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Thom

Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 57
Location: Seattle Area |
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Depends.
Sometimes, I will grab names from a baby book or this self-published little thing I got in a role-playing store that has names by Nationality (I actually use that one in game writing a lot, so that Serbian characters have Serbian names and what not).
If it's historical, I will go to the Saint Gabriel SCA site and it's crapload of exhaustingly researched period names.
For something ancient and weird, I go to Wordgumbo.com and pick an obscure language, then find a word with an appropriate meaning for a name (I use Hittite a lot for this kind of thing).
For main characters, I will sometimes include deliberate references. In the werewolf novel I am writing, all the werewolves have names based on historic werewolves. For another novel, I have characters deliberately sharing a surname with pulp characters for the Wold Newton-style fun of it (a thief named Tempeste Lupin, after the original French Lupin and the manga/anime Lupin III, that kind of thing).
I enjoy coming up with names for characters,you should just have fun with it.
Last edited by Thom on Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:17 am; edited 1 time in total
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Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:18 pm |
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Thom

Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 57
Location: Seattle Area |
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Looking back at a comic series I was working on in the nineties...
Christian Bach: Psychic investigator and main character and source of the sig "xnbach" I use for lots of things internetual. The first name was just a cool euro-name I liked, the last name was my Oma's maiden name.
Kate Meadows: The love interest. The first name is what my ex-wife would have chosen for herself if pre-natel folks got to chose their own name. The last name was a play on her surname of Grass.
Marcus Walker: Christian's best friend. I just wanted something that sounded African-American. Once I had it, I gave him the middle name of Garvey and decided that all his siblings were also named after historical civil rights activists.
Muriel "Purple" Hayes: Best friend of Kate. The name was based on the name of my one African American girlfriend (well, not so much girlfriend, more like woman I made out with a lot for a month or so in college). The nickname was actually the nickname of a friend of my ex-wife, who wore that color at all times and worked at a store that sold everything in that color. The fact that the name ended up being a Jimi Hendrix pun was entirely accidental, but I kept it anyway.
Krishna Ashbury: Hippie girl crushing on Marcus. I thought Krishna was a good deadhead/hippy name. The last name is from Haight-Ashbury.
Blake Wellington: Kate's ex. The first name was just something that I thought said "cheating ex-boyfriend". The surname is from the secret identity of the Spider (an old pulp hero).
Seth Ankou: Bad guy magician type who looks like Julian Sands. The surname is a folkloric death figure from northern France, the first name just seemed like a good black magician name.
Tizoc: Seth's bodyguard and Aztec were-jaguar. A historical Aztec name that I actually got from a friend's RPG supplement (GURPS Aztec) because it means something like "He Who Makes Them Bleed" and I thought that was a good name for a jaquar warrior.
Anton James: Friend of Christian and Marcus. That name just came to me out of the blue.
Liz: Waitress love interest of Anton. Inspired by the song Kim the Waitress, I just picked something that sounded a little like "Kim"
Lester: Vampire. I wanted a nerdy Buddy Holly looking vampire instead of an uberkewl goth prince. I picked Lester because it is kind of nerdy, yet sounds a little like Lestat.
Zoe Soren: Christian's ex. The first name came to me as the perfect name for her, the last name I picked from a list of Danish surnames.
Miranda Prosper: A witch from Christian's past. Complete riff from The Tempest.
So there you go. Names can come from all sorts of places.
Last edited by Thom on Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:18 pm |
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Poofiemus

Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 91
Location: Education Camp--I mean, college. |
Re: So, where do you get names for your characters?
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That's where his name came from? Seriously? *falls over laughing, baffling the roommates* Dude, I thought his last name had more to do with the term for really salty water.
Ah well. In last year's disaster of a NaNoWriMo project, I had a character named Spinach. Interestingly enough, I felt his name actually worked. It was the whole "Let's try writing 50K words this year without a plot" part that didn't.
Maybe I should search historical names for the character in this year's sci-fi novel. He's currently going by Sergei, but it's not quite working.
Also, to Gracie:
I like the idea of this badass assassin having a female name. On the other hand, maybe it should be a little more subtle, just enough so if you didn't know a culture enough to know it was a female name you'd make the mistake, but everyone else is like, "Um, isn't that a girl's name?" Maybe Artemis or Demeter, for instance--both ancient goddesses. _________________

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Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:28 pm |
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