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I justed sketched some rough concept portraits for a webcomic I've been wanting to do. Just ... what names would you give them? What is behind a name anyway, and is the name of a character important in your comic? I find choosing a suitable name difficult.



For general interest ... in three words
- The blue girl is perceptive, reasonable, wary
- Orange guy is engaging, facetious, capricious
- Man in green is amicable, sweet, beguiled
- Chick in purple is cynical, bold, hot-tempered

I'm just really curious, because sometimes the names I've thought for them don't seem appropriate for their look or personality. Well, their real personalities I've hidden away because that's what my comic will explore ... some kind of sociological drama.

You can comment on anything else as well. I'm willing!

I choose (or make up) names according to the feel of the name, in the same way that "putrid" really does sound putrid and "lisp" has a lithp.

So... Alice, Damien, Kurt and Tania.

- Joel Fagin

Whoa, I totally thought Alice too when I looked at the blue girl for the first time.

Humbug wrote:Whoa, I totally thought Alice too when I looked at the blue girl for the first time.

Not such a coincidence. The description is quite close to Alice in Wonderland, she's wearing blue and looks like she could be a blonde.

- Joel Fagin

Major: I have a "baby name book" with names and their origins/meanings somewhere here. I'd imagine that such a book would be a pretty good investment for a fiction author.

There's also http://www.behindthename.com if you're looking for a name with a specific meaning or background.

I generally go with a sound I like--like hard consonants or a lot of vowels--and think of something from there. Though I used to keep a sheet of paper with all kinds of names I'd heard somewhere and decided I liked.

Mercury Hat wrote:There's also http://www.behindthename.com if you're looking for a name with a specific meaning or background.

Web site's not working! (*Sob*) I was kinda hoping to check out the meanings behind the names of my characters...

Anyway, I was thinking the blue girl as a Linda or Katherine. The orange guy as Damien or Dimitri. The green guy as Brad or Jeff. And the purple girl as Maria. Hope that helps!

Arilou Lalee'lay

ShineDog wrote:Arilou Lalee'lay

We can not have parties when Arilou always *jumping in front*. It makes Orz *frumple* so much. We are from *outside*. Also the Arilou *quick babies* are from *outside*. It is the same, but not. Orz are from *below*, Arilou are from *above*.

- Joel Fagin

clockwise from top left:

Leyla
Minh
Thorton
sorry, no ideas on the last one.

Top left: Anne
Top Right: Jack
Bottom left: Steve
Bottom Right: Cynthia

Dont ask me why. those are just the names that came while staring at the pictures.

Well, I'd say, left ot right and top to bottom:

Therese, Marcello, Yuriy, Valerie

top left- Audrey
Top right- Vince
bottom left- Bryan
Bottom right- Rochelle

Call me lazy, but I just use a random name generator. (There's one here, it was the first one that came up in Google).

It looks to me like you are doing a semi-real life type comic and in real life, nobody gets to pick their name. It's given by the parents, so you could name them Ally, Barry, Charles and Danni (A, B, C and D) and it won't make a lickin' difference to the story.

Nicknames on the other hand are an entirely different matter. A character could be called John Stevenson (fairly average name) but have a nickname such as Guz. Why? Because he's a little heavy, likes to eat and drinks like a horse.

Nicknames are either chosen by a person ("Call me The Man okay?") and that's the way they introduce themselves or the nickname is given to them by their peers ("Everyone calls me 'Da Nerd'") and will thus represent something about the way they see themselves, or the way others see them.

For sci-fi or fantasy, it's a different game. That's when a name becomes more important because it becomes a 'handle' for the reader to register something about the character. A name like "Conan the Barbarian" tells you lot about the character without having to look at a picture. Likewise, the name "Q" will define the character a bit.

But if your characters are based on "real life" type thing (meaning humans living in a city on Earth, as opposed to following events in the lives of actual persons) then the name isn't really relevant or important (except to denote ethniity).

That's my 2 cents.

Edit: and if you're smart, you'll give them short names, because you'll need to write them over and over again....

For an online reference, you could also try <a href="http://www.babynames.com/" target="_blank">babynames.com</a>.

Hm I'd say Cassie, Roy/Ross, Jason and Amy.

I do a fantasy comic, so easier for me to get away with it, but I choose my almost all my character names according to a theme and pick names according to elements that sort of suit that character.

Besides, I get a kick of out hiding my own personal jokes in character names.

It may have to have a location in mind too. Names can be regional so if you're stuck look into that as well. Oh and peroid based names as well. Trends change over time so I'd consider that as well.

I wouldn't use just first names, however apt. A name should be instantly memorable when you hear it--if your main character is named Chris or Janey, what does that tell me about him or her?

Try using poetic devices to make names memorable. Making names rhythmic is particularly important. In Ulysses, a character describes his name as "Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls", and click, you're always gonna remember that if you know what a dactyl is. (It sounds like "MULL-i-gan".) Go for first and last names and rhyme them, alliterate them, make them have an interesting rhythm. For example:

- Charles Kerpocknik (single syllable first name, three hard k-sounds all equally stressed for last name)
- Lotus Larouche (trochee and then iamb--LO-tus la-ROUCHE. It's kind of confusing to say, and so it's memorable. The alliteration also helps, and Lotus has some interesting associations.)
- Parker McParkinson (double syllable, and it's got two of the same metric feet. PAR-ker-mc PAR-kin-son. Plus there's a ton of hard k sounds to give the name a distinctive feel.)
- Sara Farrel (two trochees and doubled vowel sounds. The a-->e shift makes the name come on strong and heavy and modulate into soft and reflective.)

Remember that different sounds create different feelings: a and o make a name seem heavy and earthy, e and i make it sound light and airy. U makes it sound weird. Hard, single-syllable sounds make the character seem harsh--Captain Kirk--while softer, multiple-syllable sounds make a character seem reflective or more complicated--Captain Picard. Sibilance (s, basically) makes a name seem more oily and sinister (Severus Snape.) There are tons of other standard tricks; list some characters you like and analyze their names for some idea about what makes them work.

If you must use just first names, at least make 'em cool. Sluggy Freelance has Torg, Riff, and Zoe, none of which you could call a common name. There's nothing worse than using a bunch of common first names for characters--you have to do a ton of characterization or distinctive artwork to make them stand out from one another, and although it can work, it's in no way the best solution.

Also don't forget the associations that certain names have--any character named Mary is going to have some baggage to her, for example.

Some good resources to help: any book about poetic devices, and any book by Charles Dickens. Dickens is the master of memorable naming: Mr. Tulkinghorn, Magwitch, Estelle Havisham, Stephen Blackpool. Countless others. Even just looking at a cast list of a Dickens novel online will help. Find names you like, figure out what makes 'em cool, and steal ideas about name structure like there's no tomorrow. With the poetic devices book, focus on the different types of rhythm (iamb, trochee, spondee, dactyl, anapest, whatever the hell else there is), learn them by heart, and listen for how they work in names you find memorable in literature, other comics, or life. Then steal any good rhythmic patterns and build some names on them.

Hope this all helps and isn't too goddamned long and tedious. Also hope you haven't decided on names yet, making this whole thing obsolete--have you?

Blue: Sarah
Orange: Jake
Green: Tony
Purple: ... uhh, I couldn't think of anything immediately, until I saw her shirt, and now I can't think of anything but Violet. D:

Dr Neo Lao wrote:Call me lazy, but I just use a random name generator. (There's one here, it was the first one that came up in Google).

I'm using that from now on. I effing hate coming up with names.