Unauthordox

Coming up with names for your characters can often be one of the biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to writing your novel. Too regular and it seems out of place, too obscure and the reader will be left struggling to pronounce it 15 chapters later. So here are a few things to help inspire you to create that perfect character name!

Lost in Translation

Many authors use this - thinking of a word that describes the character’s personality and looking it up in another language, then making a name out of it.   For an example that many people might know - In Harry Potter, [spoiler ahead in case you haven't read it!] Professer Lupin - the word “Lupine” in French means “Characteristic of or resembling a wolf”, which was a hint to the fact he was in fact a werewolf!

Hey, Gflryskdx!   Come look at this…

Try writing down some made up names.   If you have a lot of characters to name, this could help start you off… I’ll show you some examples that I’ll just make up on the spot:

• Treldar (Sounds like an Elven mage… or an alien warlord!)
• Sylavia (Sounds like a beautiful maiden… or a saliva-spitting monster!)
• Berlest (Some strong fighter guy… or maybe add a “the third” to the end and make a Prince?)
• Grokk (Sounds like a retarded troll… and little else.)

If nothing else, you can have some fun making up some imaginary characters.

Mashup!

Get two real life names and just mash them together!   Lets have a look at how this works…

• John and Fred makes Jhed!
• Liam and Kane makes Kiane!
• Michael and George makes a gay pop star!

The opportunities are endless.

I hope these excercises have helped you to come up with something resembling a name for your character!

Do you have any other methods you use for name generation?   Share them with us below in a comment!