Character Name Thread.
It's one of the hardest fucking parts of writing. What's this dude's name?
Discuss, suggest, ask and help out.
just make it some high brow reference like everyone else does
MC's first name is Asher, nickname Ash, can't figure out a last name for him but he's a really typical dude in his early 20s in a devout christian family in white suburbia.
Love interest is a long-haired pillock with a passion for BDSM and ropes, wanted to give him a biblical name. This is the list I came up with so far:
Ephraim
Jude (but I have an ex named Jude so probably not)
Levi (The Book of Levi/Leviticus possible book names)
Noah
Raphael
Cain (way too obvious)
i like making the names anagrams of other words, like wet anus -> sue want, or something incredibly sad/banal -> bartleby dedominicis langhans. it's fun, much moreso than agonising over meanings.
>>7878680
I hate making names with meanings, too. When I had to come up with a name for a Korean vampire, I just looked up the most popular girl names in the 1940s in Korea. Most of the time I just decide what letter or what sound I want their name to have in it and go on baby name websites.
>>7878628
search for threads from yesterday. every post had an auto-generated name for april fool's day. lots of great names on every board
>>7878655
Cain is such a great name. Forever ruined.
>>7878692
Checked 'em. OP not personally checking for myself.
They're also all white-bread names and none of them could work for what I'm doodling with. I'm just here to watch discussions.
>>7878698
Right? I can't name him Cain. First off there's way too many edgecore characters out there with that name, second its biblical significance is torrential. Too obvious.
When it comes to biblical-style names I like picking out names from random dudes that barely get mentioned. Like the huge list of descendants of Adam and Eve.
You know what's a great name in there? Ashbel. That's a cool-ass name.
Was gonna name the MC Ashbel but it's a little too... esoteric. I'll save that name for a book where it'll fit.
My past short story was semi-autobiographical and I made people's names the first letter of their real life name. For instance, the character based on Rick is named R, Bobby is B, Alexandra is A, etc.
Bolaño does it in some of his short stories. I think it works there but making a novel out of that would be awful.
All of my main characters' names begin with either an "e" or an "i"; the rest is noise. I have like a kind of family saga, Yoknapatawpha thing going and this is one of the main bylines.
>>7878770
Example?
>>7878801
I have this recurring theme going where the characters whose names begin with an "e" (Eliseo, Ephraim, Eleanor, Edwin) are the tragic heroes of their respective arcs; whereas the characters whose names begin with "i" (Isidor, Irene, Isabel, Iliria) are destined for an unhappy ending. I have a big multi-generational family tree going (think One Hundred Year of Solitude) plan going where these families inter-marry and fraternize but their ends are set from their naming. (A few characters are born without initially being named and I leave it up to them, narratively-speaking, to decide their fates.)
>>7878817
Interesting.
I give my main characters soft names and my secondaries harsh-sounding names.
Current story entails Shay and Yorick, short Ricky.
>>7878825
What's the story about, anon?
What are your characters personalities?
>>7879199
Shay is a masochist who fears being distanced from friends and loved ones by his sexual proclivities, which he acts out mainly by acquiring tattoos and piercings. Ricky is an ancient vampire who finds Shay's addiction to pain absolutely fascinating, and just so happens to be playing out as a tattoo artist. Ricky is pretentious, self-absorbed, sadistic, abusive, and has a major god complex. Shay is somewhat meek but curious, and very depressive, fully believing that his addiction makes him inhuman and that he doesn't deserve to be happy because of it.
How is coming up with names difficult? Are you all clinically retarded?
>>7878628
I just combine a really common name and add the name of some company or brand to it.
Juan Dell for example.
My protagonist names have been:
Julius "JJ" Jones
Owen Richardson
Jeanette "Jeanie June" Torino
Anatoly Dobrynin
Kartal Mollagar
Names are most useful for indicating age/generation, culture, and class.
I don't normally struggle with names, but I got a teenage girl who lives in the jungle as part of a dinosaur-hunting tribe of little girls and I have no idea how the almight fuck to go about naming her.
>>7880555
Give her a really simplistic, single-syllable name.
Keat.
Bay.
Lu.
Something like that.
Protagonist's name is Jack. Goes by the alias "Pyramus"
Poop Poopson. If it's good enough for Gogol it's good enough for me.
Is Lucille a generic name for a french woman?
"I mean those are nice and all but, cmon we're in public"
>>7880818
Probably not, considering there's more notable people called Lucille from non french countries
>>7878628
When I write the characters names I like to add the epithet (or is it titles?) like Alexei The Huntmaster of the Four Seasons
>>7880818
no lmfao
try juliette or manon or louise
When I saw Dickens getting away with names like "Mr. M'Choakumchild" I realized that I didn't need to take names half so seriously
just make up a goofy name. who gives a shit?
>>7878655
jebediah
>>7878628
barnibus maximus
trent reznerd
hal capone
david fister wallet
greg gregg
paper mache son
paper mache daughter
paper mache wife
hottie bigtits
http://www.behindthename.com/random/
you might find this helpful, my friend
plus you can search for wikipedia's list of biblical characters/greek mythological characters/whatever
>>7881334
I seriously cannot use that name without thinking of Jeb!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5kAom55cj8
>>7880555
margaret goldstein
>California Dan
>Valerie Paddleshank
>Morris Zeems
>Richard Needlestack, P.I.
>Toyota Camry
>Dick Money, MD
My character is called Marsh, a man, 20yo approx
I need a last name
>inb4 Schlomo
>worrying about the least important detail of a character
>>7880818
I knew one in elementary school. I wouldn't say it's generic but it exists and isn't "rare". I find it really beautiful either way.
>>7878628
>wear clothes that expose breasts
>realise that light is refecting off your breasts into pupils of man
>attempt to cover breasts
this is why i need feminism lads.
Arnault Lubil
Eleonore Lamine
Thomas Shortsteeple
Maxime Culio
Colleen Pucelle
Virginie Doidé
>>7882234
Krueger
My character is an orphan born in the 30's-50's America. There's no record of him and he's abandoned in an orphanage as baby. By whom and how would he be named?
Lean into the pointlessness of agonising over it. Put in gibberish placeholders and end up keeping them. Pick vague 'signifiers' of 'something or other' (e.g.: Oedipa).
Put some letters there and move on to the next important thing. If something better occurs to you during the process then of course you're free to replace it.
>>7882561
Call him Nada a la carpenter.
>>7878628
One of the ways of overcoming this part of writers block is that you could give your character a nickname. Colours or places, even things are good placeholders for actual names and can even give a character some backstory.
ex:
"They called me "Mud" ever since 71' when we were running from the cops and I fell face-first into a pile of soggy sod. The name has been with me ever since."
>>7878628
Two British or French soldier mercenaries or explorers moving somewhere in the heart of africa in 1800s.
>>7882626
Jacques et Henri
>>7882632
>Jacques et Henri
Is henri a first name or no?
>>7882640
Also I want to talk about greed in my story, what would be an appropriate name?
>>7882626
Any books like that? I fucking loved that part of Celine's "Journey..." (yeah, I know, early 1900s).
>>7882657
Surname would work
>>7878655
Dude Onan
>>7882669
Not sure, this shory story is inspired by LOTR, with some inspirations from heart of darkness.
>>7882670
Le Guen might work. It's an actual Breton name and it sounds like what could be translated as "the profit"/"the winning".
Anna Elizabeth
Gerry "Salamander Kid" Meiman
Perchance May
Sir Beagle Thaddeus Astor Cornwallis
>>7878628
Gif related. I actually did that once. She was trying to flirt with me, but I realised it later.
Apparently I need a name for a seven year old boy and the late-20's man he's in love with.
>context in the QTDDTOT thread
>>7878682
Yeah, I do this too. Sometimes I do look for meanings, but mostly I just decide I want a name to begin with a B or a F or something and browse the top 100 names for that geographic location for that decade for something short (because I'm lazy and hate writing out long names and I can never be bothered with the autocorrect function) that will start with B or F.
>>7878628
Boobs Pooter
>>7878655
Onan (wanker)
Zachariah (but everybody calls him Zach cuz he such a cute)
Elijah (Wood)
Uriel (likes getting peed on)
Adam (often naked-- filled with shame)
