Character Development

This is extremely late, but I never thought to check this thread since I last posted here.

When deciding a name, don’t go with anything cheesy or symbolic. Faith, Hope, Angel, stuff like that. But at the same time, don’t spell something in a radically different way to make the character seem unique. Examples of this might be: Alysin, Jayk, Codee.

Your characters are just people. If this is a world like ours’ you’re writing for, make it something simple: Cameron, Alex, Melissa. Make your names realistic.

Well, it depends really, I think. The setting, the situation, the culture of the story. Pick names that are perhaps common for that time and culture which you characters dwell in. Perhaps the culture has similar names but spell them different, in which case names like Alysin, Jayk, Codee would work just fine.

I think it's wrong to completely rule out uncommon names. Though I agree picking a name like that just because you're trying to make your character unique and interesting isn't the way to go. The name won't make your character interesting or unique, but their personality, their depth, and their story will. I say, don't be afraid to use things that are most often considered cliche. Really, all that matters is how you write it. If you write convincingly, even a cliche and generic idea can have an amazing amount of depth. If you really like the "cliche" name or idea, use it anyway. Just write well and from the heart. That's all that matters ^^

What's great is when symbolic names happen by accident. Like my character Ren Aka Nevisu. He's got white hair and red eyes (as cliche as possible, no? ^_-). I picked up the name "Ren" from Kill Bill, from the character O'ren. Her past inspired the idea of him in the first place, so I used part of her name. Aka, means "red" in japanese, and Nevisu is the anagram of a latin word that means "white". Obviously I got his middle and last name from his character theme colors, but as it turns out Ren in japanese means "lotus". So his name reads as "white, red lotus", interesting since the flower is normally just pink and white. But it fits Ren's colors very well.

EDIT: I don't think it's wrong to use "wapanese" either. Though I would have to discourage using it in the wrong setting as well. But in fantasy almost any names from any language are just fine I think. But again, I would suggest considering the culture from which your characters originate from. If their culture share similarities in language with others, then I say go on ahead.

And just to add a snippet to what's already been said about names:

Wapanese is BAD. You're character is not Japanese (unless they are in fact Japanese). Do not give him a god damned Japanese name! I see you Naruto fanpeople! o think you can hide from me, but I know who you are.