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Naming Characters

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Captain GIROG

Piracy McGee
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How do you name your characters? Do you use name schemes, or do you make them up on the spot?

For the most part, I use biblical names because they, for the most part, sound appealing while not sounding too out-of-it. (Elisabeth, Elijah, Dismas/Gestas)

Other characters are just names I've used for a very long time that I'm comfortable with. (Ken, Cammaren, Breyer)

What are some of your naming schemes?
 
I use the Japanese name of a character as the last name, or middle name if it's really short, or not revelant to the story.

ie;

Barry Jun Kurogutsu (His father's Japanese name is his family name)

Cynthia Shirona

Dawn Hikari Akagi (Dawn, in Tarnished Gold, is the daughter of Cyrus)

Cyrus Akagi

Lucas Koki Ayako (not mentioned in the story, similar to Dawn and Barry, his family name comes from his named parent, aka Johanna, who the Japs call Ayoko)

etc., etc., etc.
 
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Usually it's what name pops into my head first. Dante is the first italian name I thought of (argento is italian for Silver)

And Marcus Westin is named because I walked through the Westin Hotel that day.
 
I make 'em up.

For example, my current HGSS team is:

Ramya the Ampharos
Clyde the Pidgeotto (although strictly speaking this is from Generation 2021)
Dratina the Dratini (This will also appear in Generation 2021)
Kafka the Typhlosion (Named after the author.)

I also have a few in the Team Box:

Taffi the Smeargle
Suzume the Fearow (although this is more a convention for me)

For characters, whatever pops into my head. Rachel, Ken, and Hikaru were all coincidences.
 
For characters? I pick a theme that goes along with the story and name them from there.

...of course, since I've been doing a lot of canon-based works as of late, I've not had the need to name anyone in a long while :XD2:
 
Generally, I make up names that are relevant to the characters. Sometimes I give canon characters surnames when they never had one before (e.g. Misty "Brooke")
 
For human characters, I just pull out my trusty "Graduating Seniors Roster" from last year and go through it until I find one that I like. I mix and match the 656 names, so I always an easy way to pick if I get stuck. For non-human, it depends on the role.
 
I may not write Pokémon fanfiction (yet), but I do RP some. I generally just think of a name, and if I like it, it sticks.

With Pokémon, it can be a little trickier, but I usually use something that describes them physically or their personality. Sometimes, I'll give them nicknames that are based on their species name, eg: Marley the Mareep. For the first, Speedy the Treecko.

In naming my fan gym leaders, though, I used different schemes:

Dusty- Since this Gym Leader uses the ground-type, I used that.
Ace- This Gym Leader uses flying-types. From "Flying Ace".
Forrest- This Gym Leader uses the grass-type. The connection should be obvious.
Slice- Slice uses fighting-types, and takes his name from Kimbo Slice, the mixed-martial arts fighter.
Lizzy- She uses the Ice-type, and gets her name from, "Blizzard".
Ebb and Flo- They are twins who double battle challengers with the water-type. Their names come from the tides.
Kristin- She uses the dark-type. Her name comes from Christine, the horror novel by Stephen King.
Ryan- Ryan uses the dragon-type. His name comes from the Japanese word, "Ryuu", which means dragon.

That's how I do it, anyway.
 
I use the Seventh Sanctum name generator. I generate a list of fifty names, see if one pops out at me. If it doesn't, I go again.
 
I always base my character names on people in my everyday life. The main character, Bryce Barrett, in my most recent FF shares the same initials as me, while his enemy has the initials of someone I hate xD Most of my stuff is like that.
 
My characters names are actually based on foreign words that I think could make a good name as well as they fit the character I'm talking about.

Such as:

Kage=Shadow in Japanese (He's a silver wolf with thick black stripes.)

Dolosus=Cunning in Latin (The character is sly and cunning. He's also part fox which some would consider cunning and sly)

Other times I just use a real name and add a personal twist to it such as:

Razayka= A twist off of "Rachel" with the first two letters in front.

Keenai= A twist off of "Kenneth" with the first two letters added at the front of the name, plus the n.

Other times, I make them up in my head. Mostly I base them off of foreign words that match their personality/appearance.
 
Sometimes I make names up, especially for main characters, but if there is a large group of supporting characters that do the same sort of thing (eg Gym Leaders), I usually follow a theme. For example, the Gym Leaders of the Blinto region (which is where my fanfic takes place) all have the name of a Greek god (Poseidon - water user, Demeter - grass user...). The Greek god theme fits because (obviously) the Gym Leader position is a position of power, and, like the gods, they are revered and looked up to.
 
Usually in Fakemon stuff I work on, me and my brother go with name meanings and stuff like that. Also with personalities and styles.

For Example, on our DeviantArt, our gym leaders are...

Grass- Rose (Flower...Grass...Get it? :p)
Ground/Rock- Augustus (He's swedish)
Fire- Hadyn (Means Fiery Spirit or something like that)
Dark- Damien (From the Omen)
Flying- Amelia (Amelia Earhart :D)

And then theirs abunch more. Usually we relate it to their gym types.
 
Names are an interesting subject for me. Behind the Name is one of my favorite sites, and I will go on there every so often to find a good name for a character I have. An example would be Sheridan of Wings Have We; her name derives from "Sirideán", which means 'searcher' in Gaelic. Considering that she's a Shiny addict and was initially to be a Pokémon hunter as well (that idea was eventually dropped), I think that it worked well. Sometimes the names are shallower than that, like with another character from Wings Have We - namely Grant. He was created a few years before almost everyone else, and his name was a pun on his... er... occupation at the time. The surname was later changed to prevent it from being too obvious, as well as the fact that it wasn't a particularly nice surname anyway. Though Sternberg still makes some sense.

I tried to make all the Gym Leaders have pun names, though I admit, half of them had names that couldn't be changed, and one of them had to keep her name for other reasons. So I wound up with only three punny names - Marianne (a variant of "Marina", of course suggesting water), Stathis (a pun on 'static'), and Anima (means 'spirit' in a language I don't remember right now, appropriate for a Ghost trainer).

However, names can also be influenced by other things, such as the case of Alonzo - a minor character in WHW. The thing that I always remember the most about him (ignoring that whole MissingNo. fiasco) is his GIANT shock of black-and-white hair. The idea for that came from a character in the musical Cats, whose hair and fur matched that description as well. Guess what his name was? Alonzo, yeah. (Before that he was named Trevor.) In rare cases, names are given according to stigma - that means that the main character of WHW, who was initially a rather wimpy and easily-startled little kid who had been turned from his usual age of eleven up to around fourteen, was to be given a name that was typically associated with younger people, or maybe pet names. For that reason, he was called - this was entirely unintentional to the above poster, I swear - Casey.

And then there are names which are just picked because I like them, or because I made them up on the spot. Caro's name was conceived randomly out of my head, and my funny taste in names becomes apparent every so often, most obviously with Rodney.

So yeah, I think way too much into this.
 
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For the people, I use names I like.
For the pokémon, they're named after my pokémon from the games that I generally pick for myself although I may get help from my friend.
 
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