How the fuck do you name a character

>sit down to write
>can't think of satisfactory name
[help]

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literally name him after 2 people you know
one's first name, the others last
or just pick a historic or biblical name

Naming system:
Suburban American Surname
unremarkable physical entity

Jeff Dirt
Larry Mayonnaise
Ben Cabinet

surname = first name btw
I just changed it. Well.. Jarry Frisbee and I just changed it..

Just use a placeholder. With first drafts it's more important to get the broad strokes down. Sometimes I'll write a lot and then a character's name will come to me based on their actions and personality.

It's also not that important.

What kind of story are you writing? If it's sci-fi or fantasy you can literally name them any gibberish that sounds cool. If your writing a story in the real world, throw together some uncommon names that have a nice ring to them, Like Conrad or Lenard. If you want to be referential might I suggest looking into the naming conventions of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Pretty much everything in it is a musical reference, and more often than not adds a nice bit of extra depth to the characters.

LOL
JUST WING IT, KID

Who are the character's parents?
What would they name their child?

lmao nigga just use a random generator xhaha

Just pick a first name that "sounds" right for the start and worry about the details like parents/culture later.

Thinking in theme and then picking something not overly obvious is the most easy way. Alternatively try a name from a historical person that is either somewhat similar or completely different from the character.

These two.

I would say:
1) placeholders first
2) figure out what their ancient ancestors did and what traits they had. This can also determine what traits the character tends towards and what they might try to avoid. In any case, that gives the basis for a surname.
3) run some words from the above into a translation program. E.g. "swim" into German, French, Spanish, Latin, etc. See what looks interesting.
4) add some extra letters to Americanize/Anglicize/whateverize the word into a surname.
5) once you have a last name, do . Consider what the parents would name them I light of their families' histories, their friends, the time they live in, the stories they've consumed, the culture they've experienced, etc.

>writing characters without naming them

My god, have you mapped the plot too

Derek

oh god, i think i read this when i was 13 and had not yet read the aeneid.

when I was younger, I was a hack so I made my characters' names have a reference sometimes. when I was younger, I started writing a ghost story so I made the main character's last name similar to the director of Ghostbusters

forgot to say. I also created a word document full of possible character names. here's a few:
owen
mike
emmet
honk
james
Thomas
eddie
Edwin

female:
Jessie
Sadie
Emma
veronica
Valerie
Christie
Ursula
laura
Bianca

1 Got to your closet cemetery
2 Pick names at random, combine them if you must
3 ?????
4 PROFIT

Brilliant work lad!

Genius
> not even fucking joking

Just pick generic Russian names but make the setting ambiguous

babynames.com/Names/search.php

I will usually name a character after two people, usually artists/filmmakers/authors or people I know who are distant enough to never read my work/never recognise their name has been used.

As long as both names are cohesive enough (i.e. they sound like they would work together rhythmically, they fit the character's social class, economic standing, family history, etc) then it's fine.

The villain of my upcoming hit coming-of-age novel is named Jimmy Faggot and his best friend and lover/rapist is Jay Retard. The joke is that Jimmy Faggot isn't even gay hahaha he's forced to be a sodomite. The hero of this Bildungsroman is none other than Jimmy Loser, not to be confused with Jimmy Faggot. Jimmy Loser is actually gay and is also Jewish, but Sephardi. Unlike Jimmy Faggot who isn't a sodomite, Jimmy Loser is actually a pathetic piece of shit loser. Get it its fucking ironic lmao hahahaha. But my favorite character has to be Scruffles the Dog. He was born a woman but wasn't fulfilled as a bitch. During the sex change operation the Jewish doctor accidentally (on purpose) transplanted the brain of his womanizing uncle into the dog and also attached his penis. He was a Holocaust survivor. He makes a living in the seXXX underground and also DJs Bar Mitzvahs. He isn't allowed to attend Bat Mitzvahs anymore.
Pseud

...

Man what the fuck are you on about, ancient ancestors and shit? Literally completely irrelevant to what you're writing