I have the toughest times choosing names. I can go through the entire baby names book fifty times, backwards and forwards, and still not be satisfied. Then I start writing with the one I finally choose, and for some ridiculous reason it drives me nuts every time I have to type it, distracting me from my actual writing. Yet there are some names I jag; I hit upon a name I am instantly completely satisfied.

So for the former types of names, when should you be satisfied with what you have chosen for your character? Are there those whom you are never %100 satisfied with, or do you continue searching until you are?

Personally, I'm rarely completely satisfied, but I take one that's good enough, and within a few days it's often cemented to the point where any other name is unthinkable.

Personally, I have a (very large) collection of characters that I'd like to include someday, but I never move them from "I'd like to use someday" to "could use somewhere" until I've found a name that I'm at least somewhat satisfied with for that character. (But I hear you about baby-names books ... )

I'm one of those people who won't use the name unless I'm completely satisfied. Which is why it can take me a while to name something/someone. In fact, Breeon (male Diegose) for those who are old enough members to remember, went without a name for months (I just did this ___ whenever I had to use his name) until someone (can't remember who, now) came up with the perfect name that struck me.

So far, I've always either found a name early on, or else I just leave the person nameless until I find the right name. I've currently got one character who has refused to be named for over a year. Sometimes I'm not entirely happy with a name, but it grows to fit the character over time.


Me.

Was it you?!?!?! (t'was so long ago, my goodness!) *mentally makes note of this * Your memory is much better than mine. Thank you, Jonathan, for the name I fell in love with!!

I'm glad I could help.

It depends. Some names I can feel are perfect right off the bat, others take some adjusting to. I can't recall having named an important character and then changing his name, or using an unnamed character until I found one. I guess I like to be prepared (I have a list of hundreds of names for my current series). I just write them down when they come to me and then work out the who's who when I need to. Incidentally, location names are harder for me than character names in terms of solidifying them.

I did drastically change the spelling of Alonah's name, from what it origionally was. But it was still the same name. I just wanted to make sure people would pronounce it correctly.

Naming is one of my biggest challenges...because, I don't settle for a character name unless I feel it's the perfect one. And character names usually come waaaayyy after I'm done writing the book (so I write "MC Male 1," "MC Male 2" until I can find a suitable name). I have saved a bunch of baby names websites (:rofl:) and often look at them (meaning, origin, etc.) when I'm naming a character. But it usually takes so long...and I don't stop till I've found the perfect one.

Usually the name I pick first is the name with which I stick. However, sometimes I'll want to change a name (because another name is too similar) and it takes me a while to find a good one. Otherwise, I'm pretty easy with names, other than I tend to forget them and create new ones . For me, satisfaction for names is easy. Satisfaction with writing, on the other hand, is a whole 'nother football field.

I can agonize over names of the main characters good bit, but once I've found one, I don't usually question it at all... Like someone else on this thread said, generally even if I'm unsure about it, the character's personality will grow to fit the name, so...

I tend to work out my character names until I am happy with them, before I start using them. There are a couple at the moment that I want to change, but I'm keeping them the same for now, whilst I come up with a different name for them. Usually once I've settled on a name, I don't tend to want to change it, and I hate changing a name after I've been using it for ages. (Other than these two I'm using at the moment, which I do not like.)

Thanks for all your input, guys. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who often struggles with this. Right now I'm still not happy with my MC's name. His surname I'm happy with: Zaele. [ZAY-LEE] I've currently got Ethan as his first name, but I'm not %100 satisfied.

I have that problem, but it never takes me longer than a few hours to come up with a name I like.

And it's TOTALLY COMPLETELY NOT RELATED to the fact that I am a NERD and have about 200+ pages of names saved on my laptop from languages from Arabic to Zulu and also about 100 pages of fantasy names.