Character Names!

Use random state/provincial/national capitals for last names, and random nouns for first names. Examples: Buggy Washington, Cliff Providence, Strudel Minsk.

Most names in Beowulf are already provided by the original text. Freawaru had her name restored to Hrút due to some observations Kemp Malone made of cognate characters in other legends of the Scyldings:

As for original names, I unceremoniously pull them out of my ass.

For actual names I decide what "normal" name they would have and then alter it until it fits my High Fantasy world. A couple keep normal names so far and one of them have a combined name of two I am fond of.

Code names vary depending on which team they're one: Animals for the protagonists, and literary characters for the Rogue Guild.

Depends on what I'm writing. As the main character in my fantasy setting was raised in the Gaelic-counterpart culture, he has the appropriate name of Baird, while others have old names like Padraic and so on.

Picking names for non-humans is a bitch though. What the hell do you call a lamia?

Argh, no, not Phantasy Spelling (or whatever that trope is)!

edited 2nd Nov '11 2:20:14 AM by nrjxll

Not "Phantasy Spelling" - I make up my own names based on the old ones.

Not like spelling Iris as Iryss or something - if I like the normal name enough then I'll use it provided I can justify it.

The only word I use Phantasy Spelling on is faeries and then I use that because it's closer to the word origin anyway.

Most of my characters are just named with the good old "does it sound cool? Then that's your name!" school of naming, but my Wordkeepers characters are an exception. Because True Names are an important part of how that world works (having your True Name given to you is what makes you a mage), each character's name is a "reflection" of their true name—it isn't their true name, not really, but its meaning is related to what your True Name means, and thus people take a lot of pride in what their name means, and mages have the unusual habit of being on a First-Name Basis with each other because calling someone by their Family name is generally sort of an insult that implies that their name has no real meaning. (One character actually has a name with no meaning, which is the driving focus of what happens to him.) He's the important characters:

• Nikolai: Means "victory." Nick is noted for his habit of being able to get out of just about any scrape.
• Ran: Means "water lily," which symbolizes purity. Ran has the ability to purify people's minds with Laser-Guided Amnesia. It can also mean "Chaos," which she's skilled at creating.
• Apollo: A god of the sun, as well as a ton of other things, including art. Apollo has his own reasons to prefer the sun, but he's artistic and music-loving like the god.
• Alexander: Means "defender of man." Alex may not show it much, but he's got a real Mama Bear side to him. Also, this is the one name with an interesting out-of-story story, as my co-writer had to really fight to ensure Alex got to keep his name. "Alexander" is uncomfortably close to my real name, and I didn't want Alex to look like an Author Avatar of some sort. Also, I dislike my real name.

Well, let's see.

• Zachary Williams: The forename is primarily inspired by Zack, from Dead or Alive and he's pretty much a reference to him as well, having an erratic personality. The surname just sounded like it fit.

The three leads of my book are indirectly named after me and my oldest friends - that is, the names have the same meanings, but aren't actually our names. A third character was originally named after my third oldest friend, but Llewellyn ended up fitting better for the story at hand.