Creating a Persona
With the dominance of the Christian church, many children were named after people in the bible - in Medieval times more so boys than girls.
You will also find that throughout history, children were named after prominent people - the coronation of Elizabeth I gave rise to a positive rash of "Elizabeth" and "Bess" in England.
After the rise of Newspapers, it is easy to find names - after all people were newsworthy and their names were reported in the papers.
Throughout the middle of the 19th century in Europe, America and Australia, there was a tendency to name daughters after flowers (Flora, Rose, Daisy, etc) and also after virtues (Hope, Charity, etc).
For some reason, in late 19th Century and up to WWI, Saxon names became popular in England, America, Australia and New Zealand. So the English-speaking world was suddenly populated with Cedric's, Edwin's, Edith's and Edna's.
Because of the lack of travel, it is exceedingly unlikely that a person would have a given name of one nationality and a surname of another. That is - if your persona was of a time when they had a surname.
Surnames are a relatively recent usage and often a person was known by some descriptive - such as Eric the Red or John of Gaunt. It would be unlikely that you would be Eric McTavish unless you had a 20th century persona.
One of the best sources for names is "The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names" by E. G. Withycombe.
How Old Are You and What Year is it Now?
This is mostly determined by the time period in which your group plays. You should also use common sense - most re-enactors have an age much the same as their own.
Use this to work out the year in which your persona was born - it can be helpful also in choosing your name. For example, if your child was born in the year of Abraham Lincoln's election as US president, and you admired Lincoln, you may call your son "Abraham Lincoln Jones" - but would hardly do so prior to his election unless you knew the man and he was to be of some importance to your child.
Where were you born and what is your Nationality?
This relates to the time and area in which your re-enactment group is involved.
It is quite conceivable that if you are re-enacting early Norman conquest of England that you could have been born in
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