Names. Everybody has one... and that can drive an author crazy.

A question I get asked a lot is, "How do you come up with all these names of peoples and countries?"  Most just come to me while I'm riding my bike or vacuuming.  Once an idea comes to me, say Aethahil, the capital of Altesea, I write it down to see how it looks on paper.  Then I determine whether it fits with all the other cities in this nation or region.  Then, I Google it. The worst thing to happen is to come up with a beautiful name for your heroine, or a really cool city name, only to find out out someone has already used it, or it means back-end-of a-waterbuffalo in Vietnamese.

People names are hard.  I like to use normal names for main characters, such as Anna, or Tory, or Priscilla.  Made-up names are so hard to pronounce.  Oftentimes I come up with a name and find its meaning matches its character perfectly.  Alyssus is formed from the girl name Alyssa, which means rational.  Alyssus considers himself a wise and rational person.  In reality he is a skeptical fool, and goes to a bad end.  Or, a name could be the complete opposite of how they are.  Adelina means noble and courteous.  I laughed when I found out what it meant.  Sometimes I decide the meaning and find a name that fits the meaning.  As to Marcellus Lyston; his name means warlike one, son of Mars. The reason his name does not fit him is because warlike one is not his true identity.  Sometimes I have to make up a name and meaning, such as Issaje, which in the ancient Altesean means "My God has forgotten me."  Gudried in Kantonese means high wall, or rampart.  Ellyanus is derived from the Hebrew, Ellyana, "The Lord has answered me."  Ellyanus's full name means, "The Lord has answered His servant the Christ-bearer."  That is quite a nice change from warlike one, and forgotten one.

Surnames: I know a girl with the last name Tiberi, and I encountered Cassidy in a book on ancient Irish history.  The Cassidys are vikings, though.  Lyston was the name of a drummer boy in the civil war.  I also keep programs from high school graduations.  There are also lots of websites with list of interesting last names.

I have one other way to get names, but it has never worked in a story.  I take an atlas and randomly open the pages.  I take the first letters of a city, take the second letters of another city, and the last letters of another city, and smash them all together.
When I have to name a minor character I ask my brother Josiah.  He named Diorn.