Help W/ character names

GVILTY

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Hey there! So I'm not technically an author yet as I have not posted anything but I've had a spark of inspiration and really want to write a story based on some ideas I've had for a while now. thing is I REALLY struggle to come up with character names and thought "hey! why don't I just ask some people who actually write stuff already?" so that's why I'm here.

course I should give a rundown of the story and characters I need names for. so plan is that the story will follow a 4 person lesbian polycule as they deal with all sorts of supernatural stuff in a fictional version of mostly modern-day, mostly western america-ish place. its got a bit of sci-fi a bit of fantasy but its still modern day.

Now for the characters! gonna give SUPER short notes on potentially useful info. Also I'd like it if the names are relatively normal for a modern-day setting as opposed to cool-but-not-setting-appropriate names

The first character I already have a name for. Her name is Annabelle, and she is confident and pretty emotionally stable and happy most of the time. she is autistic but in a very extroverted way. mostly she is just deeeeeply in love with magic and the supernatural. she spends most of her free time looking into it or talking about it. she is the most social of the group but not the most socially aware. she does fine but its still kinda out of her areas of expertise. she makes up for that with enthusiasm.

The second character is a trans girl who is a witch! She is quite a bit more insecure than Anna but they have known each other for a while. she is smarter than she gives herself credit for. i also want to mix in a teeny-tiny bit of mean-ness to her. like she spends a bit too much time online and thinks of herself as a bit edgy but is too nervous and mostly too meek to commit. she feels conflicted by this because on one hand she doesn't actually want to be an asshole but on the other she feels like she isn't capable of standing up for herself properly. Some working names are May and April, but I feel like something's missing.

The third character is a demi-girl-but-mostly-girl (by her description) who is also technically a demi-god, which, in this universe, isn't a super grandious thing but is also not known by most people. they are very rare but the amount of power this gets you varys and she got on the lower end. her god-parent is the god of darkness (how edgy! :> ) except its not nearly as edgy as it sounds (aww :< ). basically this god centers around hidden things and finding sanctuary in privacy. its got a whole "my followers will find safety under the cover of night and shadow where they cannot be harmed by those that rely on light to see" thing going on. ANYWAY so this character ends up spending most of her life involved in crime in one way or another due to her unique talents as granted by her god-mom. shes a bit edgy (yay :>) but mostly just yearns for an opportunity to be genuine and vulnerable around someone without worrying about being hurt or taken advantage on without compromising the identity she spent so long constructing. (she also likes knives). she is also incredibly socially clever. she can talk circles around most people and is really good at reading them. shes smart in a cunning way as opposed to a booksmart kinda way. some WIP names are Shen and Demi.

the forth character is someone who has powers that are a part of a unique sub-category of powers that are rare and significant. these people are called revenants due to the fact that their powerset comes with a one-time get-outta-death-free card. This tends to either make their abilities appear or if they were already present they get a permanent boost. in her case she has this sick battle-axe that she can make semi-incorporeal so it like goes through shit. it doesn't sound that strong but because of some in-universe mechanics and some of the special revenant buffs its actually a pretty strong ability. anyway, she is pretty quiet and mostly keeps to herself. she doesn't talk a lot but likes being around people. she becomes much more aggressive when she is fighting but in a focused, professional way. very passionate but used to people being weired/ creeped out by her. she is also autistic. only working name is ray (short for rachel) but idk.

maybe this is too much info, maybe not enough idk. any suggestions (or advice in general, frankly) would be appreciated!!!

P.S. don't expect me to release anything soon, I have like 0 experience.
 

LuoirM

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TASTYLEADPAINT

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Chat gpt. Cringe i know but if you type the type.of name you want. You can get inspirations.

If not you can do it based on personality my mc is crazy and unpredictable hence they got the name DIVA
 

Indicterra

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Chat gpt. Cringe i know but if you type the type.of name you want. You can get inspirations.

If not you can do it based on personality my mc is crazy and unpredictable hence they got the name DIVA
Promoting the spawn of the machine god ehh?
 

Unverfehlt

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Hey there! So I'm not technically an author yet as I have not posted anything but I've had a spark of inspiration and really want to write a story based on some ideas I've had for a while now. thing is I REALLY struggle to come up with character names and thought "hey! why don't I just ask some people who actually write stuff already?" so that's why I'm here.

course I should give a rundown of the story and characters I need names for. so plan is that the story will follow a 4 person lesbian polycule as they deal with all sorts of supernatural stuff in a fictional version of mostly modern-day, mostly western america-ish place. its got a bit of sci-fi a bit of fantasy but its still modern day.

Now for the characters! gonna give SUPER short notes on potentially useful info. Also I'd like it if the names are relatively normal for a modern-day setting as opposed to cool-but-not-setting-appropriate names

The first character I already have a name for. Her name is Annabelle, and she is confident and pretty emotionally stable and happy most of the time. she is autistic but in a very extroverted way. mostly she is just deeeeeply in love with magic and the supernatural. she spends most of her free time looking into it or talking about it. she is the most social of the group but not the most socially aware. she does fine but its still kinda out of her areas of expertise. she makes up for that with enthusiasm.

The second character is a trans girl who is a witch! She is quite a bit more insecure than Anna but they have known each other for a while. she is smarter than she gives herself credit for. i also want to mix in a teeny-tiny bit of mean-ness to her. like she spends a bit too much time online and thinks of herself as a bit edgy but is too nervous and mostly too meek to commit. she feels conflicted by this because on one hand she doesn't actually want to be an asshole but on the other she feels like she isn't capable of standing up for herself properly. Some working names are May and April, but I feel like something's missing.

The third character is a demi-girl-but-mostly-girl (by her description) who is also technically a demi-god, which, in this universe, isn't a super grandious thing but is also not known by most people. they are very rare but the amount of power this gets you varys and she got on the lower end. her god-parent is the god of darkness (how edgy! :> ) except its not nearly as edgy as it sounds (aww :< ). basically this god centers around hidden things and finding sanctuary in privacy. its got a whole "my followers will find safety under the cover of night and shadow where they cannot be harmed by those that rely on light to see" thing going on. ANYWAY so this character ends up spending most of her life involved in crime in one way or another due to her unique talents as granted by her god-mom. shes a bit edgy (yay :>) but mostly just yearns for an opportunity to be genuine and vulnerable around someone without worrying about being hurt or taken advantage on without compromising the identity she spent so long constructing. (she also likes knives). she is also incredibly socially clever. she can talk circles around most people and is really good at reading them. shes smart in a cunning way as opposed to a booksmart kinda way. some WIP names are Shen and Demi.

the forth character is someone who has powers that are a part of a unique sub-category of powers that are rare and significant. these people are called revenants due to the fact that their powerset comes with a one-time get-outta-death-free card. This tends to either make their abilities appear or if they were already present they get a permanent boost. in her case she has this sick battle-axe that she can make semi-incorporeal so it like goes through shit. it doesn't sound that strong but because of some in-universe mechanics and some of the special revenant buffs its actually a pretty strong ability. anyway, she is pretty quiet and mostly keeps to herself. she doesn't talk a lot but likes being around people. she becomes much more aggressive when she is fighting but in a focused, professional way. very passionate but used to people being weired/ creeped out by her. she is also autistic. only working name is ray (short for rachel) but idk.

maybe this is too much info, maybe not enough idk. any suggestions (or advice in general, frankly) would be appreciated!!!

P.S. don't expect me to release anything soon, I have like 0 experience.
There would be three ways I could think of, but no guarantee that even of them works.
One is going down the Alphabet, stopping at a Letter of your choice. Then just search or think of names that would work.
If you think you already invested enough time but nothing clicked, next letter or method.
Then would be going through what you expect from the Character and them name. Go through various words related to it. For example, a Wolf with Ice related ability would end up named Ciler.
Last would be going through various one or two syllables words, it depends on you if they are related to the character or not, and then mull over it a bit. Something like Crow and Bell, Bellcrow, Belcroth and from there going on.
I am bad at explaining, so I am sorry of something was confusing.
 

Rhaps

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I used to give meaningful names to characters, but my players destroyed any plot I cooked up. Now I just have a pool of names I drew from, because nobody will appreciate it.
 

beast_regards

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With the modern day setting, and the plot set in some decently cosmopolitan location, gives you quite a lot of freedom in naming your characters in any way you want. Sci-fi and / or urban fantasy usually follow our world cultural context, and the cosmopolitan locale justify presence of even otherwise exotic names, especially if some subculture is involved (even a fictional one).

Problem is if the world doesn't follow our cultural framework and is entirely fictional...

Annabelle, as the name is easy, it has Hebrew / French origin, and as long as similar languages exist (even if they are called differently) there is still a ground to stay on if you want to stay consistent within your lore.

May, for example, is not derived from words, but from the name of the Ancient Roman fertility goddess: Maia, and that's more difficult to explain...

Many of our names have origin in the Christian, Greco-Roman or Nordic mythologies, and that's very difficult to explain for the entirely fictional setting...

Though, if you don't want to worry about it, you could use whatever name you like. It's not like you have to justify anything to your audience, let alone the name etymology, but I assume that you care at least a little if you are asking.
 

CharlesEBrown

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If you're really stuck for modern names, run a search for baby names (or, if you want a more specific thing, search for baby names about the time your character would have been born; so if the character is 20 years old, look for 2005 baby names).
If you have a group of lesbians, from the few I've known, at least one will have (or have adopted) a bisexual name or nickname (Sam, Pat, etc.) but otherwise the names should just be "what feels natural"
I rarely worry about giving names meaning (though a few in some stories have some minor significance, like the Parson in Digital Cowboy).
 

CharlesEBrown

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Many of our names have origin in the Christian, Greco-Roman or Nordic mythologies, and that's very difficult to explain for the entirely fictional setting...
Also the Celtic "family" of names persists as well, usually by way of French adoption (i.e. Gwynyffyr became Genevieve became Jennifer, all meaning either "White Wave" or "White Hand" - which made it kind of amusing when ABC cast Gennifer Godwin to play Snow White on "Once Upon a Time")/
 

RainingFish

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Well, I used to just make up with something that sounded good enough to me and then try to spell it out. Now I just get Grok(AI) to do it for me. First, I pick a placeholder name that's distinct so it's easy to search for and replace when I'm ready for something better (e.g., asdf). Then when I'm ready I give Grok some of the story text with the character in it along with an overview of the story's setting and ask it to find appropriate replacement names for the characters. It seems to work well enough.
 

Danja

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Try using a baby name site.

What are the characters' backgrounds? Why did their parents give them their names? What are the characters' ethnic backgrounds?

There's is lot that goes into naming a character.
 

CharlesEBrown

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Well, I used to just make up with something that sounded good enough to me and then try to spell it out. Now I just get Grok(AI) to do it for me. First, I pick a placeholder name that's distinct so it's easy to search for and replace when I'm ready for something better (e.g., asdf). Then when I'm ready I give Grok some of the story text with the character in it along with an overview of the story's setting and ask it to find appropriate replacement names for the characters. It seems to work well enough.
I find I reuse enough names that I should probably do something like that.
Not quite as bad as what I've heard Gene Rodenberry did (He used the name Dillon/Dylan Hunt at least five times, for example - including the original name he had for one of the Star Trek characters, the captain of the Andromeda, supposedly the character who became Gary Seven (and then vanished until later comic book and novel writers picked him up), a supporting character on "Earth: Final Conflict" and a character in an early draft of one of the Westerns he wrote for - and I've heard there were about seven other names he used constantly but that's the only one I remember), but bad...
 

soupsabaw

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OokamiKasumi

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Hey there! So I'm not technically an author yet as I have not posted anything but I've had a spark of inspiration and really want to write a story based on some ideas I've had for a while now. thing is I REALLY struggle to come up with character names and thought "hey! why don't I just ask some people who actually write stuff already?" so that's why I'm here. ...
Meh, when I need names, I just use online baby name sites for whatever culture I'm writing in.
 
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