Help with Character Names

5

500lb Productions

Well-known member
Are there any websites dedicated to helping name characters?

Things like... associative lists, categorized names, along age, gender, ethnic, professional, archetype categories, etc.

Baby naming sites don't help since most dramamtic characters are more than 12 months old ;-)
 
500lb Productions said:
Are there any websites dedicated to helping name characters?

Things like... associative lists, categorized names, along age, gender, ethnic, professional, archetype categories, etc.

Baby naming sites don't help since most dramamtic characters are more than 12 months old ;-)
Click to expand...

Movie magic Screenwriter has a name generator. The parameters are male and female only.

I've rarely used it.
 
500lb Productions said:
Are there any websites dedicated to helping name characters?

Things like... associative lists, categorized names, along age, gender, ethnic, professional, archetype categories, etc.

Baby naming sites don't help since most dramamtic characters are more than 12 months old ;-)
Click to expand...
Well.... since I have never heard of someone changing their name once they hit 12 months old, and most adults were named by their parents when they were well under 12 months old, I really don't see what the problem is.

Here's a few that I use. I use a bunch of different sites to come up with different variations of names.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=surnames&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=baby+names+by+country&btnG=Google+Search
http://baby-names.adoption.com/
 
Cryogenic Filmworks said:
Well.... since I have never heard of someone changing their name once they hit 12 months old, and most adults were named by their parents when they were well under 12 months old, I really don't see what the problem is.
Click to expand...

If I'm looking for a name for a 55 year old female bank teller in Savannah Georgia, I'm going to guess Tiffany, Amber and Crystal (current top baby names) probably won't fit ;-)

Ironically, while trying to prove how useless the top baby names are.... I just fell into this "top baby names" site which look quite useful... since it lets you ask for the top 1000 for any given year back to 1879.

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

1879??? Yep. At least these those tax dollars went into some useful research. And we wonder why there's no social security money left.
 
Whenever I'm naming people and it essentially doesn't matter what they're called, I just go through the names of my favourite sportsmen and women. Hence I have a movie script where the first names of every current Arsenal FC player is represented. It's good because they come from all over the world (okay, mostly France!) so there's a good mix for a bit of colour.

I seem to recall the El Mariachi Script being even LESS detailed - Man1, Woman2 etc...
 
Too true. Just making the point that if their name isn't important in the grand scheme of things, just stick any old name in there (as per my footballers example) and carry on writing rather than getting hung up on it. You can always 'replace text' Anna with Crystal once you're done.
 
True. I'm one of those who tends to get hung up on having perfect names for characters even when it absolutely does not matter. It's an actual problem.
 
That was me for ages too. I used to come to a complete standstill fixating on it. To be fair I also once came to a standstill because I couldn't decide if FADE OUT: should be on the left or the right... Sad but true.. lol
 
Names can symbolize a characters personality, for sure.

Often I hear of a name that sounds 'cool' or interesting, and try my best to write it down somewhere to use it later.

Of course I forget to do that. lol.

Sometimes I just can't start a project unless I have the names of characters that at least feel 'right' for their personalities.

EJ
 
There are several ways I come up with names, one is a name just pops into my head and I like the feel of it. Also if I am looking for an ethnic specific name, I will go to a site where you can search by surnames broken down by nationality etc. I will then try to match up a first name to that. Typically I will pick a letter, and looks through names that start with that letter at those baby name sites (again if it is an ethnic name, I also search by nationalities). If I dont't like what I find under that letter, I choose another letter and continue to look. I also use first and last names for almost all my characters.
 
Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm long overdue to contribute here.

I believe character names are very important. They can convey the personality of the character. But as important as it is to be distinctive, it's also important to have character names that are believable/realistic. Too often I'll read a script and the names strike me as phony and artificial, as if the writer was trying too hard to come up with plausible names.

I have used and like the name generator in Movie Magic Screenwriter. The other source I really enjoy using is: http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm. It's a really cool name generator that culls names from U.S. census data, so the names are legit, plus there's an option to control the obscurity level of the names. I'll pull up lists of names (you get different ones each time you run the generator), and I'll look for monikers that fit the character I'm developing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top