Chosing a name and a surname

Hello, friends!

Together with world building and plot building, character building is the absolute NEED when creating a story.

Let's now go through the very basics - choosing a name and a surname for the character!

While coming up with the name for the character is often the first step of the character building and even the first step of building a whole story, it doesn't have to be. It's totally alright to focus on their personality and background first and choose a fitting name once we ourselves get to know the character better.

The name can be random, or it can have a meaning (which can play nicely as a metaphor or even foreshadowing, but also as a statement about a character's personality - for example “sunflower” for someone who's very bright and always looks at the positive side of things).

Keep in mind the character’s cultural background, whether real or fictive, and choose a name accordingly. If the name is non-typical for the location, explain why.

A very interesting move is to avoid stating the name at all (the reader never gets to learn it) or to use a nickname as a disguise for the character’s true identity.

Especially while writing about different cultures than your own, learn how to address someone properly, which order the name and surname goes, if there are any additions to names/surnames. We can take Japan for an example: you would address someone Tanaka-san, which means their surname is Tanaka and they're older than you. 

Same goes for stories set in the past - educate yourself on how people used to address someone and why.

If you struggle with coming up with names / surnames, you can use the help of the internet. Searching for phrases like “Name generator” or “Fantasy surnames generator” will give you a few good websites to generate a name for you.

I suspect that searching for a name means you know the gender of your character. The typical choices are man (he) and woman (she), but I want to underline that IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE YOUR ONLY OPTIONS. Don't be afraid to go outside the box - try writing a non-binary character or a trans character! Make your story more inclusive and welcoming for queer folks - and have fun with choosing a cool gender neutral name!

Try to avoid names that arise an immediate connection to an already existing character from a different book or movie - like Hermione (Harry Potter), Aragorn (Lord of the rings), or Cercei (Game of thrones).

If you create a name from scratch, keep the PRONUNCIATION in mind, and try to read it out loud to check if it sounds good or not. People won't mention they liked a character if they can't even say their name!