How do you decide on names for your characters? Do you try to incorporate different languages or religions into your naming schemes? Do you have a certain name you find yourself using more often than others? Do names have any real importance to you in the grand scheme of things, or could you have your protagonist just be named something plain like Matt or Joe?

Two of my characters are named Yamato and Jou, but their translated names are Matt and Joe!

When naming characters, I stick to Japanese names, since that's the country my stories take place in. (There's only two characters out of the whole mess that don't have Japanese names, and they both have their own reasons for them.) To pick out the names, I just look through various lists of names and find ones that have meanings that are related to the characters.

For the most part I'm random with names but there have been cases where I'll choose names carefully based on region origin and such. For instance, some characters and Pokemon in Foul Play will have Hawaiian names and I had given Grimsley's mother a Japanese name because of how she was originally from Johto.

I try to incorporate different languages as much as I can, so that meanings of the names aren't immediately apparent to anyone interested in diving deeper. Sometimes I bastardize different languages, cutting and pasting tidbits of different words into a working name. Other times, I'll just use whatever first comes to mind just to keep it simple. That usually sees me using J names a lot, like James, Jack, Jeb, Jed, Jeremy, etc..

I'm usually more inspired by names from TV shows/movies. I also like unique names, but they can't be overly unique. I do have a hard time with boy names though because the ones used today are too common or don't appeal to me. D:

Bay said I could post here... even though the thread is over a month old.

For each setting I just more or less pick a region of the world a pick common names from there. I try and avoid both the incredibly common and the incredibly difficult for me to pronounce (so no Welsh any time soon). Of course if it's something based on an existing country or region then I'll just pull names from there. For main characters I sometimes try and link meanings to the name, but that's only for a few characters usually.

For example, Highstorm is Scandinavian with a particular leaning on Norwegian. My RP Dusklands has all of my created characters based off Eastern European names and my personal character having a Polish name.

Behind the Name's "name themes" section is one of my favourite online resources for a reason; I love meaningful names (be it played straight or subverted). This can range from naming a princess Sarah to calling a militant atheist Christian. I also like naming themes, for example, having three siblings bear floral/avian/astronomical names. Bonus points if the name somehow ties into the story, such as naming an accused, but innocent, woman Lily.

I am also careful to give characters region-appropriate names, unless there's a good reason for doing otherwise. White, German Weeaboo parents might name their son "Sasuke" after the character from Naruto, for example.

Needless to say, I'm very picky about names, haha