Naming a television character can be a lot like naming a child.
Sometimes, says “Modern Family” creator Steve Levitan, character names are even inspired by your children.
On the ABC comedy, “Haley [Phil & Claire’s daughter] is my daughter,” he tells The Post. “Alex is my other daughter [Alexandra].”
Levitan says he stopped short of naming 13-year-old Luke (played by Nolan Gould) after his son Griffin because “I thought Luke was going to be dumber than he turned out to be, and I didn’t want to put that on my son.
“Griffin’s best friend was named Luke,” Levitan says. “So we named the character after him instead.”
The real Luke hasn’t complained yet.
Burt Chance (Garret Dillahunt) on “Raising Hope” is named after Burt Reynolds — “the greatest American actor to ever appear on film,” creator Greg Garcia says.
Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) on “Big Bang Theory” were named in honor of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” producer Sheldon Leonard.
And Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) on “How I Met Your Mother” got her name from astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Others, like Brad Williams (Daymond Wayans Jr.) and Max (Adam Pally) on “Happy Endings” are named after long-time friends of the show creators.
“[The real] Max is my friend since preschool,” creator David Caspe says. “He has a very similar personality to Max the character — but he is not gay.”
Character names, no matter how clever, have to be cleared by network execs before making it to air.
“The rule of thumb — especially if you identify the area where they are from — is that it has to be a name that nobody has or that everybody has,” says Jonathan Groff, executive producer of ”Happy Endings.”
“I obsess about character names,” says “Big Bang” co-creator Bill Prady.
“When I name characters, I spend hours and hours. I have the same fascination with things like names and name origins that Sheldon [the obsessive lead character in “Big Bang”] does.”
Here are some of the other stores behind the names:
* TRACY JORDAN (“30 Rock”): “Tracy Morgan claims to this day that his original name was something like ‘Bo-Bo,’” producer Robert Carlock says. “He said to Tina: ‘When people see me in the airport, I can’t have them saying ‘Hey Bo-Bo!’’ So she said, ‘How about ‘Hey Tracy?’
“It was really just to avoid him getting called Bo-Bo in public.”
* LIZ LEMON (“30 Rock”): “In this world where a lot of people get called by their last names, you just want a fun last name,” Carlock says. “And Tina [real name: Elizabeth] liked Lemon because it sounds fun, but it also connotes a certain sourness.
“She figured that was sort of perfect for the character. It encapsulates her character and the character’s character. Bright and sour.”
* PENNY (“Big Bang Theory”): “Sheldon and Leonard first met her on the street,” Prady says. “She was the ‘lucky penny’ that you pick up.”
In the original pilot — which featured a different actress — the name was changed to Katie because there was another show on CBS with a character named Penny.
It was later changed back.
* TED MOSBY (“How I Met Your Mother”): “When Carter Bays and I lived in New York, our band, The Solids made a little album,” co-creator Craig Thomas says. “There was a bar called Fez on the Upper West Side. Whenever we’d come in, the DJ there, Josh Mosby. switched to a song from our album. This was as close as we’ve ever come to rock stardom, so we felt the need to honor Josh Mosby.”
* BARNEY STINSON & ROBIN SCHERBATSKY (“How I Met Your Mother”): “The last name “Scherbatsky” is from a character in the novel Anna Karenina,” Thomas says. “The last name Stinson is a tribute to the band the Replacements (Carter and I are both big fans). Their bass player is Tommy Stinson.”