Random Name Generator - awesome resource for writers - free website

[April]

Do you need a name for your character(s)? Try the Random Name Generator: http://random-name-generator.info/

I love this simple little tool.

April

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

You know, this might have come in handy back in the D&D days...

[April]

Riley wrote: "You know, this might have come in handy back in the D&D days..."

There are other name generators that are great for fantasy, scifi (alien names), etc... This one just creates "normal" names, from common to rare. It's a great tool.

I'm writing a fantasy-romance novella right now, and coming up with names appropriate to the time and place I'm writing about is a challenge.

April

[April]

I just did a quick search on Google and found these:

Fantasy name generator: http://fantasynamegenerators.com/

Fantasy name generator: http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/

Alien name generator: http://fantasynamegenerators.com/alie...

I've never used them, but I imagine they're helpful. There are certainly a lot more; just Google the type of name generator you're looking for.

April

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

April wrote: "Do you need a name for your character(s)? Try the Random Name Generator: http://random-name-generator.info/

I love this simple little tool.

April"

Been using that a lot on "Boo", which contains a lot of real people who would be upset if I used their real names. It's been quite handy.

[Joselyn]

I love this generators they come in handy in rol playing xD

[Christina]

Dwayne wrote: "Been using that a lot on "Boo", which contains a lot of real people who would be upset if I used their real names. It's been quite handy"

You're so much nicer than me. In my similar work I'm not even using names. I'm just giving vague descriptions.

I usually go to the Social Security site for names depending on the age I'm looking for, but playing around with this I did find my "Christina needs a kidney" pen name. ;)

[Vaughn]

I have a lot of ethnic characters -- Serbian, Sri Lankan, etc. I Google for common XXXX surnames and visit the baby names sites. For Chinese, though, I went to Wikipedia and studied naming conventions. Didn't want to create anything that sounded like a dumb ethnic joke.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Christina wrote: "You're so much nicer than me. In my similar work I'm not even using names. I'm just giving vague descriptions."

Well, the first draft wasn't nice at all. I went into detail about which friends had drug problems, why I am no longer with my ex-wives and all kinds of dirty things. While working on the second draft, I deleted all of that. I realized that people who buy it will want to read ghost stories, not my soap opera of a life.

That stuff can wait until I'm famous.

[Charles]

Dwayne wrote: "Christina wrote: "You're so much nicer than me. In my similar work I'm not even using names. I'm just giving vague descriptions."

Well, the first draft wasn't nice at all. I went into detail about..."

That stuff is the flesh on the bones to me. :D

[J.J.]

Christina wrote: "Dwayne wrote: "Been using that a lot on "Boo", which contains a lot of real people who would be upset if I used their real names. It's been quite handy"

You're so much nicer than me. In my similar..."
I was going to suggest the SS index as well. What's really neat about it (I'm not sure if anyone paid too much attention) is it breaks down the racial makeup of People identifying with last names. Makes it great if you want a Hispanic character without resorting to the standard Ramirez, Hernandez, etc. Same goes for Asian. And if you're looking for an African American character, it identifies last names that are majority Afro American. Or if you want a character that could be either one, you can find names where half the respondents identified as black and the other half as white.

I'm not sure the average reader will pick up on it if you don't draw attention to the characters' races, but it has been a fun way to sneak diversity into my writing without being blatant.

*Correction, the census is the source for last names, not SS...

[T.R.]

If you use Scrivener, it comes with a name generator under tools; what's nice is it throws in first and last names, and you can look up the name's meaning/ethnicity.

[J.J.]

Update to my previous comment. Hit me last night I was thinking about the census, not the SS database when it comes to settling on last names. Here's the site I've been using.

http://names.mongabay.com/data/1000.html

Tells you how popular the name was on the last census as well as the racial breakdown of the people reported with that last name within the racial groups the census specifies.

[Micah]

I love playing around with random name generators but I never end up using them. The one linked to in the OP for example, even in the "rare" option, the names are either too plain vanilla or don't roll off the tongue. Also, I don't see any non-European ethnic names in their returns (Chinese, Japanese, African, Indian, etc.).

When I need a name, a name usually just pops into my head...and then I have to rein it in a bit because I tend to think up ridiculous ones like Alfred P. Tinderhorn von Schlagelherst (or something).

[Dorsey]

Great resource. Will use. Thanks April

[Ann, Supreme Overlord]

Hi Shirley, since the original creation of this post, we've changed our guidelines to state that we don't allow posting links within this group. We've had too many harmful spam links posted.

If you could edit your post to remove the link, I'd appreciate it. People can search for the name and find it themselves.

Thank you!

[Anne]

I would like to comment that your name needs to match the personality of the character, the age, and the era. If you're doing fantasy--well--maybe that would work. But I cringe when I see a manuscript with a historical character named something trendy.

[Anna]

Ann wrote: "Hi Shirley, since the original creation of this post, we've changed our guidelines to state that we don't allow posting links within this group. We've had too many harmful spam links posted.

If y..."

Thank you, Ann. I'm always very wary of links and rarely follow them. It's better if the name of the site is given and we can search for it. As for links to books - I only follow them if they are Goodreads links. I'm only saying this to help others who post info so that they can get the best results and not be ignored.

[Anna]

Anne wrote: "I would like to comment that your name needs to match the personality of the character, the age, and the era. If you're doing fantasy--well--maybe that would work. But I cringe when I see a manuscr..."

Very wise!