Searching for a name with a meaning, associating with their personality/origin/career/hobby etc.
I love creating names, most of the time I try to think or them myself or go to baby naming websites to find ones with meanings I like. Naiming is actually one of the things I pride myself on, at least with first names. Last names are kind of less important to me for some reason...
Sometimes I will name the sims myself. Sometimes I will use the random names from the game. Other times I will use a good ol' standby that I have used for tabletop campaigns for quite some time now.
On the top, third from the left is the tab labeled Real Names. Clicking on it opens a plethora of names from a multitude of nations, cultures and time periods. Looking for some 20th Century English-speaking world names? You got it. Elizabethan English? It's there. Indo-Pakistani Urdu names? Yessiree. Indiginous Quechuan names from Peru? Even those are there.
I create my sims after characters i've written and use their names which are either invented by myself names or taken from list of names from the characters culture but not from the most popular list, I try to give them the least popular haha
Depends on the individual game/sim. Sometimes random, sometimes based on something. I try to pick names that I feel is "in character" for the parents to pick. One that's not on the list is sometimes I'll, like, portmanteau the two parents names to make a new baby name lol. So, like, when I my sim Alinah got with Caterina Lynx, I named their twins Calin and Catlin.
I have a dictionary of first names by my computer. I kid you not. Whenever I make a sim in CAS or a baby sim is born, I turn to the book and look for something suitable.
I am playing a legacy right now, and now and then I need some other families to have friends for my sims' children (because the families in the neighbourhood just die out). That is the exception; those sims are made and names randomly.
I only pick them myself if I really care about the story or the family or that sim in specific; otherwise I randomise until I get one I feel adequate for the sim or I plainly like.
In my ancestral save I use the names of my real family members. In my other save, I am playing out the lives of characters I created for my O/C (original character) for the mini-series based on the Original Star Trek. So, it's TV characters and made up ones in that case.
It all depends on what I'm doing. With Erik Cantrell's family, I'm finding names I like, either ones in my head or using the random generator in CAS. He's my wild card. He was still an unmarried struggling musician in my book.
One thing for sure, I never use any random name generator and never use full names (name + surname) of any real world people that I know of. Also I try to never use same first name twice or more, also with surnames I try to avoid using name that already is there unless there is a reason to use same surname.
Names just come to my head, different kind of names, and there is sound/look/meaning that made me choose that name for that sim.
Sometimes I also use different languages when creating names, or look up some names from different places that fit that sims origin.
I many times just create different names in my head, and sometimes I check if they actually mean something in some language for fun.
Searching for a name with a meaning, associating with their personality/origin/career/hobby etc.
This discussion/poll is a nice idea!
Since Sims 2 I developed some 'naming traditions'. Most of the time I use alliterations, meaning the first name and the surname start with the same letter.
However, some families have other 'traditions', often these 'traditions' are somehow given by the game.
Nina's and Dina's female descendants all have "ina" in their name, like Carolina or Carmina.
Sometimes, the names are given by their meaning. For instance, Summer Holiday's kids are called Vinter and Autumn, her granddaughter November.
Luna Villareal's granddaughter is called Selena. Both names mean 'moon'.
The members of the Goth family have most often names inspired by the Greek/Roman mythology, like Hekabe (mother of Cassandra and Paris a.k.a. Alexander), Castor, Pollux, Clytaimnestra, etc. Additionally, the name of siblings often start with the same letter. Sometimes two traditions combine, like in Crysanthina (from Chryseis, a woman in Greek mythology, and 'ina' from Dina).
I spent a lot of time thinking about the names - and I'm loving it.
Using lists of popular names in the internet and picking the ones I like the sound of.
I have a unique naming style so I find that searching baby names with the particular letter in mind very helpful. I play legacies so there's a lot of babies and I prefer not to use super common names...
Comments
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/
On the top, third from the left is the tab labeled Real Names. Clicking on it opens a plethora of names from a multitude of nations, cultures and time periods. Looking for some 20th Century English-speaking world names? You got it. Elizabethan English? It's there. Indo-Pakistani Urdu names? Yessiree. Indiginous Quechuan names from Peru? Even those are there.
It's a wonderful resource.
http://fanphoria.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/FanPhoria
I am playing a legacy right now, and now and then I need some other families to have friends for my sims' children (because the families in the neighbourhood just die out). That is the exception; those sims are made and names randomly.
It all depends on what I'm doing. With Erik Cantrell's family, I'm finding names I like, either ones in my head or using the random generator in CAS. He's my wild card. He was still an unmarried struggling musician in my book.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
Names just come to my head, different kind of names, and there is sound/look/meaning that made me choose that name for that sim.
Sometimes I also use different languages when creating names, or look up some names from different places that fit that sims origin.
I many times just create different names in my head, and sometimes I check if they actually mean something in some language for fun.
Since Sims 2 I developed some 'naming traditions'. Most of the time I use alliterations, meaning the first name and the surname start with the same letter.
However, some families have other 'traditions', often these 'traditions' are somehow given by the game.
Nina's and Dina's female descendants all have "ina" in their name, like Carolina or Carmina.
Sometimes, the names are given by their meaning. For instance, Summer Holiday's kids are called Vinter and Autumn, her granddaughter November.
Luna Villareal's granddaughter is called Selena. Both names mean 'moon'.
The members of the Goth family have most often names inspired by the Greek/Roman mythology, like Hekabe (mother of Cassandra and Paris a.k.a. Alexander), Castor, Pollux, Clytaimnestra, etc. Additionally, the name of siblings often start with the same letter. Sometimes two traditions combine, like in Crysanthina (from Chryseis, a woman in Greek mythology, and 'ina' from Dina).
I spent a lot of time thinking about the names - and I'm loving it.
My Goth family tree: https://www.theplumtreeapp.com/public/59721f02f3933d1a206d872e