How to create fictional names for stories

Creating fictional names for your stories, whether that be titles, character names, place names, or something else, can be challenging, but I'm going to share some tips.

As a writer, one of the most challenging aspects of crafting stories, for me, is coming up with names for things. I can't tell you how much time I have spent sitting at my desk, thinking of names.

Whether it's for my characters, key settings in my stories or even the title, it takes me a while. However, since I have four writing projects on the go, I have had to learn ways of creating fictional names that are simple, effective and less time-consuming.

At the moment, I currently am working on two novels and two scripts. One of the novels I am writing for my degree and the other one is the one I am determined to complete this year. The scripts are both university projects, however, I do want to develop and complete them.

And with all four projects, I really struggled to come up with a title. When I told one of my university tutors this, they said that a piece of writing doesn't exist without a title. It doesn't have to be the final title, it can be a working one, but every piece of writing needs a title.

So now all my writing has a title. Two of them I am sure about, but the other two are not set in stone quite yet.

Titles need to encompass what the book is about and be related in some way to the story. For example, Freida McFadden's book The Housemaid is a simple yet effective title because the protagonist is the housemaid. But this is also the case for characters and place names.

For me, I often create a character and build their backstory, goals, personality, etc., before coming up with their name. When it comes to place names, I think about the type of place it is, for example, a forest, and what that place is like, so is it dangerous, is it desolate, is it thriving with fauna or is it prone to stormy weather?

Each writer has their own methods of creating names for things in their writing, but I thought I'd share some of the ways I come up with names.

Baby names

Using baby names is probably only good for thinking of character names, but it is one very helpful tool.

I often research baby names for inspiration because you get an extensive list of names that you probably wouldn't have thought of on your own. This method is also helpful if you're writing a story set in a particular time because then you can see what names were common that year.

When researching, you may have a particular letter you want the name to start with and so you can narrow your search for names specifically beginning with that letter. You can either use baby name books or Google, but whichever you choose, the choices are endless.

Film credits

At the end of a film, or a television programme, the credits will list every person who was involved with the production process. These lists can be rather long but invaluable.

I actually haven't used this method myself but I know a couple of authors who do and I can see why. Hundreds of people are involved in making movies and TV shows and there will be a whole variety of names in the credits.

Sometimes, depending on the filming location, you can find inspiration for names in other languages and nationalities, which can be helpful if you're writing a story set in another country.

I will definitely be paying more attention to film credits from now on because I know it will give me several more options for character names and you can never have too many!

Latin words

This is probably one of my most used methods when it comes to creating fictional names. I research Latin words for different things when I need a place name or a title, but you can use other languages as well if you prefer.

I think it can be really handy to use an old language to craft names from because it makes them even more unique. An example of this that I've used myself is the name of the forest in my dystopian novel. Another example could be if you had a river in your story that you wanted to give a fancier name, more than just the River Chelmer, and was a special location.

As I mentioned earlier, I would think about the type of place it is, so the river could be very fast-flowing and dangerous. Once you know those two qualities, look up the Latin word for danger – periculum – and the Latin word for rapid – rapidus.

Then you could do the next method to get the full name.

Word smash

What I mean by word smash is getting two words and smashing them together. Simple really.

So for the name of the river, I have periculum and rapidus. Then mash these together, altering them slightly, and you get Pericudus.

Word smash is a good method when a place, artefact, etc., has numerous qualities that you want to convey because it means you can have all of them in one place giving a clearer image.

Scientific names

As someone who studied biology, I'm fascinated by science, so I often turn towards the scientific name of things.

The easiest way of using this method is by the names of plants. I used this technique in my YA novel where the characters all have names relating to plants, including their surnames.

But you could use the scientific names of animals or fruits or chemicals. It doesn't have to be the exact scientific name, you could use them for some inspiration of word order, syllables or you could even include them in a word smash.

Artificial Intelligence

If you've read my latest blog, you'll know I experimented with Artificial Intelligence in a uni workshop I attended. And one of the ways I used AI was to create character names.

AI is endless in its capabilities and as writers, we should know how to use it to benefit us and accelerating our creativity is one way of doing that.

If you're stuck on thinking of names for people or places, but you know the general idea of what they are like, you could ask AI for some suggestions.

For example, I asked Copilot to suggest some names for a royal palace in a dystopian world and these were the results:

Copilot's suggestions for place names

You don't have to use any of these, but you could take inspiration from the odd word like Thornhall or Obsidian.

So, if you're a writer who struggles thinking of fictional names like me, maybe try some of these suggestions and see what you come up with.

Until next time...