Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Character names

I have a new idea for a story (thanks to the $5 diet coke I bought at Fenway, which then kept me up all night, thinking of story ideas). But I'm stuck on naming my characters, a male and a female. So I thought I'd poll the blogosphere and see how people come up with character names. What's your method? Best Blogger Tips

3 comments:

Idiot Cook said...

Great question...one of my hobbies (read: ways to procrastinate) is to look up the meaning of names (I also have a ton of pregnant friends, so it helps them as well).

I always spend a lot of time coming up with names, too.

Here's a fun tool:

Name Meaning Calculator

Also, just Google "baby names," and you'll find lists of boy and girl names. Look down the list and jot down ones that strike you, for whatever reason. Then you can research the meaning from there (if you want).

(I need to dig up a link that I found years ago that listed most popular names according to the year...it went back to the early 1900s, which can be helpful when coming up with authentic names for older characters).

When you come up with some names, consider "testing" them on your blog...just post the name and ask us to write who we "picture" when hearing the name (for example, the person we picture with a name like Gladys is different from, say, Cindy).

Writer Bug said...

Thanks FC! Great ideas. I will do them!

DJPare said...

Those are really good ideas! I will be stealing that advice as well...