Names are powerful things. There’s a reason the old legends say that you can control someone if you know their true name – just try to ignore it when somebody unexpectedly yells your name on the street from behind you. You immediately turn around to see if they’re shouting at you. It’s almost a hardwired response.
Names are evocative. They can be icons of perfection – just saying ‘Princess Diana’ has instant effect, and though we know – thank you, newspapers – about a lot of the things she didn’t do right, her name is still a strong positive name, one that – in the first instant you hear it said – has good attachments. Maybe after a moment you’ll remember some of the other things. But beauty and kindness and charisma are what strike you first.
What if I say ‘Adolf Hitler’? If names had no power, then why would you never consider calling your child that? (I would hope not, anyway.)
Names are important. So it’s important that you name your characters well. I remember reading a fantasy novel once where the romantic hero was called Kevin. Instantly my brain went, ‘Okay, no. Just no.’ And it took a lot of persuading on the part of the author – mostly by being a kick-ass writer – to make me accept that as being his name. No offence to anyone called Kevin, but it didn’t fit the character.
Similarly, if you wanted to name your strong, ethical, intelligent female character, would you really call her Britney, or Tiffany? Unless, of course, you’re deliberately using a name with different stereotypes attached to it for effect, you wouldn’t. Just as you would choose particular types of names for older people, or younger people. The name has to fit.
It drives me crazy when I can’t think of a name for a character, because normally I just know. It’s like serendipity. The name just drops into my mind and it’s perfect. But when that doesn’t happen – and it does sometimes – it drives me mad, because I’m always convinced that there’s a better name out there that I just haven’t thought of.
If I have to go looking for a name, I hit the baby name websites. I try and pick a good one from Google, one with the facility to search for both beginning letters and/or meanings, and, if I can find it, one that will filter by name origin, so I can tie it in to my character’s ethnic background. Then I trawl through the results until I’ve got a shortlist of names I like. Then I have to make up my mind. This can take some time.
How do you find names for your characters? Do you just pluck them out of thin air, or do you go looking? I’d love to know.
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1 comment:
Hi,
first of all I wanted to say I really enjoy reading your blog and it's about time I commented :) Keep up the good work!
Secondly, names are so important, I agree! Nowadays, I get a mix of "oh, that sounds pretty" and actually going to look for them, e.g. I love male names starting with "D" and with a "r" somewhere in there. I ALWAYS check what the name means on several pages.
Weirdly enough, I named my most important characters (created several years ago) on gut instinct because I liked the names, and when I checked the meanings a year or so later, it was astonishing. My main character, for example, is called Richard. This means "strong ruler/emporer" and it just ... fits. Total coincidence, but there you go. Their surnames used to be in my own language, and then of course I could do what I wanted with meaning. Ricky's surname used to be Yûmesti, which meant "dark hope" (now, it's just Yumes, but I don't know for how much longer).
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