Good ways to find science fiction and fantasy names

I primarily write non-fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. So names are real people, futuristic or vaguely cool fantasy. Obviously, they are quite different. I was chatting to someone recently and they were having a kid. The asked me how I come up with names as they were struggling with it. To help out I gave some superb suggestions for a boy: Conan, Zod, Zaphod, Bobafett; and for a girl: Barbarella, Uhura, Yoda, Trillian. Baffled by their rejection, the conversation then switched to how I came up with character names. I thought I might as well share this info.

Science fiction character names

For me, if they are human, this is similar to when I write something set in modern times. They need a name and it needs to sound believable if they are just a ‘common man/woman’ type of character. People have been called Smith, Singh and Wong for over a thousand years and probably will for a while yet. Although in the future, it seems likely that there might be a lot more foreign-sounding names intermingling as our planet becomes more linked and friendly. Think Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon.

There are a load of baby name sites on the web and they are pretty good. Ideally go for an older name though and not what is currently in trend. Add a foreign sounding surname and job done. Or do it the other way round. Find a popular first name from, for example, Sri Lanka, and then a surname like the ones mentioned above. If you have an alien then anything is good but I would personally try and avoid too many names that have Z or X or random apostrophes.

Fantasy names

This one is even easier. Google maps. I zoom in somewhere around say, Myanmar, and then generally head west. Ideally head over the ‘stans – Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, zooming in and out. Check a variety of countries and you see what kind of sound the villages and town have. Jizzakh, Dan’gara, Malay Kuduk, Shardara, and so on. Obviously these can be place names too. Just don’t get curious with Google streetview or you will spend the whole day looking at random thing like the center of Samarkand and so on. I was going to give more examples but got distracted for half an hour.

Just look around

Everything around you has the potential for a cool name. Just delete a couple of letters and there are more options. For example, Lendar and Tembe come from something on my desk. I am currently writing a fantasy novel and if someone speaks Thai and is familiar with my area of Bangkok, quite a few names will seem very familiar indeed. I used to live on Upper Street in Islington, London, very near the Hotblack Desiato estate agents – a name that Hitchhikers fans will be know as the lead singer of a band. Douglas Adams used to live in Islington and thought the name was cool.

So there you. Pretty simple really. Apologies to those who find some or all of this is obvious but it isn’t to everyone and why the hell have you read this far? Go read a story to young Barbarella.