Wednesday, September 27, 2017

The Only Character-Naming Guide You'll Ever Need


Did you read about the mom who wanted to give her toddler a new name because the one given at birth just didn’t work very well. Hmm. Seems weird, but it happens to authors all the time.

Naming for me has never been a big issue, but I hear from writing friends that they suffer with the search for the right name for each character. So I know I’m pretty lucky. Of course, I’m also a wimpy Libran. Mostly my characters name themselves and announce that to me as I write. I don’t fight back very often. Mostly the first name out stays in.

But if I did have trouble, what would I do?

Just for you, I did a bit of research on naming characters and found some good stuff out there. Okay, it wasn’t an exhaustive search, but good enough to generate some ideas if you struggle with character naming. When I googled “how to name book characters”, 112,000,000 sites popped up. I only got through the first million. (Only kidding—you can go for it!)

1)   Unsurprisingly, the most common advice given is know your character well and see how the name fits his personality, attitude/outlook on life, background, and foibles. It is so obvious, but Frank may not be the best name for someone who lies for a living. Or maybe you want to play off that bit of incongruity.

2)   Choose a name you can turn into a nickname. Umm. Maybe, but I’m not a nickname person (never had one, never used one with my kids). Some say this personalizes your character, makes her more knowable. Maybe. You are the one who knows your character best. I do have one character with a nickname. She named herself with the nickname. I had to figure out what was on the birth certificate.

3)   Make a list of first names of all friends. Make a second list of your friends’ surnames. Mix and match to find a wide range of usable names.

4)   Make sure the name is era-, ethnicity-, social status-, and age-appropriate. Even with the modern trend to past names, Agatha is not a likely choice for today’s six year old. There are tons of lists of names by decade to help you with this.

5)   Another piece of common advice is to check out name etymologies. You may love Linda for your villainess’ name (I know a Linda who fits the bill), but when you read that the “lind” stem means “weak, soft, gentle, friendly”, you might want to choose Imelda (from “hild” meaning “battle or fight”). For one of my books, I searched etymologies for female Gaelic names so I could imbue my character with those traits.

6)    At Debbie’s blog, “Moon in Gemini”, I found a really useful catalog of options, some of which I hadn’t seen before like a couple of baby naming sites. (It’s been a while for me to need to update that resource.) 

She also listed a site for Deep South names that could work very well for certain genres and eras. Debbie’s post listed nine naming resources: telephone book, movie credits, most-common surnames in 1990 census, two baby name sites, two southern names
sites, fantasy names site, and magickal names book. As I said, a great resource!

7)   It is suggested that you take a few minutes and look around the room. What objects or animals could become names? “Pen” could become “Penn”; “book” into “Booker”, the dog is “Barker”, and so on.

8)   I’ve been told a way one author names his characters is to get out maps for the setting and find town names to put together for first and last names. For example on a map of Louisiana, I found Goldonna Pollock, Clinton Mangham, and Erath Patterson. What fun, too, right?

9)   A great suggestion for naming that appeared a few times, was to choose and name and then say it aloud. Is it harsh sounding? Can you see yourself saying the name easily and often? Hard consonant sounds add strength to characters; soft consonants can sound more pleasing to the ear.

10) Another idea I ran across for naming was to scan books of a similar type to see what names are used. I think this would be especially helpful in science fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy. Those names can be quite unfamiliar to readers. I love how books with aliens use a lot of consonants together to create unique names.

11)   Several sources suggest keeping a master list of names that strike your fancy. When stuck for a name, try your list first since those are ones that resonated at one time.

12)   A unique idea is to randomly choose two words from the dictionary, maybe move some letters around, and voila!

13) I’ve seen people advise you to consider your character’s occupation and choose a name that fits. Not that I named my culinary mystery protagonist “Cook”; I chose “Wesson” as her last name. The cooking oil. Get it? Sometimes I crack myself up!

Some caveats:
a)    Keep an alphabetical list of your character names. Don’t use “C” for twelve people even if the sound varies! (I’ve done it.)

b)   Don’t get names from the newspaper to avoid lawsuits. Okay, so maybe I’m paranoid, but why risk it?

c)    If you’re writing historical fiction, make sure you know if last names were in use. Generally speaking, 12th century and earlier didn’t have surnames. When they did come into use, they were often reflective of birth place (“Cliffford”), occupational (“Carpenter”) or demonstrating relationships (“John’s Son” became “Johnson”).

d)   Do a search to make sure no one famous already has that name. Avoid the hassle by choosing another name. There are a million options. You’ll find another.

e)    To save yourself a hassle with possessives and plurals don’t use names that end in “s”.

f)      Don’t wear out your readers by using too many odd names. Odd names can interrupt the reading of the story. Use with caution.

Sorry the post got wonky today. I fought and fought with the formatting. This is my best shot! If you enjoyed it anyway, please share this post with others. Thank you!

Facebook: Writers, do you have trouble naming characters? This list of more than a dozen ideas is just what you may need. Check out Angelica French’s suggestions. http://bit.ly/2eLjnuo

Twitter: #Writers, have trouble naming characters? Check out @RomanceRighter’s for sources for naming characters. http://bit.ly/2eLjnuo

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