How to Choose a Name for a Fictional Character

I always have great fun choosing names for my characters.  To choose a fictional character name, I often try to align the name with the character's personality, background or job. (If you write historical fiction or include foreign characters it is important that character names also reflect the period of the story or heritage of the character. So you may also want to consider the meaning or etymology of the name for added depth, but also ensure it's easy to read, memorable, and distinct. Also try to avoid confusing readers with many similar names. You can find inspiration by researching names from different cultures, historical periods, using name generators, or even translating keywords related to the character's traits. 
For example, when I created the character of DI Hunter Wilson, in my first novel, Hunter's Chase,I wanted a name to reflect the job he does, solving crimes and catching criminals and the fact that he is Scottish. 

My husband and I were driving in Edinburgh to visit my mother and, as we stopped at a set of traffic lights, I saw a lawyer's office emblazoned with the name Wilson Hunter.

  "That's a great name for my main character," I told my husband.

    "You can't use that! He's a lawyer and might sue us!"

Thus Hunter Wilson was born. Hunter is shown as Scottish with the fine Scottish surname Wilson.

It is a good idea to avoid too many names that are similar. Jane Renwick's wife's name is Rachael and originally I was going to name her sister Rebecca. However, my editor suggested this would not be a good idea because they were in a lot of scenes together and their names both began with 'R'. So in my second book, Hunter's Revenge, Rachael's sister became Sarah.

However, in one book I was rather tied. Hunter's father had already been named Andrew in a previous book and when I ran a competition for the winner's name to be used in my nextnovel, the winner's name was also Andrew. I therefore differentiated them by using Andrewfor Hunter's dad and Andy for my winner.

In my most recent novel, A Fighting Chance, one mother explains that she named her daughterChardonnay because she looked long and pale like a large glass of white wine while her sonshe named Phoenix because he was born with the cord around his neck and had to bebrought back to life, just like a phoenix.

I enjoy naming my characters but if you find it a struggle, there are lots of websiteswith baby names that are popular in different eras and cultures or name generator websites that can help you in your quest.