#WritersCoffeeClub June 11: How arbitrary are the names in your work?
Depends. Sometimes I'll come in with a name and I'll check the meaning to see if it's anything I can work with; much of the time I have a meaning in mind and I'm searching on that for someone's ethnic background. Sometimes I'm looking at a popularity list and trying to suss out what might be popular in a given time frame.
I use [Behind The Name](https://www.behindthename.com/ ) heavily for all this, along with their surname site as linked under the menu.
