How to come up with good names for characters?

[fablefound]

to be honest, i've found that few character naming journeys are the same. like, looking at my first novel (currently between drafts but very close to my heart)...
most characters follow the whole "cultural" vibe i saw varve mention. characters are named after older relatives, named for names their parents liked, et cetera. one of them is actually named after a character i like in another piece of media, but i think i can get away with it because i could imagine it working in the setting as well.
but there are also characters who choose their own names! like. i have a lot of trans characters so it's fun thinking out why they'd choose their names :]

[Zero Kirby]

I often come up with names for characters around themes or references or other significant things. Example, in my Celectrique story, there's a trio of characters - two detectives named Skyler Miller and Clayton DeStefano, and a crime scene scientist named Brooklynn Ruber. Their last names and their occupations all come from characters from The Lost Room which is a mini-series I really liked, while their first names when shortened make an elemental trio of air (Sky), earth (Clay), and water (Brook).

And sometimes I branch out from there if characters are related to one another - Clay's husband is named Flint, for example, and Sky's sister is named Gail.

[Vidknight]

I have one tried and true method that always works for me and is basically my personal ol' reliable. 

The most common method is to take a core element from the character (Whether it be personality, design trait, powers, ETC) and base a name off that.

You can look up names that means the thing. Example I have a warrior character so I looked up names that mean warrior and I got Ragnarok, some slight changes and I got Ragnor.

You can look up words that relate to the thing. Example character with a giant eye for a head, That's simple her name is now Iris.

If you're clever you can do some sort of word play. Character that is fire related?, what relates to fire?, coal! Cole is similar to coal. That's how I got the name for Cole. Granted if you're good at clever wordplay which I'm not that good at 

If you really want to be unique and make naming a bit more fun you can combine words to make a name. Farlo for example is name that combined two words honestly forgot what they were since it been a bit, but I know it's a combination.

Personally I really like this method as you can have anyway to take it.