How to Create Great Character Names

Start with the world, not the character

Before you think about what a character is like, decide where and when they were born. A name is something their parents chose, in their language, in their century. That one decision rules out most of the wrong answers.

• Culture: a dwarf from a mountain hold and a halfling from a farming village shouldn't sound alike. Our generators give each people its own sounds: dwarves get hard names like Bromdur and Hrafgrid, halflings get homely ones like Begonia Fernhollow.
• Era: a name that's fashionable now can feel wrong in a medieval setting, and an old-fashioned one can mark a character out as traditional.
• Class and place: a noble and a stable hand in the same city will still be named differently. Surnames that come from a trade or a place, like a smith or a hill, tell readers where someone comes from.

If your world has several cultures, give each a small set of sounds and endings and stick to them. Readers will soon be able to tell an elf from an orc by name alone.

Use sound and meaning

Readers hear names even when they read silently, and they judge a character by the sound before they know anything else. Psychologists call one version of this the bouba/kiki effect: people match a rounded shape to the soft-sounding "bouba" and a spiky one to "kiki". Names work the same way.

• Hard consonants (k, g, t, z, hard r) make a name sound tough or threatening: Doctor Mordant, King Vex.
• Soft sounds (l, m, n, w, open vowels) make it gentle or elegant: Rilianne, Aurenwe.
• Meaning works on readers who notice it. Dickens was the master of this: Scrooge sounds like a squeeze, and Gradgrind like a machine grinding facts.

Don't overdo it. A villain called Darkblood Deathfang tells readers everything before they've met him. A hint in the sound is usually enough; save the obvious names for comedy.

Rhythm matters too. A short first name with a long surname, or the other way round, is easier to say than two names of the same length, which is one reason Tolkien's Bilbo Baggins trips off the tongue: the repeated B holds it together, and the syllables bounce. If a full name feels flat, try changing the length of one half before you change the sound.

Borrow real naming conventions

Real cultures have rules for how names are built, and borrowing one makes an invented people feel real straight away.

• Patronymics: in the Viking age a person was named after their father: Ingimar Brynjolfsson is Ingimar, son of Brynjolf, and Bergljot Asmundsdóttir is Asmund's daughter. Icelanders still use the system today. Our Viking Name Generator builds names this way, and the Dwarf Name Generator has a lineage format, like Halrin son of Garbek.
• Prefixes: Skyrim's orcs use gro- (son of) and gra- (daughter of) before a parent's name, as in Magasha gra-Bolgurn. See the Skyrim Orc Name Generator.
• Bynames: the Norse also gave people nicknames for how they looked or behaved, like Harald Fairhair. Ours make names like Asmund Flatnose and Unn the Generous.
• Clan names: a family name tied to a trade or a place, like the hill dwarves Gunvor Barleykettle and Halgar Claycask, tells you what the family does.

Give your cast some variety

The most common naming mistake isn't a bad name: it's two names that are too alike. If your hero is Kael and his rival is Kade, readers will mix them up for the whole book.

• Vary the first letter of your main characters' names. It's the part readers skim.
• Vary the length: mix one-syllable names with longer ones, so Wynne stands next to Elisanne, not Lirienne.
• Vary the ending: too many names ending in -a or -on start to blur together.
• Write a list of every named character as you go, and check it before you add another.

Families are the exception. Related characters can share a sound on purpose, like siblings with matching first letters, which tells readers they belong together without anyone having to say so.

Minor characters need variety too. The NPC Name Generator gives you a name, a job and sometimes a quirk, so a crowd scene can have Tilly Nettlefoot, housekeeper and Olthrak Young, bridge warden without anyone blending into anyone else.

Nicknames, titles and epithets

A character's full name is only one of the names they're called. What others call them says just as much.

• Titles show rank and how a character wants to be seen: Baron Sable, Lady Malice and Archduke Scourge all come from our Villain Name Generator.
• Epithets are earned, and they suggest a story: "the Fate-Breaker" or "the Unpredictable" makes readers want to know why. The Epithet Generator has hundreds, sorted by deed, reputation and origin.
• Nicknames show relationships. The person who calls the hero by a childhood nickname is a friend; the one who uses their full title probably isn't.

Sidekicks are a special case: their names are often affectionate or silly on purpose, like Professor Occasionally or Biscuit the Super Parrot from the Sidekick Name Generator.

Check before you commit

• Say it out loud. If you stumble over it, so will readers, and so will anyone reading your book aloud.
• Search it. Make sure it isn't a famous person, a well-known character from someone else's book or game, or a brand.
• Check its meaning in other languages if you're publishing widely. An invented name can turn out to be a real word somewhere.
• Check the initials and nicknames it suggests, which can be less flattering than the name.

A quick process

1. Decide the character's culture, era and background.
2. Generate a list of names in that style, for example with the Elf Name Generator or the D&D Fantasy Name Generator.
3. Pick three that sound right for the character, and say them out loud.
4. Check them against the rest of your cast for clashing letters and lengths.
5. Search your favourite, then live with it for a day or two before you decide.

Still stuck? The Name Combiner blends two names into a new one, which works well for a character whose parents came from different places.