Naming Names

Ten sources of ideas for characters' names:1.  Former teachers.Me and Mrs. Delaney, my 7th-grade English teacher. I named a whole clan after her.

2.  Other authors.Yesterday at the library I saw a book by somebody named Jonathan Gash, and appropriated his surname as soon as I'd sat down at my laptop. I am also determined to name some future heroine Nova.

3.  Grave markers.I go name-shopping every time I set foot in a cemetery. Can't help it. This one's from the pioneer graveyard in Munnar. ('Aged 32 ½.' I've never seen someone's age given that precisely on a tombstone.)4.  Names you wish your parents had given you instead.Not that middle school would have been any easier for me with a name like Evelyn Harbinger.5.  Classmates, friends, friends of friends, boyfriends...ex-boyfriends.'I'll name him Frank and then I'll KILL HIM OFF!  BWAHAHAHAHA!'6. Characters in other books. This seems like a fair strategy so long as your character isn't too much like the one in said book. E.g., Milo in The Phantom Tollbooth (a name I used for one of the members of the Seventh Order of St. Agatha in Mary Modern).7. Luminaries, alive or dead.Henry What's-his-name...Henry Smith...Henry Jones? Henry Dryden! Done and done.8.  Graduation programs.Something to do while the ceremony drags on. (No offense, Snookie.)

And 'Virtue' reminds me:

9.  Your 19th-century New England farm girl alter-ego.Mine is Devotion Wicksticker. Someday it's going in a book.10. Mythological characters.Like the Morrigan.If you have other sources you like to draw from I'd love to hear them!