Naming characters. How do you name characters?

One thing I have struggled with is coming up with a non-cringeworthy name for my characters. I don't seem to be able to create character names without some help.

Thankfully, there are lots of random name generators online. One of my favorite naming sites that has a random character namer is https://www.behindthename.com/

In the upper right hand corner under the tools tab, there is one of the best character naming tools I've found. I like that I can tell it what culture to pull names from. Since I have characters from some of the non-traditional Western cultures, such as Latvian, Basq, Khazack, Uighur, Igbo, Afrikaans, Shona, Ethiopian, etc., being able to limit names to the culture is handy.

Some beta readers have mentioned that Asian characters are rare in my books. One reason for that is I am horribly ignorant of Asian cultures. I wish to offend the least number of people as possible. When I create Asian characters, I try for a generic Asian culture. I have characters that are of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Malay descent.

I also like the random namer tool on the Behind the Name site. The background creating tool I have not found as handy, but does have some utility if you want to randomize your character's dominate hands, blood type, lifespan, and simple cause of death.

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