Absolute Chaos Discussion Boards
Fic Talk => Writer's Circle => Topic started by: RokofAges75 on February 10, 2021, 09:21:48 PM
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I thought I'd start a thread for anyone who, like me, spends way too much time deciding on character names. If you have a character name in mind, you can post with a brief description of the character, and people who like coming up with names can suggest some!
I literally spent like 4 hours on Sunday thinking about a name for a third-tier character in my Kevin story. Based on what I knew about her, I wanted her to have a feminine name that has a male-sounding nickname, such as "Sam" for Samantha. I brainstormed on my own, then did some Googling for lists of such names and made my own list of options. And in the end, what did I decide on? Sam/Samantha... which was my example all along LOL. Keep it simple, stupid.
Anyway, the next minor character I need to name is a douchey, frat boy-type college kid. Any suggestions? The first name that comes to my mind for this type is "Chad," but I'm looking to branch out LOL.
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I am bad at character names myself. Funny story, Chad is the name of one of my characters in the Brian romance I was talking about posting. It's the name of a stereotypical college jock.
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I love this thread!
Anyway, the next minor character I need to name is a douchey, frat boy-type college kid. Any suggestions? The first name that comes to my mind for this type is "Chad," but I'm looking to branch out LOL.
Douchey frat boys are my wheelhouse! May I suggest any of the following:
Adam, Allen, Andrew or Andy, Anthony, Baker, Ben, Blake, Brett, Casey, Chad (I know you said you wanted something different), Chris, Cody, Colin, Corbin, Dan, Darren, Dave or David, Drew, Dylan, Elliott, Eric, Ethan, Gabe, Garrett, Grant, Greg, Harry, Ian, Isaac, Jake, Jason, Jeff or Jeffrey, Jesse, Joe, John, Jordan, Josh, Justin, Kenny, Kirk, Kurt, Kyle, Lance, Lee, Luke, Marc or Mark, Matt, Mike or Michael, Nate, Neil, Patrick, Paul, Peter, Phil, Reed, Richard, Rod, Ross, Ryan, Sam, Scott, Sean or Shawn, Seth, Shane, Steve or Steven or Stephen, Tanner, Taylor, Tim, TJ (or whatever initials would work equally well), Tommy (but never Tom), Tony, Travis, Tyler, Will, Zach or Zack
To be fair, not all of these people were/are douches, but was what I gathered from a quick scan of "frat guys in my contacts list." If you want more options, I can go through facebook for more choices. I'm also happy to bold douchey ex-boyfriends if you want them especially douchey. I left off the AJs, Brians, and Kevins in my contacts (for obvious reasons). I have never met a terrible Nick. I know zero Howies.
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Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! In alphabetical order, too!
I can't think of any other Howies I know either.
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In Finding Carter I used Howie and AJ as frat boys. A couple others I used were Brock and Gary. Although Gary sounds nerdy haha.
Brody is a good one. Brady, Brandon, Jake, Jordan. I knew a kid named Jordan in gym class and he was a dick.
Greg is a good own. Brent. Max, Jay.
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LOL Gary sounds like a middle-aged man. I always laugh at the name Gary because it's one of the names Trey Parker and Matt Stone use repeatedly in their stuff (along with "Kevin" LOL). Gary was the main character in Team America: World Police.
Brock is a great douchey frat boy name though!
I see some of these names and think of students I've had and if they were nice or assholes LOL.
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Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! In alphabetical order, too!
I can't think of any other Howies I know either.
Gotta go alphabetical.
I dated two Bretts that were both douchey, so that would have been my number one suggestion for you. However, variety is the spice of life.
Wasn't Nick's character in The Hollow named Brody? haha
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LOL Yes, it was Brody. I have only had nice Brodys in class, although it does sound like a douchey name. I went to school with two Bretts; one was douchey, but the other one was cool.
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You should totally use Brody as a homage to Nick lol
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Zach/Zack tends to be pretty douchey also.
From that list, I would say the top ten (docuhiest first):
1. Brett
2. Zach or Zack
3. Gabe
4. Anthony
5. Marc or Mark
6. Mike or Michael
7. Elliott
8. Drew
9. Steve or Steven or Stephen
10. Ryan
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My first thought for douchiest was Cody, but I think I may go with Erik. I saw Eric on your original list, and it just sounds like a good name for this guy, but I will spell it with a k to make it seem a little douchier. Drew, Brett, and Zach were all on the short list as well.
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Erik is a great choice! I'm glad I could provide everyone with a comprehensive list of great names for any douchey frat guy needs.
Cody was on my list as well, so you were right on the money with your short list.
Next time anyone has a burning question in my wheelhouse, I am always happy to help!
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Erik is a great choice! I'm glad I could provide everyone with a comprehensive list of great names for any douchey frat guy needs.
Cody was on my list as well, so you were right on the money with your short list.
Next time anyone has a burning question in my wheelhouse, I am always happy to help!
I got Cody from your list! :)
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I got Cody from your list! :)
Shhh. It's your list now.
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My turn to utilize this thread! I have two name-related things to pick everyone's brain on.
First, help me name an elderly male character who is wise, stoic, a leader in his group, and a conservative conventionalis t.
Second, start listing any male names you can think of where calling the guy the nickname would be more common than calling them by their full name (like "Nick" instead of "Nickolas" or "Howie" instead of "Howard"). I'm trying to create a robust list without spending hours looking up baby names... yet...
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I love looking up names!
Old man names: Walter, Arthur, Raymond, Glenn, Lawrence, Stanley, Charlie, Edwin, Lloyd, Leon, Wallace, Maurice, Virgil, Bernard, Warren, Franklin
Male names with nicknames: Christopher, Matthew, Samuel, Joshua, Daniel, Joseph, William, Timothy, Richard, Robert, Jeffrey, Benjamin, Charles, Stephen, Patrick, Jacob, Zachary, Gregory, Bradley, Edward, Ronald, Douglas, Nathaniel, Gabriel, Vincent, Wesley, Russell, Mitchell, Randall, Clayton, Frederick, Thomas, Kenneth, Maxwell
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I love looking up names!
Old man names: Walter, Arthur, Raymond, Glenn, Lawrence, Stanley, Charlie, Edwin, Lloyd, Leon, Wallace, Maurice, Virgil, Bernard, Warren, Franklin
Male names with nicknames: Christopher, Matthew, Samuel, Joshua, Daniel, Joseph, William, Timothy, Richard, Robert, Jeffrey, Benjamin, Charles, Stephen, Patrick, Jacob, Zachary, Gregory, Bradley, Edward, Ronald, Douglas, Nathaniel, Gabriel, Vincent, Wesley, Russell, Mitchell, Randall, Clayton, Frederick, Thomas, Kenneth, Maxwell
Thanks for the assist! I'll add all of those names with nicknames to my list.
Re: old man name... Virgil might be perfect! This character really needed a name because the epitaph I was using was just getting too obnoxious to write over and over again, so I can only imagine how it would feel to read it over and over again, haha. Plus writing "the old man/the elder man" instead wasn't much better.
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Good! Virgil sounds wise - and old!
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Good! Virgil sounds wise - and old!
And is meaningful as a bonus! Quite serendipitous!
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My compulsive googling has led to some interesting results tonight! I'm writing and need a last name for a throwaway character, an older male doctor who comes across as a pretentious douche. For shits and giggles, I googled "douchebag surname" just to see what came up, figuring I'd go with the first last name I saw. Well, apparently "Douchebag" is an actual surname??? https://lastnames.myheritage.com/last-name/douchebag I am so sorry for anyone who has been cursed by having this last name. I'd be changing that straight away! And no, I'm not naming my character Dr. Douchebag.
Further down in the results, there was this article about how Brad and Chad have become names synonymous with douchebag frat boys, which reminded me of my original post in this thread. The history behind it was interesting!
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/how-brad-and-chad-became-synonyms-with-douchebag
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LMAO! It makes so much sense! It's all so true!
Also, I'm pretty sure that this is a sign that your doctor's last name should be Bradford or Chadwick.
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LMAO! It makes so much sense! It's all so true!
Also, I'm pretty sure that this is a sign that your doctor's last name should be Bradford or Chadwick.
LOL Someone on Twitter already suggested Pinkerton, so I went with that... but Bradford or Chadwick for the next one for sure!
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LOL Someone on Twitter already suggested Pinkerton, so I went with that... but Bradford or Chadwick for the next one for sure!
I'd ask how often a douchey doctor comes up in your writing, but I feel like it's a fairly regular occurance.
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I'd ask how often a douchey doctor comes up in your writing, but I feel like it's a fairly regular occurance.
Probably less often than non-douchey doctors. This one will probably only appear in one scene, but the ones that are in the story enough to be considered actual characters are usually nicer.
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Probably less often than non-douchey doctors. This one will probably only appear in one scene, but the ones that are in the story enough to be considered actual characters are usually nicer.
Oh good! At least most of the doctors are nice!
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What last name would you give a female gym teacher? Go!
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My female gym teacher in middle school was named Mrs. Carter LOL.
Hm... if you wanna be punny and give her an "athletic" name, maybe Armstrong, Swift, Walker, Speedman, Powers, Fielder, or Archer.
Otherwise, here are some random ones the sounded reasonably gym teacherish to me: Davis, Kelly, McCoy, Gray, Shepherd, Rogers
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My female gym teacher in middle school was named Mrs. Carter LOL.
Crazy! lol I feel like in the story though, that would seem like a clear "I have given up, this is fanfic," lol.
Hm... if you wanna be punny and give her an "athletic" name, maybe Armstrong, Swift, Walker, Speedman, Powers, Fielder, or Archer.
Otherwise, here are some random ones the sounded reasonably gym teacherish to me: Davis, Kelly, McCoy, Gray, Shepherd, Rogers
I love everything about these puns! I almost went with Davis and figured I would crowd source, haha. I think this is a sign to go with my gut.
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Yes, go with Davis if you thought of that one too. What are the chances?
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Oh, like two in a million or once in a life, I'm sure. ;)
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Oh, like two in a million or once in a life, I'm sure. ;)
LOL I knew that was coming.
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LOL I knew that was coming.
I'll always knock down Backstreet joke pins if they're set up for me, even loosely. ;D
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I've been coming up with names for original characters in the MBK sequel I'm planning. One of the characters is a divorcee who took back her maiden name after her divorce. I was trying to come up with a terrible last name for her ex-husband to give her a good reason to go through the hassle of legally changing her name back and found this list of funny last names for your enjoyment: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/funny-last-names-surnames-in-the-world_00773821/