NAMING YOURSELF FOR THE INDECISIVE - tips from a roleplayer!

[solar river]

THEORY OF NAMING
so i realized a lot of people here make posts about "oh how do i pick my name?" and so on. well, i thought i could throw in my own two cents since i literally have been naming characters (through roleplay) for over eight years. anyway, let's get into it.

VIBES
i believe every name to have a specific 'vibe' attached to it. when you think of a name, it reminds you of something, or somebody. allow me to give you an example. what do you think of when i tell you the name zoey? some of you may have thought zoey from kpop demon hunters. maybe you think of a famous actress, or a family member/known person who might share the same name?

what about the name john? do you think of saint john? the one actor for pirates of the carribean? the former pope? maybe even john wick, or again, somebody else you know? do you see what i am getting at?

but sometimes, names can give you an image of a person without you having met them. point in case, what do you think of when i tell you about someone named axel? what do you think an axel would be like? his mannerisms, personality, etc?

i'll give you a bit of response space for that. when you're done imagining, here's mine.

i think of an axel to be a short brown-haired boy who probably dresses very, very punk. he might be a little hardcore, and is probably into rock or plays music in his free time. maybe your response differed from mine, or we thought very alike, but point is, how do you wanna come off when you choose your name? feminine? masculine? somewhere in-between, or nowhere? would you like your name to have a specific meaning? (e.x. john/saint, victoria/victory) what kind of impression do you want your name to give to people who see your name, despite never having met you? and of course, would you want your name to have associations with anything? so on.

this should narrow the naming process down for you.

NAME MEANINGS
you can skip this entire section if you want, but meanings are sometimes another important part to me in naming. obviously, everyone knows a name means something. case in point, gabriel meaning messenger of god, and raphael meaning god heals. (if you ask why i'm choosing biblical names, they're easier to derive meanings from)

but sometimes, in character-making, characters can have names that pertain to their abilities, or such. example: one of my oc's who is the embodiment of creation is named chroma. why? because her design has a LOT of rainbow elements on it. another example, my upbeat optimistic oc is named june, because i headcanon june to be a more "optimistic" month, since it is in summer and usually hotter.

so also besides considering where on the gender spectrum you want your name, consider it for just a second. would you want your name to pertain to something you like, or some part of you? say you REEAAALLLY like thunder, and rain. you could perhaps name yourself after that, after zeus, the god of thunder and the skies.

or you can just go with raiden, the word for thunder in japan AND the shinto god of thunder, too. or benjanim/franklin, because he had a part in inventing electricity as we know it today. if you feel the name is too weird but you like it (maybe even love it), who cares? it's your life, your choice. do whatever you want.

i'm just leaving it here, but a good resource to check names with ur desired meaning is names (dot) org or behind the name (which has more options). use their advanced search feature, and type away

GENDER
one part you may also (obviously) care about, whether you're trans, nonbinary, or genderqueer in general. maybe even cis too. anyway, i think an example would best suffice here. say you are amab, and you want to become a woman. you hate the fact you are a man, and would do ANYTHING to just even be a woman for 1 day.

now when choosing your name, it's unlikely you'd go for something like chester, or cliffton because you wouldn't want to be percieved as a man if your friends went and talked about you. then people would expect a man, which would be...the opposite of what you want LOL (unless you just dont care bout perception name-wise lol)

but, psst. lemme tell u a secret. take the name alexandria for example. say you like it, but very unfortunately, you're ftm/nonbinary and would HATE to be percieved feminine based off this name. slice that mofo up, and turn it into alex, boom. u now have a masc-leaning nonbinary name. or take the name chris for example. add a lil this and that, boom, christina, you got yourself a womanly name. point is, you can look for inversions or cut off some parts of the name if u like it, but it's too masc/fem/andro for u.

also, minor notes, there have been name gender subversions in the past. examples being, ashley used to be a name given to men, now it's given to women. robin is still a dude's name, but there has been a rise of women with the name robin. but yeah.

if it helps, you can imagine a man/woman/enby with your chosen name, and see if you like the gender perception of ur name. if not, change as necessary. if so, good! :3