How do you come up with your characters' names?

One at a time, my friends. One at a time.

In response to the question: How do you come up with your characters' names?

Okay. this is a relatively difficult question, due to the fact, that, well, I have several different methods. I actually have one character that remains unnamed.

More often than not, though, I come up with the characters' personalities, roles, and environment growing up first, and then decide what their parents would likely name a child, and then pick and choose what fits them. I do not have names that reflect the individual powers of the characters, or adjectives in different languages that mean sad or angry or something (i.e. Tristan). Those types of names tick me off.

Sometimes though, they just say hi, my name is Sky (Almost true story. Originally she was a River.) And that being said, I also like nature names.

But in historical fiction, or stories with different themes on it, I find names by going through historical records and picking names that just seem to fit the character. Of course, picking and choosing can be difficult at times, and then I do the simplest thing and put in a number or code that I could later ctrl+r with a later chosen name. Mostly because temporary names always stick.

And that is how I come up with names. Names are important, and sometimes symbolic, and can make or break a character sometimes. So as advice to my fellow writers, choose your names carefully, and trust your gut feelings. Those are usually all you need.