What are your favorite ways to coming up with character names?

I actually make lists of names male and female. I search baby sites as well but I search for unique and rare names. PLUS!!! I search Scottish and Irish... Welsh... I've been known to use last names as a first name as well.

I find a face claim first then open my lists of names and go from there.

 

Personally it's hard for me not to end up liking names that start with A. I dunno why, they always just jump out at me. I don't use generators unless it's for last names...or names of places like bars or streets and stuff. Otherwise it's all googling up baby names. I'm not super creative, honestly xD

 

100% i use name generators. plus i keep a list of names i like and just reuse those over and over.

 

Most names come from looking up historic names from the area they were born in(or where the fantasy setting mimics). I've also just picked a few given and then surnames and see which ones flow/sound best to me, without seeming to be awkward when it rolls off your tongue. But my most memorable character name for me came from combining two street names I happened to see while biking one afternoon.

 

I usually need to have a visual idea of the character first, and after that I start either browsing baby names sites, digging through whatever random list of names I like that I have, or just giving it a few days to mull it over until I see something or hear something and I'm like 'THAT'S IT, THAT'S THEIR NAME' and that hasn't failed me yet!

 

I'm absolutely guilty of looking up name meanings, but lately I try to take them with a grain of salt and check the etymology / name history if I can find more reliable sources for them.

Sometimes it's as simple as throwing spaghetti at the wall (so to speak) until I find whatever rolls off the tongue. If the name doesn't have a good cadence, no matter how good the meaning is, I toss it out.

 

Yeah, I'm really bad about it. Sometimes I tweak what it gives me - but it's so handy.

 

It depends on the vibe of the name I'm going for. Sometimes I'll use a generator just to get an idea, sometimes I'll check my little list of names that I like, though I do like looking up name meanings as well.

 

Since I do a lot of fantasy/medieval, I tend to look for cool old names from history. That, or fantasy-name generator, or, gasp, one of the AI's and ask it to generate a few lists to choose from.