Picking The Perfect Character Name

When it comes to crafting your story, one important aspect is picking the right name for you character. There are many things to consider such as the meaning of the name, the time period and the setting.
For example, you are unlikely to find a Lola in medieval times or have a character called Nigel who was born in 2015. Nigel is in fact a name in danger of going extinct. 
Of course there has been a huge revival in recent years of older names being used for babies - Alfie, Archie, and Doris for example. These are all easy to check in the lists of most popular baby names by year.

If you write fantasy books, you may want to choose unusual names for your characters or names that represent what they are. For example naming a werewolf Nuntis. Of course there are no hard and fast rules. You can just as easily call your werewolf Bob.
Picking names can be a fun thing to do, but remember that not every name needs to be unique. Having a John or a Sarah is perfectly fine for a side character or person who only pops up once in the story. It makes more sense to have a mix of names, unless your story is set in an entirely different world. 

Baby name sites are a great place to look and there are lists on places like Pinterest. 
You also want to be aware of the names you choose to be sure they do not all sound the same and end up causing confusion for the reader. Jimmy and Johnny are very similar. As are Jan and Dan. So unless it is important to the story to have similar sounding names, avoid them. If you have siblings and opt for names that start with the same letter, make sure they are distinct - Prue, Piper and Phoebe come to mind.
​
Names are important, but don't agonize of picking them. I do see people panicking because they can't find the perfect name. Choose a filler name for now and come back to it later. Never let anything stop you from writing that story.

Happy writing!