Coming up with a name can be either really easy or very, very hard. As an example, this is how my character name and occupation started:
My name in the "real world" is Robert Isenberg. I have the nickname "Beast" (It was given to me by my mother when I was 8 years old), and when I was about 20, my friends heard that I would answer to it and the started calling me by that name (It has nothing to do with the X-Men's "Beast". I didn't start reading comics until I was 24). For me, I will always answer to Robert or Beast, so I knew I had to have these as names. Now, picking a family name-did I want something funny, outrageous, or normal? I figured since I had a nickname, I might as well go for something normal. So I picked my mother's maiden name, which is Mitchell.
My character's occupation: At the time of me joining Faire, I was working as a truck driver and warehouseman. Neither of these really converted well for me into a position on shipboard (As a navigator or boatswain, my knowledge of these positions was very little, and as for a warehouseman, I did not want to play a stevedore or longshoreman as they tend to be the rivals of sailors). I had just completed building about two dozen worktables, shelves and comic book racks out of wood, so I chose to be the Ship's Carpenter.
This is just one way of fleshing out your character. You could just make everything up, but it is helpful to know something of what your character can do, so do some research, learn a smattering of what you are supposed to be able to do on board, and practice it at faire if possible.