So...I think it's a given that most people starting to write SFF for the first time have a bit of what I call "Aeloiua" (or any other word with lots of a's, e's, i's, l's, k's, and y's) syndrome. Where all the names have entirely too many vowels, strange puncutation, l's, and k's, and are attempting to look "elvish".
How did you guys get over it?
Or are you one of the ones that didn't have it to begin with?
I had characters called Kayla/Kayra (twins, of course), Anya, Aquaitine (I find it amusing Jim has characters in Codex Alera named "Aquitaine"...assuming I'm spelling that right...), Lance, etc. when I first started out. I was in middle school, so about 12 at this time.
Eventually I realized all my names sucked, so I turned to baby name books. Which got me really weird looks at the grocery store when I purchased those little baby name books when I was 16. "No, I'm not pregnant!"
Then I got tired of baby name books, because if I wanted the name "Jessica" I could find it by looking at the people I worked with, and turned to mythology.
And after that, I said what the hell, I'm going to make my own. I started this around when I was 20.
So now I take English words, and chop them into syllabls, then re-assemble the syllables into new names. I got Oginokomis, Bregomaw, Oriax, and a whole mess of others this way.
How do you guys pick names for your characters and places?