Good names for your fanfic?

Hi guys. I'm working on a new fanfic where a padawan turns to the darkside. The padawan is a human male with excellent force powers but his terrible with his lightsaber. I need a good name for this guy.

Thanks

Also feel free to write down any good names. I will give credits to the one I choose on my next fanfic.


Mav Edit: Some great resources have been given, so I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread.

 

I mostly use a random name generator and then pick names that Word thinks are spelt correctly.

Generator One: not species specific, male/female/neutral, 1-100 names

Generator Two: Human/Bothan/Twi'lek/Rodian/Wookiee/Trandoshan/Zabrak/Mon Calamari, not gender specific, 10-150 names

Generator Three: too many species to list, male/female, 1-100 names generated (not used this before)

Also, my characters don't like having their name randomly changed, so pick a name he likes and stick with it. There may be conflict between you and you character. Keyan D'Shaan likes his name but I don't, but he's stubborn so it stays.

Oh, and beware of the generators that ask for your full name, your mother's maiden name, city of birth, etc. It's a very easy way to gather a lot of personal info on you.

 

This is what I do.... I look in a phone book, and find an interesting LAST name that I can use as a SW character FIRST name. Then I can usually twist around another last name, just a bit, to use as the SW character's last name.

I will go look in the phone book right now, and show an example.

In the 'F'

Fikes
Forray
Fazi

Change to -


Fazzie
Phikes
StarForay

I would use any of those as a first OR last name. Then go to another part of the alphabet...

Maghan
Matlow
Marzell

You could twist one of those names around a bit...

Ma'ggan
Mattleu
Ma'zell

And a Star Warsy name.... Mazell Starforay !!!!

So that's the way I do it.

 

I would copy/paste my blog essay on naming characters here, but I won't. So here's a few tips. Decide whether it's an Earthish name, then decide number of syllables. Decide if you want a name to mean something or if it's related to something. Decide the person's 'nationality' and personality. When all else fails, misspell a word and make it a name. Works for most parents with a lack of imagination.

 

Oh, call him 'Bob'. That name works for everyone.

 

In my mind I end up thinking about names. First names are easy, just make them have a ring to them. Usually one or two syllables is good because people would rather read about a character named Will then they would Jaallliao.

Tre'en

That's the last name of one of my characters. I combined Tree and put a "'" after the last letter and put in an end. So Sandwich for me became Sammick or Berth became Purth. I just put in some alternative letters in order to make my names. To me it works but sometimes I use name generators for ideas too.

 

If you want a quick and dirty name for a character, find a really obscure Roman name, tweak it, and use it. Not only do they sound fancy, they roll off the tongue, so you don't need to worry about names like "Yzz-Kutfrb-Yrabkazk" being an absolute nightmare to pronounce. Plus, they don't have the same familiarity as names like Luke or Tom, so you're golden.

Also, try to avoid too many noun-verber names, unless you're writing primary about characters on Tatooine. One is good enough, but once you have a story with three characters named Waterwalker, Waveskimmer, and Searunner, then perhaps you've overdone it.

A final piece of advice is, if you have access to language translators, use them. You might find a word in another language that sounds perfect for a name.