character names

[indigo sky]

so how do you all come up with yours?

I use this site...when I'm stuck: www.behindthename.com

but i wanted to know how everyone else is inspired to name their characters.
do the names have significance?
do you just pick what sounds good?
do you use names to define your characters, and if so how...or is it just random?

 

[SexyChele]

I think names do have significance in a story, but I select a name by how it sounds and if that sound fits the personality. For example, in one of my stories I write about a woman who is manipulative and bitchy. I selected Allison (please, no offense to anyone who might have this name!), because it sounds like a woman who would be cool and calculating. In the only NonConsent story I did, I never gave a name to the male character. It was a way of distancing him from the female character.

I guess you could say that a name establishes a certain tone for me that gives me a clue as to the character's personality.

 

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

I use whatever names comes to me as I write. I've researched name meaning for only one story that I still haven't finished. Picking a name is the hardest part of the story for me.



My Stories

 

[Pookie]

I go by the sound of the name and the image it brings to me when I hear it. However, I think this is individualized based on each author's experiences. I have never researched a name as I just don't see the point. Most readers are not going to know the meaning behind a name other than the natural impression they get from it when they hear it.

There are just some names I won't give to my characters even though the meaning behind the name may be perfect.

Pookie

 

[LGL]

most of my characters are base on real life people i may have met for five seconds or known all my life (of course they have no idea) so I try to stick with their real names. If I do need to come up with my a new name I always try and use a newspaper or someother type of referance materian and just use the commen names I see. Characters names are very important and should never be over looked.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I usually read whole lists of names in my head until I find one that seems to fit the character I write about. The difficult part is that I don't want to use the same name twice, and I don't want to use a name that someone I know has. It's too confusing to think of two different individuals like that. One pornographic "Anne" and one my-best-friend "Anne".

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I go by the sound of the name and the image it brings to me when I hear it. However, I think this is individualized based on each author's experiences. I have never researched a name as I just don't see the point. Most readers are not going to know the meaning behind a name other than the natural impression they get from it when they hear it.

There are just some names I won't give to my characters even though the meaning behind the name may be perfect.

Pookie

this is mostly how I do it, though a lot of times, how I think the names reflect my characters are affected by my real-life experience with people of that name. I also agree with LGL, in that many of my characters are fantasy personas i create based on a two-second impression someone leaves (almost always a poorly made one in terms of what the person is really like).

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Quiet_Cool, your new AV looks like Severus Snape! Mmmmmmm...

 

[pop_54]

Hi

I just pick them from people I know and try to make sure they suit the character, if I know a guy called George who is a bit on the plump side, that'll do for me as a character name for a plump guy.

women's names are mainly just invented, I aint a woman and I've known many women with names that don't fit their character or lifstyle in real life so it's a bit confusing to catalogue gilrls by name.

In my true tales I use real names but mix them about, swap them and the like so the description doesn't fit the name if one of them should ever read the tale.

If I seem to be getting stuck for names I just pick one out of the air and forget about fitting the character.

pops............

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Indigo Sky,

I collect names and keep them on a file in my word processor. There are a few generally accepted guidelines about names, such as don't have the first and last names contain the same number of syllables and don't give two characters names that sound similar, but most writers seem to use their instincts to pick names.

My favorite name story is the one about how, at the very last minute prior to publication, editors finally convinced Margaret Mitchell to change the first name of her female protag in "Gone With the Wind" from "Pansy" to "Scarlett."

Thanks for the link. It's an interesting site and I bookmarked it.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Quiet_Cool, your new AV looks like Severus Snape! Mmmmmmm...

Severus Snape...?
*shrugs*
That a guy's name?

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Severus Snape...?
*shrugs*
That a guy's name?

Aaaaaaaah!!!

SEVERUS SNAPE??? The evil Potions teacher in the books about Harry Potter???

You GOTTA know him!

 

[karmadog]

I look through the phone book from where the character is supposed to be from. First names are much easier, but the last name can be more difficult especially if you don't know the ethnic makeup of your setting in context.

For instance, if you wanted to a character whose family had settled in Detroit three hundred years ago, you'd better give him a French last name. Obviously, most American cities are a nice hash of ethnicities, but many cities (especially in the 19th c.) tended to be populated by people from the same region.

In todays transient society, things are much more mixed, and these things only matter depending on the history of your character.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Aaaaaaaah!!!

SEVERUS SNAPE??? The evil Potions teacher in the books about Harry Potter???

You GOTTA know him!

Ahhh...not a big Harry Potter Fan, but you're talking about Alan Rickman, yes?

Actually, it's Brandon Lee, from The Crow. i getting more and more surprised that people don't recognize him...

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Ahhh...not a big Harry Potter Fan, but you're talking about Alan Rickman, yes?

Actually, it's Brandon Lee, from The Crow. i getting more and more surprised that people don't recognize him...

Alan Rickman played Snape, yes...

 

[MathGirl]

Character names

Sometimes it's fun to let the story dictate the character names. In one of my manic stories, I had the following:

Rosemary Palm - bordello proprietor
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Maddux - 6'2", 120 lb whore from Alabama
Phoebe Ann "Moose" Arbuckle - brawny prostitute
Dr Adolph Hitler - alcoholic podiatrist
Herman "Little Big Man" Polecat - Navajo midget, porno actor
Hector "Senor Salami" Rogriguez - Mexican porno actor
Florence "Kikey Flo" Fishbein - prostitute, Orthodox Jew
Signore Pecchino "Peaches the Wop" Baccala - porn film producer
Rasheed "Mule" Hawes - bordello bouncer, handyman, janitor
Frieda - the whorehouse cat, calico

Some of these are probably not suitable for mainstream literature, but I'm not either.

 

[wildsweetone]

hmm the oddball returns...


I don't consciously choose my characters names.

It's a thought. I may try telling them who they are one day.

 

[Guest]

LOL......don't laugh.

I tend to use a couple simply because I like them. But one in particular..."David" which I tend to use probably more than I should, has a reason behind it.

Some (many) years ago, the company I worked for moved their office to a new location. There was a small little coffee/bookstore right across the street. I loved going there first thing in the morning for a cup of Java, read the paper...relax before heading across the street to work. One morning this VERY attractive woman come's up to me.

"David!" She says all beautiful and smiling. "How longs it been anyway?" Before I can really say anything, she sits down across from me. Seriously....I can't take my eyes off her. She's drop dead gorgeous. Anyway, I'm a bit of a nut sometimes, so I simply smile, asking her how she's been..what's she been doing, glancing at her ring finger, noticing she isn't wearing one. (Oh BTW...I'm between marriages myself at the time).

On and on she goes telling me all about what she's been up to...yada yada yada. A short time later, she leaves, I've gotten my kick for the day, something to share with the guys around the water cooler. Have a good laugh..***** is good.

Next thing I know, two days later, I'm there...she's there...more of the same etc. And yeah...you guessed it. We went out to dinner a few days after that. Before we did though...I finally confessed, I wasn't "that" David. Had to show her my driver's license to prove it.

We actually dated for a while...so it was a fun experience, and one of the reason's I'm particularly fond of the name David for some of my character's. I envision that daring, risk-taking guy whenever I write, using that particular name.

I remain,

 

[christo]

I

I tend to use plain, generic names. I've had lead characters named Dan, Andy, Nick, Mike. The women have had names like Jackie, Cindy, Amy, Lynn. Nothing too unusual, nothing too distinctive.

I don't think that's a bad thing. If you give a character a name like Penelope Thistlebottom you've pretty much pigeonholed that character just by her name. That can be helpful if you really want to define that character as sharply as possiible, but if you want some latitude in that character's behavior it's going to be harder for the writer to pull it off.

Two of my favorite writers use very different methods to name their characters. P.G. Wodehouse uses names that (you hope) could only come from the pen of a master farcier. Bertie Wooster, Catsmeat Purbright, Gussie Fink-Nottle. When I tell you that Gussie is a fish-faced, four-eyed, orange-juice drinking newt fancier, well, that's really ALL he could be. He's not going to be a trained assassin. His name disqualifies him from the job.

Elmore Leonard somehow picks ordinary names that suit his characters so perfectly that you forget that they are ordinary. Jack Foley. Karen Sisko. Ben Tyler. Dennis Lenahan. Robert Taylor. I don't know Leonard does it, but he's the guy I try to emulate when I name my characters. Find the common name that somehow uniquely fits this one person. It's tough.

 

[MathGirl]

OBall

hmm the oddball returns...
.

Dear WSO,
If that was moi to whom you were referring, thank you.
Diane the OB

 

[jfinn]

I prefer common names myself, but I am careful to make sure that they fit the age of their characters. When I was growing up, every other girl was Susan, Debbie or Laura and I'd use those names if I had a female character who was born in the fifties or early sixties. But if I'm talking about someone born in 1980 I'd be more likely to use Brittany, Ashley and Nicole.

Men's names don't change so much with fashion, but still you don't see a whole lot of Hermans or Ralphs anymore, while I do know quite a few boys under the age of 25 who sport names like Travis and Eric. Personally though for my male characters I prefer the perenial favorites like Michael, John etc.

Surnames are really easier than first names. I just use the ones I'm most familiar with for the ethnicity I'm looking for. I also steal last names from my friends and family. And I try not to use too many common or WASP sounding last names in one story.

As for the names fitting the characters, I'll do that sometimes, especially with a secondary character as an easy way to add color, but I ususally won't do this with my main players. With them I'll pick out a working name to begin with and often change it three or four times before I'm satisfied that it's the name I want. Thank god for the replace all feature on Word!

Jayne

 

[wildsweetone]

sorry to disappoint you dear, i was referring to myself.

 

[sweetnpetite]

I just try to find a name I like that isn't the name of anybody that I know and doesn't make me think of anybody else. (unless it Britney or Courtney or Pamela or something that makes you think of someone famous AND good looking) Sometimes I try to think of a character name who has the same first letter in her name as me. One name I always like, but don't use much is Samantha. WHen I was a kid, we used to play that we had girl names that could be boys names "sammie and dannie always being the favorates. We just thought those names where like so cool!!!! I think Teri, is a sexy female name, makes me think of Teri on three's company

 

[indigo sky]

Thanks all

I tend to be really picky about names myself, and was curious what everyone else goes through. Surnames being far more difficult for me then first names. I tend to use what pops into my head, or use that as a jumping off point...say the same first letter, or number of syllables, if the first name I think of doesn't quite fit.

I also can't use a name that has significance in my personal life. It's just too distracting. I've always been fascinated with meanings of names, so sometimes I'll do something deliberate with that...but only if it fits the personality, too. Otherwise, it's lost and even the expanded definitlon for myslef, gets kinda muddled.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I tend to use a couple simply because I like them. But one in particular..."David" which I tend to use probably more than I should, has a reason behind it.

Thesandman

Technically, what you wrote would probably be categorized as a "vignette." But, for what it's worth, I can't recall reading many stories at Lit with a plot that had more interesting possibilities.

While reading that post, I remembered another "guideline" for creating and naming characters. Because they're "on stage" for a relatively short period of time, minor characters can be more eccentric with odder names.

jfinn mentioning how names vary with time reminded me that the U.S. Census Bureau site http://www.census.gov/ has lists of favorite male and female names going back to around 1900.

RF