Scrivener Name Generator

We are almost through the holiday season. And if you’re like me, your kids are off school for like, the next month, so we’re keeping it simple again this week with the #52WeeksOfScrivener series. We’re talking about the Name Generator.

Now, I know there are about a thousand baby-naming websites out there. In fact, while I’m at it, I have to mention . This is my favorite baby name website because it tells you the popularity of names over time. For instance, Mary was a super popular name for babies in the 1920s. It’s much less common now. Writing a character born in the 1950’s? The name Taresa saw a huge jump in popularity around then. (My husband and I wasted hours on that site while trying to name our kids.)

While the baby naming websites are not to be overlooked, the Scrivener name generator should definitely be on your radar as well.

What I like about it:

You can choose the name’s heritageThere’s an option to include “Literary” names (book nerds rejoice)You can set it to produce simple names, or really elaborate onesIt will play with alliteration if you tell it to



Find the Scrivener Name Generator

Go to Edit -> Writing Tools -> Name Generator.

Just click your way through and have a little fun playing around with the settings.

My next book has a Spanish character and I love long Spanish names. They sound so regal.

Here’s a few from the list generated by Scrivener:

Xènia Matilde Àngela Bardera
Helena Xènia Llúcia Mountain
Blanca Marina Sara Harpoon
Matilde Helena Isona Virago
Sara Alba Isona Homs
Violeta Sara Alba Mate

I’m pretty creative, but there’s no way I would have come up with Matilde Helena Isona Virago on my own. That’s a great name.

Do Your Due Diligence

Whatever name you land on, please, please take a moment to google it and just make sure it doesn’t have any associations you’re unaware of. You really don’t want a kindly old hotel proprietor named Henry Holmes (unless of course you’re writing horror, in which case, the nod to history is kind of cool).

Next Week

Since I know a lot of folks out there are thinking about their writing goals for 2020, I thought I’d take next week to talk about how I use Scrivener in tandem with the Bullet Journal. Stay tuned, follow on Twitter with #52WeeksOfScrivener, or sign up for my newsletter to get a weekly digest of all my posts.