I think the next step after random name generation is assigning a personality type to each of the generated characters. I’ve found this, which appears to be a good start:
http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
Hopefully I won’t run afoul of any copyright laws using this internally.
Once a personality type is assigned, then different world events can trigger different reactions based on personality type. Also, a character needs to have goals which are consistent with their personality type. Not sure how I’m going to do this yet.