Names you don't use (for your OCs)

• Names of people that I know well. For some reason, it's less weird if I use names of people that I don't know well. 
• Normal names, but spelled differently. For example, this entire list. These look like typos. 
• Kind of in a similar vein as the above, but "unique" names. Things like Genesis, Rylan, and anything that sounds like it should be a last name. 
• Names that are already associated with a famous person or character. Like there's no way I'd be able to have a character named Mickey without thinking of Mickey Mouse and that sort of thing. 
• Names of people that I dislike irl. That's probably a given, but the name Shanelle or however you spell it has been ruined for me forever because of this one person.

i refuse to name any of my characters john or mary for a number of reasons

but honestly for me anything else is a if the glove fits 

Any first name longer than four syllables is usually a no-go for me unless it's high fantasy Tolkien-style names for elves and the like. But in most situations, once you start hitting the five-syllable name (as opposed to just having a character with many sections to their names like "Timmy Jane Garcia" or something), it starts to get a little unwieldy on the tongue.

I stay away from very very common names because meh. I have a love for rare and uncommon words, so very common names bore me a little. (Especially girl's names, I just don't like girl's names for some reason. D:) 

Also the name Patrick. .... I have history with that name and it also reminds me of Patrick Star so :I 

Japanese names cause I used to awful weeb and had too many cringy ocs with those names when I was like 13 years old and now I refuse to go back again to that lmao

Names friends used for their oc. Kinda dumb reason but I dont want to look like Im copying them or smth <:I

I usually stay away from foreign sounding first names unless the character themself is actually from that place. I try to go more neutral in their first names so I don't seem like I'm obsessed with their culture or anything, I just make their last names match.

It's funny - "American" names listed here are rather exotic for me but in turn I avoid typical "Swedish" names. I'd never name a character Ragnar because I knew a Ragnar, haha. Same with Sven and Ingrid, unless the character is deliberately Swedish/Nordic, but in that case I'd rather go for older or (to me) uncommon names.

Really depends on my story,but making names up is really hard so I try and use to some extent use roots for names. Unless they are human, I have aliens in my story and the influence names aren't as common for many of their species.

I absolutely cannot name an OC Melissa. Or Sarah. Unpleasant high school memories.

I personally dislike names that have one syllable and if I do have a character that has a name with one syllable the name is either a pun like "Red Apple" <-- not really but an example or something like a middle name like "Paula An" One syllable names always bore me. I also evade using the names of my fiends/foes because it gives me memories I dislike to think about. I could also say I avoid names that don't match the race of a character (If they're human of course otherwise it doesn't really matter) because oddly I've seen characters like that but no family history as to how they have that name. Say if a character is German but they have a full Japanese name? I like to avoid that because it doesn't make any sense unless they have Japanese family members even then it seems iffy on information to me. 

The names I absolutely cannot use are Erica, Andrea, and Sarah. I won't give full details about these people besides that I was harassed by them and to this day am still paranoid about them. 

I also had problems with two other people name Emerald and Melissa. Not as bad but it was more or a manipulation thing with them. 

I tend.to stay away from names that don't sound nice or look nice to me xD it's very subjective lol. I also would want to stay away from common names nowadays but some aren't so bad; if anything I could put a twist on the spelling if I wanted. Also most single syllable names aren't to my liking either.

My basic rule is that I avoid those popular names in country of the plot setting like, unless they're absolutely the last resort. So for my OCs in Russia setting, I avoid Ivan, Aleksey, Igor, Viktor and so on and actually more inclined to dig up names that are pretty much 'no one name their kids with those anymore' like Dobrynya and Mitrofan just to avoid them.

Also names that Hollywood/entertainment industry come up with a weird impression that unfortunately get plastered to the name. For example, around October 2013 I had this one new OC whose ancestry was north German/Nordic and originally I planned to name him Olaf. Then, you guess it, Frozen hit theaters and the name Olaf is forever ruined for me because of that silly snowman who often tries inevitably to get himself killed for his wackiness.

The name Leo. This comes from a really bad and cringy Hetalia OC, and I hate him way too much to use his name for anything else. It just has bad memories tied to it. 

Also, I can't use any names of my best friends, even thought I like their names. Nehemyah, Isabell, Lillie, Nicole, Amariah, ect.

I usually just use names that sound good together, like my character Oliver Valentine, or words in different languages, like Tavi Estrella, which is Teal in Finnish and star in Spanish. Also, my character Arlo, is a reference to a dating sim ^^ I just really like that name ♥