FOr me, I put down 6 or so random letters, and unscramble them to make an unusual, yet original name? Is this normal or am i a genius. :D GO XBOX! Wanna help make a game? GO to www.geocities.com/squirellbuffalo for details!

Hey,
I simply look to another language like Latin or Japanese. Sometimes common words in those languages can make pretty cool names.

--Nairb

i do one of two things: if i want the name to have some kind of secondary significance, i''ll either use one directly from some other source (be it literature, film, real life, etc), or i''ll change such a name slightly. A really obvious example would be using something like ''lucifer'' for a bad guy. This immediately gives your player a certain sense about the character. Using names like this cleverly can be very effective.

The second, and really dumb, technique i use if i''m stuck for a name of a character that is kinda meaningless...just hit the keyboard with your eyes closed...

''ermjrrtoi''

then just pick out some word directly, or try and say it aloud and see if something it sounds like strikes you, or pick out single characters, etc. This works better for non-human names.


<(o)>

I try not to worry about making creative names. I shoot for believable names. That means Fieldrylun is out, but so is Bob Smith.

If I''m working on fantasy fiction, for a human I would again shoot for believable but only use a first name.

Elf type races I use rolling consonants (l''s, f''s, d''s like in Fieldrylun above).

Dwarves would have harsh "stony" consonants. Think the word "Klingon" as you make the name and you''ll have it.

ShadeStorm, the Day_Glo Fish

For non-english (elf, etc) names you could write a name generator (I''ve did it QBasic years ago). Have an array of ints[26][27] that stores the frequency of two letters appearing beside each other (27 is termninator). Fill it by providing a text file of existing names in the language you''re using. Then have the program randomly pick a starting letter (having a frequency table for which letters start names is even better) and then use the above frequency table to randomly add letters. Just ask the program to spit out a dozen names and you should be able to find one really good one.

(NOTES)
If you don''t know what I''m talking about with the freqency table the here it is:

  int freq[3];//The frequency of three events happeningfreq[0]=0;//Never happensfreq[1]=2;//Sometimes happensfreq[2]=10;//Happens alotint choices=freq[0]+freq[1]+freq[2];//Max number of choicesint choice=random(choices)+1;//returns a number between 1 and choicesint i=0;while (freq[i]<choice)//find which event the choice falls in{ choice=choice-freq[i]; i=i+1;}//i is the correct event that will occur based on the frequencies  

That code can be optimized but should be fairly clear.

I just try to imagine what would be a cool name that fits the charactes personality, toys with the name around in my head, saying it out loud.. and if that doesn''t work usually names from more exotic contries can be great for starting up the brain.

Check out is link: http://www.20000-names.com/

Grimjack

::aggression is the result of fear::

What I do is this:
Create a fictional language.
Create a history of the culture that fictionally speaks my fictional language.
Create another language, and mix.
Then I just branch off into different cultures, and when I''m all done, I have a name

This is what J.R.R. Tolkien did.(well kind of)

When i choose a name, i usually just look at a sentance and choose part of that.
For instance, in that last sentance, i got the names Okata, Sean, Nich, and a couple more

JRR Tolkien? Most of the time he just took some names and words out of history and modified them.

As for creating my own language just to get new names, well... that''s a little far.

I really try not to think about names for the most minute of characters and places-- that comes later. Keep to the part that interests you, I say. For instance, if I were to make an RTS, I wouldn''t name each unit off the bat. I''d name them when I felt like naming them. Believe it or not, I do this possibly a little more with the _main_ characters than I do with the side ones.

quote: Original post by Grimjack
I just try to imagine what would be a cool name that fits the charactes personality...

Please! No more people called Kain! That''s all I have to say. Very overused.