Or what if you have a race that chooses their own name at maturity? Why would they have chosen their name? What is its significance?

Nickanmes are often more personal, too, and go to characterization. It is highly important to me that my name is Christine, not Christy, not Chrissy (shudder...anything that rhymes with prissy ), not Chris...Parly it's that my mom never wanted my name shortened, but I took on her fervor about it. That's a prt of me.

And then there are made up names. These, too, are highly important. First, why did you make them up instead of going with familiar names? An alien species probably has unique names, at least if they vocalize. I have a non-vocal race of aliens with names I made up, too, though, because most of our familiar names are based in the religion and mythology of our various cultures and would have nothing to do with an alien race, whether they vocalize or not.

Then there are other important considerations. First, the pronunciation is KEY. I cannot stand to read a story with a name I can't pronounce. Also, whoever thought that fantasy names were best formed with apostrophes needs to be shot. Basically, just because you made it up doesn't mean it can't be sensible. Here are a couple of names I made up, taking care to come up with things I thought people could prounounce: Silina, Aberetta, Hanre, Kryton...you don't recognize them so you might have to do a double take but there's nothing there you can't figure out how to prounounce.

Another important feature or names is that while they do have some important to characterization and the like, they do become tokens the reader uses to identify them. In the end, the faster they can identify the token and move on the better, especially for "tokens" that come up on a regular basis (ie main characters). The best way to do this it to come up with names that do not look or sound alike. For exmplae, I had cutesty stories where they have twins they name Brian and Brianna or something like that. It takes a lot of work to identify the token there. On the other hand, if you call them Brian and Christine (not that random, my borhter's name is Brian) then your readers will see the first letter(s) and assume they know who you're talking about.

In fact, it creates such an ease of reading that I highly recommend this strategy, even if in real life you knew ten Jennifers in school, in your books there can be only one, and in fact, I'd stay away from Jamies and Jeremys and the like..at least for main characters. I sometimes have a couple letters of the alphabet I reserve for any one-shot or really minor character that doesn't show up often and doesn't matter much.

One problem with names that is often out of an author's control is connocation. It isn't ALWAYS out of a reader's control. Since the 1940's, it ha not been a good idea to name someone Adolf, for example. Now, if you want us to hate him, go ahead.

There are a few general rules like this, but often the connocations are more personal. For example, I don't like the name Bridget at all because I knew a Bridget who was very mean to me and we got into a fight after school one day. But how can you plan for that? You can't. These things just happen.

In fact, sometimes when readers tell me they don't like a name they are talking precisely about something like me and Bridget.

Do a little research on names, too. A search for baby names has given me lots of search engines and tools for finding out about names. I've even seen name surveys, where they ask people what they think of a name. For example, babynames.com has surveys every day. Today's is "MUNIYA" -- as of right now, it seems incredibly unpopular. (For me, it was one of those...How do you even pronounce that? sort of things.)

Names should suggest, but not beat you over the head, with connotation (or at least they shouldn't get them horribly wrong). In LotR, the bad place was Mordor (sounds like murder). The bad guy was Sauron (sounds like dinosaur and Satan). Frodo doesn't sound like much. Bilbo sounds informal. Samwise does too, esp. when you read that it means "half-wise."

I think if it's modern Anglo names, it won't matter as much, but there's still a little. Rich is less formal than Richard, and Mr. Jones is more formal still.

Also, I try to pick a name that conveys some sense of thier personality.
In one story I had a really stuck-up woman I named Priscilla (nickname Prissy). I hoped that the word prissy would convey some of her personality.
Another character I named after a type of orchid, because her parents were botanists.

If you have a primary character with a name that people hate, you might ask a few of them what it is that they hate about it. Maybe you want them to hate the name. Maybe it's too unwieldy and you'd be better off making a slight adaptation to it.

What's the name you had in question? Ask us, outside the context of the story, and we can give you some feedback on it.

One thing I want is for it to be easy for my readers to get what I'm saying (the more work it is, the more likely they'll put the book down). So having characters' names with the first letter the same, or giving a character a name and a nickname, adds to the cost, but it may be worth it. Remember _Sliders_? MC's name is Quinn, but one of the characters (and only one) called him Q-ball. Cute, and worth it. Too much of it would have been confusing.

Same for naming a Japanese burger-flipper "Aristotle," or an American milquetoast type "Thor Savage." It could work, but it will _take_ work.

If most people in your audience respond to a name the way you want them to respond, then it's a good name.

I usually want three things from a name. First, I want to avoid reminding the reader that I'm just making the whole thing up (except when I'm writing the sort of fourth-wall-violation comedy I never write). Second, I want to create an impression in the reader's mind, a somewhat subconscious judgement about that character. I also usually want to bring a bit of the character's "backstory" to life, give the reader a reminder that this person comes from somewhere. And finally, I'm looking to give the reader a name to associate with that character.

Survivor and briggs has some good points too, you really should be careful with your character names not to put off the reader by using something either A: difficult to comprehend, or B: too obviously made-up.

although i sometimes violate B if i have a reason to, i never, EVER, violate A.

If we are, the point of that name is that it is mildly derisive, mocking the fact that he spends a lot of time on foot (the name "Footsie" was rejected as being a little too silly*). And, er, he's...not a bad guy

If you're thinking of someone else, I'll have to claim ignorance of the subject.

PS: Since I read LoTR when I was 11, infants shoes didn't make an impact to me at that time, rofl.

While names might not be remarkably important for the author during the writing process, you gotta believe they're vital to the character. Until he, she, or it gets a name, the character is solely a tool for the author to maniupulate, and not a person in his or her own right. Sometimes you might want a tool instead of a person as a character in your story. However, in order to have a character who is truly an individual, he or she MUST have a name.