Character Names

[pthylton]

I am the worst at coming up with character names. Everytime I need to introduce a minor character, I sit looking at my blinking cursor for five minutes while trying to think of a name. 

Seriously, I am the worst at this. The first draft of my last book had three minor characters named Ed.

I've recently turned to the government for help. I've been using this Social Security site that lets you look up the most popular baby names each year going back to 1879. So if I have a character who is 90 years old I can see that Robert and Authur would both be appropriate names.
www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/#ht=1

How about you? Do you have a method for naming characters? Is there some kind of meaning behind your characters' names, or do you just try to pick something that sounds 'right'?

[Suzy]

My main characters have names that I like but sometimes I use the names of people I know. I even asked friends in a writers' group who wanted to be my next heroine. And someone called Megan replied first and I used her name for the heroine.

In my next book, the names just came to me in an odd way. I had this image of a dark haired woman sitting in the lotus position on the deck of an old house. And I knew her name had to be Janine. Don't know why.

A Polish woman was named Beata in one of my books because I saw that on a name tag on the Polish girl at the checkout in the supermarket.

[scdaffron]

Scrivener has a name generator, which I sometimes use to get started. It comes up with some seriously weird names though. You could try the phone book

[Deleted]

I tend to be very literal with my initial naming process. Staring at the wall....Mr. Walston. This character is inspired by Scarlett Johansson....Joanne. Seriously, sometimes it's bad. I just keep writing and give myself leeway to change the names later. Sometimes I do so without realizing it.

[Deleted]

Apr 28, 2014 8:15:33 GMT -5 pthylton said:

I am the worst at coming up with character names. Everytime I need to introduce a minor character, I sit looking at my blinking cursor for five minutes while trying to think of a name. 

Seriously, I am the worst at this. The first draft of my last book had three minor characters named Ed.

I've recently turned to the government for help. I've been using this Social Security site that lets you look up the most popular baby names each year going back to 1879. So if I have a character who is 90 years old I can see that Robert and Authur would both be appropriate names.
www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/#ht=1

How about you? Do you have a method for naming characters? Is there some kind of meaning behind your characters' names, or do you just try to pick something that sounds 'right'?

I don't have much trouble picking names for characters. I approach it like firing a cannon. If the first name doesn't hit the mark but overshoots, I aim shorter. If that one doesn't quite hit, I adjust again, until I hit the target.

But oh, man, naming anything else in the story? Like, organizations, or made-up slang, or nicknames for things that exist in my fictional world... at that, I suck like a thirsty elephant.

[Deleted]

Apr 28, 2014 8:38:13 GMT -5 scdaffron said:

Scrivener has a name generator, which I sometimes use to get started. It comes up with some seriously weird names though. You could try the phone book

This I did not know. Thanks for the tip!

[vrabinec]

Hmm, here's how I came up with some of the names in my WIP:
1. J.D. Boskie - This is at least the 20th version of his name. He started out as Ryan Gordon. I got this latest version from two places. I got the last name from the movie Reversal of Fortune. It's the true story of Sunny von Bulow. The Jeremy Irons character has a like in which he says, "Alexanrda Isles, Billy Boskie's daughter." I loved the way he said the name, and stuck it on my MC. The first name gave me nightmares. I finally asked what would his mother name him. As it turns out, she gives birth to him in a spaceport nurse's office when his older sister was just killed. I figured the mother would be frazzled. The nurse would ask her what the name of the baby is, and she tells the nurse she doesn't give a shit. So, the nurse, not wanting to name the kid John Doe, names him J.D.

2. Lucia Meduse Rimbaud - The MC's love interest. She went through even more permutations than he did. She started out as a Becca (not named after our Becca, but a Rebecca I knew from years ago who was a fabulous writer and has a very successful fishing blog www.outdooress.com/ ) But her personality doesn't mesh with a Becca. So I went through the Writer's Digest Book of Names at least three times, and finally found "Lucia", an old Portuguese name (I always thought it was Italian)that means "light", it fits. I needed a middle name for a transformation of her personality at the end, and I was wanted something scary. I went to my book of Etymology to find if there were any old versions of the word "gorgon" and that led me to an old version of the word medusa. Her last name was de Conoczso for a long time, Spanish for "I know you", but I finally decided it was too funky, and went with the last name of the poet Arthur Rimbaud.

3. August Jones - I love the Grateful Dead song "Wharf Rat", and in the song is someone named August West. Well, I didn't want to just use the name outright, but I wanted to keep the last name very simple, and Jones is the simplest name I could think of.

4. Sebastian Collier - When I was a kid, my Mom used to read me a Czech book named Bella a Sebastian. Ever since, I've loved the name Sebastian. I wanted to give him a down to Earth last name (because it turns out to be the MC's real last name) and Collier is my mother in-law's maiden name.

5. Molly McGuire - She's a trouble maker. I always loved the movie The Molly McGuires, so I just named her that.

6. Luna Gittano von Roemer - Hard ass general. I like the feeling old Germanic names give characters, and I had a client who was a pain in the ass named Ed von Roemer. So I used his last name. There was a guy I used to argue with on a political message board named Tommy Gittano Duchese. I liked his middle name, so I gave it to my general. The first name was problematic. Luna is really a girl's name. But I wanted him to be a reflection of Lucia, because they are the two opposite forces the MC is caught between. I like the notion of the moon reflecting light, and naming him Luna would give the sense that he only reflects the light she gives off. Only later did I come up with his "real" name to masculatize it a bit, and so I made it officially be "Lunarune", just a name that came to me in the parking lot while waiting for the wife to run into Macy's and pay the bill.

7. Igraine Raines - I always loved the name Igraine from Aurthurian lore. The Raines I added because I wanted something phonically pleasing. Raines came to me because I knew an old baseball player named Tim Raines (I didn't actually KNOW him, I knew of him)

8. Rowe Greene - he's big and tough, and I wanted a name to go with that. Being a Steeler fan, the name Joe Greene was always associated with the biggest toughest guy I knew. I even loved the Mean Joe Greene thing. So I gave him the last name Greene, but I didn't want to use the first name. I had him with red hair and red freckles, and when I was searching the Writer's Digest for a first name, I came across Rowe, which actually means red.

9. Jacqueline Jones - A descendant of August Jones, so I had a last name (she was husbandless at the time). For the first name, I tried to think of high class wealthy women who were hot in their prime, and Jackie Kennedy Onassis came to mind. I like that it was alliterative, so she became Jacqueline Jones.

10. Paulie Bucci - The MC's half brother. I liked the last name of a childhood friend I had named Henry Bucci. For a long time his firs name was Tommy, but I figured it would go better with a more Italian first name, something that name him a little more friendly, so he became Paulie.

11. Jupiter Qunitillius - The brilliant strategist the MC looks up to. I wanted something that spoke of a thinker, and the old Greek names always elicited that image in my head. So I found the Quintillius last name in the Writer's Digest Book of Names, and the next page had first names, and Jupiter being what it is, another name for Zeus meaning "big", I figured it was perfect.

12. Fudo Li - I found Fudo looking through the Writer's Digest Boo of Names. It means hero, and sounds a lot like Frodo, so originally I gave it to the MC. But it's an old Japanese name, and it was TOO MUCH like Frodo, so I pulled it off the MC. But I had a crazy doctor who's a genius. I figured making him Asian would work just fine, so I slapped it on him, and went to the Writer's Digest thing for a last name. I was gonna make it Lee, but I saw that they also spell it Li, and I like that better.

13. Erendira Collier - Sebastian Collier's wife. For a long time, she was Beth because she was pretty and I knew a very pretty blonde in high school named Beth. Then she became Caroline, then back to Beth. But I had the illustrator depict her in a scene, and he credited the model he used for the illustration. Her name was Erendira. Well, the model looks Hispanic, not exactly a face that goes with Beth. I looked up Erendira and there was an Aztec princess named Erendira who fought the Spaniards, a wonderfully tragic character in history, so I figured the eggheads who search novels for little hidden gems would love it, and I asked her permission to change the character's name to Erendira. She said okay.

14. Konrad "Cheep" Kateau - Another parking lot name that came out of the blue. I was thinking of the movie The Game, in which the Sean Penn character is named Connie. I don't like Connie for a chief of security, but Robert Konrad always played tough characters, so I thought of him. No clue where the Kateau or the Cheep came from. Just bouncing names in my head that make phonic sense. And I realize the "cheep" is a contradiction to wanting the character to be tough.

15. Lola D'Ambrosio - I have a customer named Mary D'Ambrosio. I liked the last name, but I didn't think the first name went well with it. My daughter got herself a dog and named her Lola. I loved the way it sounded with tha last name, and I've always loved the name since the Kinks song.

Anyway, it's a serious mishmash of places names come from. I always make sure to jot down a name if I like the sound of it.

[Deleted]

I am name-impaired. I seriously can't name people, places - pretty much all the things that are necessary for writing. I tend to leave placeholders and blank spaces to keep the forward momentum. And most of the time, I have at least one placeholder name of Bob. Bob shows up in all my rough drafts. Bob is sometimes a girl, sometimes a guy. He's my catch-all name.

I love your list, Fred. Absolutely great!

[Deleted]

My main character isn't named until near the end of the first act of my short story when his boss refers to "Nigel".

His boss is Ezra cuz I wanted an odd ironically old fashioned sounding name for a very cool guy.

The other names for minor characters just sort of named themselves.

[Victoria]

Apr 28, 2014 9:07:37 GMT -5 @leebee said:

But oh, man, naming anything else in the story? Like, organizations, or made-up slang, or nicknames for things that exist in my fictional world... at that, I suck like a thirsty elephant.

I find names for both people and places either leap out at me immediately or become a huge time hole that stops me doing any actual writing. In the interests of getting shit done I've settled on writing things like "Oh, good afternoon, Mr [Surname]. Welcome to [company]! Can I get you a cup of [beverage]?"

I use baby names sites for character name inspiration - especially on my current WIP, where I've suddenly found myself in need of a large quantity of Italian names. I used to search by meanings to try and find a super-significant name for each of my MCs, but now I just choose ones I like the sound of and don't mind typing over and over again.

[scdaffron]

The MC in my first book is named Katherine (Kat) Stevens so I could throw in a musical reference. The incredibly obnoxious sales guy in an early scene asks if she's been walking on a Moonshadow. She is not amused.

In my second book, the MC is named Jan (short for Janelle, which she doesn't like) so I could throw in references to the Brady Bunch ;-)

In the third book, the MC is named Tracy, mostly because she has a tiny "bit part" in the first book.

[vrabinec]

Apr 28, 2014 11:07:40 GMT -5 scdaffron said:

(short for Janelle, which she doesn't like)

That's funny. My wife's middle name is Janelle, and she HATES it.

[Pru Freda]

My character names usually come to me quite easily, either that or I'll take someone I know's first name and put it with someone else's surname.

I've always seen my heroine as a seeker of truth and justice, so I called her Verity Long. (She's the small figure in yellow in the guise of the Statue of Justice, on all the covers) Her love interest is a Detective Inspector in the local police. I named him after an early boyfriend called Jeremy, but he's usually referred to as Jerry. The surname came from nowhere but it fitted and I liked it, so he is Jerry Farish (rhymes with parish).

I hadn't thought of the names together until the new editor I hired for Scouting for Murder referred to my books as the "Very and Jerry" stories.

[Deleted]

I've started using an online name generator recently (and I'll be trying to find that option in Scriv - thanks for the tip!). Mostly I try to keep character names totally ordinary, bland almost, but for some reason every name I rely on my brain to come up with begins with 'J', and there are a lot of characters in my series so it was getting pretty ridiculous!

[scdaffron]

Apr 28, 2014 11:10:21 GMT -5 vrabinec said:

That's funny. My wife's middle name is Janelle, and she HATES it.

In the book, the only person who calls the MC Janelle is her mother. Let's just say, they don't get along very well  

[Becca Mills]

Sometimes I struggle with names, but usually they come fairly easily. First I decide on the character's ethnic background. Then I go trolling for names from that culture. The internet makes that kind of research pretty easy. Sometimes I get cute and give someone a name that means something relevant, but usually not.

[Deleted]

I go with whatever names pop in my head and I trust that those will work.

[Daniel]

Because I'm writing fantasy, I often tweak a normal name into something unusual. I also use Scrivener's name generator sometimes, or a name generator I wrote myself a long time ago (which produces seriously weird names). For my current series...

• Jaylan: A tweak of "J-man" which is one of my alter-ego's nicknames.
• Sulana: A tweak of Susan and Lana.
• Lissy: A nickname derived from the character's real name, Drusilla.
• Daven: A tweak of David.
• Barek: I wanted a hulky-sounding name, but later realized (too late) that it bears an unfortunate resemblance to Barak from The Belgariad.
  
• Peltor: I thought I made this one up. When putting on my hard hat several months later, I noticed that Peltor was the brand. (I usually wear a hard hat when cutting down trees.)
• Rissik: A phonetic version of "Hricik," the last name of an old friend from high school.

[vrabinec]

Apr 28, 2014 15:40:39 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Because I'm writing fantasy, I often tweak a normal name into something unusual. I also use Scrivener's name generator sometimes, or a name generator I wrote myself a long time ago (which produces seriously weird names). For my current series...

• Jaylan: A tweak of "J-man" which is one of my alter-ego's nicknames.
• Sulana: A tweak of Susan and Lana.
• Lissy: A nickname derived from the character's real name, Drusilla.
• Daven: A tweak of David.
• Barek: I wanted a hulky-sounding name, but later realized (too late) that it bears an unfortunate resemblance to Barak from The Belgariad.
  
• Peltor: I thought I made this one up. When putting on my hard hat several months later, I noticed that Peltor was the brand. (I usually wear a hard hat when cutting down trees.)
• Rissik: A phonetic version of "Hricik," the last name of an old friend from high school.

It's funny, I didn't even think of Barak. Of course, it's been twenty years since I read any of Eddings' stuff.

[Daniel]

Apr 28, 2014 15:46:26 GMT -5 vrabinec said:

It's funny, I didn't even think of Barak. Of course, it's been twenty years since I read any of Eddings' stuff.

I found it when I re-read the Belgariad last year. My mouth dropped open and I'm sure my face turned beet red. At least the spelling is different.