Ah yes, the most essential part of any writer's story, the motherfucking names of people. Since I'm currently writing two other universes (co-writing in one of those two), I have to come up with tons of names. I always avoid names that are hated for cultural reasons (Karen, Hitler, and Chad are the only two I can think of right now), but I also steer clear of stereotypical names (like Lamar for a black guy, Ken for a white guy, Lee for an Asian... you get it). Then, there's a rule, no a commandment, that I have, and since I write multiple things at once, it is an important commandment: "thou shalt not use a name thou hath used in thy other stories." For all you Shakespeare haters out there, this basically means I cannot use names that I've already used before in another story. This applies to literally EVERY name I make, it sometimes gets annoying when I have characters with long names like "Avonnica Marilyn Hayton," "Isaac Orville Bull," or probably the longest I've made, "Cyneare Kysanthrus Niris’raal van Alekroff." Now, like all rules, I make exceptions once in a blue moon for names I like a lot such as "Valentine," "Sirius," "Magnus," "Elyss," or "Greidan," the last of which I used again with a different spelling ("Graydin" instead of "Greidan"). I've had instances where the names of people I make match the names of people I know, but it's usually only first names, so I don't really care. As for family, well, I've used the first name Martin (my dad's name) once, and I didn't mind since it's a common enough name that I've seen and heard before. All in all, just your average naming restrictions.
As a way to end this long soliloquy, I saw something here about the name "Erika" being a Nazi song reference, and I actually have a story for that. One of the characters in my futuristic military sci-fi story is named Ekaterina Arsenevna Kaspaya. Yes, very Russian or Soviet depending on if you still think the Soviet Union exists. Well, since it's the future and cultures change, she goes by the diminutive form of Ekaterina which I found out to be Katyusha which ALSO happens to be the name of a Soviet folk song. Well, if Hitler caused the Holocaust and killed something-something-million people and therefore anything (including songs) related to his regime cannot be mentioned or referenced, then Stalin, a man who killed even MORE people, should receive the same treatment if not more, right? Wrong! In fact, I literally met people on the internet who said, and I fucking quote, "Who's Stalin?" Long story short and personal beliefs and experiences aside, don't be afraid to use names that you think have a negative connotation. Chances are, it's a cool-sounding name that probably has no direct correlation to evil. If we had to pick and choose what names are "evil" and what names are not, everyone would go crazy fact-checking and re-fact-checking the names of their babies, let alone the names of fictional characters. Now, don't interpret this as, "Then I'm gonna name my character Hitler, haha I'm an idiot!" No, use common sense for God's sake. The internet would be a nicer place if even just ten percent of the people used their fucking heads as something other than a decoration.
