Share your character names and how you came up with them.

Share the heck out of yours’. No limit. But be prepared to be asked questions. Doesn’t have to be MCs.

(I’m just gonna do first names, but you can, of course, talk about character first and last names)

Atlia characters

Pandora - I’ve always liked this name. And of course, I wanted an MC name that had to do with Greek myths as the story is inspired by the legend of Atlantis.

Alorthea - I stared at ancient Greek names to try to come up with my own.

Orathea - She’s the sister of Alorthea, so I had to come up with a similar-sounding name.

Asteria - It means “star” in Greek, I think. Because she’s the second eldest princess, she has to be a star.

Falaina - It means “whale” in Greek if there was an accent on the “i”. She’s an old whale. I like giving my characters literal names using words from the country of inspiration.

Panzius - Pandora’s twin brother has to have “pan” to match with her, obviously. I also realized ending names in “us” looks Greek myth-ish.


Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound characters

Pinti - at the top of my head kind of name. It turns out, it’s the onomatopoeia of falling rain in her race’s language. But that’s something I chose for it to mean much, much later on editing the story.

Tendri - Pinti’s little sister has to sound like she’s related by name so. Yep. No meaning.

Cerenti - Pinti’s mother has to sound like she might have had some inspiration to name her children as such.

Yon - I had to give Pinti’s father a name and this came out. Apparently, it’s a word. It means “over there” XD Well, his name follows the male-name convention of the clan he leads. All males end in “on” “n” or “an”.

Kirlan - Pinti’s bff. He follows the male-name convention. A name that I came up with. Idk what it means :stuck_out_tongue:


Jack Of All Trades characters

Jack - His name was inspired by the phrase “the Jack of all trades”. And he’s very much aware of that.

Simon - When I write mysteries, I tend to make the names really simple because the story will already be a lot to follow. So, I think up common names.

Finch-James - I wanted to have one character with a two-name kind of situation. So, this came out of my brains.

Rocky - A big-muscled, comic-relief henchman type of name, I thought.

Eli - It’s actually short for something, but initially this was going to be her actual name. I wanted something sweet and short for her confident, sassy, but cute character.

Anne - Again with the common names. I added an “e” because she’s an artist.

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I really don’t have a process, unless I have goals.

Athelai (Broadside), Gan-ma, Aluhorna, Sssyraine, randomly picked out the blue, no reason for them.

For the werewolf stuff, I stick to a lot of common names, figuring they would not like standing out any more than they naturally do with humans.

So, I had Nathaniel Hall, Alpha…yeah, Mr. Hall was a counselor with a PhD or Master’s, an Elder in the church. I didn’t know I had a source for that until now.

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True Gallows - The last name came first, I think I just saw it on tiktok and jotted it down for later. Then a couple months later someone named True checked in to the hotel I work at so I stole their name and voila.

Puppet - it looks like a puppet in my head… well, actually it looks more like a human featherduster but the word I associate with it is puppet.

Galya - I was watching Orange is the New Black when I named her.

Otsana - put my pinterest board of character names to use.

Hrökr - same deal as Otsana.

Farmboy Linc - In keeping with True’s nicknaming habit, he gets called Farmboy bc he has a rural sask accent and Linc because that was the first name I could think of that wasn’t an actual sask farmboy’s name.

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Noctave is a pun that I’m very proud of. Nocte and Octave.

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In my story, my main character is named Faust Thornwood.
The name just came to me. I don’t know.

I have a huge list of character names that I made up and plan on using for future stories.
Sometimes, coming up with names for fictional people are my specialty. Other times it is not.
LOL!

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You sure about that? :eyes: :rofl:

Anyway, here are some of mine. Warning: it’s a bit long :joy:

Arden Mægenstern

Well when she first appeared in my head, she didn’t have a “proper” name. I called her A. I guess it’s because sometimes when I imagine her posing with her dual swords, arms pointing downward and outward, there would be this triangle shadow behind her, aligning with her pose. Since the letter A looks closest to a triangle, I just named her A.

And then I decided on giving her a “proper” name, since it would be especially helpful when writing the story. I chose Arden because it starts with an A, sounds serious, seems suitable for a guardian, and is reminiscent of the words “ardent,” “ardor,” and “arduous.” As for her surname, Mægenstern, that was derived from the Old English word “mægen” which means “strong” (or something along those lines, if I remember correctly), and I was partially inspired by the surname Morgenstern. It was also the winner of a poll I made about her surname so :joy:

Loren Illenræn

Similar to Arden’s case. In his case, I initially named him L. I thought of him as Arden’s former lover, and since “love” starts with an L, I just called him L.

I named him Loren because it was the choice that won the poll :joy: in all seriousness, I think a big part of his name was inspired by the name Soren, which was the name of a character in a children’s movie I watched. I guess another source of inspiration was Lord of the Rings. I kept on thinking about the place named Lothlorien, and Lorien, and I think you can see the connection XD

Illenræn was derived from the word “ellencræft,” which means “might” or “strength” or “power.” Loren was descended from a powerful and noble line of gifteds (people with special abilities), so it made sense. It also goes well with his name, as well as the first names of other characters who will eventually adopt that surname too.

Edin Heolfor (who eventually renamed himself Edin Illenræn)

Like Arden and Loren, I first called him by a single letter: E. He’s blond, blue-eyed, and pale, like three other characters I’ve created in the past. Since those characters’ names all started with an E, I just called him E.

When the time came to properly name him, eh, this is a story I might get judged for :sweat_smile: I used to go through this male model phase, and one of the male models whose pictures I used to stare at has a son named Edin. I thought, “That’s a cool name.” Since Edin starts with E, and it fits the naming pattern I’ve sort of consciously decided on, I just named my character Edin.

As for his surname, it’s the old English word “heolfor,” which means “blood from a wound” or “gore.” Since the people from his father’s side have a genetic trait that allows them to gain strength from blood, which he inherited (and the fact that they’re all evil too) I thought it would be fitting. When his father’s side was massacred, he took on his mother’s surname, Illenræn.

Damon Heolfor

Like Edin, Arden, and Loren, Damon was originally referred to by a single letter: D. The words “demon” and “devil” start with D, and considering how he’s a villain, I decided to just call him D.

And I later named him Damon because it sounds close to “demon.”

I chose the surname Heolfor for the same reason I chose to give it to Edin. Except, in Damon’s case, it’s more fitting considering his villainous role.

Lilith Illenræn

Loren’s younger sister. I created her rather late compared to everyone else. I chose Lilith because it sounds like a soft and tender name. It also means “of the night” or “night monster.” While she is not a monster, well, uh, some really bad things happen to her at night.

Norman Gefenin

Another character who was a bit late to the party. I just chose the name Norman because it has a similar sound to the others. As for Gefenin, that was derived from the Old English word “gefer,” which means “company.” I was trying to look for words that meant “ally” since he’s a loyal ally of the good guys, but it was hard to find a word that specifically meant “ally,” so I chose a similar-ish word instead.

Fallon Stafanen

Like Lilith and Norman, she came rather late to the party. I named her Fallon because it means “descendant of a leader.” Like Loren and Lilith, she also came from a noble line of gifteds. As for Stafanen… I’ve forgotten the word :sweat_smile: but it’s either from something in Old English or Old German.

Shannon Laefen

I came up with her later than Edin, Arden, Damon, and Loren. However, she did come into the picture earlier than the rest of the cast above. I don’t know. The first name doesn’t give me good vibes, which is why I initially named her S, with the full intention of giving her that name in case she does end up getting a proper name. She’s “one of the good guys” but ends up doing way more harm than good. She’s technically not a villain, but she does the damage of one.

Her surname Laefen is from the Old English word “læfend,” which means “one who misleads.” Perfect for her. I deliberately changed the æ in the word to an ae in her surname, so that it sounds closer to “lie.” (In my world, the name Læfen would be pronounced lay-fen, but Laefen would be pronounced La-eh-fen. There’s a difference between ae and æ!)

And now from my other series:

Stella Maria Vicente

Before you say anything, yes, she was a self-insert, but not anymore!

Anyway, there’s a reason why I stuck with this name: because it suits her. Stella is the Italian word for “star.” In the book, she has a magical bracelet that gives her powers. Guess what’s the shape of its pendant? A star. The bracelet also gives her the ability to give out light, and since stars give out light, the name also suits her.

Speaking of which, stars are most visible in the dark. In the first book, she continually gets outshone by her peers, because she’s not the best, not a prodigy—just an average girl. However, during the fight against the villain at the end of the book, she’s the one who saves the day. When times were dark, she was the light.

As for her surname, Vicente, it means “to conquer.” I find it fitting because she ends up always conquering the day, pushing herself to overcome obstacles though she has a harder time than everyone else. I don’t know what I was doing when I chose that name, but apparently it’s a Spanish surname and not an Italian surname (she’s Italian) :woman_facepalming: but it suits her and it was already too late. The name stuck.

Juan Blanco Castillo (nicknamed Jon)

He’s actually based on an existing character from my main imaginary universe. In my main imaginary universe, I have a character named John White (who is sort of a rip-off of Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians) and I decided to bring him into my story. Juan is the Spanish form of John (he’s from Spain), and Blanco is the Spanish form of White. As for Castillo… I was searching for a second surname that he could use, then I remember one of my friends had a surname that sounds similar to Castillo. Castillo means “castle.” I just picked it because it sounded cool :joy:

I initially wanted to name him by his nickname, Jon, but then I didn’t know whether it was “Spanish enough.” I just went with Juan since it’s a common Spanish name, and made Jon his nickname.

Edmond Jean-Michel Louis Delacroix de Bellefort

Yes, it’s long. I know.

Like Jon, he was initially based on another character I’ve created in the past. The original character, Edward Louis Domino, is the crown prince of an entire planet. Well the French don’t have a monarchy anymore, so I made him a descendent of an aristocratic bloodline instead, hence the fancy de Bellefort name at the end.

His name went through a lot of iterations before finally settling on this long form. First it was Edmond Louis Delacroix. I had to get a name that start with “Ed,” but for some reason Édouard (the French form of Edward) just didn’t seem to suit him all that well, so I went with the other name instead, which means “rich protection.” Considering how he’s extremely wealthy and is protective of those he loves, I find it fitting :joy: as for Louis, well, I just really liked the name. Delacroix means “of the cross,” which I also find fitting because he’s rather religious.

And then I decided to make his surname even longer, to Delacroix de Bellefort. I wanted to make his surname Delacroix de Belfort, from the words “belle” (beautiful) and “fort” (strong), but then I realized that the town of Belfort not only exists in France, but there’s already a Comte de Belfort: the Prince of Monaco.

Then I tried Belmont, this time combining “belle” with “mont” (mountain). There’s already a place called Belmont, and already an aristocrat associated with it: the Marquis de Belmont.

Then I tried Beaufort (“beau” also means “beautiful”). There’s already a Duc de Beaufort. And there’s already a Comte de Beaufort.

At last, I tried searching “de Bellefort” to see what will come out. Apparently there’s a fictional character with the name de Bellefort. I wasn’t sure if I could use it because de Bellefort doesn’t “look correct,” but then I found this really old document that I think is a non-fictional account of event(s), and in it is a Marquis de Bellefort. So I was like, “Okay, I guess I’ll add that.”

I was thinking of changing his surname to just de Bellefort, but I really like the way Delacroix fits in with the rest of his name, so I looked up some French surnames to see if it’ll make sense for his surname to be Delacroix de Bellefort instead of just de Bellefort. After some searching, I then thought it was okay, and gave him a six-syllable-long surname :joy:

And as for his other given name, Jean-Michel, that’s based on a French Catholic naming pattern (at least from what I’ve read online). I remember reading somewhere that some parents name their children after the saint on whose feast day they were born on. I looked up a Catholic calendar of saints for August 1998. Next to August 12, his birthday, was St. Michael. That’s where I got the Michel from. And then I hyphenated it with Jean, because it’s not uncommon for French people to have hyphenated first names, and Jean is a pretty common name, so his next name is Jean-Michel. I might remove the hyphen, though.

And that is how I turned Edward Louis Domino into Edmond Jean-Michel Louis Delacroix de Bellefort. Yeah, it’s twice as long :rofl: everyone else in his family has pretty long names too.

Celestine Vicario

In hindsight I probably should’ve named her Celestina, since it would make more sense pronunciation-wise. Anyway, Celestine means “celestial” or “of the heavens.” I decided to go with a “heavenly body” theme for Stella’s family, so I decided on Celestine. As for Vicario, I chose it because it means “vicar,” which has a religious connotation (she’s religious). I also just wanted to give her a surname that starts with the letter V.

José María Blanco Carles

If Stella’s family (or part of her family, at least) has the “heavenly body” theme, then Jon’s side has the “name that starts with Jo” theme. José is a pretty common name, at least that’s what I think, so that’s why I chose it. I also read somewhere that it’s often paired with María, because Joseph and Mary are the parents of Jesus (I’m pretty sure that’s the reason, but I might’ve misremembered it). As for his maternal surname, Carles, it’s based on a Catalan form of Charles, which means either “man” or “warrior” depending on which theory you believe. José is from Catalonia (Barcelona born-and-raised), hence the Catalan surname.

Brandon Jean-Marie Albert Delacroix de Bellefort

Like Eddie and Jon, Brandon was based on a character from my main imaginary universe. The original character’s name is Brandon Albertus Domino. I just kept the Brandon, changed the Albertus to Albert, and changed his surname to match Eddie’s. I then read on Wikipedia that sometimes, the child also gets a name from his godparents, so that’s where Jean-Marie came from (his godparents’ names were Jean and Marie).

Helene

Well first I wanted a German name that’s feminine and starts with an H, so Helene was one of the options. Helene is a Gatekeeper who has a lot of powers, one of them being pyrokinesis—the ability to control fire. Her name possibly means “torch” or “corposant” (though some think it could be related to a name which means “moon”) and since a torch contains fire, I was like “well she controls fire so might as well give a name that suits it” :rofl:

She’s also someone who’s tough and fierce, and I think it sort of suits that too.

The next set of characters aren’t in any book—and even if they are, they’re only mentioned—but they will be part of an upcoming book.

Celeste

She was the former Countess of Fae. After she wedded her husband, the Count of Nox, the two merged their territories to form the current country of Parafiso—it was technically a reunification, since the two countries were the result of a split. Fae was the land of magical beings, like fairies, pixies, and mages, and it was a very bright and beautiful place. I chose the name Celeste because it means “heavenly” and I think it really suits her.

Erden

He was the former Count of Nox who married Countess Celeste. Unlike Fae, Nox was the land of paranormal and nocturnal creatures, like vampires, werewolves, shifters, and banshees. Nox was dark and “dangerous” in comparison. I wanted to draw a contrast between his name and Celeste’s name, like how their countries are very different. Erden means “earth” in German. Celeste and Erden. Heaven and Earth. Also I just really like the way it sounds and I think it suits him :joy:

And, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but for some reason I have a soft spot for masculine names that start with E. Edin, Edmond, Erden… but unlike the other two, Erden’s not a human—he’s a vampire-sorcerer—and he has black hair and eyes.

Soleia

She’s not in any book, as of now, but she will be featured in an upcoming book. Soleia is the Parafian Countess of the Day, so she rules the realm from sunrise to sunset. I derived her name from the French word “soleil,” which means “sun.” I thought “well if she’s going to rule during the day, might as well name her after the sun” :joy:

She’s the firstborn daughter of Celeste and Erden too.

Lune

The younger sister of Soleia and the second-born daughter of Celeste and Erden. She’s supposed to be the Parafian Countess of the Night, who would rule from dusk till dawn, but then her twin sister had other plans :sweat_smile: Her name means “moon.” Like how I named Soleia after the sun, I named Lune after the moon :joy:

Selene

The younger sister of Soleia and the identical twin sister of Lune. Well, uh, this might offend people: I’m not fond of the name Selena and its related names :sweat_smile: and since I’m not fond of it, I might as well give that name to a villain :sweat_smile: Like Lune, Selene also means “moon,” but in a different language.

Ju Lyn

It’s a long story :sweat_smile: so I used to play this inflight game called Jubaku. It’s like Tetris, but it has a magical twist. I just love that game so much that it even inspired a huge chunk of my imaginary world.

I initially named him Jubaku. He’s partly based on one of the playable characters in the game, although that’s not his name in the game. I then thought “maybe I shouldn’t name him after the game” and shortened his given name to Ju.

As for Lyn, I just typed “lightning” into Google Translate and then looked at different translations until I found the one that I like as a name :joy: Lyn means “lightning” in Norwegian. I decided to give him that name because he’s a lightning wizard.

I have a lot more, but that’s all I’ll say for now :sweat_smile:

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If you were to make a list full of names for fictional people, how many do you think you would have?
Would you know?

As in, for all the fictional characters I’ve already created, or just a list of names (including characters I haven’t created yet, or might not even create)?

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Both.

Oh. Hmmm.

For the first one, I’d probably have a hundred names at most. I’ve created a lot of characters, but I don’t think I’ve created that many.

For the second one, I’d probably have a hundred. I don’t really create character names unless I need to create a character, because I like to give meanings to them and match the name to the character. For me, the character comes first, then the name. So I doubt the second list would be much longer :joy:

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A hundred, huh?

I only asked this because I have a list of names for fictional people. I did some math and it added up to 293.
Yeah, that is all the characters that I have “wrote” about and some I haven’t written about yet.

I’m a bit weird in that aspect. LOL!

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The name has that many "S"s? How do you pronounce it?

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Like a hisss.

Ssssssissyrain.

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:eyes:
That’s a unique name. Imagine if their last name was False… :stuck_out_tongue:

I remember you saying you had a huge list of names :wink: Do you assign personalities to them as well, or are they just names right now?

I like you method of naming XD Just go with the pattern, huh? Do you find yourself gravitating toward the same letters at all?

I was going to ask if you named her after yourself :wink: Or, if you named yourself after her.

Reminds me of a character I have whose name is Vicenzu a.k.a Vince. It’s an Italian name and I think it might be from the same origins as Vicente.

Hey! I have a character named Celeste :grin: Celeste Gilmore, actually. And then further scrolling, I see you have a character named Celeste :wink:

Ooooh, I really like this name!

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It’s a lizard’s name so it’s a prolonged reptilian hiss. suh-RAIN or sear-RAIN is close enough for normal tongues.

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SssssiRain!

A felid would wind up attacking the S. I SEE rain.

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Yup. For some reason, I like masculine names that start with the letter E :sweat_smile: as for the other letters, hmmm, I don’t really have a special thing for them. There could be other unintentional patterns in how I name them, but so far I can’t spot any XD only deliberate patterns.

Yeah :sweat_smile: I really contemplated changing her name so that she would not look like a self-insert. And then I realized there was a whole series were the protagonist shared the exact same name as the author XD and the name stuck with her, so I was like, “okay” XD

Thanks! I came up with it myself :grinning: although I think other people use it too, but it’s rare.

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Just the names, no personalities or even backstories.
The list is currently at 293. It’s the same list of 280 I just wrote down thirteen more.

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So when it came to my novella’s characters, I always wanted names with both a ring and something that reflected their heritage. My FMC, Ashwini, is a Tamilian. Ashwini is a fairly common Tamilian name, and I really liked the meaning behind it. (And her entire name, Ashwini Balakrishnan, has such a ring to it). With my MMC, I had focused on the name “Manish” for a while. Like I had just known ahead of time that’s what his name would be. I really liked the ring to that too.

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