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Character Names
To me, this is one of the most fun aspects of writing. There's so much depth involved in a character's name: direct meanings, connotations, historical associations; I can spend hours on sites like Behind the Name simply to brainstorm names. It also helps with understanding my existing characters' personalities better (e.g. how they react to their names).
Also, coming up with non-Anglophone names is quite educational, since by doing so, you learn about the different naming conventions of various cultures. Asian names are particularly fun, not just because I'm Asian-Canadian myself, but because their meanings change depending on which characters are used (so you can't tell the meaning from the Romanized name alone).
What are everyone else's experiences? Anyone feel like sharing examples of their characters' names and their significance? I may contribute myself in a later response.




This trips me up. I stalled on writing something for months because I couldn't come up with names I liked. Eventually I decided I needed to move past that and inserted place holders. Mom, Dad, Uncle, Mr. Boss, Mrs. Boss, BG (bad guy), stuff like that.
I am slowly going back and changing them. But many of them still are just place holders. I used not having names as an excuse for so long. No more!
I'm with you. I can spend hours on Behind the Name! I find that looking for a specific name with a meaning relating to your character it can really add depth, and it really it's just pure fun. I can get caught up in finding the right name, making it harder to pick one. I write historical fiction, so what I had to do with my debut novel was actually look up social security records of the year I was writing about and find people that way. I found my main character's name that way :) it's definitely an interesting subject!
Ooooh I love the idea of looking up social security records! That would be cool.
I just came onto this community with the express purpose of talking about this! I love giving specific meanings to my character names, although sometimes it's like a character will name their self, and there's nothing I can do to change it. But even if the reader never looks up the history or meaning of a name, it gives me insight into who they are. It gives me a kind of guidepost to work with as I develop their personality, or it helps remind me of their role in the story as I work.
I tend to think about the meanings after the fact to see how it connects with the character's personality. For instance, one of my protagonist's name is Stacy, which I arbitrarily chose as an every-girl name. Then, I realized it could be short for Anastasia, which had a more royal connotation, so that being her "true" name signifies that she's more special than she thinks she is. There's also the fact that Stacy is a unisex name, which fits her tomboyish personality and is one reason why she'd prefer that nickname.
Nice!
I honestly spent an entire semester of history class browsing through Behind the Name.