When it comes to writers, there are many ways to come up with a name for your characters.  There are names which become everlasting in our literary and movie culture such as Scarlett O'Hara, Luke Skywalker, Dracula, or Holden Caulfield.  Naming the character properly will make your character memorable and unique to the story they are a part of.  Such a name should be revealing something of the character.  It should tell about who they are, where they are from or going, and maybe the year they are in.  With this in mind, here are a few ideas for writers of stories, novels and visual media which may help with the decision of the perfect character name. 

Keep the name appropriate to the age the character lives in.  One of the biggest mistakes you will come across is finding character's names that do not match the time frame they are living in.  Some authors tend to pick names which are popular today, using current trends and popularity.  Most often these names would not have been around twenty years ago.  The way to go with this is to know the age of your character, then figure out the year they were born.  If you character is American, go to the Social Security Name Popularity List for their birth year.  This will give you a general idea of names from that time.  Keeping with the character's ethnic background is also a good idea. 

Find out what certain names mean before using them.  Many times a character's name will have something significant to give to the story.  Major personality traits, upbringing, or the character's role could be identified by the character's name.  Trying an advanced search via search engines by literal meaning or thinking of alternative meanings to a name could help your character's ability to interact with the rest of the story.  Often a character's name can have something in meaning which inspires you or doesn't fit with what you are trying to say.  Being too literal is also a problem.  Having a vegetarian Horticulture expert named Flower might be taking things too far; but using a name like Cinnamon, Sage, or Lillian would still work.

Do you ever hear parents use the full name of their children?  Not unless they are angry and want to get a point across quickly.  The only other time you will hear this is in court testimony.  Other than that, no parent ever calls their child by the full name.  Most often a parent will use a short version or nickname for their child.  If the parent is presented as either distant to the child, or not knowing the child well, then you could use a proper name such as Thomas, Elizabeth or Margaret. 

If you can't understand the name, you can't understand the character. This especially happens in Science Fiction and Fantasy stories.  When a person is reading, or watching, your story they don't want to stop to figure out a name.  If the reader stops, you've lost momentum and most likely the audience as well.  Names such as Xinathead would be hard to understand either read or visualized and would take time to understand every time the character is referenced to.  This can take away from your story. 

If you want to try using original names such as these you can try some ideas such as combining two more common names to make an original, but understandable name.  Donica is a combination of Donna and Veronica.  Samadean is a combination of Samantha and Dean.  Tomathis is a combination of Thomas and Mathew.  Another variation is the use of ancient names Hera or Xerxes.  You could also make it simple but exotic.  A perfect example is Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings or Han Solo from Star Wars.  One syllable simple names such as Spock from Star Trek also work well. 

Don't switch genders.  Do not try giving a female character a male name, unless there is a meaning behind it.  Names such as Joe could work for Joey or Josephine, if there is a story behind the character's use of that name.  Kim would not fit a male character, unless they were Korean or Chinese.  Generic gender names will also confuse the audience.  Names like Bo, AJ, Pat, or Rye would have your audience confused in the beginning when they are not sure what sex the character is supposed to be. 

Keep the names from sounding the same.  Jack, Jill, Jane, and Jerry all in one story will get confusing.  As will Pam, Pat, Paul, and Phil.  Use different length names and different syllable counts with each character.  This will show that you not only took the time to make the story more real, but also put thought into each character before placing them in the story. 

Let the strippers, romance novels and soap operas have the exotic names.  Rod Divine or Heaven Heart would not fit into a drama or mystery novel.  Names such as those are meant to evoke fantasy or romance and usually sexual overtones.  Also try to avoid names such as Ima Dream, Trent, Eve, Prentice.  These names all would sound wrong in anything but romance novels and soap operas.  Read a book from Danielle Steele while watching a daytime drama and you'll see what we mean. 

There are a few tricks which can help you find your character's name as well.  One such trick is to start developing your character without a name.  This really helps if you can't think up a name to start with.  Work on what the character's traits are, the history and places first.  The name may come to you along the way. 

Another trick is to consider the upbringing of the character as well.  What was the parenting style for his or her parents?  Were they traditional or idealistic?  Traditional names could include Mary or Mathew; while idealistic names could be Charity or Kennedy.  Where they religious or agnostic?  There are families who name their kids Eli or Rebeka.  Were the parents trendy or simple folk?  Farm families would stick to Rachael or Ben while trendy names would be what was in style during the day.   

Anonymous names work well also.  A perfect example of this is the movie, and book, Reservoir Dogs where the character's are named Mr. Black, Mr. Green, Mr. Pink and so on.  Another good example is Jane Austen's Mr. Ferrars.  Common names such as Isabella and Harry work well in this category.  This way, the name neither complicates or detracts from the description of the character. 

Think about how your character feels about their name.  This will help deepen the character.  Do they hate the name because it came from the grandmother?  Do they insist on a nickname to keep them separate from another member of the family with the same name, such as a mother or father.  Adding depth to your character by investigating how they feel about their name can also help bring reality to the audience.