Let you tell you I have the WORST time picking names. LAST names please don't even get me started on those. I don't really have a process... but I do. Sometimes I start by looking up unique baby names. Unique? Why you may ask? I have a very common girl name, in a class of a little over 150 students there were exactly 12 Sarahs. Crazy right? Maybe it's my birth year or something.

Anywho... I look up unique, Uncommon and least used/popular names. For the most part I match names with personally. Cinnamon = Spice. Cinna is a bit spicy. Sometimes I pick names based on what some family members are named. Caroline, Phillip, Emma, Katerina all old names. So on and so on. Sometimes I get inspiration from a current book or television show or movie that I'm watching. That's normally how Characters pop in my head. It may be a huge headache to choose names for our characters but it is one of the things I love the most about creating a character.

So I do not have a single streamlined process, and like my characters, the way I pick names is all over. Where I usually start though is I have a notebook full of names that I've jotted down that I happen to like either in books, TV, celebrities... Etc. If nothing on my list seems to fit the character I'm creating, then I go ahead and search for names on the Google based on a ~vibe~ I think this character might have. I usually scour for hours before I decide on something. Other times, I'll see a name that I like and POOF there's a character voice in my head. Those are my favorite.

Second gens are definitely the easiest of the bunch though, because my characters usually lean naming their kids based on something that means a lot to them. Sometimes it'll be a name directly after a descendent or someone they care about orrrr they'll name their kids something with a very similar meaning.