How do you pick or choose the names of your characters and cities in your book

[Deleted member 84247]

I don't even think. Head empty, no thoughts. Therefore, the names are whatever first comes to mind most of the time.

 

[l8rose]

I picked "Don't know til I start writing" because I generally have a character already well defined in my head (and in plottr) before I come up with a name.

I generally go with names I like the sound of, unless I'm trying to force-feed meaning, and then I just look up names based on the meaning (such as a trio of characters based on Zeus, Hades and Poseidon). Unfortunately, it means I reuse names a lot. I have three main characters from vastly different stories all named Ava for example.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

As an aside, running table top RPGs since 1981 helps a lot... for a while, back in the 90s, I was often asked to come up with names of places and characters for a Star Wars game, as I tended to come up with names closer to what Lucas used than most (which was considerably less flattering when I found out at least half of the names in the movies and books were created by Lucas's kids, between the ages of 5 and 7... :D)

 

[Rezcore]

I bought a couple massive tomes, 1 of Celtic names, 1 of Roman names. I have a map, and mix and match. Sometimes I bastardize names together

 

[EverenVale]

Depends on how important that character or place is.
Sometimes, the character's name comes to mind the first time. Sometimes, it changes in every draft until I find the right one.
But mostly, I used this website:

Fantasy name generators

It can even help you with finding names for your places and cities.

The problem is that they are not unique. If you're using this website, someone else is using it, too.

For more unique names, I brainstorm with ChatGPT, write exactly what I want in the prompt, and ask for five suggestions.
Sometimes, I choose one of the suggestions. Sometimes, the suggestions give me a new idea.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

Sometimes I give my characters the names of people I like. Other times I want the name to have a meaning, but not in an obvious way. So I run it through a translator or GPT into whatever language comes to mind. Like in Esperanto, "star" becomes Stelo.
Sometimes a name just shows up and I try to make sense of it later. But as long as the story is still moving I don’t focus on it too much. I’ll probably change the name when I do the final draft.

I bought a couple massive tomes, 1 of Celtic names, 1 of Roman names. I have a map, and mix and match. Sometimes I bastardize names together

Damn, that’s a pretty solid approach you’ve got there!

 

[Naash]

For names, "random bullshit go." most of the time, and if that sounds fantasy enough, I keep it.

Other times I just literally name things by their general traits and characteristics. I believe that makes visualization easier, without clogging with too much exposition, and leaving enough for the reader to imagine.

I have a lion-man named Sun Mane, a chimera named Manticore, and an ice mage emperor who lives in FrostCitadel, the main city of his empire. Another country of my world is called Elfort, as in the fort of the elves (although it's mostly trees...), a desert region is called 'Sand' with just an extra 'a'.

I find this naming scheme pretty handy, and I use a variation of it by doing the same but with other languages, where I sometimes switch letters around purposefully.
For example, the religious country's capital is named BlancheVille, literally White Town in French.

This whole naming scheme is dumb but it works, and it's easy to create things with it. I mean, that's what our ancestors pretty much did in the past when they discovered lands... That's how we end up with names meaning "Lake of lake lake".

 

[CharlesEBrown]

This whole naming scheme is dumb but it works, and it's easy to create things with it. I mean, that's what our ancestors pretty much did in the past when they discovered lands... That's how we end up with names meaning "Lake of lake lake".

Had a teacher who's mom "forced" him to memorize the name of one Welch town - also the longest word that can be depicted entirely in the English alphabet. It took him about eight seconds to say, and he then explained that it literally meant something like "small town between two large hills with a river running through and lots of sheep farms"

 

[Naash]

Had a teacher who's mom "forced" him to memorize the name of one Welch town - also the longest word that can be depicted entirely in the English alphabet. It took him about eight seconds to say, and he then explained that it literally meant something like "small town between two large hills with a river running through and lots of sheep farms"

WTF ?! I am flabbergasted

 

[Macha]

Carefully.