forum How do you pick last names for your OCs?

Started February 21, 2023 by @DemisedKenze face

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I need help to pick last names for my OCs that don't sound cringe or boring.

Sometimes I use a last name generator or I ask my friends for random names, I get a lot of interesting options from both.

!!! okay i have a small process

• I make my character first. Come up with their role, their appearance, a little bit of their backstory and a first name
• the next thing I take into account is their race/ethnicity. Google is a great resource for this. (I just Google "most common Spanish last names" or "French last names" and go from there.)
• Then I look through and find one that fits!
• something i take into account is how many syllables i want in a last name and the sound. do I want hard consonants to contrast with the smooth sounding first name? do I want something monosyllabic after a three-syllable first name? do I want alliteration? just stuff like that!
• it takes a LOT of looking and testing, but surely you'll find one eventually.

some examples of my character last names:
Howie Láng
Abel Nakamura
Morrison Tomatuk
Blaire Ortega
Vaughn Johansson
Sidney Spokes

• I often use a fantasy name generator if I want a surname for a character in a sci-fi or fantasy setting - sometimes I'll tweak the letters slightly to make the name exactly how I want it.
• If you want it to have meaning, you can google 'last names meaning X' or something along those lines!
• Like MJ said above, sometimes I want a last name with a specific number of syllables or a specific set of letters - I like to think about the area my character comes from and what language patterns there are there: what the most common letters and word lengths might be. For example, one of my characters comes from a world where x, z and q are common consonants and i and e are the most common vowels, so I created her name mostly using these letters. Obviously you might not have put thought into the language of your world if it's a fictional setting, but if it's a real world location you can consider the language (and of course google common surnames from that area as MJ mentioned).
• I always think sci-fi characters have very cool surnames, so half the time I'll just be flicking through one of my books for inspiration!

In my universe, all last names are constellation names
I have a website bookmarked with all 88 of the officially recognized constellations and choose what goes best with their first name

Examples:
Juniper Aquila
Foxglove Scorpius
Wraith Columba
Mirage Andromeda
Jupiter Sagitta
Nebula Pavo
Cedar Lyra
Ganymede Eridanus

Depends on the genre but I usually pick last names by first deciding the character’s ethnicity and their nationality or their parent’s nationality. Then I look up some surnames from their country or native language. If I don’t like any of the names, then I come up with my own based off of naming rules from the character’s native language.

I usually base it on their primary color or a pattern they wear and I also use Wikipedia to look up people from their place and culture for last names.

Ex.
Kai Shian (cyan)
Zen Midori (green)
Daizo Ichimatsu ( a checkered pattern)
Murasaki "Shikibu" (named after author Murasaki Shikibu(even though it's not a last name(more like a title) I think it's a cool ode to a writer)

Personally I just key smash: fsyrzfxj
and then add vowels and take things out: fysri specifically for fantasy characters since this world probably has a different way of doing things like last names and swear words.

I use a random name generator
(this one)
https://www.behindthename.com/random/
its really fun because you can generate backstories with the names
(like blood types, birthdays and causes of death)
i really like this and i find this name generator helpful