Does anyone else really struggle to come up with the names for their characters? I often find that I have stories in my head ready to write but spend hours trying to find the right names for the characters. I can imagine everything about them but names just escape me. Does anyone have tips on how to come up with names?
Spammers! If they use a name as opposed to gobbledygook. You'd be surprised how well their names fit with my villains and unsavoury characters. And, as a bonus; revenge without jail time!
I also check film credits. Best boy, key grips, dolly operators, etc, often have names that I can mix and match to create new and unusual ones.
The names for my characters sometimes just come to me and other times I think about using a name that was in the family or a name that I have come across that I particularly like. Most of the time though, I think about what kind of character I want to create and then find a name that might go with it. If I create a foreign character from a certain country I like to research a bit and find a name that is truly from that part of the world. Names too have to project the character like if you have a John Paterson or a Jane Willows they sound like business people who may be middle aged. If you name someone Tyler Walker it could be a younger person, a pop star, an actor. It's upto you to put the character to the name not the other way round.
I used this site called Kalabarian. It's really cool coz I had this name in mind for one of my charactors: "Samrin"
-Basically what this site does is say what your personality based on your name; and it is scarily accurate.
I know this doesn't really help in "looking for names" Yet, if you've got one decided, and if it shows the correct personality, you know you've got the right name.