Character name generator

How the names are built

Each genre has its own given names and family names, written to sound like that world. The generator pairs one of each, eight at a time, and skips repeats. Choose a style (feminine, masculine or unisex given names) or leave it open, and choose a genre or let each name pick its own.

A world has a sound. Fantasy names lean old and weathered. Mecha names are short enough to shout over a radio. Slice of life names are everyday names from many places, Japanese names among them. Urban fantasy names carry a little night in them, and tournament names are built to be announced to a crowd.

• Fantasy: Ysolde Brightwater, Torvald Greystane, Linnet Ardane.
• Mecha: Katya Strand, Teodor Novak, Jory Kestrel.
• Slice of life: Paloma Takeda, Haruto Bellamy, Ren Alvarado.
• Urban fantasy: Morwenna Vane, Silas Ravenscroft, Vesper Greaves.
• Tournament: Rhea Steele, Cormac Voss, Sloane Hargrove.

What makes a good character name

A good name is easy to say, fits the world and does not remind anyone of somebody else. Say it out loud three times, the way another character would shout it across a room. If you stumble, a reader will too.

Then check it against the rest of your cast. Names that start with the same letter or have the same rhythm blur together in a long scene. Give each character a different first sound and a different length, and nobody gets mixed up.

• Sayable: two or three beats for a given name is plenty.
• Fitting: a ferry captain in a misty river town and a courier pilot on the asteroid run should not share a name.
• Distinct: different first letters and lengths across a cast.
• Yours: a famous character's name makes readers picture someone else.

Anime names without borrowing a famous one

Many people searching for an anime name generator want a name that sounds like it belongs in an anime without being one that already does. The fix is to build from ordinary names, not famous ones. Haruto, Hana, Kenji and Yuna are everyday Japanese given names; Takeda, Sato, Ishida, Nakamura, Takahashi and Okada are common family names.

In Japan the family name usually comes first, so a character introduced formally might be Takeda Hana or Sato Ren. Most stories written in English put the given name first. Pick one order for your cast and keep it, and let the name fit the place: a bakery owner in a canal town and a champion on the arena circuit can both have Japanese names, or none.

From a name to a character

A name is the first decision, not the last. Once you have one, give the character a job, something they want and a flaw that costs them something. That is enough to start a scene. The character generator does all of it at once if you would rather see a whole person first.

Tap the button beside any name and the creator opens with that name and its genre filled in. Write who they are, how they talk and what they will not do, then save. Saving needs a free account, and the name waits in your browser while you sign up. Every character on oeYYeo is an original adult, and every one is AI.

• Generate a whole character
• Open the character creator

In their own words

Read next

• OC maker: a random character generator: A free OC maker and random character generator: one tap gives an original adult character with a job, traits, a flaw, a secret and a voice, ready to chat.
• How to make an original character: Make an original character in eight steps: name, genre, job, want, flaw, voice, boundaries, then the look, so they sound like nobody else.
• OC ideas: 15 original characters: OC ideas that hold up: 15 original character prompts by genre, each an adult with a job, a want and a flaw, plus how to turn one into a character.
• Character archetypes: Character archetypes explained: 12 story roles from hero to trickster, what drives each one, its strength and its flaw, and how to make one your own.