I very much do this. It's like if Baxter is one name, another name has to be something like Terrance or something on the other end of the alphabet if possible. And I try not to have names that sound similar to each other most of the time. So nothing that stats the same or ends the same.

How I choose the name depends on the novel because the fantasy ones do have different elements than the more real world, romance based stories. Sometimes I pick a particular culture or germination then go from there. It just varies.

Some of the names in the witch/cop story are based from those known for a sort of cult like group following hermetics and the sephiroth. I tried to make the regular detective story a little relatable to fashion with his name.

The romance I'm plotting is tough because it's part of a series so each one has all of these characters and they are found in each other's novels. So, the names can be used but then there are side characters that might be hard if they had the same name but were different people. However, I have known several guys in pharmacy named David so maybe it would be realistic. Just readers don't like the same names and don't want to be confused with names that sound too similar often.