Naming Characters - What and What Not to Do

(This is yesterday's post again. Expect another sometime today.)

Wardiloth isn't my top choice for a world name. If I could, I'd rename it to something more epic. However, there are three reasons why I don't really want to.
1. I've had it for too long. It's been a good two weeks since I've chosen it, and now that it's there, I can't possibly think of my world as anything else. Period.
2. Naming fantasy things is HARD. Try it. You'll see. It took me a solid half hour to come up with Wardiloth, which is, in my opinion, a sub-par name. Coming up with a really great one would probably take hours, an amount of time I just don't want to spend on a name.
3. It doesn't matter. Read that again. It. Doesn't. Matter. The bottom line is: if your story is good enough, and the name doesn't come up in the story too much, your readers won't care very much what your world is named. Anything short of Ding-Ding (or something similar) is fine.

Characters, on the other hand, are a different story. Name your character something that took you ten minutes to come up with that you aren't pleased with and your readers will either cringe or laugh at you. Here are some dos and don'ts of naming a regular earth character with a regular human name:
- DO take your time and find a good fit if you can. Baby name websites are good for this. Search names that have meanings that match your character's personality. For example: Sophia could be a good name for a character that's very smart. (Sophia means wisdom.)
- If that fails, DO keep looking. Try to find a good list of first names. Believe it or not, I use the Wizard101 name list for this. If I can't find anything I like on there, I move to Pirate101, which has a greater variety. You should be able to find something.
- DO remember your character's name! Nothing during this process is more frustrating than finding the perfect name, then forgetting what it was.
- DON'T pick the first name off the top of your head. Chances are, it's either really boring, really common, a really bad fit, or some or all of the above.
- DON'T settle for less than great. Keep trying, even if it's hard. Trust me, it's no fun to write a character that has a horrible name.

Now, fantasy characters are tougher. Here are more dos and donts.
- Again, DO take your time. These are hard, and bad names will sound absolutely ridiculous.
- DO try to create your own name first. Go to a translation website and translate words that describe your character into Latin or some other language. Combine the words until you get a combination that sounds like a good name.
- Unfortunately, the above method is extremely difficult, so if that fails: DO keep trying. The above is really the only way to get a high-quality original name, so if you're all tired out after attempting it, you can adapt a name from an online fantasy name generator to suit your purposes. This is what I do for most of my names. :P
- If you don't want to do that, DO experiment with combining syllables in your head. Try several combinations until you find one that works well. I've done this for a few of my names.
- DO remember that simple isn't always bad. Sometimes, a plain one or two syllable name can work well, not to mention it's easy to remember and pronounce!
- DON'T ever slap together random sounds into a two or three syllable name that's completely random. It will probably sound horrible.
- DON'T ever, EVER copy someone else's fantasy character's name. These are much less common than regular people names and many people will probably be able to figure out that you copied.
- DON'T forget to save your character's name somewhere! These are even easier to forget than regular people names.

So, I hope those helped you. Good luck naming!

~ Sophia-Rose