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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44075
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# Choose names that have that countries "feel" with out being stereotypical (e.g. Alejandro -Mexico, or Aleksandr -Russia)

As I interpret it, your main aim is to have the character's country of origin obvious from their name ("strong sense of location with the names"). Stereotypical names will obviously do that, but as others have pointed out, these names may not even be popular in this day and age and having too many stereotypical names may make the story and characters seem less... complex?

So why not look up names online and pick ones that are not stereotypical names but still have that countries "feel" to them. For example when I look up Mexican girls names I see that Maria is number one (and very stereotypical) but plenty of the others "feel" Mexican without me ever having heard the name before (or rarely): Juana, Margarita, Verónica, Alejandra, María Elena...

You could also just pick a common name (e.g. Alexander) and look up that name in Spanish or Russian (Alejandro -Spanish, Aleksandr -Russia). Again I've never met an Alejandro or an Aleksandr but I could give you a good guess as to what part of the world their name is from.

Original score: 3