How do you come up with names for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?

Character names. This one is a major one for me. If I don’t have the right name for my main characters, I can’t write the book. I spend a lot of time trying to get the right name for the main character. Everyone else is pretty easy.

Years ago, I worked at a financial services company, and I used to enter lots of data. Applications. I saw loads of names that way–street names, people names, city names. It was a great resource for information. Now, I use baby name books, I listen to songs, I get inspiration from other books, or people. I keep a list of Possible Character Names every time I hear something I like.

Names of fictional places comes a LOT easier. Every once in a while I have to ask people for help or ideas, but for the most part, I can make up a town/street/school name with no problem. I have a lot of fun doing that, actually. 🙂