Creating a Character Name

I love names. I own a few dog-eared copies of "name your baby" books and will often go through them to find a name I like for a hero or heroine or secondary characters. Writers are usually on the hunt for the perfect name for their characters, and I'm no exception. I sometimes just read lists of names for the fun of it. Or a take a plain name and hunt up foreign variations of it, or interesting spellings, or  mish-mash it with another name. This is particularly fun if you are writing a fantasy and want an unusual name that isn't heard of on 21st century Earth.

Take my name, Maddy,  as an example.

Here are Thirteen variations on Maddy:

Maddie
Maddox
Madelon
Madison
Madeleine
Madalyn
Madchen
Maddalena
Madaskya
 Madaline
 Madarika
 Madelique
 Madalisa

See all the fun stuff you can do with a name? How do you choose a character name?