October Novel Prep Challenge

One thing I really get stuck on sometimes is naming characters. I feel that's the least creative part of my brain, as to me a name is usually nothing more than a marker to let us know who's talking. If I try to come up with a name myself, it ends up being boring and common. If I use a name generator (especially for fantasy names), I end up with all kinds of weird stuff I'd never remember as a writer, let alone as a reader. So most of the time I go to sites like this one:
http://www.behindthename.com/

Most of the time when I use name meaning sites, I'll change the search setting to "search by meaning". Then I'll start exploring meanings to match a character with it's name based on what it means.

Here's an example.... For a previous book I needed a female name for someone that was destined to be a ruler or was already a sort of ruler. So I searched "rule" with "search by meanings" set. I ended up picking the name Valda, as its meaning was "Modern coinage from Germanic wald meaning "power, rule". "

Not all names work out or sound right, but I love sites with plenty of options and ways to search. I've also found myself using more than one site that focuses on meanings, or even translation websites to see what names come up in different languages.

Hope this helps some that are stuck on naming characters!