Monday, February 13, 2023

Naming Your Characters


 

 To quote the bard: What’s in a name?

For a writer, just about everything.

Once the germ of an idea has sprouted on a story, I can’t settle to writing it until I have a title. Silly I know, but it’s beyond me. The same with naming my characters. I might have an idea on the characters’ makeup and values and even what they look like but until they are named, it’s an itch that can’t be scratched. Secondary characters are easy, I usually christen them with whatever names pop into my head at the time. But the protagonist. That’s another matter.  The name must reflect the character. Is he tough? Is he charming? Is she tough? Is she charming?

And the last name must be every bit as appealing as the first. 


 

Which leads to the next question. Where do you find your names? I go through lists of names online and also watch the credits during movies. A great thing about list names online is that you can drill down for your particular genre: old-fashioned names, bible names, popular names, rare names, meanings of names, etc.

One of the best names I’ve read in a novel is Cuss Abbott, a Sci-Fi about an interplanetary marshal by Doug Cooper. The name definitely fits the character.

And did you know Ian Fleming, looking for a simple masculine moniker, bequeathed the name of James Bond on his character after taking note of the name of James Bond the ornithologist. (Fleming himself was a birder.)

Some secondary characters are named for folks that have entered a drawing or won a contest.  Some are named for friends or loved ones. Or some that aren’t friends or loved ones😊

Anyway you slice it, names are important. Where do yours come from?

 

Sandra


 

 

13 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

I like to think of names that have special meanings that relate to my characters. I use online resources and a book of magical names to pick mine. And like you, I look around as I go through my day for cool names.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Sandra - I need to read believable names ... but I'm sure as Ian Fleming moots - choosing names for one's characters could be so difficult. I guess too - children? I don't have any - but wonder what mine would be called, if I had had a few ... ??!! And there are some very strange names around - cheers Hilary

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Main character names just seem to come to me. But I don't need names for the secondary characters right away. They tend to come after I've brainstormed some unique but simple alien-sounding names and then I just match them up.

PT Dilloway said...

For a lot of foreign character names I'll use athletes or sometimes use a name generator. Sometimes I'll Keyzer Soze a name by taking two author names and using a first name from one and last name from another and maybe even reverse them or something.

I once did a group of stories where every main character's name started with "E" which is how I came up with Emma Earl. The Earl part actually came from a law office I passed by going to work and I wanted something alliterative since it was a superhero story. You know like Lois Lane or Peter Parker and so on.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Many of mine came from the Bible. Sometimes I'll search for names popular in a particular country.

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

For my characters, I use so many names, I go through the alphabet to think of new ones I haven't used. For book titles, I don't even start a draft until I have a working title that I like.

Cheers.

Kyra Lennon said...

I find names by looking up which names were popular the year the character was born to see if anything jumps out at me, and it usually does. For surnames, I scroll my Facebook feed LOL!

Elizabeth Seckman said...

I have used phone books...remember those?? Baby books. And the social security site for historical names.

diedre Knight said...

I've had character names come from the top of my head and the bottom of my heart, depending on the story. I sometimes use nicknames, especially for secondary characters. I panicked once when I thought I'd never come up with a suitable proper name for a main character who had only been referenced by a nickname. Then I realized it was exactly all he needed ;-)

Helen said...

This would make a good writing prompt for the first Wednesday...
For me, some names came from a place. I want to use 'Erfda' somehow some where. (Sounds like oofda, ya know?) Other names in a 'series' I have going are variations on the first names (earliest) because I think like some families, names get passed down, but not always with the same spelling. And every once in a while, I get a name that I'm not even sure how it would be pronounced. (Scifi you know.)
Romance names...hmmm, something time appropriate, but you can't have multiple Marys in a story, it would be too confusing, although families apparently did use the same name. I have ancestors with Mary X and Mary Y in the same generation with the same parents. They apparently went by the middle name. I think the Mary (also with the men it was Joseph) was a nod toward their religious beliefs/background.
Names for some characters are just 'right' and I'm not sure why it is that way. Others I struggle to find something that fits.
As I said/suggested above...Alex, this would be a good 1st of the month writing prompt. :)

Mirka Breen said...

Names have a power all their own. A writer must use every power-giving aspect when telling a story.

jabblog said...

I have to have a title otherwise I feel as though I'm writing in a vacuum. Sometimes, the title is as far as I get. There ae some very interesting ideas in these comments.

Nat Weaver said...

I like old names a lot, sometimes I look at old tombstones in cemeteries which can be fun because you can even plan a day out to walk among the tombstones. Name websites can be useful when needing to drill down something like where the name came from--say the character is of Irish descent, then finding Irish names would be good. I really like the idea of using movie credits, I never thought of that. I might try that sometime. I also like using music artist names. So, if there's a song I'm listening to a lot for writing, I may use a first or last name from the artist. Or maybe look at ancient history and use names from there, another favorite of mine.