When you’re at an in-person book event, you’re asked a lot of questions. Actually, readers also DM and email questions, but at an in-person event you have to come up with an answer on the spot.

One question I always enjoy answering is, “How do you name your characters?”

Well, it depends on the character. If I base the character on someone I know or knew, I might use a variation of their name. If the character is a specific ethnicity or from a particular country, I’ll use a name from that ethnicity or country.

I use a great, free random name generator called Behind the Name. You can choose from a lot of different languages and countries, and you can even generate fantasy names there. If you’re having trouble naming characters, give it a look.

Let’s Start With the Obvious

Several years ago I wrote a blog post about my two main characters, including the origins of their names, but it bears repeating.

The character we know as Mai Fisher is actually Maitland Katherine Claire Elizabeth Fisher. She’s English, hence all the names, but she’s also half Irish. Maitland is her Irish family’s surname; Katherine her Irish mother’s name; Claire her Irish grandmother’s name; and in the decade Mai was born, Elizabeth was a common name for girls. For obvious reasons. Fisher was her father’s surname. So where did I find all those names?

I searched Irish surnames, but not for a common or easily recognized one and found Maitland. Katherine with a C is my saint’s name from back when I was Catholic. Claire is a relatively common Irish name, and I’ve already explained Elizabeth. Fisher was a name I used when I wrote Man from U.N.C.L.E. fan fiction in my teens, but it’s also an English surname.

Mai thought Maitland was a bit too pretentious–as if having three middle names wasn’t?–so she preferred to be called Mai. In her spy work, she often uses combinations of her names with other surnames as a cover. For example, one she uses quite a bit is Katherine Burke.

The character we know as Alexei Nicholaivitch Bukharin is Russian, well, Ukrainian. After the fall of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence, he corrected anyone who called him Russian. However, since his father was Russian, he has a Russian surname.

Alexei is a Russian name I’ve always liked. It was the name of the last tsarevitch of Russia, Nicholas II’s only son, who was murdered with the rest of his family after the Bolshevik Revolution. I always thought little Alexei got a bum deal. Not only was he the heir to a crumbling and corrupt empire, but he was plagued with hemophilia B, a genetic, X-linked recessive blood disorder that prevents proper clotting. It’s often called “the royal disease” because several of Queen Victoria’s descendants had the disorder, including one of Victoria’s own sons. Alexei’s mother was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. So, I used Alexei as an homage for a kid who never asked for what he got.

Many Slavic countries use what’s called a patronymic for a middle name, which is based off the father’s name. For a male child the patronymic is the father’s first name plus either of two suffixes: -vitch or -ovna, sometimes -ova or -evna. So, Alexei Bukharin’s father’s name was Nicholai, so Alexei Nicholaivitch. Alexei’s sister is Ekaterina Nicholevna.

Bukharin is an uncommon Russian name but an historical one. The real Nicholai Bukharin was a Russian revolutionary, Bolshevik, and close associate of Vladimir Lenin. He was very popular among the Russian people. Too popular. Joseph Stalin purged him from the Communist Party in 1934 and had him executed not long after. So, Alexei’s surname is an homage to an interesting historical figure.

Alexei uses cover names, too. A favorite of his is Alex Burke, but he’s also used Sergei Nevansky, which was the name of his half-brother killed in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

What About One-Shot Characters?

I have a lot of characters floating around after 30+ books, and some only appear in one story or series. They are mostly named after close friends or family, if they’re a good guy, or after negative people I’ve worked with or encountered if they’re a bad guy.

Again, I don’t use their actual names because some of the negative people I worked with are bastards and wouldn’t think twice about suing. So, I’ll use a name that perhaps matches the number of syllables in the real person’s name or, if I’m feeling bold, a different spealling.

Again, Behind the Name is good for this.

Sometimes I’ll use what’s called an Easter Egg, a pop culture reference for a character’s name. I’ve used Stephen (King) or other authors’ first or last names but never the actual name. I’ve also used the first names of people who’ve died under tragic circumstances, to memorialize them. Sometimes it’s obvious; sometimes it’s not, but I know.

I’ve used the first or last names of high school friends, college professors, and family members. Even the first name of an ex; I made him a bad guy by the way. Obviously. He was never much of a reader, except for the NRA’s magazine, a.k.a. propaganda tool, so I don’t expect him to make the connection.

And to date (knocks on wood), no one at all has recognized themselves from name or description.

Even if you have a large circle of family or friends (or enemies), that’s a limited pool to fish from. We want our characters to have interesting, memorable names. Think Ian Fleming’s James Bond or Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshaski or Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcey or Miss Bennett. So, I can’t emphasize a random name generator enough, especially one like Behind the Name that can draw from almost every country in the world.

But What About Public Figures’ Names?

You can use the names or backgrounds of public figures–another author, a politician, an actor, and so on. It’s legal under the 1st Amendment, which includes protection for artistic license. However, what you can’t do is defame them, if they’re alive. If they’re dead, you can’t libel them.

In his book Patriot Games, Tom Clancy includes the Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) as characters. Indeed, in the opening chapter, Clancy’s Jack Ryan saves them from Irish terrorists and becomes fast friends with them. But Clancy was careful not to attribute anything to the Charles and Diana in his book that wasn’t already known about them. (The book came out before their marital problems became public.)

If you have a public figure incidental to the scene (a cameo), for example, a politician giving a sound bite on television, that’s safe. Real historical figures are fine, which are almost a necessity in historical fiction, so long as you’re historically accurate. If you do attribute words or actions to an historical figure, make sure they appear to be or sound like something that figure would do or say. Think of how many appearances Winston Churchill has made in fiction, but in each instance, the author has researched well and portrayed him accurately. Even when he encountered the Daleks in a Doctor Who episode.

If you’re going to do this, make sure the public figures have relevance to the plot, that you haven’t simply name-dropped, though Agatha Christie was famous for that. And if you use a public figure as a parody of that person or are satirizing a situation they were in, you’re maybe protected.

Use a disclaimer. You know, the ubiquitous affirmation that your characters are figments of your imagination and not real.

My personal rule of thumb is, if the public figure is still alive, I’m changing the name but describing the character so you can recognize who it is. In my series, A Perfect Hatred, President Bill Clinton became President Geoff Randolph. If a public figure has died, I’ll use the real name, but I still make sure that the real person is portrayed accurately. For example, when I started writing my series Self-Inflicted Wounds about the Balkans in the early 2000s, I changed Slobodan Milosevic’s name. Once he died in 2006, I edited it to his real name, and my portrayal of him as a dictator was accurate.

Can You Ask an Author to Name a Character After You?

Many authors do this as a prize at a book launch or for people who’ve signed up for a newsletter, etc. I’ve never done that because what if that person’s name is associated with a character the real person doesn’t like? At the least, a series of indignant emails or DMs; at the worst, a law suit.

So, I’m not taking that chance, or at least I’d never use your whole name.

Basically, any name is fodder for a fiction writer, and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.