I figure I'm not the only one facing this but it sometimes blocks me from writing for days. After decades reading in the thousands of books, stories and other medium from TV show, comics and video games. Each time I start to think of a name for a place, character, country, God, etc, my mind is flooded by hundreds of names from things I read, played or watched. Even when I think I came up with an original name I force myself to Google it to check if it isn't just something I heard but don't remember. I sometimes voluntary use names as Easter eggs but it can slow me in creating new characters. Am I the only one?
I have the opposite problem: Most of the time I can't think of any decent names. And while I do remember names from books I have read, games I have played, etc., they almost never fit the occasion, so I can't use them anyway.
Had it, fixed it by realizing that everything has been written anyways so giving a fuck is futile. Still never use certain names though (Example: Everything that sounds even remotly like Kvothe i wouldn't use, because that guy is way to iconic to butcher his name in my bad fiction).
Names are important for me, but I can usually think of and settle for one with a little contemplation. It takes time, though, for sure, and is a distraction.
Names are key, they have a profound effect on both story and character, but they do not trouble me, I just go to a baby name site, find something I like the sound of, or the meaning, and roll with it...
Have you tried using a random name generator? Just Google one up -- there are plenty of them out there.
I End up finding but it just bothers me when I think I invented an awesome name just to realize that it is just from a book or comic I forgot about ^^ Random name generator, I've tried but there is the question of ending with something fitting the style of the universe you write in.
I hate it when I find a really good or cool name but have no use for it. Such as I found a Japanese name Kaage which means shadow which makes it badass in both Japanese and american. I used it for a one time Ronin character who betrays the villain since he was promised an honorable fight worthy of his skill but the villian fails to deliver so he turns on the people who hired him to get what he was promised. I never figured out how to bring him back into the story.
I get the same problem, more or less. As a writer anyway, I have about twenty books I've got tonnes of characters for. Thus, whenever I give up on a project and start anew, every time I think of a good character name, I've either used it, or it's - as you say - an unoriginal and perhaps famous name. Another problem I've got with names is the Shit Name Collective, as I've been calling it. Names like "Billy", "Jimmy", "Bob" etc. The sort of names no one in real life has because they're just so goddamn dull and overused.
I once used a famous person's name as a nod to a favorite (and short lived) TV show since both my story and the show were aboard a star ship. Mad props to those that noticed it.
I use google translate too for foreign names. It just reads weird when it's a made up name in a language you're familiar with.
