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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Naming

One of my issues when it comes to story is finding character names and place names. I’m terrible at it.

I pull street names. I once used the name from an old silent film. (Film credits are a good place for names as well.) Some parents come up with “interesting” names for their children, so I’ve “borrowed” a couple of those.

But sometimes I need a name (after a while, calling a character “that girl” or “the villain” gets cumbersome). I’ve found a couple good sites where I can look at lists and find something.
  • I’m not sure why, but lately my go-to for names is Victorian Era Names. While some of these are well-known, quite a few I’ve never seen before, and I like that about them.

  • Of course, there’s always the Social Security website. You can find the most popular names of last year or any year you wish to check.
I need your help. What’s a good website for names? How do you find your characters’ names?

8 comments:

fairbetty said...

I totally have this same problem! I hope somebody has some good suggestions...

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Charity Bradford is like a name-savant. She's who I'm going to go to when I need a really good name.

Charity Bradford said...

LOL, I pull from street names, baby name books and my favorite hangout--Seventh Sanctum. I read their suggestions and combine them (or pieces of them) to form my own.

Liz A. said...

Ah, true...

Liz A. said...

That's a good idea.

mshatch said...

I have a huge book of names that lists by country of origin and includes surnames (very helpful). I also get names from old maps sometimes.

fairbetty said...

Bookmarking THAT site!

Liz A. said...

Oooh, what book? I'd love a book like that.