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I am having a ton of trouble with names for my characters. Any good ideas??
submitted by Kira E., age 12, San Diego/Encin
(December 10, 2008 - 7:08 pm)
(December 10, 2008 - 7:08 pm)
What sort of book is it? Time period? What are the characters like? One thing you can do is go on a baby names website. Just Google "baby names" and click on one of the sites. On most of them, you can search by beginning letter, gender, meaning, language of origin, etc.
(December 11, 2008 - 2:24 pm)
Well, a lot of mine are from a girl's point of view... not to mention fiction-oriented. The one I'm working on is in the 1990s, with an unknown tribe of Native American Indians. So far I have Kolo, Sancho, Tanma, and Telln. But the rest are fairly difficult...
(January 2, 2009 - 6:50 pm)
I looked up American Indian girl names on the site I use. It came up with eight pages worth, so I narrowed it down, by making the names two syllibles each. Hope this helps!
I don't know why it used the bullets, but oh well. :D:D:D
(January 5, 2009 - 5:36 pm)
What kind of names are you looking for????
(December 11, 2008 - 4:19 pm)
Girl names and (a lot of the time) boy names. The language can vary...
(January 2, 2009 - 6:51 pm)
Oh! I would tell you the name of the site I use, but I don't think I can. You search by meaning, syllable, letters, gender, origin, and EVERYTHING!!!!! It's the BEST site!!!!! :D:D:D:D
(December 11, 2008 - 5:35 pm)
Kira,
It depends on the time period, setting, genre, and personality of each character. For example, if you are writing historical fiction about a quiet young man who lived during Colonialimes in the Americas, I would choose a name like William. On the other hand, if you are talking about a modern age girl who is chock full of energy and optimism, I would give her a name like Emily or Debbie. Or it could be a robot named R-946 in science fiction. Basically, you need to know your character inside and out before you know their name, because a true name is meaningful and powerful, even if only to you, the author.
(December 11, 2008 - 7:23 pm)
That really helps! Thanks! Do you have any ideas for last names? I once named a character Peter Trauss, a boy living in 17th-century England, but I don'y know about the last name. It doesn't fit entirely in my mind. What do you think?
(January 2, 2009 - 6:55 pm)
Once I named a character by your name.
(December 11, 2008 - 10:19 pm)
Well, it does depend on the time period. You could google stuff like, "top ten boy/girl names in 1937" and stuff like that. I know for my futuristic stuff, I always make up really weird-sounding names...Emzara, Val, Rakeel. Normally, for 17th and 18th century, if it's a girl, I do ones like Abby and Rachel and Emma. Boy, William or Joshua and Jonathan. Modern day, depends on the type of character you have. Like, you could have a girl named Samantha, but if she's really outgoing and modern and urbanistic or something, you could have her call herself Sam or Sammy.
(December 14, 2008 - 3:30 pm)
Oh! If you look at the SSA website, you can search for the most popular names by the year!!! I use it sometimes!! :D:D:D
(December 15, 2008 - 4:43 pm)
I made up a name once, for a girl in my story. I named her Pyke. Some other people might have made it up, too. But I thought it was an awesome name!!!!! :D
(December 30, 2008 - 3:55 pm)
That is a good name! How about Naomi? Or Tamsyn? For a boy, perhaps Dorian, Demetri, Laurence? I used them once in a short story I later deleted because the plot bugged me; they were vampires.
(January 2, 2009 - 6:59 pm)
Well, what I do is go through old yearbooks from school and pick first names I like and last names I like. Then I pick a first and a last name that sound good together. If it's a fantasy story, make anagrams for names you know. For example, Kathy becomes Thyka. However you name your characters, though, is totally up to you.
(January 1, 2009 - 3:24 pm)