If you've been following me here or on Twitter for very long, you probably know how much I love names... and on this website that love has manifested itself in the occasional compiling of names lists for writing purposes. "After all," I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where finding character names didn't involve whipping out the bookmarked baby name website every time a new character sprang forth?"

And thus—fueled by my passion for names, and practical writerly puruits, I formed a new excuse to look at that bookmarked baby name website—all so you don't have to. Today's list is male Norwegian names, hailing from that beautiful land of fjords and viking history, but if you're looking for female names, this is the post for you.

However—if the unique Scandinavian flavor of Norwegian names isn't really your thing, (or your characters'), then maybe one of these other lists is. Either way, I hope you found this post helpful for that chronic occurrence of a writer's life: the naming of characters.

• Male and Female English Names
• Male and Female Hebrew Names
• Male and Female Irish Names

A
Aage – ancestor; father
Adolf – noble wolf
Adrian – from Hadria
Åge – ancestor; father
Agnar – awe; terror; edge of a sword; warrior
Aksel – my father is peace
Albert – noble; bright
Albin – white; bright
Aleksander – defending men
Alex – defending men
Alexander – defending men
Alf – elf
Alfred – elf; counsel
Alv – elf
Amund – edge of a sword; awe; terror; protection
Anders – manly; masculine
Andor – eagle; thunder
Andreas – manly; masculine
Anton – ?
Arne – eagle
Arnfinn – eagle; person from Finland
Arnt – eagle power
Aron – ?
Arthur – bear; man; king
Arvid – eagle; tree
Asbjørn – god; bear
Åsmund – god; protection
August – great; venerable
Axel – my father is peace
B
Baard – battle; peace
Bård – battle; peace
Bernhard – bear; brave; hardy
Bernt – bear; brave; hardy
Bertil – bright; famous; ruler
Bjarne – bear
Bjoern – bear
Bjørn – bear
Brynjar – armor; warrior

Being an independent author is a lot of work, as anyone who falls under that category knows. After self-publishing my first eBook back in March of 2015, I discovered that the biggest hurdle is not in fact writing the book. It isn’t editing. It isn’t formatting. It isn’t even writing that super-inconvenient synopsis, the cover, or publishing the darn thing. It’s getting the word out. And this is something that I wish I knew more about when I published Tè Nan Lezar. I was sure that if only a few people stumbled upon my work while perusing Amazon, that they’d read it and love it, and spread the word for me. Well, not only was this thought process naïve, it was arrogant, and I’m glad to say that I’ve changed my tune and reworked my strategy since then.

“How?” you ask. By enlisting the help of five very wonderful—and free—online resources. People aren’t going to know about your work if you don’t tell them it exists. Now, I’m not saying you should scream, “Buy my book!” from the mountaintops—in fact, I’d scream right back, "Don’t!"—but providing a friendly online presence works wonders.
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Now, let’s get down to what these five resources are, shall we?

1.) Weebly
Weebly is at the top of my list for a reason. They host my author website, as you’ve probably noticed, and their drag-and-drop system makes coding unnecessary, which I love. (Although you still have the option to code if you know how.) With lovely, customizable website templates, they were an obvious choice for little ol’ un-HTML-savvy me, and getting an author website was one of the first steps I took towards having an online presence. When people Google someone to find out more about them, they usually look for their website. (At least I know I do.) So it was an obvious choice.

But beyond that, how does having an author website help? If you’re not famous, odds are people aren’t going to be Googling your name all that often. Well, that’s why I blog. Offering meaningful blog posts on writing—after all, an author ought to know something about that—gives people a reason to come to your website. But how will they know about your blog posts if they aren’t Googling you? Well…