Using AI as a name generator

[xahodo]

What do people think of using AI as a name generator for characters, locations, and such?

Regarding my fantasy stories themselves I am quite creative, but regarding dreaming up relevant names it's quite easy for me to mess up.

Is it bad thing to use AI at all (even as a name generator), or can it be used as a source of inspiration or even as a blind name generator?

I am unsure what to think of this. On the one hand AI can help, on the other hand I have my reservations.

What do you think?

I apologize if this is too off-topic for this discussion platform.

[MaxisoDenoth]

Tbh, with names, I don't really think it's that bad, but it's kinda like letting someone else name your thing. If you're fine with it, then use it. If you're not fine with it, then don't.

I myself don't use it, nor do I care much for it. I used to use it when I first started, then I realized that a name could be whatever I wanted and started naming stuff wilalem, kilajem, or really just anything that came to mind.

Good luck with your writing, hope this helped.

[vkbo]

Yeah, that's pretty much my approach too. I've never used AI to generate a character name, but I've used name generators from time to time. It's essentially the same thing in this context. I'm used to name generators from RPG gaming.

The only time I've actually done this is for one of my stories where I needed to generate crew names for two spaceship crews. Generally, I come up with names myself. In my current project I have a theme that strongly influences the type of names. I also take inspirations from other media when creating characters and make notes about potentially interesting characters even if I have nowhere in particular to use them.