So you're writing a novel, and need some names...

and your novel is set in a realistic time, so you don't want the readers to be thrown out of the narrative by a name that completely jars with the time period. (Because, to be honest, there were not a lot of "Jaiden Waitara"'s in 17th Century London)

There are innumerable resources around the place to give you an idea on names. As I'm currently working on early 19th Century Cheshire, ( here's how I did it )

Of course, if you get to publishing stage, a good editor will have a fact-checker (or be one themselves) to make sure that the fictional Earl is not named after one of the actual Earls of history. But it always helps to check first, too.