I really have a hard time when it comes to names for my characters. No I'm not talking about all my charcters from the main ones to the ones that only make one appearance. I'm just talking about the main characters, the ones we are supposed to be following. My Problem mostly stems from the incredibly inflexible naming convention that I use whenever I have to name characters.
For example, lets say that I had to give a name for this warrior like character. First I have to take into consideration the personality of the character I'm creating. Most warrior type characters usually have that lone- wolf serious-faced personality (E.G. Sauske from Naruto, Hiei from YuYu Hakusho) while other characters have that have that fierce joy for fighting; A contrast to the later type.
Next I have to think of name that means something close to that personality or character. This can be done in two ways.
1. Depending on the character; I think of name that matches the roughness of it's personality. For instance! My Character; Jyssica's name uses a hard c at the end of her name. Now I'm not an English Major or anything but if you have a hard constant (I think that's how you spell it... AGAIN NOT an English Major) doesn't make the name sound rougher. Well in Jyssica's case it kinda works, seeing how she's kinda rough herself. Now If I named her something like Dawn, it wouldn't really have the same effect. A Dawn (like the ones in the morning) signify the start of a new day, and while the may be empowering they are also calm... And Jyssica is nowhere near calm.
2. Finding names that means exactly what I'm looking for via the internet. This is my last resort when I can't think of anything for a name and honestly the results are damn near impressive. Honestly if you type up "names by meaning" in Google you will find hundreds of entries in general and come out with at least 10 name ideas for your specific characters. So If I could do that, does this make the process easy right? ... NOPE! Because when it comes to names I'm just damn picky!
I want the name of character to fit that character perfectly, to reflect the personality and struggle that character is going through. So when I have a 6ft tall, war experienced samurai kung-fu robot panda and I name him "Bill" I'm just gonna keep thinking to myself "Wow! that name sucks!"
What are Your naming conventions for Characters?
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