I know, there are probably as many different answers as authors. But I don’t know any authors to ask.
Do they just pick names out of a random list?
Do they try to pick names that somehow match the character’s personality? Although that plays to stereotypes.
Do they just pick names they happen to like?
What about ethnic last names? My vague impression is that in WW11 movies the infrantrymen always have distinctly ethnic last names. Kowalski comes to mind for some reason.
Most of my writing is role-playing game adventures, so authors who write fiction set on real-world Earth might do something a bit differently, but what I use:
Websites with list of baby names from particular nationalities. I pick a background / heritage which I think is appropriate for the character, and then scan the list of names until I see one that I like.
Websites with lists of names of characters from relevant fictional universes (particularly Middle-Earth and Star Wars). If I’m writing a Star Wars adventure, for example, and I have to name three Twi’lek characters, I strive to give them names that feel appropriate for what’s been established as naming conventions for that species or nationality.
Sometimes, I’ll look at the original meaning of that name, especially if it’s based on an older language, as a cue to that character’s personality or role.
For fantasy and science fiction, I may start with a list of real-world names, and then modify a name with a letter swap or two. At least that way, I’m getting a name that is close to an actual name, and doesn’t end up looking completely made-up, like “Fzzr’kk’kk” (a style that is often indicative of bad SF writing).
I try hard to not have two main characters in an adventure or story have names which start with the same letter, or even look/sound somewhat the same, unless there’s a compelling in-story reason for it – I do this entirely to try to minimize confusion on the part of the reader or player. My twelve-year-old self never forgave J.R.R. Tolkien for having two big bad guys in The Lord of the Rings, and then giving them similar names (Sauron and Saruman).
I just used to open up the phone book at random, and choose a name from there. Sometimes, it took a little refining—if my character was supposed to be a WASP, then “Rajesh Koothrappali” was out, but looking in the general area of those listings, I’d find “Richard Kennedy,” which would do.
The victim in a Law and Order episode had the same name as one of the English instructors at Monterey Peninsula College while I was attending said college. My guess was the writers chose the name either to honor her or for the cathartic effect for themselves. FTR: I think she was a delightful instructor and the class was quite interesting.
In one of his after-the-story comments in The Early Asimov, Asimov mentioned that beginning writers often use names that remind them of someone they know. I think he said he used his brother’s name in some early stories.
In the Monty Python “Multiple Murderer” sketch, one of the murder victims is named “Steven Jay Greenblatt,” after an American grad student who attended Cambridge with several of the Pythons (and who went on to become one of the most influential Shakespeare scholars of all time).
A childhood friend of mine is a surgeon in Los Angeles. He’s friends with one of the writers of For All Mankind. The writer named a minor character after him. So sometimes they tip their hat to one of their buddies.
James Corden and Ruth Jones used the surnames of British serial killers as main family names in Gavin and Stacey. That got them into trouble.
The voiceover commentaries of the League of Gentlemen explains where a lot of their bizarrely normal names came from, which is tied up to the character origins as well. One I remember is hopelessly gormless teen street magician Dean Tavoularis, named after an award-winning Hollywood film production designer. They said they liked the name, which just popped up in credits on a movie they were watching, and the way the character would have pronounced it with a shaky American accent, and from that they formed the pimply nerd’s persona and role in the show.
Old childhood friends for first names. Places for family names. The thing is to not worry about it too much. Lots of real people have odd names, and your characters can also have odd names.
Sometimes an charity auction reward is to have your real name used in a book!
Authors auction character names for charity - BBC News
Seventeen authors, including Tracy Chevalier, Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan are selling the naming rights to raise money for Freedom from Torture, a charity providing therapies and support to torture survivors.
Ian Fleming famously owned a book about birds authored by a guy named James Bond, and, well, “I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, ‘James Bond’ was much better than something more interesting, like ‘Peregrine Carruthers’. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department.”
For my screenplays I select names that are common and totally believable. You don’t want someone watching to think “we’ll that’s a completely made up name”. It’s not as hard as you might think.
I use the birth year/name sites too. In a story of mine with a corporate setting, the senior managers have names like Tom and Dave, while lower management and junior staff have names befitting later birth years.
For another story I went to some effort to make sure that the villain’s full name was not the name of anyone real
A popular show in the 90s named a one-shot character after a friend of the show creator. Then the character became a regular, which was bad for the friend Steve Erkel