Fictional Names for Characters

[Joso]

I read somewhere on Lit once where a person had a good idea for coming up with lists for fictional names of characters in stories, but can't seem to locate it now. Any ideas how to find lists of names so I don't have to choose from the familiar names and might end up attributing actual people's characteristics into my characters?

The only thing I remember about the lists was that it was from some kind of government database of names.

 

[Handley_Page]

Try here:- http://www.babble.com/baby-names/

 

[SandraMustard]

Just about any common name will have a characteristic for some reader. It can't be helped. In the Incest category, names James and Paulette will certainly draw troll activity.

 

[visioneer]

Try http://www.behindthename.com/
You can generate randomly selected first and middle names from many different languages/genres. This site will also show the meaning and origin of names.

 

[tamgreen]

There are any number of random name generators on the web if you Google it, including ones that let you choose whether to use common/uncommon/rare names. I would just be wary of trying too hard to make a "unique name"... if your characters are like, Virgil von Wolfington and Jessilynnifer Sweetbottom, you're creating distance between the reader and the characters because they don't really come across as realistic people.

 

[PennLady]

I think Stella_Omega said this some time ago, but I thought it was a good idea -- check spam emails for names. Those names are generally pretty normal, since they want you to be fooled into reading the mail, and there's a lot of combinations. I used to have a list of names like that, but I lost it. Sigh. Also seems like a lot of my spam these day doesn't have names like that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

A wonderful source for names are old US Census records, I save the best. Cemeteries are good, too.

Today I needed 2 Jewish names, one male, one female. I picked Marvin Siple, and Laverne Levy. Laverne was Marvin's ma, Siple came from a Jewish restaurant in town. And Levy is the last name of a guy I worked with years ago. I coulda used Perlman, a name from my family tree.

 

[_Lynn_]

I've used this one before. Often when you click one, another page opens filled with more options.

 

[49greg]

I wonder where they got the names for the movie "Dr. Stangelove ..."

President Merkin Muffley
Colonel Jack D. Ripper
Major Bat Guano
Major T. J. "King" Kong
Lieutenant Lothar Zogg
General Buck Turgidson
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake

I mean, come on, how do you think up names like that. Wish I could.

edited: I generally pick names of people I have known in the past, often switching their first names around with others that I knew from the same place/time.

 

[legerdemer]

I wonder where they got the names for the movie "Dr. Stangelove ..."

President Merkin Muffley
Colonel Jack D. Ripper
Major Bat Guano
Major T. J. "King" Kong
Lieutenant Lothar Zogg
General Buck Turgidson
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake

I mean, come on, how do you think up names like that. Wish I could.

Buck Turgidson must have a twin brother Stud...

 

[sr71plt]

Using an appropriate combination of keywords will get you just about any sort of namelist through Google that you'd want to have--even back through history.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the hitchhiker picked his English name from commonly used English words. He ended up calling himself Ford Prefect, so be careful how you generate names.

 

[Hypoxia]

I have read that a custom in China has been to incorporate not-necessarily-appropriate western names and numbers into personal names. Batman Dao Chang, Li 69 Ying, etc. Then there's the Southern USA custom of using the mother's maiden name as a son's first name, hence Gore Vidal (mama was from the Gore family). In ancient Rome, was common for nicknames (like Caesar, 'baldy') to become proper names. Here and now, an easy way to get names is to just poke a finger into a phone book (the paper variety) and see where it lands. The finger, not the book.

 

[Paul_Chance]

When I need a name, I just randomly flip open the phone book.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

When I need a name, I just check my stash of fake IDs.

 

[sr71plt]

When I need a name, I just randomly flip open the phone book.

That worked when I still was receiving telephone books. I brought a few home from my foreign residencies, and they've been very helpful in writing stories from those regions. When I do use the phone book, I don't use full names. I scan first names and surnames separately, looking for names that go together, fit the character, and aren't similar to other names in the story (unless the characters are related).

 

[seewee]

Names

I am working on a story and yes names need to be selected. I say choose what you like. I like Jack and Julie (my cousins). And for a black woman, the only name that I like is Sally (think Jefferson).

 

[LastLostIdols]

I use baby name websites; behind the name and seventh Sanctum among others. And occasionally I use obituaries, I used to always read the credits to films, tv shows & video-games as well as a kid really helps you develop a good memory bank of random names.

http://www.meaning-of-names.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickname
https://www.surnamedb.com/

 

[RetroFan]

Character names are very important.

With me setting my stories in the past, it is especially important that I select names appropriate to the era and the setting. For example, in a story I wrote set in 1962 the three main female characters are called Penny, Barbara and Judy which fit the time. It is obviously not impossible for three girls to have these names today, but far less likely. In another story I wrote set in 1972 in an Italian-American neighborhood in New York, I obviously gave the characters names that are common in Italians - Danny, Marissa, Connie, Sam, Francesca, Gina. It would be easy for me to wreck one of my retro stories by giving a character a name that is completely wrong for the time, for example a character called Kylie in the early 1900s, or a story set in the 1920s with a character named Tahlia.

It applies to all fiction. For example, if you had a character who was a rich girl, a name such as Tiffany, Madison, Chelsea or Felicity are good choices of name. If you had a trashy girl who was from a trailer park, a name such as Emily is all wrong for this character.

 

[RoyceConnors]

Best place I found for real names of real people to use as character names, was in the credits of movies. Male and female, nationalities, nicknames and such are all there to choose from. Foreign and domestic give variety.

 

[tamgreen]

Mmmm yes, I love researching names for historical tales. Wikipedia has some very handy lists of notable people by region and date of birth you can comb through. For example, recently I needed names for Scottish characters around the year 1900, so I just randomly brought up "list of Scottish artists" on Wikipedia and there's a nice list of authentic names, all neatly categorized by era.

 

[Carnevil9]

.......Any ideas how to find lists of names so I don't have to choose from the familiar names and might end up attributing actual people's characteristics into my characters?......

I would like to respectfully disagree with your premise. I want my character names to help attribute characteristics to my characters. I often use names (or variations) of celebrities that will make the reader think certain things about my characters from the get-go. Brittany for a bimbo, Bubba for a hill-billy, Poindexter for a geeky scientist, etc. Cliches work.

Hey, it's easier than actual character development!

 

[sr71plt]

I would like to respectfully disagree with your premise. I want my character names to help attribute characteristics to my characters. I often use names (or variations) of celebrities that will make the reader think certain things about my characters from the get-go. Brittany for a bimbo, Bubba for a hill-billy, Poindexter for a geeky scientist, etc. Cliches work.

Hey, it's easier than actual character development!

Agree, although you have to be careful about reader demographics. Quickly nailing a character by referring to seeing her in a "Bette Davis" pose (slouched in a doorway with a cigarette in one hand and a martini glass in the other and giving you that famous hooded/buggy-eyed "fuck you" stare) would be well understood by one set of readers and lost to another while the understanding would be switched with those groups in writing "she strutted down the street in Lady Gaga high dungeon). I'd use both as a shortcut in a story myself.

 

[Handley_Page]

Charles Kingsly did OK in the Water Babies: "Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid"
and "Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby".

The Victorian author had a vivid imagination

 

[Hypoxia]

I forget whether it was Robert Benchley or more likely Groucho Marx who said about character creation that as soon as you invent a slimy, poxy, ambulance-chasing shyster named Phineas T. Horsefeathers, a slimy, poxy, ambulance-chasing shyster named Phineas T. Horsefeathers will sue you for slander. So, names matter. Shitweasels are everywhere.