Where Do You Get Names?
On rare occasions where I'm discussing with someone my writing. When that happens, it's usually with someone who is also a writer of sorts - perhaps a budding writer - and is looking for advice. Well, probably not looking for advice, but openly discussing their own writing. I'm sure like most writers when someone is starting out, others around them don't want to chat about the topic for hours on end. Frankly, I would be surprised if anyone outside of writers wants to do that sort of thing. I happen o be lucky in that one of my friends often serves as a bouncing-off point for some of my writing. I run the idea past them for a sanity check. When first starting out, something that I would do would be to generate random names for my characters. It would be nothing special. One story involved a graveyard, so the main character's name was Grady. Of course, it had to be Grady because that's a gritty no-nonsense name, and anyone that works in a graveyard would have such a name. And likely they wouldn't be known by their first name to anyone around them. Purely their last name.
I stopped trying to come up with my own names years ago. It wasn't that it was difficult. It's just that I'm particular. I always wanted the perfect name for my characters. When I start writing, I will create some background of the main characters - a background that matters. A friend once said that every character should have a full background, even down to what grade school they went to. I disagreed because it isn't necessary. Even the main characters don't need that much information unless it is relevant to the story. But back to the name. The name of the characters is important. When I start writing, I have a general feel for the characters in the story, whether they are good or bad, some of their likes and dislikes. This is usually the first thing I have of the character. I don't necessarily write any of that down. I just have it in my head. And then I head to the start of every story: the name generator.
My Favorite Name Generators
My favorite name generator for non-people is here. What I like about it is that it has so many options! You can generate names for a town or a book or an animal or place or company. Pretty much anything is left up to your imagination on what you will find there. I use this particular one when coming up with the name of something outside of characters when I need it. Now, do I necessarily need to use a name generator? No. But it does save me time. I generate a list of names for what I'm looking for and then choose the one that seems to fit in what I have in mind.
My favorite name generator for people is here. This name generator is the best I've seen. You can choose pretty much any language or location for the name. Nearly everything I write is based in the United States, so I tend to generate names that come from European countries like Great Britain or Germany, or France. In this case, I generate three or four names - first names - and then choose the first name. And then I keep generating names for last names. Yes, I use first names as the last names of my characters. It is a bit odd, but this name generator is so good, it gives me choices I didn't even know I had. In fact, outside of my first book, every character I've created has been through this particular name generator. As I go through the names shown, I eventually will come across a first and last name that seems to suit the character I have in mind. It usually only takes a few minutes and something some writers struggle with is done and I'm ready to write.