Authors of fiction start their creative process in various ways. Some tout character, some setting, some plot, as the jumping off point for their writing.
In this regard, I suppose that I am of the "eclectic" school, because my creations grow from different starting points at different times.
And inspiration comes from a variety of sources.
I recently came across a website designed to assist in character creation, particularly in the fantasy genre, Seventh Sanctum™. The site has name generators for items from "Beings" and "Characters" to "Anime/Manga." It also generates Equipment, Skills, Technology, and even story ideas.
It's (obviously) formulaic, and has some spelling errors, and I personally wouldn't use it for it's pre-generated character ideas, though perhaps you might wish to see if it would be useful for your purposes.
But that's not to say it isn't useful.
First, it's interesting to analyze the underlying structure. That is, what elements are considered as necessary to define, say, a Ninja?
• Character trait
• Gender
• Height
• Build
• Eye shape
• Eye color
• Hair color
• Hair style
• Outfits
• Preferred fighting technique
• Notable skill
• Magical power
This could form the basis of a brainstorming activity (either one's own or for a class, if one teaches) to build up a catalog of characters (and, of course, you could use the characteristics of vampires, say, instead of ninjas).
Second, the part of the site that I do actually make (tongue-in-cheek) use of is the Magical Invocation Generator.
My sister and I often chat or email on and off through the day, and when it seems appropriate, invocations make their way into our conversation. We prefer the form
By The X of X!
I believe that my sister is generating one at a time and using whatever comes up the first time (thus creating humor by non sequitur), while I generate 15 at a time and keep looking till I find something apropos (thus creating humor by coincidence) or just outrageous.
It works for us, by the adroitness of Leisean!