How do you name your characters?

Just wondering the process some of you use to name your characters. I like to use street names in the town I live in. The other day I was driving down Winchester Ave. and then took a left onto Green St.

I thought...

Winchester Green would make a good curmudgeon. An old man with a pearl handled cane who uses it for more than just balance. He waves it at the noisy kids in the neighborhood like a king waiving his scepter at the serfs. He owns the block, or he would like to think so.

Funny how a drive to the convenience store can open up that can of creativity.

How about you?
Where do you come up with names?
Any symbolism involved, like Double's No-Doz (another thread here)?

Thanks everyone for some great ideas and links.

No one can sue you for using their name, unless you are obviously writing about them.

If they are public figures, however, you can use their name and persona, unless you defame or slander them.

If they are are famous and dead you can get away with just about anything.

You actually proved my point.

In the case you cited, they made a fictitious character based on a real person and defamed him by making him a mobster. Which is what I said you can't do. When I said persona I meant using the actual person in your story, as in the case of a bio pic.

If you write a script about Bill Gates you can do so and use his name, only if you do not defame him. You can't have him kill people for his rise to power or be a pedophile unless you can cite two, published and independant sources that says he is.

If you write a script about Benjamin Franklin or another famous dead person, you can defame him. It is nearly impossible to get sued (even from an estate) for defaming a dead person, unless that person lives in perpetuity through some charitable organization, like the Will Rogers Institute, in which defaming the dead person would also defame the non-profit it represents. There are other legal issues when it comes to malicious and intentional defaming, but I would hope that no one would purposely go out to make a famous historical figure evil, if he/she wasn't.

You're taking some of my words out of context. I followed up that statement with respect of the use of a real person in a script, like a bio pic.

I agree that using a name of a real person just for the sake of getting recognition and capitilizing on that name is wrong. Although I am surprised because the character of Spawn alone is far more recognizable and famous than that hockey player could ever be. (Spawn was the number 1 selling comic for almost 10 years plus an animated series and a live action movie.) The few extra people who may have bought that comic because Twist was in it could hardly be considered a finacial gain for Macfarland. I sure it was more a fan wanting to immortilize his hero, than cashing in on the hockey players name. Which is why I'm sure it's still in appeal. But that is another debate.

I may love Stephen Speilberg and I have used a character (a college proffesor) named Doctor Steve Bergspiel, but I wouldn't make it so obvious that is who I used by making him talk about aliens and sharks and have a physical likeness to Speilberg. There is a fine line between homage and capitilising on a name and we should be aware of it. I thank you for bringing it up.

But that's not the point of my posts. I meant using real people and using their real names in real stories, such as bio pics, like "Ray," (which was made when still alive). You can show all the factual bad things he did (womanizing and drug use), but you can't show him doing bad things he didn't do which would make him look bad (defame), like going on a heroin binge and shooting people with a high powered rifle from a top a building. When it comes to bios, a good rule of thumb is if you can find two published sources for your info from two different writers, then you can use it without fear of retribution, either from the writer or the subject.