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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46211
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46211
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# TL;DR

_No need to worry: when you write a good story, any name sounds great._

# Good names are as good as the story

Good unique names are not easy. In particular, it is not easy to come up with a good fitting name before having the whole story laid out. On the other hand, most of names however sound great not because of the name itself but because of the character bearing it.

To give an example, Harry Potter is a very simple name. It could have been John Corker, or Fred Horseford. Even Michael Brown. It sounds great and unique because Harry's story resonates with the reader.

# Get to know your character, you'll love the name

If you start writing your story, it is quite possible that at the hundredth iteration of spelling out "Michael Brown" you may find that such name was befitting of the character after all. In fact, over time you have become acquainted with him, and Mr.Brown is not anymore just two silly sounding words put together, but a character with a past, a story ahead, goals, desires, conflicts, and all that makes him interesting.

Rufus Drake is equally a good name. The choice of less common words often makes it easier to jump start with a positive attitude towards a character. The feeling of such name being pretentious is actually more a feedback about the story than about the name. In other words, the story may be duller than expected and Rufus is not living up to the expectations: raise the stakes, increase tension, add conflict.

# A note on naming systems

Given the above, having a naming system can save time. A naming system is a set of rules that can help you quickly generate names that look and sound from the same place.

For instance, you could stick to the first- and family-name naming convention, and use colors as the first name, and a combination of tree names and tools for last names: Red Birchsaw, Blue Oakhammer, Gray Pinerake, etc...

As an anecdote, I recently came across two animes: in the first the characters from the alien world had names of cocktails (princess Pina Co Lada, knight Beefeater, Shandy, etc...); in the second, one character had to name a clan of goblins and went for Gob-something (Goba, Gobu, Gobaz, etc...). These are obviously silly names _per se_, but in the context they quickly stick to the characters and it becomes natural to hear/read them without laughing.

Original score: 9