What's in a Name?

So I was gonna totally rant about how underloved pyrokinetics are (as my friend Annika pointed out, they all seem to be evil) but then I had this very nice Twitter conversation with this lady whom I don't know about names. Names are very hard to get down in a character. They've got to be perfect. Names practically define their character and personality! The ambience in the room changes when people look to that character.

I've seen plenty of common names. Just look at the Top 100 Names for Girls (and Boys, for that matter) as seen HERE and HERE. See how Sophia is at the top for girls? Now look at my MC for Death and Other Things I Fail At.

Oh, look at that. It's Sophia.

I swear I didn't mean to do that.

My point is not to go out of your way giving unique names to your characters. I mean, if the time period calls for it I doubt you'd name a 1820's Englishman Jay Javelpin. Well, you could, but it would be odd. My point is to name the character what seems to fit best for them. Sophia, to me, means bubbly and excitable, while at the same time curious and intelligent. The actual meaning of the name is wisdom, although I don't go basing my characters soley on the meaning of their name (like my own name, Jasmine, which means absolutely nothing).

I guess it's partially why naming characters is so hard. Authors are so concerned about not having the same name as everybody else ('cause honestly, who else is going to name their character Percy after Rick Riordan made him famous?) that they go out of their way to think up a name that'll fit. I'm guilty of it, I admit, but naming was always more about the personality of the character than trying to be original. Take the nameless little girl in Way to Kill. Yeah, I still haven't found a name for her yet. She's mute and never talks, she has wicked skills with knives, she's only twelve years old and she's Native American. What I want to call her is Jasmine, but that's my name. So even though Jasmine fits, I have reservations naming her that, because then won't people think I'm conceited to call a character my own name?

(Not that that stopped Jay Clark, but still).

So anyway, I don't know what I'll do. I just wanted to point out that having unique names isn't everything to the plot of the book. Nor is basing your character's personality on the unique names you picked. It's kind of a meet-in-the-middle sort of thing, you know? Names need to fit the personality, the ethnicity, the mood of the novel. Names are important, you know. They're what sets the groundwork for the characters to become famous someday. They become synonyms for great (or terrible) books-- like Percy, Cullen, Jace, Katniss. Those names we'll remember... and not just because they're unique.

Thoughts? What are some names you like to use? What are some names you see often?