Q&A for How to Make a Good Last Name for Characters in a Book

It's a good name, but it wouldn't work for stories for younger kids who have trouble pronouncing things. It would work in stories where the dialogue matches the target audience.

Look up famous assassins for examples or list the personality traits of your assassin character. Find a last name that embodies these traits.

It depends on your genre. If you're writing realistic fiction, your characters should sound like normal people. In fantasy or dystopian stories, your names can get a little wilder, but there should still be flow between the first and last names. You may even see nouns and verbs used for last names in fantasy and dystopian stories. Overall, say your name out loud, and imagine if you can picture someone with that name actually living in the world you create. For example, Jane Windrider might be a name for a pirate or a futuristic astronaut, but Jane Daniels could be an ordinary kid at a high school.

Of course. Compare it to people who think they're the only ones who celebrate their birthday on that day. With 8 billion people and only 365 days a year, it's not possible for any day to have just one person in the world born on that day. If you like the name, use it. No matter what name you choose, there's likely to already be someone somewhere to have it. But just because someone has it doesn't mean you based your character on that person.

You could give them normal names to make them hide in plain sight, or give them normal first names and more interesting or evil-sounding last names, which would be a nice parallel to how they come off in real life; normal on the outside, but sinister inside.

Yes, that's fine. It does not matter that it is the same name as a person because if you try to get a name that no one else does you will be searching for a long time and a lot of people have the same name as someone else.

It's a nice name. As long as you feel like it suits your character, you should be fine.

Yes it is because Lia means "bearer of good news". With the last name being queen, it's great as we look up to the queen for help when we need it. An amazing name for that scenario!

Yes, but keep it close to the original eg. Rosie it changes it to Rose.

It would probably work, and you could use Pica as a nickname, the nickname that is used throughout her life. Or, it could be shortened to Dilly, as long as it suits the character and you don't feel it suggests dim or silly.

Yes, that name would suit somebody like that. It’s up to you, though.

Yes, it is not only good, but it is also unique and creative. If you think harder, you can think of more names for more characters. Maybe one day you can help out in a book series!

You could decide on a different surname (last name) and make "Moonglade" her nickname. Example in writing about her: Jade "Moonglade" Attra was raised alongside the Florida Everglades. Her grandmother gave Jade the nickname "Moonglade" for the way her hair reflected both Jade's hair and the waters of the glades.

Maybe, but "Josie" Rivera sounds better to some.