Coming up with unique names for characters is one of the many decisions writers make when putting together a story. There are various fun and easy solutions to this common writing dilemma. After using some of these techniques, your characters' names can be so unique and wonderful that your readers won't have any problems remembering them.
Instructions
1. Use word play to come up with unique character names. Many authors, such as J.K. Rowling and even Charles Dickens, used anagrams to come up with interesting names. So get a dictionary and look at words as something more than their basic meanings. Think about ways of taking words apart to create names or nicknames from them. For example, you could come up with something like Annie Pasto, from antipasto, or Will E. Beast from wildebeest.
2. Find a baby name book or go online and search through baby name sites to find interesting character names. You can find names based on different cultures and research what the names mean. Then you can play with the spelling of these names and come up with new names of your own.
3. Use name generators to create names. There are literally hundreds of these sites online--everything from pirate names, your name from some character in a movie, to prisoner or Bond girl names. Just playing around on these sites and using various combinations of your name or your friends' and family names can get your creative juices flowing and give you all kinds of ideas for interesting character names. Write down any names you like so that you can easily remember them.
4. Research the history and regions you want to write about to find unique names. This is especially useful since names vary in different eras and places. The more you learn about the history and the regions of your characters, the easier it is to create their names.
