Poll of the Day > I need some fantasy names for a male and female character

(+) Yeah! (+)

Worst part of writing a story by far is coming up with names

Setting; era; race and species?

Elam and Elamef (maybe have their last names be Ayo)

Kevin and Kevette

Edvenitia

Fart and Fartina

Butz and Butzette

Lokarin posted...

Setting; era; race and species?

This.

Also, context questions like if you're willing to use Earth-type names, or want something completely original. Or something sort of half-way between the two, like Game of Thrones did (so Joffrey instead of Jeffrey/Geoffrey, Rickon instead of Richard, etc).

Is there a specific culture you want to evoke? Giving characters medieval French names is going to give a different feel to things than giving them Arabic names, or Sanskrit names.

Even if you just want completely 100% made-up names, there's going to be differences if you go for soft-sounding syllables versus harsh ones. A name like Sylla is going to convey different implications than a name like Zarash.

Also remember, if you really want to get granular, nearly every name ever means something. Even if people have forgotten the original meaning, there was one. So Thomas Miller actually means "The twin who works as a miller", while "John Smith" is "God is gracious, the smith". So you can have fun names like the Puritans did, with literal word names (Serendipity Jones, Alabaster Michaels), or you can go for the "translated from the original" version of names, like you'd see in a lot of fiction involving Asians or Native Americans (Wild Flower, Raging Buffalo, Spinning Tiger, Running Creek).

Bob

Sarah

Well, there are a bunch of name generators out there. I wouldn't recommend just going with what they give you, but you could at least use them as inspiration to get you started with creating something yourself. Take what they give you as guidance and throw in some inspiration from other sources (real world or fictional characters with similar traits that you're going for).

Lorem & Ipsum

ChatGPT can give you a decent list of names.

Azareth and Alenia

Luka
Leyaya
Hana
Landoa
Obiwana

Take a shortened version of a real name and change what it's shortened from

Like Bill, but it's short for Billifer

Arthur and Gwendolin.

Obviously Fan and Tasy.

Ella, Velda, Samson

shadowsword87 posted...

ChatGPT can give you a decent list of names.

I think lesser of anyone/anything using AI for creativity. At least Google it and get the non-amalgum-ized version.

Linze posted...

Arthur and Gwendolin.

I used Gwendolyn for a character in an RPG forever-and-a-day ago.

She started out as a riff on Princess Gwaelin from Dragon Warrior, with a bit of a combination with Arthur's Guinevere. She was kidnapped and trapped in a cave by a dragon (a la Gwaelin), and rescued by "Lancelot" (who she immediately fell in love with). Though in this case, Lancelot was a woman (Lynette). And the resulting love triangle wasn't Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot as much as it was Gwendolyn-Lynette-Galen (with Galen being a very Mordred-inspired charming villain with good publicity).

That same campaign also basically stole from Tolkien's Minas Anor and Minas Ithil (aka Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul) as the home kingdoms of Lynette and Galen - the "Tower of the Setting Sun" and the "Tower of the Rising Moon" respectively.

"Creativity is in hiding your sources." Steal from the best.