A few weeks ago I read a blog post by Emily Wheeler about naming characters and I found it to be such an interesting topic that I decided to write my own blog post about it. Basically, I’m just curious about the process other writers use to name their characters. Is it something that comes easily for you or something that you struggle with? Do you name characters after people you know or go with a particular theme?
I personally don’t name my characters after people I know. However, I have been known to make use of unique names that I’ve overheard some place, names that I never would have thought of on my own.
As for themes, I’ve never gone with one myself. I go more by a gut feeling. When I have the right name for a character, it just feels right, as if that’s what they were always meant to be called. Occasionally, a character will pop into my head already named, but sometimes it’s not quite that easy. For example, in the first novel I ever completed, I had a character whose first name I knew, but his last name took quite a lot of time for me to figure out. I knew that I wanted it to have a Middle Eastern feel to it so I looked through names on baby name sites and surname sites. I couldn’t find a name that fit exactly, but I came across the name Azar, and that felt really close. So then I added an N to the beginning to get Nazar and voilà! That was it!
I also had a character named James but he was a goofy guy and somehow that spelling just didn’t seem to suit him. So I simply switched it to Jaimz and that was so him!
Generally, I don’t have much trouble naming characters. I love names and giving them to my characters. But some characters are just more difficult to name than others.
I’m currently having trouble with one character, a faerie, mostly because I need her name to have a certain significance. I’d like her name to be of Celtic origin and to mean something along the line of ‘secret’. Alas, so far I haven’t had much luck with that one. I’ve tried baby name sites, but that hasn’t turned up anything quite right so I’ll have to keep working on it.
Do you have any particular methods for naming characters? Is it something that you enjoy?
I’d love to hear from other writers on this subject!
Sarah L Fox
Lea Jurock said,
May 28, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Sometimes I like to pick a letter to start with that seems to suit the character or place and go from there. Other times I love to pick a meaning and find a name to suit. For that I love this site: http://www.behindthename.com/ Really differs for each character!
Sarah L Fox said,
May 28, 2012 at 7:37 pm
It often differs from character to character for me too, although I will still have that gut feeling as to whether the name is right or not. Thanks for posting that link — looks like a good one! And thanks for commenting!
SarahB said,
May 28, 2012 at 7:05 pm
This is such a fun topic! There’s so much in a name, and you spend so much time with your characters it’s like trying to name a child!
I knew I wanted my main character’s name to start with S but nothing felt right. One day I was driving home from a friend’s house and thinking about this new character. I passed a sign that said LAKE SIDNEY LANIER, and almost ran off the road. That was her name: Sidney Lake!
Sarah L Fox said,
May 28, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Great story!!! I’m glad you didn’t run off the road though!
Rena said,
May 28, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Oh, names. I have a love hate relationship with names. See, I’ve only ever met four other people with my name (Rena), so I always start with a question: Would their parents have chosen a normal or a strange name? Mine picked Rena (decidedly unusual since I’ve taught thousands of students, but not one Rena) for a specific reason (honoring the recent dead). I think about what their parents would have chosen and why, and *then* try to figure out if they would have gone with a derivation or made up name (I learned that my parents had done a good job in picking Rena over Buffy–no, serious, Buffy was the runner up–when I got to choose my own name for a job; let’s just say my choice didn’t work). Once I know that about my characters, the names are easy, but still subject to change.
The other thing I consider when naming characters is whether or not their name gets mispronounced (’cause seriously, there are four *four*! mispronounciations of my name, which means it’s tied with the number of letters). If they have a name like Anne, is it ah-nn-eee or aah-nn-uh or Ah-ehnnn?
Sarah L Fox said,
May 29, 2012 at 11:21 am
I’m sure you would have been subjected to endless vampire slayer references/jokes if your parents had gone with Buffy! I’ve never asked myself about what the character’s parents would have chosen — that’s an interesting way to look at it! I will consider the family’s background/origins though… such as my main characters in my current wip… one born in Ireland (Liam) and one from an Italian-Canadian family (Mia). The pronunciation consideration is a good one too — I know I have a couple names in one of my novels that will be mispronounced. Thanks so much for commenting!
Janna Noelle said,
May 28, 2012 at 8:12 pm
Hi Sarah. I was browsing the “writing” tag page and came across your post, which is always a fun topic. But then, reading a little further into your blog, I discovered that you’re another writer from Vancouver! (or at least used to live there, from what I can gather). I live in Vancouver currently, but like most, I’m not from here. It’s cool that you’re writing an urban fantasy set here. I’ve read a few set in Toronto, but never in Vancouver.
Anyway, to answer your question about where character names come from, when I used to write fantasy, I named a lot of characters after streets. Not in Vancouver, of course, or else they’d be named after trees or provinces or numbers. But one particular town I used to live in in Ontario had the best street names for turning into people names.
Now that I’m writing historical, I usually just use a baby name book or an online archive of common names from the specific era, although I do try to use the most obscure spelling of the common name that I can get away with just to give it a bit of flavour.
Sarah L Fox said,
May 29, 2012 at 11:27 am
Yes, born and raised in Vancouver!
Currently living in the Okanagan but Vancouver is in my blood. So true about the street names… that made me laugh! I get a lot of use out of baby name books and websites — so helpful!
It’s great to hear from another local writer! I’m glad you stumbled across my blog! Thanks for commenting!
Abby Geiger said,
May 29, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Great topic, Sarah! I too read about this recently on yet another blog and was going to write one of my own about it!
Naming people, and just about everything else in my WIP, is one of my favorite parts of writing it. Some names come to me out of the blue and stick like glue. Others I have to work at and think about a lot before I choose one that’s suitable for the character. The really fun part about all of it is that the story takes place in a scifi setting completely devoid of our own solar system, so I am free to make up every single name from scratch. The closest I get to an earthly name is “Sid”, and that’s his nickname. Different cultures and species have name styles unique to them, so you can tell their heritage apart.
Making sure the names are pronounceable is my biggest concern, and I have changed spellings of a couple of the names after asking people how they would pronounce it. Sid’s given name is one of them and even after modifying it the name is still very odd, but it only appears twice in the whole story, so I don’t fret about it too much.
Sarah L Fox said,
May 29, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Thanks, Abby! I have the same experience — some names just come to me right away while others are more difficult. I’ve made up a couple of names for my sci-fi novels — it’s fun to do! But, yes, it’s important to make sure that the reader won’t trip over a name every single time they come across it. I guess it’s just a matter of finding a balance between uniqueness and ease of pronunciation.
Ruth Ellen said,
May 30, 2012 at 2:24 am
I always struggle to name my characters. I only once used somone’s name I know in real life. I used to use baby books but then I created my own theme for names, not a language as such, but similar sounding things and made a massive list. Some names just come to me or I alter familiar names like Jess into Jessae or something. Sometimes it takes me a very long time to settle on a name I like!
Sarah L Fox said,
May 30, 2012 at 10:21 am
Sometimes I like to alter familiar names too. At times that’s all it takes to make a name just right.
Steve McHugh said,
May 30, 2012 at 4:08 am
I’m really fussy about naming characters. I umm and ahh about it for ages until the right name comes along. I have a tendency to read baby names for the first name, until something fits. Surnames are much harder though.
It was easy with my first book, most of the characters’ names arrived pretty quickly. But with my wip, I’ve been trying to think of the MC’s name for a few weeks now. And I think today I got it. Although, it’s likely that tomorrow I’ll come up with a different one.
Sarah L Fox said,
May 30, 2012 at 10:16 am
I find surnames harder too! In my early drafts of one of my novels I didn’t want to get caught up on surnames so I named a whole bunch of characters after hockey players. Then later I had to change them because I had half the nhl in there! (Okay, slight exaggeration but I had used several player names).
Nicole L. Bates said,
May 30, 2012 at 6:29 am
I tend to like unusual names. I’m not sure if this is good or bad from a reader standpoint, but I like the characters to be unique. I agree with you about going with a gut feeling. I’ll often read through a baby name book or do a Google search and the right name will jump out at me. Sometimes I try to find a name with a specific meaning, but if it doesn’t fit the character I’ll keep looking.
Sarah L Fox said,
May 30, 2012 at 10:10 am
I’ve noticed that you like unusual names!
I think you do a good job of choosing/creating names that are unique yet can still be pronounced. 