When writing the Nifaran Chronicles, I had a lot of characters to name. Over two hundred! While many of these only get a single line of dialogue or, in some cases, no dialogue, they all need a name. As a pantser (a writer who creates the story as they write) I didn't sit down and create two hundred names in advance. I created them as needed.
Initially, I simply made up names where I liked the sound of them. It didn't take long to realise that these names all started to sound alike. We humans tend to gravitate towards the same sounds, and this feeds into character names. I decided I needed better methods.
Regional Names
The character of Jem Poulterer comes from a sleepy area called Burland. I decided that the unsophisticated folk of this area would choose simple names for their children. Hence, most characters in Burland have three letter first names, like Ben, Ned, Ava, Sue, etc. Their family names would relate to their father's trade e.g. Plowright, Cooper (barrel maker), Smith, Poulterer etc,
An affluent area called Tudorfeld would be home to regal names like Earl Normin Linhold.
Other Languages
Borrowing parts of other languages can help form original names. Using an old English translator and chunks of old Norse, I was able to create names which were not only original but also had some meaning for the character. I also borrowed from Arabic, old German and other European languages.
Female warrior Isen Stanhamur literally translates to axe stone hammer, while I took the name Qadima from the Arabic word muqadima meaning vanguard.
Things
While not fantasy, my first novel, Zero Magenta, focuses on a female character called Magenta. I didn't have a name for the character until I wrote her first scene. She arrives at Brad's apartment inside a pink plastic bag (!), and hence, Brad calls her Magenta. Not only was this a fun name, but it also fed into the story's focus on sexism and gave me the name of the book.
In the Nifararan Chronicles, the Alviri race (think elves) are all named using words for the weather or atmosphere. Names like: Etherin (ethereal), Tornass (tornado) and Nimmeral (nimbus).
Onomatopoeia
The most famous use of onomatopoeia to name a character would be Tolkien's Gollum. I used a similar approach when naming the oni clans. I decided they would have a low IQ and struggle to form complex sounds in speech. Using this idea, I gave them all harsh, guttural names like Pag, Rak, Grodon and Zonta.
Baby Name Lists
Many writers turn to baby name lists to find character names, and I'm no exception. However, I tried to keep this to a minimum and mostly use this for background characters or in my contemporary sci-fi. Names go in and out of fashion, and you want your work to be timeless.
One character in a future novel will be named Zuri. I read an interesting article which detailed how African American parents were choosing traditional African names for their children. The name Zuri is a Swahili name meaning beautiful.
Sounds Like
The character name Brea is a homage to the village of Bree in the Lord of the Rings, while Chakirris owes her name to Shakira. Hips don't lie 😉.
Make it up
Sometimes a name will just pop into your head, or come to you in a dream. On other occasions, a writer will simply enjoy the sound of a name. Moranne plays a pivotal role in the Nifaran Chronicles, and she had this name from the moment I first imagined her as a female Gandalf. She ended up being much more than this, as I wrote the first two novels, and she'll continue to play a key role if I ever write the next two.
Fantasy Name Generators
Few writers will admit to using online fantasy name generators to name their characters, but sometimes it helps when you have lots of characters to name. Be careful of copyright infringement - some lists are taken from real novels and the outputs of some generators are copyrighted.
However you name your characters, I recommend a quick web search to ensure another writer hasn't already used the name in a similar novel. While there's no law saying you can't use the same names, it might look pretty bad if you write a fantasy novel where the main character is named Bilbo. For starters, you could be looking at serious legal troubles. Even partial accidental plagiarism is a bad look.
I had a character called Lyra until I realised the main character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is named Lyra. Even though my books are very different, the fact they're fantasy makes it look like I either copied the name or had Pullman's books in mind when I used it. Best to simply use a different name.
Do let me know what you think. You can connect with me here, or on Mastodon where my handle is johnhowesauthor.
Happy fantasizing.
That's all for now.
John Howes.
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