Crazy Ape Thought Process: Making up names

WARNING: The following may be hilariously silly or annoyingly serious, or somewhere in between, changing tone without warning. Reader's discretion is advised. Do not drink, eat or operate heavy machinery while reading the following


I was once stumped trying to name a few characters, and I somehow came up with this idea. Since my setting is another planet, this makes fantasy/alien names pretty much EVERY TIME.


1) Make a list of words that describe the character. Make it so you have crossword-like grid of letters (Notepad and the like make it easier with Courier and similar fonts) and write them as you come up with them, without trying to order them in any way!

2) After you have written enough words or just ran out of them, start reading each column in turn, playing around with them by trying out vowels among bunch of consonants. You can end up with first names, last names and potential relatives with this.

Another method I came up with when I REALLY want to write down a fic but I can’t come up with names. In these cases I try out semi-randomly two or three numbers in place of a name. Later on, when I finally have names I just Find/Replace it into the whole fic! In some cases, I actually worked the numbers into names!


Oops, I forgot one more method, but this one is kinda obvious: Backwards Names

BUT I put the added twist of Reversing HALF of it.

For example, I have this names I use for Other Me’s (in browser games, for example)

Ahndal=> Dahlan

Rhaigan=> Gahnrai

Rhaizan=> Zahnlai

Ramsey=> Yesumaru (Naruto fanon char)

And I also have used the Organization XIII method with a few.