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writers of fiction forms...Huzata character-name generator based on U.S. Census data— enough names to fill a nationAbout HuzatIs your screenplay, novel or stage play bogged down because some new character just walked in — and you don't know his name? Are you tired of digging out that "name the baby" book and your local white pages because somebody needs a better handle than 'SWF29'? That's all over now, because Huzat(SM) gives you access to 487,861,706 first-name-last-name combinations for males and females, all based on data from the 1990 U.S. Census. (That largish number is derived from 1,219 given names for men, 4,275 given names for women and 88,799 surnames.) If you're not satisfied with a simply random combination of given name and surname, you can give the results a slight tilt toward either the more commonplace or the more unusual by using the radio buttons in the second row, just below the two for gender selection. Remember that Huzat, like any other writers' tool, is not intended to dictate or to replace your own ideas. Think of it as a sandbox for playing with names -- a stimulus to creativity, not a replacement for it. The best name you generate on the first few tries may not be perfect, but it can be an unobtrusive placeholder. Use it and keep moving; change it in revision, unless you've come to like it by then. The fact that Huzat uses census data is both its strength and its weakness. We suspect that some respondents were having fun with their census takers. All we can say is that we believe someone, somewhere gave each of these name components, though transciption errors within the Census may have mut(il)ated some.
VariationsAlmost any female first name can have "Mary" tacked on in front. Sprinkle liberally with initials, between first and last name, before or in place of first name. Don't forget that the occasional "Jr." or "IV" can give a name a little something extra — a past. Try changing just one letter in a name. "Hendricks" sounds ordinary, while "Bendricks" might be memorable. (Careful, that one's been used.) Names are not categorized by ethnic origin, so you may get some surprising cross-ethnic combinations. But that's just the growing trend.
Terms of ServiceThe computational functions of this page are provided free of charge and without warranty of any kind. Names produced can be those of real people — living, dead or whatever. Apply the same usability criteria you normally would to fictitious names; when in doubt take guidance from your publisher, producer and/or attorney Back to top | ||
Ideonautics Corporation11748 Route 22, Austerlitz, NY 12017 USA 518 392 3674Page last modified Thursday, May 3, 2007 7:30 am EST Copyright © 2007 by Ideonautics Corporation. All rights reserved. Huzat is a service mark of Ideonautics Corporation. |
