Characters last names

I can never, ever, think of a last name aside from James or Jacobson or soemthing stupid like thatDoes nayone know of any I could use for characters in stories?

 

I used to have the same problem when I'd write, but now I have a list of last names. Now the problem is that I have such a big list. Here's the list, you can use as many as you want because it's not like a surname can have a copy right or anything like that. So anyway, here you go (it's last names of my ancestors):

Gibson, Wilson, Wells, Laughlin, Gloshen, Hawthorn, Cauthorn, Hickman, Berry, Wyant, Fischer, Smith, Hansen, vanCleave, Thomas, Whitaker, Roland, Ingham, Dowell, Lenox, Brower (my maiden name; German spelling is Brauer), Goddard, Allen, Russell, Wiley, Manchester, Budenseik, Althaus, Fitzgerald, Carpenter, Weiss, Brody, Fry, Zuroweste, Young, Shepherd, Millemon, Laws, Maisie, Hamilton, Abrams, Ellis, Mulvaney, Kreuger, Todd, Combs, McManamy, Miller, Norris, Raleigh, and Yellowfeather.

 

I thought there was like a random name generator online somewhere for that very thing... I'll look for it later.

 

Thanks! Those are really good names, I think I'll use one or two in my story I'm working on right now...

 

I just use a newspaper.

 

Phonebook, any phone book.


: ) life and love

 

Character don't have to HAVE more than ONE name. Mc Guyger comes to mind.

(Although his character DID have a FIRST name. Anyone know it? Good for 1000 credits on MY forums???)

 

Do you mean MacGyver? Like the show? I used to watch that all the time....wasn't it like Arthur or Angus or something?

 

DING DING DING DING! Angus is the correct answer! Now. for another 1000 points, where was he from? (The Character.)

 

Use Beteta or Castle. Irish last names are always good. Bygrave is good.

 

That got me thinking; it would be so cool if you could pull names out of a phone book from india or china or tibet or something. Man that would be cool. I'll tell you what I told the last girl though--get your yearbook and use names out of those. Hell, I'll give you some out of mine if you don't have a yearbook.

 

If you still need some -​

Ameche​

Anderson​

Andretti​

Apicella​

Armando​

Ayortha​

Aval​

Avignon​

Bancroft​

Barlow​

Barlett​

Beck​

Beckinsale​

Bradshaw​

Brewer​

Browning​

Bryson​

Butler​

Cardo​

Carson​

Carter​

Catran​

Clanton​

Clark​

Clarkson​

Clarry​

Cohen​

Colangeo​

Cooper​

Copson​

Copur​

Cortez​

Curtis​

Daniels​

Daniel​

Danielson​

Douglas​

Dowden​

Esler​

Faraday​

Farrel​

Field​

Franklin​

Futa​

Green​

Harrod​

Hayward​

Hudson​

Ibbotson​

Jolson​

Kendell​

Klimek​

Lahr​

Lake​

Lang​

Lapin​

Larking​

Lee​

Legorne​

Leopold​

Lewis​

Liden​

Mair​

Maricot​

Martel​

Mercer​

Miguel​

Minhade​

Miles​

Monfort​

Montana​

Norgate​

Opus​

Osipa​

Page​

Parker​

Peterson​

Polo​

Reamon​

Richmond​

Rivello​

Roberts​

Robertson​

Romanov​

Russell​

Russet​

Santangeli​

Sayanto​

Sicone​

Siena​

Sinatra​

Stomboli​

Thompson​

Tompson​

Trell​

Upson​

Voltardo​

Walnut​

Walton​

Watercress​

Willow​

Wright​

Young​

Zellow​

​

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I have lists of male names, female names, name meanings and last names that I use for my own stories. ​

​

And yes, I do have a life. ​

 

Damn! I don't know. Chicago?

 

Here are some interesting surnames of people I know:
Candeger - prounounced John-deer (it's Turkish)
Caputo (Italian)
Celentano (Italian)
D'Addario (Italian)
Dieter
Dietrich ("DEE-trick")
Drapeau (French)
Moreland
Moulaison (French, it's my last name and I HATE IT)
Paschke
Reische (pronounced "Rice")
Rhoades
Schmidt/Schmidtz
Stambaugh
van der Molen (They spell it so it's all one word: Vandermolen, but i like the three word one better, it's more interesting)
Zeeck

Reading the phone book could be helpful, too.
My characters' last names suck, too. Maybe I should take some of my own advice.

 

Yes, I agree, Irish names are great. Scottish too. My Scottish ancestors' last name was Blaeloch, which is Scottish Gaelic for "Blue Lake". My mom swears it's spelled "Blaylock" but I know better. It was just changed to that from the Gaelic spelling in order to seem more "American" when they settled over here.

 

I have trouble with last names too, usually just end up using the surname of the last person I've seen on TV.

 

Advice:


DON'T bog down on details like names. Call the characters "tom" and "sue" for now. It's how the character ARE that counts- not thier names. As the story flows, the character may find his/her own name. And in any case, you can change it latter.
So don't sweat names, or the perfect opening sentence, or the proper desciptive word- any one of these little things can send you grinding to a halt. Get the story on paper, from begining to end, and then, if it's a good story, re-write with that killer name and that perfect opening and the proper desciption.

That being said, maps are a good source for unusual names.

 

You could always use the names of your family, friends, enemies, pets, etc. As for me, the last three stories I wrote didn't have any names so I didn't have any trouble thinking about what I would call my characters. I rarely use more than two characters so it's easy to do. With a larger cast however, better start looking through your phonebook.