When writing stories, do you necessarily have to choose names based on your character’s year or birth (popular names of 1991 for example)? [name_m]Or[/name_m] can you choose unique names for your characters like:
[name_f][/name_f][name_f]Wren[/name_f] (combining names of my two close friends)
[name_f][/name_f][name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] (names of family members)
You can definitely name your characters whatever you’d like!
[name_f][/name_f]I’m not a writer, but as a reader, personally a name that feels “unrealistic” can draw my attention away from what is actually going on in the story. This could be for many reasons, though. To me a character’s name feels realistic if it suits the time period they were born, seems like something their parents would choose, or fits the character very well.
[name_f][/name_f]I struggle with books where a character’s name is too modern for their time period (names that are used now that had no usage when the character would have been alive), or where the name just doesn’t seem to suit the character or the characters upbringing at all.
[name_f][/name_f]You have some lovely name choices already!
I do a mix of that. I chose names accurate for the time and after one of the characters family members.
[name_f][/name_f]so like my character [name_f]Mina[/name_f], she was born on her fathers birthday so her middle name is [name_f]Samantha[/name_f] after him. [name_f]Mina[/name_f] was in the top 1000 names in the year she was born.
I either research names for hours[name_f][/name_f] or just pick whatever I want with no thought behind it 
[name_f][/name_f] but I write fantasy so time accuracy doesn’t really matter. I kinda just go off of vibes? Regardless, you don’t ‘have’ to do anything, and I’d say that for example [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] is so classic that it could fit any era.
Normally my characters don’t have confirmed years but I’d say as long as it isn’t a character named like [name_m]Bartholomew[/name_m] in the year 2340 or smth it feels fine for me personally.