How did you decide on your character or place names?

[chaoticevl]

I've always wondered how game developers come up with the names of their characters and places. Anything I try to write be it just a story or game script get stuck because I can't figure out how I should go about naming them. I've always felt the names should have some meaning behind them in regards to their situation or purpose. So what made you choose the names you went with. Thank you for any answer you may give.

[Twilight]

Just one of many options: For my rpg charas, I'm using a namegenerator. When it spits out a random combination of syllables, that sounds comfortable with what I need, there is just a little bit of editing needed, till it fits.
Click me. I am a link

[Xiagan]

Click me. I am a link

This is one.

[Plaid Phantom]

During NaNoWriMo I found one good way to come up with distinctive names: Spam.  If you notice, many spam emails contain names to try to throw off the blockers.  The ones that add a large amount of nonsense sentences to the end can also have names in there.  Mostly you'll end up with more real-world names, but occasionally you can get a good fantasy name as well.  Some from my spam box:

Rico Compton
Adrian Day
Tasha Harrison

As far as meanings, baby name books are always useful.  You can just browse through them until you find a name that fits your character.  If you have a civilization that has its own language, take some of its words and corrupt them a bit until they act like names, i.e. if "ri" means "light", "Riko" could mean "from the light" or "bringer of the light" and "Rikento" could be "the city of light".  I've not tried that with my own storyworld, but it seems easy enough.

[DragonXVI]

A lot of the times names are pinched from various Mythologies, good ones to look at are Norse, Egyption, Greek and Babylonian.  Final Fantasy in particular pinches names left right and center from 'ere (Freya? Midgar? Ydrassil? Odin? Ragnarok? Valhalla? Valkyrie? etc.), and you'll probably recognise a few other ones too

Naming after plants/flowers is also quite popular in Japanese

Also, don't hesitate to look through both a) The Christian Bible, any version and b) Dante's The Divine Comedy: Both are harvested regularly for quotes, names, plots etc.

[Don Andy]

Actually with the japanese, any German word qualifies as a name xD
Especially if the character is supposed to be somewhat evil or intimidating.

[MedO]

Especially if the character is supposed to be somewhat evil or intimidating.

Not necessarily though - anyone seen the movie "Paprika"? It's the name of one of the main characters.

[Xiagan]

I can't think on a more evil vegetable. Fear the Paprika.

[Mandrake42]

Mmm! Paprika. It is best snorted mixed with coffee grounds before having your morning toast.

[Derek]

Naija is a real name... but I can't remember from what culture at the moment!  Oftentimes, we'd pick a culture and then look up names that represented a certain theme or idea that we wanted to associate with the character.  It's surprising how well that works!

For Eternal Daughter, I just thought up random fantasy names that sounded good to me.

Speaking of Paprika, I really had a crush on her while I watched that movie.  Yeah, I know... she's an anime character.  Still.  She was cute.    *looks around and then runs away crying*

[chaoticevl]

Thanks for the answers, I may have to try the corruption idea as it would be quite useful for demon names.