First, research and create your meaningful character names.
Then when you’ve grown to know and love them, change them.
To ease reader confusion, I carefully crafted and differentiated my major characters’ names in my first book. Then while working on one of the last drafts, I realized some minor characters would become major ones in the sequel. I had to rewrite many names, minor and major.
[See the above image.]
Then I changed them again after figuring out the plots and characters for books 3 and 4.
Is there an easier way? Of course there is.
Cue music.
SPREADSHEETS and their magic alphabetizing!
Spreadsheets are easy. So why didn’t I use one? Because I prefer the work of a familiar method to the work of a simple learning curve. You might say I suffer entrenchment, or I’m gifted with retrophilia. I say I’m just lazy.
But hey. I did type this post after the nib on my quill kept breaking.