What's In a Name?
Personality, insight, image and more...

Names are terribly important. I spend forever coming up with names. Sometimes a character doesn't work until I change his name. In Bandits, Frant Matusi didn't work. I changed him to Jack Delaney and suddenly he opened up.   —Elmore Leonard

I'd like to know how you go about naming your characters. Do the names have significance for you? DO you use the names of people you know? Do you find yourself repeating names (Maeve Binchy says that her editor is always pointing out that she's used a name before in a different book)? Do the names you give to your characters, shape who they become in your mind? Have you ever changed the name of a character once you knew more about them?   —Mike Kimera

The following excellent websites offer random generators for names and places:
http://nine.frenchboys.net/  
http://www.seventhsanctum.com 
http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm 

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From Kay Four
Names are very important to me when I am writing. I tend to use the same ones over and over... Mary (Marie, Maria, Mariel) is the name of sweetness and innocence. And her last name? How about Perkins? It reminds me of baby-kins, or lamby-kins. Very non-threatening.

In the current story I am writing, an Air Force General is Regina Sharpe. It fits. She is a grand leader who is, to use an over-used cliche', as sharp as a tack.

In this same story, a character who is a teenaged boy has had his name changed five times... from Jared, to John, to Mark, to Jon, to Jameson. Jameson is still not quite right, but he will name himself before it is over. His father's name is James, by the way, so Jameson works.

I also have a character named Liz Taylor. She is not THE Liz Taylor and tells everyone so, but she has a vibrant and flamboyant personality, so the name fits. I frequently use famous names in my stories, giving life to a person in a different way or showing that famous person in a different perspective.

Most of the time, the characters name themselves, by their actions.

From Marta
I choose my characters names based on personality, timeline, look and mannerisms. More modern sexual stories take on names such as James, Nia, Travis and Lisa. Though a story I am writing now is set in the 1940's where names were conservative and almost biblical. Marlene, Shiela and Emily are my main characters.

I find having a baby name book with origins and definitions on hand helps. Such as "The Mother of all Baby Names"

I started taking particular attention to characters names when I did a community theatre production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I read up on all the characters names and found how the names related to their personalities.

Try it out on your next play or movie.

From Seneca F. Mayfair
I tend to associate certain names with certain personalities. In a story I wrote not too long ago, I envisioned the woman as a bit of an innocent and naughty fruitcake, a sort of Lucy Ricardo submissive, and the name "Mary Beth" popped into my head. Why? Because it connotes a childlikeness (if that's a word).

Sometimes the name I've chosen is not right. And I'll find that out as I write or can't write. And as flaky as this sounds, it's as if the character puts his or her foot down and refuses to go further into the story until the name is right. I hate when that happens cause I have to start rattling off names in my head until the right one appears, and I only know that when the character agrees. And you thought I was sane!

So, my answer to your question is that I tend to see the personalities before the names, i.e. the personality dictates the name in most cases. And sometimes the name pops into my head, as it did for Mary Beth, and other times I have to work on it.

From Beth
My names almost give an insight into the plot of the stories. Mistress Klootze (KLUT zee - you have to imagine the umlauts) was a dead give away, as was Tango of the Ride series. The names keep me from having to do too much exposition about the character, and they immediately put an image in my mind, and, so far, in the minds of people who've read the stories.

From Roy
For me, naming characters is crucial and one of the hardest things a writer has to do. Not only does the name have to match the character and by doing so is an important tool in building the character in the readers mind, but names are subject to fashion. A story set in the 1920's will need very different Christian names to a story set in the 1990's or 1200's or BC. Anybody know what names might be relevant to Caveman times? Bet they are not Julian, or Charles or Dave.

Geographically names differ. Areas of the country will have names common to that area but not found in other areas of the country. This becomes even more significant when foreign characters are introduced, especially when religious influences are involved. For example, if the character is A Seikh, then a Hindu surname could easily cause close to bloodshed in some markets. In some countries, at least, whether the character is working, middle or upper class will influence their name.

Names also change with genre. Names that 'fit' erotica may not 'fit' thrillers or crime novels.

I also think that it is important not to have characters with names that are too close, such as two separate characters named Sarah and Sara, or Tim and Tom. I recently had a novel submitted where two of the main protagonists were called Peterson and Pearson. It got really confusing remembering who was who.

Baby naming books are a great source for Christian names and second hand shops are a source for books written in by-gone years as opposed to historical novels written today.

Finally, do I change a character's name part way through? Yes, often and so do many others, judging from the submissions I get where character's names suddenly change, even if it is only in the spelling.

Actually I've just thought of another final thought. More relating to fantasy than other genres, but how the name will look in print can be important. By that I mean, does Uppercase 'I' look like lower case 'L,' which, with some fonts might make it impossible for the reader to determine the name. Not really applicable in print but it matters electronically where the reader can change their font to whatever they like.

From Daughter
This topic reminds me of what I am often guilty of. I have a bad habit of forgetting that the way I process information is not necessarily the way others do.

I read a great deal, and while names matter a great deal to me (We could have a discussion on how I selected my children's names and as a Unity member how I feel about affirmations), names are not elements in well-written works that necessarily remain with me. In fact, I tried to think of the names of characters of in master works I've read, and I can't think of most of their names. Does that mean the names did not affect my perception or the effectiveness of the story, no. It means nothing more than the fact that as a reader, I don't easily recall names.

From Rosemary
The right name is vital. It's part of the character... and I HAVE to have the right name. Orville Hess just doesn't conjure up the same image as Rand Garwood for example. Margie Block just isn't the same sort as Tiffany Flyte. Even diminutives make a difference. A Sam is not a Samuel and Margaret, Meg, and Maggie signify totally different women.

Think about it. Would Heathcliff carry such charged images it he had a first name of Bill? How could someone named Uriah Heap be anything but unctuous and untrustworthy? I'll bet Tolkien took forever to come up with Bilbo Baggins.. It fits the description of him so perfectly... or Adrian Mole, can you imagine him as Adrain Morris or Adrian Marsden.. Trollope has some wonderful names too... the Duke of Omnium.. okay... enough...

I spend ages picking the right names. Heck it's like picking your children's names after all.

No, I don't use the names of people I know. I can't help feeling this might leave you open to suit. I'm even leery of using real names for restaurants etc.

Yes, I find myself repeating names. I wrote two books with heroines named Sarah before I realized it...one never sold...I'd definitely change it if I rewrite it and send it out again.

Do the names you give to your characters shape who they become in your mind? I think it's the other way around. I pick a name to fit the character.

From Jay
The name has to match the character. I recently wrote a story where one character was named Roxanne, but I changed it to Mary Lou because I'd already used Roxanne in another story. It just didn't work. So, I changed her name back to Roxanne.

That said, I rarely have trouble picking out names. Most often the names just come to me, and if I'm stuck I'll open a baby names book at random and start reading, or I'll look to mythological characters for a name, or I'll look for Biblical names. It never takes long.

But names also have to fit the time. For stories that take place in the distant past, or stories with older characters I'll pick names like Walter, Vera, Albert, Phoebe, Ina May, Lester, Elvin, etc. For more current stories I'll pick names like Alex, Roxanne, Mike, Artie, Stan, Buddy, Pete, etc.

Very few of my characters have surnames. (But they're not going to be opening bank accounts, either.) However, in a few cases a character has had only a surname and no given name.

When I first read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand I noticed that the strong characters had strong names and the weak characters had weak names. Of course she did that on purpose, but I think it was the first time I understood just how important character names are.

From Jean
Certain names have a certain social significance which writers can only ignore at our own risk.

One example is "Heather," a perfectly good name that has often been handed down in families originally from a place where heather grows. In real life, women with that name are often friendly and unpretentious. However, this name (along with "Daphne") seems to have become associated with snobbery, esp. since a noir-comic movie about teenage cliques (starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater) named "Heathers" came out (late 1980s?). I wouldn't give a character that name unless I wanted to invoke the stereotype OR go out of my way to show that it doesn't apply.

Some names indicate generations, i.e.: Tiffany, Tara, Chelsea, Brittany, Courtney all sound like Generation X. They date Matthew, Jeremy and Darryl (umpteen spelling variations of this one).

Arabella, Patience and Bartholomew would probably appear in a historical romance.

There is a convention in lesbian fiction of naming characters (especially the most butch) androgynously, e.g.: calling them Max or Mitch or giving them family names as first names: Morgan, Taylor, Clark, etc. I sometimes follow this convention to make things clearer for the reader, even though it only seems to apply in the real world when lesbians (e.g., weight-lifting, truck-driving tough mama named "Lily" or "Felicity" by her parents) rename themselves.

The name Diana (reference to the Greek goddess of the moon?), used in fiction, has traditionally been a kind of thinly-disguised indicator of woman-loving inclinations, but this tradition seems to have died out.

From J.Z. Sharpe
Here are my favorite websites for naming characters.

First of all, there's the famous Kabaliarian website. They've been collecting and "analyzing" names for ages.

Then there's the Mystery of Names. You could spend hours here (I know, because I have).

However, when I'm naming characters sometimes I like to trust in the fates. In other words, I prefer some kind of a random generator that will shoot names at me until I see one that will fit. Moms Online used to have a great site that gave you random names, by sex, five at a time, but that site was lost in the great dotcom debacle, I suspect. If anyone finds something similar, please tell me!

However, there is still Jellinek's Baby Name Chooser. They're almost as good as Moms Online, although you only get your names one at a time. Also, it isn't all THAT random -- once it picks a name for you, if you go for another, it will probably start with the same letter. But it's a place to start, and a number of my characters have found wonderful names here.

My favorite namer, hands down, is the Baby Name Wizard. This one was down for almost a year, and I'd despaired that they'd ever put it back up again. Then, a few months ago, when I was messing around with that Mystery of Names site mentioned above -- I discovered that the wizard was back! I don't know how they do it, but they mix up syllables from their database of regular names and they sure do get some great stuff. I ran it just now, asking for unisex names, and I got some plums, like Tananis (a hero if I ever saw one) and Sazelia (a dark woman with psychic powers, perhaps?). Of course, there are also some duds, like Beanare and Bichienad -- but hey, in some stories, those might work, too. Anyway, those are my favorites. Hope this helps!

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