Names!

"How do you find names for characters?" is a question that's asked at least once a week on reddit. By now there are sure to be hundreds of threads dedicated to the topic that somehow is too difficult to search. Let's skip past "ask ChatGPT" or other "AI".  Judging by the many software-generated stories posted to YouTube, Maria Chen, Eric Blackwell, and  Maya Okafor, etc. are names to avoid.

Onomastics is a search term that will help you, online or offline, if you are basing your characters' names on human languages.

Over the past six decades, the Society for Creative Anachronism has collectively put thousands of man-hours into researching pre-modern names: heraldry.sca.org/names.html

Some historical patterns, including cross-cultural naming, are common enough that the rulebook for registering names ( heraldry.sca.org/sena.html ) devotes its first three appendixes to the topic.

For other reasons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also put effort into genealogical documentation. FamilySearch
( www.familysearch.org/en/united-states ) can be a useful research tool into names that have actually been used.

If you still can't find names to use, many movies have an extensive list of names in the final credits.

If you're worried about finding a "cool" name, consider this: "Sherlock" wasn't a notable name until Sir Arthur Conan Doyle named his protagonist "Sherlock".
In the 1980s, "Harry" might not have been in the top 100 boys' names in the UK (www.ukbabynames.com/1980s), but by the 1990s it hit #21 (www.ukbabynames.com/1990s) and was top of the pops in the 2010s (www.ukbabynames.com/2010s) Baby name lists can be dodgy sources for origin, meaning, and historical usage, but good enough at contemporary popularity.

Can't find something unique enough?
According to FamilySearch, British parents were just as worried about helping their progeny stand out. You can't blame this on too much pain medication:

NameFryzee Teape

Death Date1590

Father's Name Lawncelott

Father's SexMale

Event TypeBurial

Event Date1590

Event PlaceSt Saviour, Dartmouth, Devon, England

Event Place (Original)Dartmouth, St Saviour, Devon, Dartmouth, St Saviour,Devon,England

Affiliate NameSouth West Heritage Trust