Name game

Story number four is done and I'm checking out the generator for tomorrow's piece.

One thing though: It's great to have the protagonist - gender and occupation - a time frame, place and an important item chosen for you, but names... that's where the problems lie.

I mean, think about it: thirty-one stories, three characters minimum (protag, sidekick and villain). That's ninety-three first names, 186 if you give them a surname. And the number grows the more characters you toss in.

But... I no complain. There are some wonderful sites out there in cyber space just waiting for me to use. 20,000 Names has names from around the world, so if you want something a little unusual, try one from a different nation and corrupt it.

Baby Names will give you the most popular names, celebrity names or there's the 'cool name lists'. You could choose a name from, say Shakespeare, a spooky name, biblical names, and so on.

The National Hurricane Centre has some nifty names too; storm names nominated by various countries.

Want to know about names? Their meanings and or origins, ancient or modern? Behind the Name can tell you; and there are buckets of names.

Of course, the Seventh Sanctum doesn't just deal with story prompt, it has name generators, too; a whole list of name generators.

So there you go: more names than you can shake a whippy stick at! All you have to do is match an exotic, or not so exotic, name to your character.