Defining a character by name

[SweetWitch]

My job might suck and I spend my days chained in a tiny stall at a cube farm, but there are some advantages. I talk to a great many people every day, from just about every culture you can imagine--even many outside the US. From these people I get a lot of unusual names. I started writing down the better ones last week, and I've decided to share.

Sometimes it can be hard to find just the right name for a given character. The name is incredibly important. It can be the first thing that establishes the type of person your character is. From old-fashioned to new-age, the name is that all-important first impression. It can tell about the person's cultural background, his/her personality traits, even whether she/he is a good guy or bad guy. The name tells a piece of the story all by itself.

Many people choose the names of their children from family names, or from the meanings behind the names. For instance, the name Mary is said to mean Beloved, while George means Farmer. Whatever the reasoning behind it, the choice of a name is equally important for our fictional characters.

I will continue to add to the list as I have them. Feel free to add a few of your own.


Male
Benedict
Caled
Lanyen
Paxton
Ralen
Rocio
Vernell

Female
Adelicia
Akili
Aliaskar
Arcelia
Catalina
Chiara
Elsbieta
Endale
Gianna
Indelisa
Jada
Lafrance
Lucia
Paige
Raelene
Silene
Venette
Vesna

Last Names
Longwell
Mekonen
Tarantul

 

[Emperor_Nero]

Interesting .... very interesting

 

[sr71plt]

I knew a woman named Linda Lay once. It was a good name for her.

 

[SweetWitch]

I knew a woman named Linda Lay once. It was a good name for her.

I'm not even touching that.

 

[TE999]

I once read a story where the villain was a redneck thug named Bucky Daggett...IMO that was spot on. A name can place a characters birth in a time period...Emma, Heather, Lucinda, Kimberly, Donna, Alice, Joanie...or...Rod, Sydney, Norville, Allan, Richard, Leaf (or Lief), John, Benson...and define them as well.

Cool thread, Molly.

 

[sr71plt]

I do make some effort to match the "feel" of a name with the personality of my character.

 

[Jack_Samuel]

Couldn't agree more.

Each name contains an entire story, background and life

 

[Darkniciad]

There was actually an older woman who lived a couple of blocks away from us ( complete with enormous collection of cats ) with a name that prompted lots of prank calls.

Fonda Cox.

Excuse me, is your wife Fonda Cox?
Yes.
You lucky bastard!
Damn you kids!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I went to school with a girl named FONDA PETERS.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The best name site I ever found is here. It's actually a site for naming your dog, but the author has compiled thousands of names by ethnic and character type, from medieval German names to contemporary Mafia names to you name it.

Scroll down a page or two to where the list really starts. The lists make fascinating reading on their own. The list of mafia names, for example, contains these random examples:

Jimmy "The Chop" "Marini
Johnny "Crap Foot"Gambini
Sidney "Poitier" Gambini
Ants 'Ice Man' Zamboni
Marco "Gifilta Fish" Munchinni
Vincent "Pretty In Pink" Vega
Joey "Kneecap" Santorielli
Roberto "Wrinkle Free" Capelli
Anthony "Chicken Fucker" Bastoni
Mike "No Jokes" Hunt
Henry "The Singer" Morosso
Johnny "Bingo" Bosco

 

[SweetWitch]

The best name site I ever found is here. It's actually a site for naming your dog, but the author has compiled thousands of names by ethnic and character type, from medieval German names to contemporary Mafia names to you name it.

Scroll down a page or two to where the list really starts.

Interesting site. I book-marked it. Thanks.

There was actually an older woman who lived a couple of blocks away from us ( complete with enormous collection of cats ) with a name that prompted lots of prank calls.

Fonda Cox.

Excuse me, is your wife Fonda Cox?
Yes.
You lucky bastard!
Damn you kids!

That's even better than the teacher at one of the schools back home: Ida Tittsworth.

 

[tickledkitty]

I have lists of names, as well. Especially last names. Sometimes the characters sort of name themselves, if I'm lucky.

If I'm having trouble naming a character or if I've named them but it doesn't feel right, I usually figure out how old they are and then consult one of those popular baby names sites. So, if the character is 34, I'll check popular names for 1974 or thereabouts.

 

[driphoney]

Went to school with a guy, honest-to-God: Rusty Lipps.

No, don't think the poor dude ever got a date.

What parents do that?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Went to school with a guy, honest-to-God: Rusty Lipps.

No, don't think the poor dude ever got a date.

What parents do that?

One's whose sense of humor was surgically removed at birth.

 

[TE999]

In the movie 'Porky's', the young dudes put the name Mike Hunt on a doctors patient roster, then snort and giggle when the receptionist calls the name "Mike Hunt? Mike Hunt? Has anyone seen Mike Hunt?"

 

[CWatson]

The story I'm writing right now was a first for me: the character named herself. I started out with "Rebecca" and stopped for five minutes to contemplate "Elizabeth" (because both have a proliferation of nicknames, which will help with characterization)... But then I got back to the story, and she kept calling herself "Danielle". And it stuck.

(My friend said, "Be careful, Danielles can be bitches," and I said, "Well then it's perfect for her!")

I've always found naming to be either really difficult or really easy. Sometimes the character comes with a name already attached to them, and off I go. But sometimes they don't, or I don't want to use the name they came with, and at that point I'll often be stuck for hours or days, sitting there thinking and bugging everyone I know until I come up with a new one.

Even worse is naming guys. Women get to have cool, interesting names; but every interesting male name has become feminized by reasons of 1) women are using it now (Evelyn, Ashley, Robin, Leigh, Quinn, Hunter), or 2) its victim would get stuffed into six lockers the instant they set foot on a high school campus, even if they were The Rock, because the name is so--forgive me, but this is the appropriate adjective--fruity. Tristan is the best example of such a name I can think of right now (which is what I wanted to name Liz/Becky/Danielle's boyfriend), but there are definitely others: Aidan, Davan, Roland, and just about anything brightlyiburn ever used for her male characters (love ya, Eon!). As a result, just about the only names you can use for guys anymore are the no-nonsense, strapping, boring, monosyllabic ones: Frank, Chris, Nick, Hugh, Bob, Jim, Pete, Gus, Tom, Mike... How do you characterize such characters, I ask you?--with such boring, non-evocative names? On sheer aesthetic appeal, there's no way "Bob" will ever evoke the same mental images as "Tristan".

But we battle on.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

There was an article a few days ago on the BBC News magazine site called "Most Unfortunate Names Revealed" listing amoungst others:

Tim Burr
Jo King
Jenny Taylor (pronounce the 'r' as 'ah' as they do in parts of the UK and you'll get it)

Here's the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7909561.stm

C (I'm-not-a-girl-honestly-despite-my-triangular-tits) Watson has a point about bloke's names being difficult to get adventurous with, without sounding a bit dodgy.

 

[sadangel]

I'm working on a story that will include elves. I found a site, which I will try to find the site again and post it. It allowed me to find some good Elven names. It helped me to name my characters. Now to find the site again!!

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Names are huge. HUGE. Usually, I think of a name for my main character the very instant a plot occurs to me. I have a tattered baby name book I've been using for ages for lesser characters. If I come across an interesting name, I write it in the back of the book.

I cannot use a name that's too boring or complicated or too trendy. No offense to anyone who happens to have a common or trendy name, but if I start reading a story and the main character's name is "Ashley" or "Amber" I am clicking the "back button". C'mon, you can do better!

I think sometimes authors date themselves by naming an eighteen year old girl of today something like "Brenda" or "Tammy". Either that or they give them the extreme stripper name like "Tiffany Lynn". This is fine if you're writing about extreme strippers and want to illustrate the point. Naming is an art, IMO.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm in favor of having my characters define their names.

No mommy thinks her baby girl will grow up to be a bulldyke in black leather, for instance. So Gloria is stuck with Gloria. Hopefully, once you're halfway into the story, "Gloria" means "bulldyke in black leather" to you. Of her co-characters, many of them are obviously self-named; Griffin, The Baroness (whose given name is Patricia, and goes by Trish), Sheba. Jessamine, Gloria's sub, comes from a mddleclass family with literary aspirations...

On the other hand, I have a long list of wonderful names off of spam emails-- mispelled, or ironic, or allegorical or poetic. All of them are screaming to be attached to tall-tale characters!

 

[Scotsman69]

Funny, I seldom even think seriously about names. We have what we were given by our parents. For me it's the characters who make the story live. Creating them, making them live for my readers, is the important bit. But being Scots, I do have a penchant for Scots names, and my three kids and I are all thus named.

 

[KarennaC]

I'm horrible at naming characters. I have a list posted on the wall beside my computer so if I get totally stuck, I can find something. It's rare for a character to come to me with name attached, unfortunately.

I work in an elementary school, and I've heard a few unique names there (there are more than I'm listing here, but my brain is fried and I can't think of them right off the top of my head, unfortunately):
Girls: Dominay, Kansas, Jorie

Boys: Rylan, Torin

 

[sr71plt]

Has the time-honored method for generating character names been mentioned? Random pointing to first names in the telephone book and then to a last name from a different page/column that fits. That's frequently what I do.

 

[driphoney]

Funny, I seldom even think seriously about names. We have what we were given by our parents. For me it's the characters who make the story live. Creating them, making them live for my readers, is the important bit. But being Scots, I do have a penchant for Scots names, and my three kids and I are all thus named.

Okay, Angus, so how are Campbell, Douglas and Stewart?

Love Scot names, BTW.

(was told by one editor -- who still hasn't gotten back to me in 4 months -- that my white girl's name sounded too 'black'. He might have been right, but .... gag!)

 

[Darkniciad]

Has the time-honored method for generating character names been mentioned? Random pointing to first names in the telephone book and then to a last name from a different page/column that fits. That's frequently what I do.

*Laugh* Yep, I've done that many a time.

A lot of my fantasy character names get generated by picking up random products and picking words off of them. food additives, foreign language instructions on electronics, etc. Mix and match a little, and you have your oddly named character.