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cherrystark
Jan '21

I have been thinking a lot about the character names lately and was curious what type of process you go through to pick your characters' names. Are there types of names you gravitate towards? Are there types of names that you dislike and would never use? Do you ever look at a character, whether in your own work or in another and think they could have been named something different?

For me, I have lists of possible names that I like, but I need to have a clear idea of who the characters are in my head before I name them. My thief character steals from the rich and donates money to charity, so Robin was a natural name for her. Nick is a common enough name, with more formal alternatives, that is quick and easy to say. His last name, Okoro, also shows his cultural background.

I tend to stay away from names that are too flashy or hard to pronounce such as Mckarthry or even Xavier. IRL, I always feel bad when I mispronounce a person's name and the same extends to characters. I also tend to have a mental picture in my head linked with certain names, such as Xavier, I always imagine Professor Xavier when I see the name, and not a ruggedly handsome love interest.

(Note: this is just a general discussion on naming characters and not to mock someone's name, whether real or fictional)

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    Jan '21

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sarahmcsquish
Jan '21

I like to give my characters short names; make it easy to say and remember them.

cherrystark
Jan '21

Me too. My problem is I tend to like names that start with the same letter, so they sometimes blend to together. haha. My main couple's names are Johnathan and Jamie.

Reveal
Jan '21

I agree with Sarah, I like keeping some of my characters names, mostly mains, short.

And when making names I try to come up with some that sound nice and flows while also fitting the character.

Some of my characters names

Era Vanaura

Tree (Yes his name is literally tree lmao)

Karo Caelus

But sometimes if I’m pondering on a name to use I try to decipher the characters personality, certain traits, and build from there. Usually something would come up that sounds like it fits.

therosesword
Jan '21

My uncle's name was Xavier, although his nickname was Chask (don't ask I have no idea how that happened.) Handsome. hmmm, short, rolly polly Italian with thinning hair and a pot belly with a laugh bigger than the world. I could never name a handsome character Xavier, LOL. Although I think he would be tickled to see that.

How do I name my characters?. Whew, I don't have a process. Sometimes the names just come to me, like my Bright Morn series. How in the world did I come up with Bright Morn... it just happened.

I have a terrific book "Character Naming Sourcebook" from writers' digest and it's been the best reference ever, way better than baby naming sites etc. At least to me it seems better than the sites.

I have names I'm fond of so they've found their way into a story. In one of my stories about urban explores I gave the two main characters the names Jack and Jill. They explored while the brother of Jill, who was in a wheelchair, kept track of them from a van, he took great fun in teasing them about fetching things.

I guess my process is basically wandering around the house repeating names, looking in books etc. until something says "that one!"

Oh, and I try to stay away from things that seem cliched for people of different social / wealth standing.

cherrystark
Jan '21
Reveal

I think this is a smart idea and can be beneficial for the story. Regions also pick up characteristics when it comes to naming. Names like Scout, Bubba, or Fish can give HUGE insight into a character's background.

cherrystark
Jan '21
therosesword

I changed one character's name a dozen times before I landed on his current name. Nothing seemed to fit right until lightning struck and I was like "Yes, he's a Prince. That is is last name."

WillowTree
Jan '21

I pull up a list of most common names from whatever decade the character was born in usually

WinterFall
Jan '21
1

Hmm, I've always thought of character names as interesting topics, especially for authors and creators such as ourselves. Well, I prefer unique and one of a kind names, but I also like it when they're easy to remember. Like memorable but unique names. Examples of these kind of names are Zylith, Verose, and Zelan from Freaking Romance in Webtoons.

But if you'd ask me how I come up with names for my novel's characters right now, my novel is set in Japan, so therefore, my characters' names are Japanese. But you see, in my opinion, Japanese names are quite interesting and they fascinate me, because they have meanings behind them. Kind of like etymologies.

For example, in my novel, one of the protagonists' name is Mayumi, and her family name is Sakuragi. Mayumi can be written using different kanji characters (a kind of Japanese writing), and it has quite a lot of meanings. It can mean elegant, gentle, beauty, truth, reason, or spindle tree. Her family name, Sakuragi, can mean cherry blossom tree. I guess you could tell that I researched a lot to name my characters!

Lahin
Jan '21

@therosesword

don't ask I have no idea how that happened

Aww. I was going to ask right now. :laughing:

I named my characters from their core traits(Plus, names I really liked). Where I grew up, everyone is given a name which has a definite meaning (lol teachers used to legit ask us in school what our names meant). I'd have to say it influenced me a lot to think like this.

Giving someone a name that means something puts them in a spot where they will feel like they're supposed to live up to the name they were given.

I'll say from my experience, I have a three-part name and part of it means "virtuous” in the language of its origin. And I've pretty much felt like I needed to be virtuous all my life.

Given, the readers won't know unless I tell them that my mc has the same meaning as mine in terms of his name, it's a nice little thing I can feel good about.

@WinterFall I spent a whole two days looking up names. Hours of looking at kanji, the meanings of which I didn't know, taking them and putting them in google translate, seeing it it sounded nice.

But I got the result I wanted. :smile: Now I don't have to worry about this for a pretty long time.

therosesword
Jan '21

In the language of my paternal forefathers my name means swordmaker.

therosesword
Jan '21
cherrystark

Kind of like naming a cat.

Had this one kitten and we went through: Mortimer, Duncan, Doolie, McTavish etc. etc. Then he ran through the living room. He was very long legged and at that age when he was running his legs would go every which way and I said he looked like John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. We went... BASIL!" and that's what he was. He was also a scaredy cat so it became Basil the Brave.

therosesword
Jan '21
WillowTree

That's often the perfect idea. I knew a woman who was born in the 1950's. Her last name was D'amore. A popular song the year she was born was "Melody D'amore." Yup... that's what her mom did.

cherrystark
Jan '21
therosesword

Nice. My familly does the same type of thing whenever we want to name something: car, pet, stuffed animal, whatever. We brainstorm names together and the name we keep coming back to is the winner.

Utamee
Jan '21

Oh, good topic. I really struggle for naming characters. I can change their name like more than 10 times during writing the story.
Because of this, I tend name them like before posting. lol.
so, I just write this A, have this personality etc, B, this kind of person, C, D, and so on..
When they need to appear I will abruptly name them. :sweat_02:

Black_Conscious
Jan '21

Ah yes!
I gravitate toward the meaning behind names and who wored that name currently because one of the names I have chosen for my characters are based off of great people such as a queen female called Kandake her story of defeating a King of Greek is amazing so I used what that great lady has done and put it into my character characteristics as someone "strong"

It is also the same with another who I am trying to figure out a name for, currently I have the name Hotep which means "to be at peace" I believe, it is somethin that certain people say to each other, like a greeting.
But I am workin on it :sweat_02: :grin:

hmm that is a good question ngl, well for me that is, I guess it really depends on a story that I am writing but then again I always try to seek out names that are Unique to a character instead of "Common" names.

As of right now yes, it is the person I had mention called Hotep I really couldn't think of anything else but the meaning behind it is what kind of made me think "well, lets see here," so I am trying to playout a scene in my head that goes along with both the story and the character and the name :cry_01:

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Jan '21

One name I will always avoid using in projects: Joanna
It's too damn close to my name and I'm always irked when people get my name wrong and call me that instead. I will also avoid using my name Joanne since people might think that's narcissistic.

Anyway, as for my characters, if something doesn't pop into my head naturally, I will look through behindthename.com and search by name meaning (using a word or trait I associate with the character), or name origin (if I have a background in mind for the character).

Sometimes I'll do some methodical thinking. Patience for example.
Her story is set in 1900's fantasy America and I wanted one of those monikers named after a trait, like Grace or Prudence, but one not as common. I had also originally drafted her as sort of a 'pet' to her monstrous partner but didn't want to go with the obvious Petunia. I settled on Patience for the sound of the syllables and the imagery and associations that come to mind when I hear the name. It just sits well with me. c:

skippyjoeskilling
Jan '21

I agree with the short name things. Whenever I read a book where the characters have very long names (especially fantasy novels where I can't just google the pronunciation) I kinda just skip over it in my head.

I like to steal names from real life or history. The last big writing project I did I named most of the characters after country musicians. Dusty, Porter, Dolly, etc. just because the names all sounded interesting and the characters listened to a lot of country. Most of the rest of the names I got from a true crime book I was reading at the time, which loosely inspired the project. I like giving the characters names that are obviously nicknames too, because I think it tells a lot about them.

Randomly, I've written like five things where I've named a character Roscoe. It's not a conscious choice, I just love the name and keep using it.