Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related New Character Generator

Tired of thinking up names (and realizing every snitch you've created for Lois has the name of Kenton)?

I've put together a random generator at http://clois.shadolibrary.org/char2.shtml

Currently it only generates adults between 18 & 65, but it gives name, gender, height, weight and probable ethnicity when applicable.

Sometime in the next couple weeks I'll add hair and eye color as well (as soon as I find good probability tables for those) and possibly distinguishing features such as tattoos.

Please let me know if there's anything else that might be good to know about a random person Lois & Clark are likely to meet on the street.

That's a terrific tool, Dandello. May I suggest another one for finding character names?

If you have a character in mind but don't yet have a name for him/her, or you want to start with a name, just pop your favorite movie in your DVD player and skip to the credits. Then move down past the screen/voice talent and find the names of the support personnel. You can pull in the name of a stunt player or makeup artist or personal assistant or driver, or you can randomly select a first name and a last name. Movies with lots of action and lots of extras are really good for this, but you can use just about any movie with complete credits (many of the older black-and-white films of the 1940's and earlier don't list all the so-called "little" people).

That has worked for me. Let me know if you like that as a tool.

And use Dandello's link, too! I tried it looking for a 31-year-old male and got Paul Castle, Johnnie Jimenez, and Jimmy Jordan, all with different heights and weights. Very nice tool. It's definitely going in my bookmarks.

I have actually used film crew names as well - especially for ethnic names.

But sometimes I'm just rolling along and find I need the name for the flower shop guy or cabby, I don't care if he's a minority and I don't want to put in a DVD to find him.

I just got this for a 35-year-old female:

Morgan, Donya
(Female)
Age: 35
6' 0"
96 lbs

....someone buy Donya a cheeseburger, for goodness sake!!!!!

Very awesome site! Love it!

-WD

For a random sexed 40 year old I got:
That's a reasonable name and weight. I agree 96 pounds for a 6" female would be named Iman and from Ethiopia.
Quite a clever idea. Another way to get names is use IMDB and go to some movie or TV series and use that crew.

Artemis

Well, I had to tweak the height and weight parameters a little - the original data would have created specimens of 'average' weight for height. Now 25% of everybody is overweight by varying amounts and about 10% is underweight - or in Donya's case - anorexic.

But I guarantee, you now have a memorable walk on character.

What a great idea! In one previous fic (in the Smallville universe), grasping at straws, I was forced to use the names of baseball players who had completed an unassisted triple play to name my minor characters.

Albert Pujols had one IIRC but in the minors or maybe even college... Yep - at Maple Woods Community College and a grand slam both in his first game .

[Edit: yeah I know that totally has nothing to do with anything but I knew random trivia!!!]

I didn't know that! But I was using players who made an unassisted triple play in the major leagues. This includes the immortal Bill Wambsganss of the Cleveland Indians who did it during the 1920 World Series. There was a long drought between 1927 (Johnny Neun, Detroit Tigers) and 1968 (Ron Hansen, Washington Senators). Most recent was Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians, May 12, 2008.

The only trouble is, it's really hard to name a character "Bill Wambsganss" in a fic and have it sound real. (Or maybe everyone immediately thinks, "Unassisted triple play, 1920 World Series!" I know I do.) "Glenn Wright" and "Jimmy Cooney" sound a little more plausible, or at least less memorable, and even "Mickey Morandini" is reasonable. Not sure about "Troy Tulowitzki".

We now close our book on baseball and return to our regularly scheduled L&C commentary. Thank you.

/reopens book/

I only know that b/c I'm a big Cardinals fan and love Pujols - he came out of nowhere his rookie season and they talked all about him - I had to look it up to make sure my memory wasn't faulty and did see the MLB list as well, but only glanced at the names.

Yes, it would be hard to use some of those names... though I wouldn't immediately go to 1920 World Series unassisted triple play! I will now though...

Those others are some great mobster names!

/recloses book/
Carol

Let me bring this thread bubbling to the top again because I've had occasion to use this site several times in my most recent WIP (which is now in beta status). It's an outstanding tool for original minor characters and I want to thank Dandello for making it available to us.

If only Tempus had seen this site before re-naming himself John Doe...

This is an interesting thread, but I'm puzzled by something. I'm a new writer, so maybe you veterans can enlighten me. Why not just pull out the White Pages? (That's the residential telephone listings.) I realize that in my area that gives an overabundance of Polish surnames, but it seems a lot simpler than trolling through film credits. And if you mix and match first and last names you're not actually using real people. Am I missing something?

When I first started writing, I bought a book of baby names. I can get ethnicity from the book, origin and even the meaning of the name. That's still how I get first names for my original characters (although, having the book sitting around has raised a few eyebrows over the years ). For last names, however, I often do use the phone book like HappyGirl suggested.

The problem I run into with surnames is the issue of ethnicity. I don't naturally look at a name and associate it with a certain ethnic group. That is something that I would find very useful in your random name generator, Dandello - if we could specify the ethnic origins of the person we want to find a name for.

ML