Character creation: Do you have difficulty in naming your characters (OC's)?

[coordinator lissi]

Currently trying to name a guy for my hunger games fanfic (I gave up on trying to give all 24 tributes names, too hard)

 

[Hunter_Gr33n]

I'm gonna be honest here, I have the exact opposite problem. Usually it's a rarity for any of my OCs to have much more than a name and basic characterization. I've been trying to work on that though! You should've seen my OCs back in 2020-21...

 

[Violet Witch]

I always relate the name of a character to their personality by scouring google and baby naming websites where I can narrow the search down a bit more e.g. "names that mean darkness". Sometimes I'll see one and instantly know it's the characters name or I'll device a list and try out names in my head until one sticks.

 

[Mistreil]

strangely, no, even though i constantly make new characters. half the time their names just end up being a noun of some sort or noun-adjacent. at worst, i look up words related to the character and see related names or variations in other languages to see if there's a form i would like to use (and sometimes butcher.)

i have an OC that's just named Frog, and i think it's perfect and requires no changes.
if pokemon can name characters Red/Green/Blue/Silver/Gold/etc. then i can name my characters after nouns too!! there are no rules!!

 

[daringred_]

surprisingly, no. i remember when i was a lot younger and used to roleplay online and had no issue naming dozens of characters. now, i only have six main ocs and three secondary, but i had no issues naming them nor all of their immediate family members for family trees lol. not sure why, the names just come to me, like i knew them all along. i've never really had to put considerable thought into any of them.

 

[tanisha23]

Since about 2017 I’ve started list of name that I usually for use for naming OCs of mine when I can’t come up a name fitting on the spot. I also use if for character creation in games! I would say since then coming up with name have been a breeze!

 

[Snek]

Not really. I usually know what names to give my OCs. Sometimes I even change them when I think of better suited ones.

 

[Cress]

Yeah it takes me forever, so I'll usually grab 1 name and then stick with it for the next 5-10 years. The name Cress alone just came from the water gym leader in Unova just because I like water types despite not knowing anything about the character. Meanwhile when I started Monster Hunter about 2 years ago, I wanted to give my guy a name and decided on Solf... after a few months of playing. And that's also a name I stole from a video game character. Granted that reference is super obscure so it seems more original that way maybe? And now Solf is the name I used for my avatars in every other Monster Hunter FF XIV, and any other game where I have to make a character.

 

[~Kilza~]

I don't have any OCs, but I don't feel like it'd be too hard for me to come up with a name for any character I created.

 

[S.J.]

I haven't created/drawn a lot of OCs, but sometimes the names have come easily, and other times, it's taken a lot more thought!

I really love character customisation in video games, particularly fantasy RPGs (e.g. Fable, Dragon Age, Skyrim). Customising the character always comes so easily, but when it comes to naming them, sometimes I can be stuck there for half an hour or longer, because I either can't think of a name, or I can't decide on one!

 

[BetsySundrop]

I struggle so much with character names! In games, stories, everything...

I start out looking for a name with some sort of meaning, something relevant to the time period or type of character. Then I find myself at the end of that tunnel with a list of completely ridiculous names that won't work.

The next step is finding any number of 'name generators' online. I end up with a better list, but there's the nagging thought that - it's so obviously from a name generator!

Eventually I scrap all of that, give up, and just go for something super simple. Example - d&d game, my character : dragonborn warden (awesome character btw), #of possible complicated names - oh, hundreds. The name I finally settled on - Pat.

 

[Aerith]

Some days it's easy, some days it's not. Eventually, I fiddle around with names enough that I find something suitable. I like the process of finding "their" name, so it doesn't bother me if it takes a while.

 

[Foreverfox]

I don’t really have an issue naming my characters. I usually have their names and lore ready before they’re even drawn lol. I’d say once or twice I had a hard time, but it was when those characters were adopted and we’re going to be secondary characters anyways. Sometimes I have hesitation naming adopted characters because even though they’re mine now, I struggle with wanting to also see the original artists vision for them and honor that as well. If I end up dwelling on it too much like I did those couple times, I just go with whatever I want.

 

[rocketspruggs]

It is so much easier to give my characters names than it is to actually think of designs and appearances for them.

I usually just give them silly names, something like, "Paige Turner", or, "Jim Class".

 

[QueenCobra]

Not really. My characters’ names just kind of…appear to me. Like as I’m creating them, the name appears, like I’m remembering an old friend. Sometimes my memory is fuzzy and have to search for their “right” name, but, depending on the setting— it always appears.

Some character naming stories:

Ida Spinner Pumphrey— A spoiled, overdramatic 19th-century heiress. I thought the three names would sound more convincing, and “Pumphrey” came from Mrs. Pumphrey of the James Herriot books, the woman with the spoiled Pekingese. Her name was originally going to be Edna but I thought it sounded too dowdy for her.

Pearl Solstice— I thought Pearl was a pretty name and I named her after Pearl S. Buck, since they’re both writers interested in Asia. Solstice because it sounded lovely and went with the whole “new beginnings” vibes. It’s also an Anglicization of her family’s original surname.

Amarantha “Amma” Beraude Solstice— Pearl’s mother, also a witch. I was going to name her Amma after a hippo at the San Diego Zoo, as I felt it would fit her easygoing nature, but wanted to make it prettier and more complicated, as that was how her mother Bathilde would have named her.

Queen Clotilda Prasnigenita Hua— Queen of the Neo-Jotuns (Giants) in Splendora, she was originally Princess Clotilda Yamamoto of the “Gym Kingdom” (?) in my story Solve. (I wrote it when I was in middle school and frustrated with math. It was a story about a girl who lives in a world where every country was ruled by a different school subject. The main character lived in Math Land and embarked on a journey to Writer’s Block. Wow. How cringe.) Anyway, Clotilda’s name comes from the fact that the name sounded clumsy to me when I first saw it, and I thought it would be fitting for a giant. (She was about 8 ft in the original story.)
Now, my current and “canon” regeneration of the character is the firm yet opulent Queen of Splendora. Her middle name comes from the Latin for “green-born” as she’s always wearing green, and her last name as her father is Chinese. (Giants are related to humans and have their ethnicities.) Before she was adopted into the royal family, her birth name was Clotilda Kingfisher— after the bird. I also thought it sounded regal.

Wow! I have a lot more “naming stories” but I almost wrote a novel here lol.

 

[AccfSally]

Most of the names I come up with nowadays derives from...baby name websites and making sure the names are within the timeframe of the story. However, I've been thinking about naming one of my character's entire family after flowers instead of the common names I have given them. I already have a backstory for this character and the reason why they are named after a flower (not a common one).

Some characters have the same names I gave them when I was a child.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

not really, most of the time I look at a new character and I have a few name ideas that jump right out to me. that almost never fails me. sometimes a character design is just like "oh this character definitely looks like a [name]" haha.