Naming Characters

Method 

Typically I take a naming guide to determine what names I need. Then I pick somewhat randomly from a list that sounds good or ok in my mind when I pick it out. For the ones listed by frequency, I pick from the ones with higher frequency and avoid the ones that are associated in my mind to something at the time I am picking them out.

So unless it is listed below, the name is not a reference to something. Or unless it is a real person. (There may be political figures or other "famous" people referenced in the background. My current plan doesn't have any as characters, but events do happen outside of the story...)

Online Lists and Guides

Here is a list of lists and guides I have been using. This is not just about citing sources. It is convenient to have these links in a place where I can easily access them, (and where anyone else can access them if they want to). You can add any other list, guide or generator using the comments.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_name: Wikipedia has both a very good guide for Russian names as well as a list of some of the names including the shortened form. This is important since the customs are not the same for all cultures, even in modern times.
• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RussianNamingConvention: This is one of the other main wikis talking about naming conventions. Although you should always remember to be careful using TV Tropes. It can be worse than wikipedia for people that follow the links to other topics.

• http://names.mongabay.com/data/1000.html 
• http://www.20000-names.com/index.htm 
• http://surnames.behindthename.com/
• http://www.fredonia.edu/faculty/emeritus/edwinlawson/russiannames/
• http://www.namegenerator.biz/last-name-generator.php: Apparently I had a random name generator bookmarked which I hadn't been using. It may not be useful for what I need it for, however.

Rational for Specific Characters
Sonya: She is currently the only character whose names are not random.

• Jennifer Claire Miller: This one is random like all the others. The last name is common and of English origin. The others are relatively common in the US. I also wanted her to have a first name with a shortened form as well as trying to avoid patronymic last names.
• Sofiya Ivanovna Volkova: I do know that all three names are very common, so this would not be unique. The first and last name are chosen for meaning as will be clear from the story when it gets that far. The patronymic was random, although she did another's name rather than choosing at random in the context of the story.
• Sofiya = Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom. It is a common female name in many European cultures. In this context it was chosen both for meaning and the fact that it is used by both eastern and western European cultures.
• Volkov is a patronymic form of volk which means wolf. (Some of the listings translate it as wolf's while others list it as a patronymic, which I guess would imply it is translated more as son of a wolf, so I am unclear with how I should precisely list the translation, but this probably has more to do with the fact that translations are never exact. And the fact that I do not know the language.)
• Siberian Wolf: So, she actually does have a superhero name. However it may never be used. Or created. Or relevant. This mostly comes from me choosing to call her Arctic Wolf, but arctic wolves are actually native to northern Canada, Greenland, etc. It is the tundra wolf which exists in the far north of the Eurasian continent. (Both are also further north than she goes in the story. So is the arctic technically.) It does actually makes some sense for her, but would be very confusing to people who hear it. Which could be put together in an amusing way.