Character Name Generator for Windows

Used Character Name Generator for Windows?

Editors’ Review

Download.com staffApril 4, 2012

Have you ever found yourself needing a name for a character in a story, a play, or a novel? Well, writers in the U.S., at least, can now breathe a collective sigh of relief and turn to Character Name Generator, freeware from Bad Wolf Software.

Once installed, the software's interface is quite simple and very easy to understand. To produce a list, you pick a gender, set the desired popularity of the first and last names, choose the age group, and then click on the Generate Names button. The tool will then provides a set of 11 names based on the chosen criteria. Clicking the button again will give the next set and so on. The first and last names are categorized as Popular, Average, and Obscure. There is also a choice for Nationality but the dropdown menu for that category in this current version has only one option, American.

While Character Name Generator may not be for everybody, writers could find it to be a very useful tool. It has one job to do and does it well.

What’s new in version 1.004

Multi name select.

Character Name Generator for Windows

Used Character Name Generator for Windows?

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Full Specifications

GENERAL

Release: January 24, 2012

Latest update: April 4, 2012

Version: 1.004

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Platform: Windows

Operating System

Windows 10
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7

Additional Requirements: None

POPULARITY

Total Downloads: 3,325

Downloads Last Week: 11

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Last Updated

User Reviews

3.5/5

2 User Votes

Cool product
Bill_RandomnumbersJuly 11, 2011
Pros
Great if you're American or writing a novel or story that features Americans.
Cons
Not so great if you're Chinese or hail from the horn of Africa.
Summary
There are a lot of these name generators online, but they all seem to lean in one direction or another: weird elf names, very obscure first names, etc. This software is good in that it gives you ordinary names that people are actually called in real life. Huge number of combinations and a sufficient array of filtering options. Particularly like the Age Group option as it shows young people's popular names of today, as opposed to popular names of the parents generation. Filtering is not sufficient to allow for ethnic names (Jewish, Muslim, Chinese American, etc.) so loses a point for that, but as a previous reviewer said, this might be added later. Bonus points for the simplicity of the UI. I can see myself using this for years.
Hmm..., Interesting
grey-am-gardenJune 28, 2011
Pros
Simple interface. Not so many options that you get bogged down. Does generate different names with the same parameters.
Cons
Only American names are used/generated. Not really enough variation in style of name. (for both these, see enhanced comments below)
Summary
The fact that this only uses American names is amelioraterd somewhat by the possibility that there may be other nationalities' names added in future (since 'American' is contained within a drop-down menu). If there are more names added, it would be nice to have the possibility of partnering an Italian forename with a Chinese surname, etc. Personally, I'd like some method of specifying something 'Fantasy' names, as well as others - though perhaps that's too specific for a general-purpose program like this? And a dictionary option would be nice, to search for names that define characteristics. All-in-all, a nice little utility to play around with.

Developer’s Description

By Bad Wolf Software

Choose from tens of thousands randomly generated names.

Do you have difficulty choosing names for your characters? Do you reach for the phone book or browse baby name websites online? For most writers, choosing a name for their primary character is easy. This person has been in their heads for weeks, months or years. Not so with secondary or minor characters. Character Name Generator makes that process a little bit easier. With tens of thousands of name combinations to choose from, all graded by popularity, age, gender and nationality, you get to choose from a wide selection of names.