Good last names for characters come from the same four places real surnames did: a job, a place, a father's name or a nickname. A surname carries a family history: a trade, a hill, a nickname or a Norman castle. This last name generator makes last names for characters in six styles, from realistic British and noble names to fantasy, sci-fi, gothic and funny ones, and can show what each name means.
Eight good last names
All eight came from the generator, with the meanings it gives:
- Fletcher: an arrow-maker: an occupational name, one of the commonest kinds.
- Hartley: from the stag wood: a place name that sounds settled and old.
- Hobbs: son of Hob, a pet form of Robert: a patronymic hidden in a short name.
- Freeman: a free man, not a serf: a name that tells you about a family's status.
- Grosvenor: great huntsman, from Norman French: noble and a little grand.
- Engel-Kobayashi: angel (German) and small forest (Japanese): a sci-fi double name from two cultures.
- Grimwold: grim plus wold, open upland: a gothic name for a house on a hill.
- Crumpetby: crumpet plus by, a Norse word for a farm: funny, but built like a real place name.
Where surnames come from
Most English families had a fixed surname by the end of the Middle Ages, and nearly all of them come from four sources:
- Occupation: Smith, Cooper (a barrel-maker), Baxter (a baker), Webster (a weaver). Smith is still the commonest surname in the UK.
- Place: where a family lived or came from, like Langley (the long clearing) or Sutton (the south farm).
- Patronymic: a father's name, like Robinson or Harrison. Welsh names often came from ap, "son of": ap Rhys became Price, and ap Hywel became Powell. Scottish and Irish Mac and Norman Fitz mean the same.
- Nickname: what people called you, like Armstrong (strong in the arm), Reid (red-haired) or Fox (cunning).
The generator's six styles build on these. Realistic British and Noble use real surnames with their real meanings; Fantasy, Gothic and Funny join invented words to real endings like -wold, -fell and -by; and Sci-fi joins real surnames from different languages, as families might in a mixed future. Choose With its meaning to see what each one means.
Choosing a surname for a character
- Let it say something. A character called Thatcher or Wainwright had a working ancestor; one called Beaumont or Delamere has money behind them.
- Match the place. Cornish names often begin with Tre-, Pol- or Pen-, as in Trevelyan or Penrose, and Welsh ones are often patronymics, so a surname can tell readers where a family is from.
- Check the whole name together. Say the first name and surname aloud to make sure they don't clash or make an unfortunate phrase.
For a first name to go with it, try the Character Name Generator, and for the craft behind it, read our guide: How to Create Great Character Names.
For more, see all the character name generators.