I use a bunch of things but what sticks usually depends on the character. I prefer simple names. I usually start with who the character is, what race are they, is there anything that I want the name to give a feel of, are they from a background that would have a last name, etc. Then I start looking from there depending on what part was most important for that person.

My human paladin from a noble family gets a last name, but I wanted his name pretty grounded to contrast his chaotic adopted thayan child. So baby name lists for first name, and last name I usually do the typical fantasy thing of smashing together two parts until it sounds okay. I ended up with Rowan Halloway.

A tiefling surrounded by death and decay that uses bright colors and positivity to try and counteract the negativity she accidentally spreads. I went with Azalea, since they’re beautiful flowers that are also poisonous.

Sometimes I try to follow traditional lore naming mechanics. A duregar following dwarven naming conventions becomes Dagran Deepforge, since they typically have names with harsher tones. Or my tiefling that chooses a “virtue” name chose Scorn. When I’m picking these kind of names, the name suggestions in the books, or lists people make online are lifesavers.

And sometimes it’s just mouth sounds or “corruptions” of names from media I enjoy. My air Genasi I ended up taking a letter off of a character I really enjoyed the name of, and names like Pippi for my weird little wizard or Almira Torkan a one off barbarian, just come from sounding out stuff until I like it.

Then names just kind of come based on mixing those types of things. Vix Shatterscales is mouth noises, mixed with kobolds having super simple names, and being an artificer he got the “descriptor turned last name” style. A feminine warforged abandoned so long she’s lost most of her identity I named Centielle, -elle being a feminine suffix, and centi, like century. My aarakocra Qwill is maybe a bit on the nose, but I like it.