Mustrava.
• Poitoxi is Poison and Toxin/Toxic combined, with his middle name meaning poison and bug in Draconic, which is Drikog.
• Sarah/Sara because I just like the name.
• Eliza because I met an Eliza and didn't like her. I have another character with the first name of Eliza because I like the name and it fits with de Sade, which is last name of a man who became really popular in his books that dealt with sadism.
• Ronnie because he reminds me of Ronald Weasley from Harry Potter, and he's such a nice kid.
• Nix, Hydra, Europa, Titan, and Ganymede are all moons, and this was a collaborative effort with @SednaZ, since I don't normally look up into the sky and pick out moons and stars to name my characters. These characters are also on a reformed Team Galactic, known as Team Nebula.
• Sol and Luna are corruptions of names or names that mean sun or moon.
• Natalia Wilson because it's a pretty nice name :3 fits :3
• Shadric because it's been a name I'd use for a male counterpart of Shade and I've been using it for a long time XD Kreed because Creed and that means something that has to do with following the person's beliefs (which he has made several and follows them religiously).
• Laura because I like that name, and Schweeney because I felt like it fits.
• Sebastian because I can't seem to run away from the name and Mora because I thought it fits.
• Evelyn Evans because it sounds amazing. XD
• Josef because the guy is German and de Sade because yup... And his nickname is Zwei, which is German for two (since he is resurrected).
• Angelia Shayton because Shayton was just a last name I found that felt like it fit, and Angelia sounded French, so I did that. Plus, Angel, her nickname, makes her seem more innocent than she really is (which is true if you've seen her personality).
• Sean McLoughlin because the guy was Irish and I created him after the real Sean McLoughlin, commonly known as Jacksepticeye (I just made him look different XD).
• Marilbus is Marilith and Succubus combined, which are D&D monsters.
• Raphael because that's a very angelic or holy name (and this guy is an angel, so yea).
• Blake Felton because it just sounded right.
• Elizabeth Schoening because the first name sounds nice and the last name is actually the last name of one of my coworkers XD
• Enigma or Atami. Enigma was given to the angel/demon hybrid because... Well, yea, literally the definition of Enigma. Atami is Atarah and Lami combined, which are angel and demon names, respectively.
• Levina because it sounded nice, and then Brasche, which sounds like brash, which fits her personality. Plus, Butch because she is one.
• Alex Langley because I thought it sounded nice.
• Andrea Langley because it sounds nice.
• Drax because it sounded harsh, and yet silly, like the blob he is.
• Swordman because he is literally a suit of armor with a sword.
• Trixie, since that is the name I gave a witch character a long time ago XD and I still wanted to use her.
• Mara because it means bitter, but also because the creature I gave the name to was actually another OC of mine in a TF2 universe. Her name was Marija (pronounced Maria), but she was known as Mara. Her full name in the TF2 Universe is Marija Adelhaide Friedberg. She hates her last name, and her middle name is her mother's maiden name. Adelhaide sounds sweet and calming instead of Friedberg XD
• Annabelle "Anne" Lyxon because it sounds nice.
• Viktor Vladimirovich because he is 100% Russian and it's amazing.
• Salazar Sylph because Salazar is the snake guy in Harry Potter, and Sylph just sounded nice, and he was a snake man.
• Mizu because that's Japanese for water (I think), and she's a Water-Type Gym Leader.
• Darcy Higgins because it just sounds like a funny name for a Team Rocket Admin.
• Jasper Sigmund because Jasper is such a cool name and Sigmund Freud.
• Aujstrix is a very German reptilian name for a reptilian humanoid in some fantasy RP I was in.
• Æthelflæd "Aether" Hyll is just a very old British name I found for another fantasy, medieval RP.

There we go XD all of my OCs that are human or humanoid. If I have a pet or a Pokemon, they are going to have uninspiring names, with their names being a part of their species name, a name from their coloration, or a name in some other language that means their name. XD

 

[Le Marsouin]

Alright, I guess I should probably start with some of my Pokémon characters since about 75% of my OCs are Pokémon. (And about 80% of those characters that are Pokémon are my Fakemon.)

• Tyler Frost (Signita): His first name is kept nice and simple, as his last name is where things get really good. So, I decided to have his last name be Frost because of three things. One, his second type is Ice, which compliments well with his last name. Two, he had to endure the harsh cold while getting away from his pursuers after escaping the underground laboratory with the means of shooting the electronic lock with a revolver with only one shot to disable the door’s security. Three, who wouldn’t want to call someone that is now a little Pokémon by the name of Dr. Frost?
• Aidan (Axew): His name means listener, and he cannot talk yet. So, he has to listen more as a result, get it? (Or perhaps try to use gestures if he’s patient enough.)
• Iago (Axovenio): His name is Spanish for Jacob. It also means to be quiet and analyze carefully what is around them. (Which relates to how Iago rarely ever talks and how he constantly looks over at everything to make sure it’s perfect, no more and no less.)
• Todd (Todoclor): His name means clever in Scottish, as this compliments well with the fact that he has a ton of program and coding to guide himself if his trainer isn’t around.
• Adrian (Sarniur): His name means sea or water, which pertains to his type and he is also a Pokémon that is really only suitable for being in water in the first place.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Okay, I'll try this.

Robin Deux: I thought Robin was a cool name, so that's what I called my first character for a while. His last name, Deux, is actually supposed to be pronounced "Doe". That name had significance because Robin never had a last name, or identity, so if he was killed he would be labeled a "John Doe".

Melody Clark: The first name, Melody, was chosen because I was trying to make a music based trainer, and you can't get more music based then Melody. Clark was a normal, but easily remembered last name.

Trail Clark: I never heard Trail as a name, so I used it as a name. Since he's Melody's cousin, I had to come up with a last name for both him and her, and decided on Clark.

Kale: I needed a unique name, yet simple. It sounds kinda like Kyle, and has nothing to do with the vegetable of a similar name. Still trying to find a last name, though.

Delta: It sounded sciency, and since he's a scientist he needed a sciency name.

Mercury: It was cool and edgy. XD

 

[Shocari]

For the most part I try to keep character names within the realm of where they live. So characters from Japan have Japanese names, characters in Alola would have more Hawaiian/Pacific Islander names, etc. Pokemon nicknames I usually only do if it's like a Nuzlocke, and those are generally based on a theme(mythology, greek alphabet, Star Wars things, etc)

I'm just going to list some of my Persona characters because that's really the only interesting thing I have. tl;dr I've been working on my own Persona game on-and-off for forever

Michael Taylor: So Michael is the token transfer student to Japan, and I needed a name that just felt American. Michael's a pretty common given name, and Taylor is a decently common surname, so why not? I won't go too into detail on him, but you can ask @Shiny Lyni that not only do you probably know someone named Michael Taylor, but they might even have his exact personality. Spooky.

Miyamoto Shiori and Sasaki Ryoko: These two are together for the rivalry for which they were built. I don't put much emphasis on symbolic names, and it's only slightly ironic that both of them happen to have the surnames of Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, two famed swordsmen from Japan with a historic rivalry. Unintentional, but I like the little parallel.

Kagome Sho: More cut-and-dry, this is just my self-insert if we're being honest. Sho coming as the nickname from my screenname, Shocari. Not much else to this one.

Kiri Ryoushi: In the one instance of me actually trying to have a meaningful name, this guy translates roughly to "demon of the mountain" or something like that. I honestly don't remember. Anyway his Persona is Shuten-doji, which was the chief oni of a particular mountain, I believe. His name tells you his Persona, okay?

And most of the other names don't really have any kind of significance to them so I'll stop here.