Nope, not stupid at all, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?
First, before you can do what Vaporeon is suggesting, you need to make a "mii". Essentially that's a character representation of yourself (essentially an avatar of yourself that you use to represent you online) that you make using the Mii Maker software on your Home screen that comes up when you turn your 3DS on. I made a representation (a poor one in any case) without using a picture of myself, but the software can do a reasonably close figure on it's own - or so I've been told. Then once you do that, ..... again, on your home screen at the top, there's a smiley face which when opened up shows you what your friend code is. The code is linked to your 3DS .... NOT WHATEVER GAME YOU HAPPEN TO BE PLAYING IN YOUR GAME SLOT. You can choose to allow other people see what game you are playing, your favorite game, and when you were last online. It's entirely up to you what you choose to allow others to see, but ...... parental note coming next: ...... it might be worthwhile to note that younger players should not give out too much info. Once you have your friend code, you can certainly give your code to others - even if they aren't your friends, just like here on this thread. Just be aware that your info is now public - if you decide to make it so.
One thing to note, that if you do happen to give out your friend code here, everyone benefits from being able to go on "your" friend safari (even though you personally can't go to your own), and you get the added benefit of being able to trade with more players in the community, and the ability of both using and receiving "O-Powers" as well. It definitely is a win-win situation in that respect.
How to register codes? That's easy. Once you've finished getting your own code, just re-open the smiley face and notice at the top of the touch screen where it says "Register Friend." Click on that, put in the 12 digit friend codes of any people that you want, then add their names. As is noted earlier in this thread, you can input quite a few codes before your 3DS is full, so register away! Once you've done that, it might be wise to let the other person know that you've friended them in your game, so they can register your FC. That's all you need to do. Every once in a while you can open the friend code app and see who's online, or you can see them as a lighter colored person in your Player Search System (the screen that normally is up on the touch screen when you're not in a battle). If both you and your friend happen to be registered, you should be able to see them up in the "Friends" section, instead of the "Acquaintances" or "Passersby" sections. Most times after that, you can interact with your friends by clicking on their lighted avatar, unless they are busy either trading or in a battle (which happens a lot, so don't be discouraged if you don't get to trade with them the first time you see their avatar lighted). Don't worry, over time it will be second nature.
Good luck, and I hope to see a lot more of your friend codes here on this thread.
Edit: One thing I neglected to mention is that if you don't know the exact name of the person you plan to "friend" you don't need to worry. You can input what you think their name might be, or (if you like), whatever you decide to call someone - for example Benzo's name on his game is also Benzo. My personal name is Garret, but my game name is P_A. When your 2 codes are linked as friends, your 3DS system will let you know what the other person is registered as, and from that point on you'll know that person as the registered name. No sweat.