I actually go into some of my OC's character name resources on the Wiki, but since it's been down and there's a thread for it I'll list a couple of examples.
Typically my characters are slight twists on common or fantasy names, let's go through some examples.
Fyori Felicee: Fyora (Faerie Queen of Neopets) with an 'i' in place of the 'a', Fyori is also the queen of Spriteopia, but she's far less benevolent than Fyora is. Her last name is a reference to my Aunt Felicity (who's dead now) whom as a youth I used to miss the 't', she didn't like this behavior and corrected it with some stern tactics, but it ended up being a thing I remembered, and I used its phonetic sound to give Fyori her last name.
Esperia: Vesperia but with the V taken off, I hadn't played tales of Vesperia, just heard the name and thought of this, though her name is also inspired by two different Espers I've known, the Final Fantasy 8 Esper, which are like powerful summon creatures, which Esperia could easily fit the description of, but then there's also my friend Will, who some may remember as Esperhunter, he inspired her reckless, foolhardy obligation to follow her impulses, which sometimes gets her in trouble.
Sindyca: Based on the common name Sindica, I named my amazon in Diablo II-- Sindyca, and she did really well, thus I grew a liking for the name.)
Fatty McLarge: Based on my Paladin from WoW, I made him with my bro who was ManlyMcBuff.
Spooky Schema: The Spooky was in reference to his hooded appearance with two blue eyes being all that could be seen of his face, then Schema was both a play on that he's a schemer, and that his face could also be likened to several jack-o-lantern schema. It also was short for Schemata, and his role in the story was to provide schematics for a warship they could use to curb an invasion.
Autumn: Not in a published game yet, Autumn is one of my oldest OC's along with Ace, they are both very young children (barely 9 years old) who with two others are asked to save their world. Autumn's name was based off her palette, which is filled with vibrant oranges, yellows and browns.
Rolly: The first name, Rolly-- is the name of a stuffed toy in my youth who looks vaguely familiar to our Rolly of today, that inspired the green color and other behaviors, it's also an ode to the character of the same name in Disney's 101 Dalmation's series, which I watched a lot of during my teenage years.
Pep: Based off the word 'Peppy', which means to be skittish, excitable, manic-- just like Pep is.
Tristy: Based off of an older OC, Trixie. I've always liked the T' names that have two syllables and end in a vowel. Trixie's name was inspired by the character from Fairly Odd Parents, who is the protagonist's unreachable love interest.
Limbo: Based on the concept of 'between life and death', considering Limbo's role is to help out three living heroes on the mortal plane while being dead himself, the name is fairly literal, he's walking through the limbo all the time.
Nola Worthington: The last name is the same as my friend David's, who is from Britain, additionally, Nola's parent's names are Vaddi (anagram of David) and Kivik (Anagram of Vikki, my friend David's sister). Nola's first name is based on the character 'Narla' from Disney's Lion King, and phonetically is said almost the some way.
Sped: Based on the slang for a hyperactive goofball.
Sven: Based on several calm-natured humans of the same name I've read about.
Svoli Mystralese: I wanted a feminine version of Sven, and this was what worked, to boot, it also sounds like it could be a Russian, which is ideal given that Svoli is natively Russian, and migrated to escape the horrors of The Great War (War of Indifference, 2052-2082) Her last name is an old name of one of my WoW characters, the original inspiration has been lost to time.
Tiramesa Cookiedoe: The original progenitor of the Cookiedoe bloodline, she is Pep's grandmother, and may have been the one Seradath had his fun with, incidentally leading to her and the next of kin being instilled with the devil-gene. Tiramesa is a play on the Japanese word for coffee cake (Tira-Misu). The Cookiedoe name was one she created after she found out about her powers, to protect the others of her family, she cast herself out of the royalty and abandoned her ruling life to find another to share her powers with, so that she could pass on her powers to a new generation. Cookiedoe was created by her, it's an entirely senseless compound of cookie (a nickname she often got by the chefs in the royal kitchen) and doe (for her doe eyes), together it is said like onomatopoeia for Cookiedough, this has no relevance, it just sounds goofy.
Lyza: Her name is pronounced with more of a buzz, but it is based off the Earth name Lisa.
Tac Talismina: Her first name is a good-willed nod to Tak, from Invader ZIM-- whom she has a slightly shared character with, but personality wise, they couldn't be more different. Talismina is simply 'Talisman' with an italicized 'a' to append the feminine feel.
Orsa Overkill: If said with an accent, it's phonetically similar to the phrase "All so overkill!". His mentor who is dead by the present continuum of Menagerie shares in this gag, his name is "Iram Invincible", which is phonetically similar to "I am Invincible!"
Yasondre: Based on the Dragon of Nightmare in Vanilla World of Warcraft; Ysondre, an 'A' was added.
Blu: Based on Blueclover, my mage in WoW.
Galdath: Based on the word Gallant, affixed with 'dath', which isn't really anything.
Seradath: Based on the word Seraphim, interestingly, Seradath is the closest religious approximate to Satan, despite his name more or less meaning 'beautiful, melodious'. However, he's not unrelated to the Dark Seraphim, both Esperia and Anathema look to him as a mentor.
Safael: Originally his name was Safiercat, which is why he has black cat ears. He was renamed based on 'Saf' and the Archangel Tyrael (which is where he got the 'ael'), whom was a lot of his original inspiration.
Bubbles: Name inspired by Cobra "Bubbles" from Lilo and Stitch. Coincidentally, when Lilo is inspecting him, she asks him 'did he ever kill anyone?'. Bubbles also wears black pretty much entirely, which is another graceful nod to his inspiration.
Hoowhey! Alright I think that'll do!
Okay wow, I did way more than I though I would.
basically, all but the last two are extremely important in my universe (that spans across all of my stories in general). the last two are just two names that I think are very cool. those two characters were really neat, and I'd like to use them in a future story.
