"I built the plot framework perfectly, but got stuck on the names of the two protagonists - wanting them to fit the character design, afraid of being cliché, and worried readers won't remember them." This is a common pain point for 38% of respondents in a 2025 creator survey on a web novel platform. Novel character naming is never simply 'giving a label' - it's the character's first business card, an implicit expression of the worldview, and can even affect readers' reading engagement and work dissemination.
Good character names must balance 'character design adaptation, worldview unity, and phonetic aesthetics' - all three are essential. Missing any one can make characters seem fragmented or inappropriate.
Names must accurately echo characters' personality, identity, and fate, allowing readers to establish initial understanding upon seeing the name. For example, in 'Dream of the Red Chamber', '林黛玉' (Lin Daiyu)'s '黛' (dai) refers to dark green-black, matching her cold and aloof temperament; '熙凤' (Xifeng) naturally carries a bold and flamboyant aura, highly consistent with Wang Xifeng's personality.
First extract 3 core traits of the character (such as 'gentle, scholarly, patient'), then filter keywords around these traits, avoiding names that conflict with character design (for example, a steady strategist shouldn't use words like 'bounce, jump').
Character names must fit the work's era background, regional setting, and worldview structure, otherwise 'inappropriateness' will occur. Ancient-style works using modern internet-famous names, or sci-fi works using traditional ancient-style names, will break readers' immersion.
Ancient-style political intrigue works often use characters like '瑾, 珩, 昭, 晏' (such as '梅长苏' Mei Changsu and '萧景琰' Xiao Jingyan in 'Nirvana in Fire'), fitting ancient aristocratic identity; sci-fi works mostly adopt transliterated names or coined names (such as '罗辑' Luo Ji and '程心' Cheng Xin in 'The Three-Body Problem', concise and neutral, fitting future scenarios); Western fantasy works follow regional naming conventions (elves often use soft vowels, like 'Legolas'; dwarves often use rough consonants, like 'Gimli').
Research on literary work dissemination shows that character names with harmonious phonetics and moderate length (mainly 2-3 characters) have 37% higher reader memory retention than rare characters or long names. When naming, pay attention to tonal matching, avoid awkward pronunciation when read together, and control character count to reduce reader memory cost.
Avoid using rare characters like '䂙, 龑, 翾' (readers will skip if they don't recognize them, affecting reading fluency), and also avoid names with identical pronunciation (such as '林玲, 李丽' Lin Ling, Li Li, easily confused).
Source from 'Book of Songs', 'Songs of Chu', 'Shuowen Jiezi', naturally carrying cultural depth. For example, '清猗' (Qing Yi, from 'Book of Songs: Cutting Sandalwood' '绿竹猗猗' lush bamboo), suitable for gentle ancient-style female lead; '景行' (Jing Xing, from 'high mountains look up, great virtue walk'), suitable for gentleman-type male lead.
Royalty often use characters like '轩, 宸, 睿, 瑶', commoners often use down-to-earth characters like '阿, 福, 桂, 春', while scholar-officials emphasize elegant characters, reflecting class differences.
Reference current commonly used name characters (such as '梓, 涵, 宇, 辰'), but avoid being overly cliché, can achieve differentiation through combination (such as '苏晚' Su Wan has more atmosphere than '李娜' Li Na).
Suspense works can incorporate clues in names, such as character names containing characters like '影, 暗, 离' (shadow, dark, leave), hinting at hidden identity or fate direction.
Sci-fi works can create words through 'consonant + vowel' combinations (such as '凯伦, 泽诺' Kailun, Zenuo), Western fantasy works can draw from Latin, Germanic roots (such as '亚瑟' Arthur, '薇薇安' Vivian).
In xianxia, immortal sect characters often use characters like '云, 风, 月' (cloud, wind, moon), demonic cultivators often use characters like '墨, 渊, 戾' (ink, abyss, violence); in sci-fi, mechanical races can add numeric and symbolic elements (such as '734号' No. 734, '零一' Zero One).
Organize 3 key dimensions of the character: character design traits (personality, temperament), identity background (era, class, race), fate direction (tragedy, fulfillment, hidden line), forming a naming keyword library.
Select suitable characters from the keyword library, combine 2-3 characters, balancing phonetics and meaning. For example, if character is set as 'ancient-style strategist, gentle and patient, from humble background', can filter characters like '砚, 疏, 尘' (inkstone, sparse, dust), combine as '沈砚疏' Shen Yanshu or '苏尘安' Su Chen'an.
Check 3 dimensions: whether it fits character design and worldview, whether it reads smoothly when connected, whether there are rare characters/confusion risks, eliminate inappropriate options.
If name is too common, can achieve differentiation by adjusting character details (such as changing '林小婉' Lin Xiaowan to '林晚卿' Lin Wanqing), avoiding duplication with popular work character names.
Not recommended to completely duplicate. Famous work character names carry inherent recognition, causing readers to have associative bias, affecting your character's independence. If you want to reference, can adjust one character (such as changing '杨过' Yang Guo to '杨珞' Yang Luo), preserving artistic conception but achieving differentiation.
Not necessary to use. If to fit character setting (such as ancient-style hermit, mysterious race), can use sparingly, but must annotate pronunciation to avoid readers abandoning reading due to not recognizing characters. Prioritize 'niche but not rare' characters (such as '珩, 晏, 猗').
Control the number of names with same pronunciation and structure, such as avoiding simultaneous appearance of '张强, 李强, 王强' (Zhang Qiang, Li Qiang, Wang Qiang); for characters of different factions and personalities, can differentiate through phonetics (positive characters use soft phonetics, antagonists use rough phonetics).
Not necessary, but can moderately echo. For example, if pen name for ancient-style works is '清辞' (Qing Ci), character names can emphasize elegant style; if pen name for sci-fi works is '星野' (Xing Ye), character names can incorporate sci-fi elements, enhancing unity of personal creative label.
The core of novel character naming is 'let names serve characters' - it's not just a label, but a microcosm of the character's soul and an extension of the worldview. Remember the three principles of 'adaptation, unity, aesthetics', apply the 4-step practical method, and you can avoid most pitfalls and create impressive character names. Now take out your character setting sheet and try using today's techniques to name characters! If stuck at some point, might as well review the character's core traits again - names are often hidden in the details of character design. Looking forward to your characters becoming more vibrant because of a good name.
More naming techniques and cultural analysis