Naming Characters Pt. 2: Naming Resources

Sometimes I get the name and the character at the same time. More often, however, I have to go fishing. Here are some of my favorite resources.

SSA Popular Baby Names - A database of top baby names from the U.S. Census dating back to 1880. You can search by year and view up to the top 1,000 names of that year.

The Baby Name Treasury - This book hosts a ridiculous sum of names. My favorite feature is all the lists at the beginning. Categories range from the top names by state to Jazz artists to celebrity names.

BabyNames.com - You can Google "baby names" and get a huge list of sites. This is just one that I tend to favor. It has a nice collection and it's easy to search. It also has top lists in different categories.

Medieval Names Archive - This site lists names that have come off of actual official documents. It also lists surnames.

English Surnames: Meanings and Origins - A long list of the most popular English surnames.

18th and 19th Century Nicknames - Lists some out-of-the-box names for that era.

Greek Surnames - An extensive list.

Eighteenth-Century Women's Names - Not extensive but still useful and insightful.

Faire Names for English Folke - Women's and men's names from the late 16th century.

Regency Period Names - Pretty extensive. Not as user-friendly as some of the other sites I've mentioned, but it was one of the few reliable pages I found for names of this period.

What are your favorite suggestions/resources for character naming?