tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post4958517547866231454..comments2024-02-06T04:20:38.551-08:00Comments on Reading, Writing, Revising: The Surnaming of CharactersLisa Ecksteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469107523441985396noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-7169095803465547612014-02-10T12:55:23.289-08:002014-02-10T12:55:23.289-08:00Both good ideas! Thanks. (And yes, I'd searc...Both good ideas! Thanks. (And yes, I'd search more for existing tools before building something.)laurenhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04109325640858487775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-88327605409779159902014-02-10T10:46:26.070-08:002014-02-10T10:46:26.070-08:00How about searching for "Mrs" in Google ...How about searching for "Mrs" in Google books, and filtering by century (or more granularly if you can)?Iphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13073553305843044346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-88275594852879635012014-02-08T14:07:48.564-08:002014-02-08T14:07:48.564-08:00I am entirely in favor of you applying your data w...I am entirely in favor of you applying your data wrangling skills to this problem! The Social Security site has a lot of (US) names data, and while the first names seemed easier to get at than the last names, I think both are available in some form.<br /><br />I should also add that I haven't looked that extensively for last name sites, so there may be something close to this already out there.Lisa Ecksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11469107523441985396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-21039492280543100052014-02-08T07:39:24.293-08:002014-02-08T07:39:24.293-08:00Hee, true. :) I recently wanted a generic UK surna...Hee, true. :) I recently wanted a generic UK surname beginning with A, and thus only needed a short list, but it wouldn't do to assign a bunch of similarly forgettable names... That would probably also make for more name confusion.<br /><br />It would also be nice to have a tool that takes in a name/time/place combo and gives you back a popularity metric. (I suppose maybe I should see if I can find a good data source and write these myself...)laurenhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04109325640858487775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-33161082184108113682014-02-07T18:11:48.742-08:002014-02-07T18:11:48.742-08:00Yeah, lists of popular last names can be useful, b...Yeah, lists of popular last names can be useful, but only if it's a fairly long list. I guess if your character last names all fell near the end of top 100 lists, they wouldn't seem too generic, but you don't want to have characters named Smith, Garcia, Lee, and Patel! Lisa Ecksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11469107523441985396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-196395690882777092014-02-07T17:20:31.362-08:002014-02-07T17:20:31.362-08:00Rather than a random name generator, I'd love ...Rather than a random name generator, I'd love to see the most popular names for a given gender/time/geography/ethnicity. I look that up when generating names... But yeah, it's hard!laurenhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04109325640858487775noreply@blogger.com