Name Generator

This week, our book focuses a lot on names.  Alex, later in the week will talk about the significance of names, but I'm going to give you some good ways to think of them.

If you're anything like me, thinking up names for your main character is hard.  Unless you have something very specific in mind (which I almost never do), it's a tedious process.  One way to conteract it is to pick names of people you know.  It's the old, tried and true process of writing what you know.  I've poached names off family, co-workers, even my friend's names have ended up in some of my stories.

So what if you don't want that?  Well, luckily the internet is FULL of name generators.  Some a really simplistic, like this one.  You specify if you want male, female, or both, how many names you want and how obscure you want the names to be.  Simple, easy, not as fun as some others, but that's fine.  Gets the job done.

Behind the Name no only lets you choose how many names you want, but also nationality, history and mystical criteria such as witch, hippy, and fairy.

Having trouble thinking of a title?  Well, who isn't?  Over at Fiction Alley, they ask you to fill in a variety of fields (nouns, adjectives etc.) that relate to your book.  Then, using the information you provided, will generate random titles.

This site links name generating sites for just about anything you could need.  Want a fantasy name?  Covered.  Need a name for your Greek myth?  All over that.  It even helps you with those pesky pirate ship names.

Arrrgggghhhh, Matey!  My name be Night's Plunder



So while naming things can be tricky, just remember there's lots of ways to think some up.  In fact, there's even an app for that.