Naming Characters

Just curious about what you guys think about naming characters. Some of my friends who write put a ton of time and energy into researching names and their meanings, and coming up with special spellings and stuff. (like spending days on it obsessing) And then I have other friends who are content with names like Bill, Joe, Suzy, etc. I'm sort of in the middle, and like to give my main characters a memorable but not overly unique name while letting non-essential people have plain or common names. I do research meanings sometimes but usually when I am thinking of a character and how he or she looks, I can come up with the perfect name. And it might not mean anything special at all (like many American and English names which are taken from Latin for random objects or from Scotch-Irish surnames for instance) but it just seems perfect for that character. Its kind of like when you see a stranger and think, "She looks like a Margaret" or "He looks like a Bob". Or maybe I'm the only one who does that haha.

How do you pick the perfect name?

Sometimes when I am stuck for a name I take a first name and a last name from two different people I know and mic them.

I had a good friend who's last name could also be a first name example Paul Steven. So his names are the first names of my two main characters in a published series.

I think Stella Omega first suggested this, but if have a junk or spam folder, a lot of that comes with fake names, and those names can be useful. I kept a file of them for quite some time, and it's a pretty good reference. Like LC says, you can mix and match the names, too.

I tend to go with "normal" names myself, for the most part. Unless I'm maybe doing a fantasy story and want the names to be a little more "other." I do try to avoid names of my immediate family and friends for main characters. For last names I often look up the most common names in an area.

It's helpful when I'm writing and a character's name just kind of pops into my head naturally but it doesn't always work that way.

I google name lists appropriate to the country and time period of the character for the first name and pick one that seems to go with the character. I pull most of the surnames out of thin air.

I try not to have names in stories similar to other names in the story.

It varies by story.

A lot of my stories as RR play on the name of one of the main characters in the title and the narrative. Wish of Jeanie, Paige From Her Diary, Good Will, etc. For those, the name is the most important thing in the story, and has to be there before anything else.

Of course, it's usually the genesis of the whole idea to begin with, so it's not as if I'm researching anything.

My fantasy world stories typically use names I dreamed up for characters long ago. When I need a new name, I use everything from fantasy random name generators to glancing at the large blocks of text on the back of a box or bottle and trying to get words to merge together into something that looks like a name.

My Magic of the Wood series involves the most research. The females of nymph blood all need to have short names, because their real name has the extra syllable of "Xan" attached to it. I have to find something I like that's two syllables at most, and also sounds good with the "Xan". Xantina, Xanbrina, Xanmara, etc.

The males of nymph blood all have names that are somehow nature related. Glen, Wade, Dale, etc.

For the typical, run of the mill story, I just pick up the phone book or go to a baby name site and flip through pages until a name strikes me. On the rare occasions when I want an ethnic name, the baby name sites provide the necessary subdivisions to find that.

Tessa in "Diamond Valentine" got her name because I recently watched the entire Highlander T.V. series. I get a lot of names that way as well.

I would think after a large amount of stories some duplication will be inevitable.

For me it's easiest to pick the name of someone I know that physically resembles the character. I may know the person personally or just of them, as in a famous person with the physical characteristics. Not however the name of the character the story might be based on if a little too much RL creeps in.

I typically try to use first names only and try to steer away from any that might have race/religion/color/creed or other identifiers unless it is central to the story to identify that person AS a specific color/creed/race/religion/etc. On the rare occasion that I feel I absolutely must put in a last name, I try to stick with more common names like "Smith" or "Williams".

However, occasionally, my sense of humor (vile) gets the better of me and I use household objects with the vowels changed for names. (I.e. Anal Category reject, "Wyndie Mochyne"). Or my inner thirteen year old gets involved. (I.e., Interracial, "Kumana Uwannabanga")

Another issue that I've encountered is using names that aren't gender specific. For example, Shelby which is more commonly a girl's name now but used to be a pretty popular guy's name. (I.e, "Shelby reached out and smoothed back a lock of Addison's long hair. She felt powerless to stop the strong emotions welling up within her breast engendered by this powerful man.") Of course, a stronger writer would probably be able to pull this off without confusing themselves like I did. But, I ended up changing Shelby to Jack and Addison to Julie just to help me keep it straight.

Many of my submissions here are adaptations of journal accounts, and I *must* anonymize the characters while keeping the names close enough that I recognize them and can track them through the accounts. So maybe Kelli becomes Kerri, something like that.

Many of my submissions are "period pieces" set in the 1960-1990 era. For those, and for non-USA characters, I indeed consider the time and place. Kids weren't name Chelsea and Tiffany in 1960, not in my neighborhood anyway. Even 'Buffy' was a nickname. (Dot Buffum was a helluva gal.)

I'm now writing a group of stories where the narrator and/or protagonist always has the same name, but he's a different person in each tale. I reuse other names commonly in these tales, again as different characters. The stories themselves are not connected. Why the same names? I'm just lazy.

I've seen stories here where the narrator is similarly constructed: same name, somewhat different person.

I've also seen stories here with absolutely HORRIBLE names. I suspect some are the products of authors whose first language is not Anglish, and who don't fully appreciate our nuances. (Languages are funny. The Mexican BUS STOP sign's text is slang for "eternal erections".)

How to name a character? Do whatever seems right. Then await the feedback.

Acktion said:

I typically try to use first names only and try to steer away from any that might have race/religion/color/creed or other identifiers unless it is central to the story to identify that person AS a specific color/creed/race/religion/etc. On the rare occasion that I feel I absolutely must put in a last name, I try to stick with more common names like "Smith" or "Williams".

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I do exactly the opposite of this. Nearly all of my characters have a first and a last name, and in most cases the name will tip off the character's race or ethnicity. Most of my stories are set in South Florida, and for the most part they are based on the types of people that I see every day. I'm not a big fan of the "blank slate" type of character, where the reader is expected to superimpose their own tastes and preferences onto a template.

I take great care in selecting the names for main characters, and less so for the supporting characters. In most cases I look to names of people I know for someone around the same age and race as the character. I do not use the name of a person on whom a character is based, however. Sometimes a name is chosen for other reasons--primarily alliteration. Hence, Dawn in "Dawn Defiled," and Fallon in "Fallon's Final Fling."

When I'm stuck on a name I will consult baby name lists, sports box scores, or news articles. Sports team rosters are a great place to find 15-100 names all in one place.

I have in mind a project to do a story with all current and classic rock star names, using the first name of current era stars with the last names of classic rockers. The goal is to mix them up enough and use such obscure names that only a genuine fan catches on to the scheme. So far that project has gotten no where, but it's still on the horizon.

I have a rather large group of friends and family, and it can be a chore to come up with any names for a story that aren't first or middle names of the people I know. While basing a story on people I know could be interesting, it would also be really weird.

Besides not trying to name characters after anyone I know, I do not put much effort into choosing names. The story is about what happens, not what the people call each other. As a side effect, many of my stories reuse names even though there isn't a hint of them being a series.

I did a little research (that is, I opened a new tab, went to Wikipedia, and looked up "Muses") for the names of the Sisters of Mercy, just because it was easier than sitting and trying to come up with names myself, and since they were mystical characters, I figured the Muses would be perfect. I wanted our hero to be a tabula rasa, for the reader to project him/herself into, so I left him purposefully nameless.

For Under Duress, I named my main character in tribute to a lesbian friend of mine from college. I imagined her different physically from my friend, though, so I gave her a form of the last name of the actress I would cast as her if it were a movie instead of a story. I wanted her girlfriend to be brighter and sunnier, a dazzling blonde, so I gave her the name of a cheery blonde I used to have a crush on in junior high. I gave her the last name of an actress that could play her role. I needed a name for an arrogant asshole, so I asked my wife. She has a friend who is married to an arrogant asshole named Chad, so that was easy. Awkward geeky brother role goes to Seth Rogen, no brainer. The gay friend is an amalgam of a couple of friends I had in the past, so basically I put Danny's personality in Ben's body, and I came up with Benny. I named his boyfriend after my sister's super-macho baby daddy just because I knew if he knew I named a gay character after him, it would piss him off. Juvenile but satisfying.

I'm currently developing a sci-fi story where the characters fiercely identify themselves with their gypsy heritage, so I had to hit the baby names websites. Not a lot of choices in traditional gypsy names, but I found what I needed.

I know that my readers aren't going to care too much about my character's names and their meanings or origins, but sometimes they mean something to me. Sometimes not. They need to fit, though, to make sense for the character in my mind, or I'll keep forgetting as I write and I'll waste time having to go back and look up what name I settled on. I guess it's kinda like Stan Lee, who said in an interview once that he used to come up with alliterative names (Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Reed Richards, etc.) because they're easier to remember.

Names chosen seemingly at random or as placeholders never feel right to me and sometimes form a psychological hurdle when writing the character, so generally I like for a name to "mean" something.

In my most recent story almost all the characters are named for Catholic saints (it makes sense if you read it), and I tried to pick saint's names that either resonated with or had an ironic reflection on the characters: St. Kenan is noted for building a particular cathedral, so a character who's a contractor is dubbed Kennan. St. Brigid was a nun, so the name forms an ironic counterpoint to the uninhibited behavior of the character named Brigid. St. Agnes was associated with blindness and with curing the blind so we're introduced to her via a blindfold scene, and St. Agnes' symbol is the lamb, and lambs are alluded to several times during her scenes in the story, and so forth.

This is a lot of trouble to go through for what turned out to be one of the least popular stories I've ever written, but it was valuable for me while I was writing it. If I can associate a name with some meaning and context, then I the character with that name feels more tangible to me.

Something I do is collect interesting names that come to my attention. And I collect names of people born during specific eras. My young characters have names like LOGAN, BRANDON, and other names that are popular since 1990.

Stories set in the 1920s have character names like AGNES, ZELDA, MINNIE, MARGIE, GAIL, MYRTLE, EVELYN, FRANCES.

I like Hispanic characters so I use names of people I knew well, GLADYS COLON, MARISOL DIAZ, CLEO FLORES. I stay away from CARMEN and MARIA-JESUS...too popular and common.

I find a lot of times, names will just pop into my head. I'll get an idea about a character with certain traits, and their first name will just be there. I like that, because then the rest of it feels pretty natural.

Other times, like when I've done some contest stories, I will play on names from other stories. King's Bay had elements of The Odyssey, so the main character's name is Dizzy (for Odysseus), the woman's name is Callie (for Calypso), etc. In Lost in the Woods, all the characters had nature-related names -- Willow, Holly, Clay, Goodall, and others. In Unexpected Gifts I played with Christmas-related names, from songs and other sources. It's fun to do that.

Miss America 1926 was Norma Smallwood, great last name for a LW story.

I generally pluck names out of the air for my stories. If I have trouble, I go to a list of names from a newsletter I receive and combine a first and last name, mostly at random. I'm an upper middle class white male, so in all honesty, most names I use will probably reflect my upbringing.

I've yet to write a story that would require a name to have a special meaning or require the use of an ethnic name. Of course, should I ever do that, I'd give a bit more thought to the naming of characters.

As a father of five, I find it interesting that we spend so much effort naming our children. I think in the end, unless you use Frank Zappa's "How To Name Your Child" or raise a boy named Sue, it probably doesn't make a huge difference in the big scheme of things.

For me, names have to match personality, so sometimes I have to try on multiple names until I get the right fit. It's also, in that case, necessary to know the character and have a sense of who and what they are.

Some names get cycled in and out too. I've been trying to find the right story to use "Rebecca" for years and have yet to do so. People keep needing to be named something else. Most recently I started out with a Rebecca because I wanted something with a lot of nicknames; my lead character would be called by different diminutives by other characters, as well as the narration, depending on the context. But it didn't fit. Neither did "Elizabeth". Finally the character and I had a pow-wow, and she chose Danielle. And such she remained for ever after. Aside from the whole nickname-changing thing.

Names are what you make of them. If they're important to you, spend time on them. If they aren't, don't. Symbolism is like frosting, or garnish - it's not required, if the underlying substance is well-made. You're not required to have resonant names if you don't want to.

I think of who my character is first before I give them a name. I look at ethnicity, country and region, era/time period, then look for names not that commonly used to give some flavour to them.

I work up a profile on each of them and then decide what name suits them. I've gone back and changed a character's name because I found a better one that fit them instead. Like a title, it's all a working copy and nothing is set down for sure until the end.

John Sandford was quite amusing with the name Del Capslock in the Prey series. Check your keyboard.

soflabbwlvr said:

When I'm stuck on a name I will consult baby name lists, sports box scores, or news articles. Sports team rosters are a great place to find 15-100 names all in one place.

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I was doing this yesterday, looking at a rugby squad to come up with a good name for the character.

I needed some Scottish names a couple of years ago, and was going to a London Scottish rugby match, so just had a look at the hospitality seat plan and took them from there.

app

I have a horrible time with names. What helped me was a complete accident. I stumbled on an app for writers on the kindle fire that gives names for both genders but also places and amongst other things. Names are not really important to me as a reader but as a writer it's totally different

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

Something I do is collect interesting names that come to my attention. And I collect names of people born during specific eras. My young characters have names like LOGAN, BRANDON, and other names that are popular since 1990.

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Speaking of names by era, this is a nifty site: you can start typing a name and it'll show you how common it was in each decade since the 1880s (in the USA).

http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=&sw=both&exact=false

Quite a few surprises in there, and some reminders that the USA has a different ethnic mix to .au.

Bramblethorn said:

Speaking of names by era, this is a nifty site: you can start typing a name and it'll show you how common it was in each decade since the 1880s (in the USA).

http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=&sw=both&exact=false

Quite a few surprises in there, and some reminders that the USA has a different ethnic mix to .au.

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Yep, that's a good site for American names. For foreign names, I have an old (I mean the early eighties) factbook listing all of the government leaders and country ambassadors of all nations. I often go to that and mix and match given names and surnames. I do have the character in mind and the name has to fit my thought of that character.

I always have an algorithm-based generator handy, for those interesting fantasy names. I'm in the enjoyable position where I can pretty much pick what sounds cool. The names in my "Ghost in the Machine" series were a mixture of inspiration and desperation, though. I wish I had been more careful when naming one of the females "Saphire", but on the other hand Americans are notorious for overdoing things when naming their kids so I think I can get away with it.

. Who in their right mind calls his child "Chastity" anyway Apart from Cher, that is...

There are plenty of "random name" sites online, and even some name generators that are genre-specific for various things. Sometimes a name just pops into your head and seems right, or at least good enough but it sticks. Other times you might have a specific friend that you want to borrow a name from for a specific character.

The biggest pain in the ass is trying to concoct an invented name for a nonhuman character, make it a little bit of a mouthful but still able to roll of the tongue fairly easily, and not sound like it's based in any particular real-life language or cultural mythology. Honestly I have no idea how the writers for shows like Star Trek pull that off week after week.