Creating Character Names

Many writers struggle with thinking up character names. I’ve always found it easy, they just come to me on demand. (It is thinking up plots I struggle with!)
I gave some advice on this a few years ago — https://www.cdwarhurst.com/finding-character-names/ — but now there is another option: ask AI.
You could get a simple name by asking AI to give you a christian name and a noun. You might get something like Alicia Wallflower.
If you get a simple noun you can try adding a common ending like “son” or “man” to the end: Alexander Butterman, Sadie Ropeson.
Ask for two nouns and you might get Jermaine, nut, bench — Jermaine Nutbench.
Something more exotic? Try this prompt:
“give me a random place name, a random noun and a random agent noun”
You’ll get something like “Valletta, fulcrum, cartographer.”
I turned that into Doctor Valletta Fulcrum-Cartographer.
I hope these simple pointers help. You might want to play around with the prompt you give AI.
One more thing — if you want help visualising what your character looks like, AI can help you there too! I decided Dr Valletta Fulcrum-Cartographer was an eminent biologist so I asked AI to “Give me a photo of her on a field trip in a botanical garden where she is kneeling down studying a flower with a magnifying glass”.
I got this:

That image instantly gives me a ton of ideas about her character and personality! AI has become a wonderful tool. Like any tool, it takes practice to learn how to use it properly but once you do it can become indispensable.