This is something that’s been different for pretty much each story and book I’ve written, but… I guess there are a few things I can discuss on the topic. The genre of the story really does a lot of informing on the types of names I use for characters.
For stuff set in modern, urban areas, I often just use friends’ names, with permission of course. I’ll often modify them if needed, just to add some space between the character and the real person, but not always.
This has worked for fantasy and sci-fi stories. Most of the fairies in Starsigns are named for friends, with their names just modified somehow. Eviekins is named for my friend Evie. Noblereed is after my friend Nobilis, and Lambria for Briana. You can probably see the echoes of their names in there. Surnames and nicknames informed the elements of the character names not present in the first name of the real person. Eviekins, for example… well, that’s just straight up a nickname I use for Evie. Noblereed and Lambria both include part of the real person’s surname.
In The Deadly Studies, the whole first volume Luc Bertrand: European Assassin, takes place in various places in Europe. In that case, it’s modern-day urban fantasy, and I wanted more normal people names. Knowing the second half was going to be set in the United States, I wanted to make a real distinction in the people around Luc geographically. A lot of the random people you only saw in passing were throwaway names pulled from baby name and regional surname lists. But there were some who were again named for friends. In the case of them becoming characters in the Europe portion of the series, the name was simply localized. It’s been some time since I worked on it, so citing specific examples isn’t too easy, but I do recall a character named Guillaume who was named after a friend whose middle name was William.
For my current in-progress LitRPG novel, since the majority of characters are identified by gamertags or their AI designated names, I’ve asked a lot of my gamer friends for permission to legitimately use their gamertag in the book. A few I’ve had to make small modifications to, but… the few names you’ve already seen in what I’ve released so far are friends. Of the four primary characters— LiveBeans, TheSniper, MushroomSurprise, YetiEnigma— three of them are my friends. LiveBeans is made up because I wanted her to be more of a blank slate than to be colored by a friend insert. But Snipes, Shroom, and Yeti are friends of mine from the gaming world. All three usernames got small spelling changes, but that’s it. I have a list of gamertags for player characters and another for the AI NPCs so their names have a distinct difference from the real players. Most of the names on both lists are friends’ usernames (again, collected with permission). Not all, but most. A few are ones I came up with that I liked the sound of. But it was interesting how many of my actual gamer friends had tags that suit the criteria for AI names over player names.
Some other things I’ve done to get names:
-For out-there fantasy or sci-fi names, get some printed text (newspaper, book, advertisement, whatever) and see what the last syllable of a word and the first syllable of the next word make. Even just from this bullet point, I see the names “Tasyor, Perbo, Randsee, and Keeven. Literally from straight taking syllables from words (fanTASY OR; newspaPER BOok; whateveR AND SEE; maKE EVEN- to illustrate where they came from). Maybe not a great source, but one that works in a pinch.
-I think I’ve talked about it in other posts, but just modifying real names is totally valid. Change a letter or a sound to update a name. Monica becomes Ronica. Jonathan becomes Jarnathan. Maria becomes Saria. And yes, I just used three character names from IPs that are not mine: Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Traders, the film Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Wherever you get names, get them. They can be everywhere. There’s a place for John Smith. I’m sure there’s also a place for K’zyynth’fri’traxessanstiano…
But… be judicious in apostrophes. Please.
For stuff set in modern, urban areas, I often just use friends’ names, with permission of course. I’ll often modify them if needed, just to add some space between the character and the real person, but not always.
This has worked for fantasy and sci-fi stories. Most of the fairies in Starsigns are named for friends, with their names just modified somehow. Eviekins is named for my friend Evie. Noblereed is after my friend Nobilis, and Lambria for Briana. You can probably see the echoes of their names in there. Surnames and nicknames informed the elements of the character names not present in the first name of the real person. Eviekins, for example… well, that’s just straight up a nickname I use for Evie. Noblereed and Lambria both include part of the real person’s surname.
In The Deadly Studies, the whole first volume Luc Bertrand: European Assassin, takes place in various places in Europe. In that case, it’s modern-day urban fantasy, and I wanted more normal people names. Knowing the second half was going to be set in the United States, I wanted to make a real distinction in the people around Luc geographically. A lot of the random people you only saw in passing were throwaway names pulled from baby name and regional surname lists. But there were some who were again named for friends. In the case of them becoming characters in the Europe portion of the series, the name was simply localized. It’s been some time since I worked on it, so citing specific examples isn’t too easy, but I do recall a character named Guillaume who was named after a friend whose middle name was William.
For my current in-progress LitRPG novel, since the majority of characters are identified by gamertags or their AI designated names, I’ve asked a lot of my gamer friends for permission to legitimately use their gamertag in the book. A few I’ve had to make small modifications to, but… the few names you’ve already seen in what I’ve released so far are friends. Of the four primary characters— LiveBeans, TheSniper, MushroomSurprise, YetiEnigma— three of them are my friends. LiveBeans is made up because I wanted her to be more of a blank slate than to be colored by a friend insert. But Snipes, Shroom, and Yeti are friends of mine from the gaming world. All three usernames got small spelling changes, but that’s it. I have a list of gamertags for player characters and another for the AI NPCs so their names have a distinct difference from the real players. Most of the names on both lists are friends’ usernames (again, collected with permission). Not all, but most. A few are ones I came up with that I liked the sound of. But it was interesting how many of my actual gamer friends had tags that suit the criteria for AI names over player names.
Some other things I’ve done to get names:
-For out-there fantasy or sci-fi names, get some printed text (newspaper, book, advertisement, whatever) and see what the last syllable of a word and the first syllable of the next word make. Even just from this bullet point, I see the names “Tasyor, Perbo, Randsee, and Keeven. Literally from straight taking syllables from words (fanTASY OR; newspaPER BOok; whateveR AND SEE; maKE EVEN- to illustrate where they came from). Maybe not a great source, but one that works in a pinch.
-I think I’ve talked about it in other posts, but just modifying real names is totally valid. Change a letter or a sound to update a name. Monica becomes Ronica. Jonathan becomes Jarnathan. Maria becomes Saria. And yes, I just used three character names from IPs that are not mine: Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Traders, the film Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Wherever you get names, get them. They can be everywhere. There’s a place for John Smith. I’m sure there’s also a place for K’zyynth’fri’traxessanstiano…
But… be judicious in apostrophes. Please.
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