Names are almost as hard as titles, especially in a novel like mine. I have a file containing over a hundred names of characters and places and gods and whatnot. Gotta keep them all straight.

Names shouldn’t be confusing for the reader. No two names should sound alike.

For a fantasy novel, names shouldn’t be “real” names. On the other hand, making them sound like real names seems to be acceptable. In Game of Thrones, “Jaime Lannister,” with the “Jaime” pronounced like “Jamie,” is apparently OK. The name is familiar without being too familiar. Same for “Hari Seldon” in the Foundation trilogy.

Names should also not be the same as ones that appear in other novels. Jaime and Hari are taken; don’t use them. At one point I had a minor character whose name was the same as some minor character in Game of Thrones; had to change it when that was pointed out to me.

Names should be reasonably pronounceable, unless you’re talking about some weird alien race.

Here’s what’s most difficult (seems to me): ideally, names should be somewhat similar within a culture or language, as a marker of cross-cultural differences. We expect American names to be different from Russian names in a novel; the name Sasha connotes some stuff to the reader, and Scott connotes some other stuff. How about Grevonian and Numean names? (These folks show up in my novel.) To get that right, you need to have a deep sense of their languages and cultures. On the other hand, that may result in names sounding too much alike: Mischa and Masha, maybe.