I am no Tolkien when it comes to inventing great names, and I don’t want to end up with names like in Harry Potter either. I’ve debated for a long time if it has any artistic merit to use naming generators. In other words, am I creatively bankrupt for having to rely on naming generators. I have come to the conclusion that the answer is no… but you also have to use naming generators critically. Are you writing a grounded story where people need to be called Harry and John, or are you writing a fantastical story where people are called Fwippelthorpe? Naming generators are tools, and they should be treated as such. They are only able to do what you tell them to.

So what do I use them for? I use naming generators, personally, to churn out a large quantity of consistent names. A world will feel very poor, especially a fantasy world with fantastical names, if you are only able to name drop a few individuals. If the main character isn’t allowed to mention his great aunt by name because you’re afraid to think up a name that will only be used once or twice, then naming generators are for you. Not everyone is able to make a design document with three hundred possible names for their world, and there is no shame in that.

My only advice is, keep track of your naming generators. If everyone in country A uses naming generator 3, then when you get to country Y and have gone through a bunch of generators already without keeping track, it is easy to starting using generator 3 again and make two very different countries have very similar names. Or worse yet, you have a new character from country A forty chapters in, and you’ve forgotten which generator you used.

Behind the name: bar none, the largest