Character Names :]

I know that a lot of people think naming their characters can be one of the hardest parts of writing a story (besides writing the actual story). I can tell that by the number of threads in the Sharing Time Section that are titled "Character Name Help" or "Can You Help Me With The Names For My Characters?" or "I Need Help With My Character's Names". And I know one of those is mine. xD But it is not as hard if you have some help with seeing what some names people have in the world or having tips on how to make a great last name.

First Names (and Middle Names):

Here are some websites that will help you pick a good first or middle name.

http://www.girlnames.com/

http://www.20000-names.com/

http://www.babynology.com/ - Kat24

First and Last Names:

Here are some references for websites where they help you on first and last names. (Last names are also known as Surnames.)

http://www.writing-world.com/romance/names.shtml

http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm -DreamCatcher81

Tips:

PugsRock-

1. Use real life words, and change the spelling.
For my story, Pieces of Me, I needed a ton of last names. I couldn't think of any, but I just looked at a WI thread about trains, so I thought, Train!
But that is a big easy, so instead, my character was Casey Trayn.
Also, instead of Mrs. Cane, Mrs. Cain or Kain!

2. Use school to help!
Social Studies can help you with your stories. If you've learned about the Barbary Pirates, name your character Barbary, or Phell (just change Philadeliphia around).

3. Rearrange the vowels, Take out letters
I'm using the example of Barbary again. You can make it Berbary or for something like... writing, Wrig. For that, I used the first 3 letters and the last one.

And now it's my turn - I wanna say that the best way I can think of to come up with last names is the phonebook. Just flip through randomly until you find a good last name!



If you have any references or tips on how to name characters then post away!

Thank you, Merry! =)

Updates!

If looking for last names I would recommend this site:
http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm

I really recomend http://www.babynology.com/.

It's great for finding origins. Like, say you wanted an Egyptiaan name. It's right there! they have like thirty origins.

Ya thats cool except sometimes sights are only for names like that and don't even have normal names. xD

That one has normal names too, just type it in the American search. xD

Oh ok. That's cool then!

Thanks a lot, Merry! That's really helpful.

You welcome!

For first names I usually use http://www.babynames.com/. But thanks, maybe I'll use some of those next time!