Where do your characters' names come from?
This might seem like a weird thing to wonder, but...it's something I always wondered throughout the formative stages of my writing.
After all, you don't want to use the name of someone you know (or have known), lest they think the character is based off them.
You don't want to use names that are too outlandish (unless you are Thomas Pynchon, and that's your thing).
You don't want to use last names that are too consistently common or too consistently obscure...or that fail to match up with the ethnicity or description or background you have given your characters.
You don't want to use names that don't seem "to fit."
When I wrote my first manuscript (I was only 19 at the time, so I pray you'll forgive me for this), I used the names of people I knew...and based the main characters off people I knew...and then just changed the names at the end. This story ultimately failed, and perhaps the lack of freedom I gave my characters was partially responsible.
In time, however, I came to select names based on various factors of significance. I can't go into details on what I mean by this, because I don't plan to reveal where the names of the main characters in The Great Lenore came from; all I can truly tell you is that they came from a number of different literary mineshafts. For some names, I mined near the surface. For others, I dug deep. Perhaps I will let you guess where the names came from after the book comes out (Note: as I announced yesterday, The Great Lenore will become available for pre-order on Tuesday March 1, 2011; mark down the date! - 25 days left!). Perhaps I will have some sort of awesome prize for those who guess correctly.
Names (and corresponding tendencies, personality traits, and characteristics) for my characters are also sometimes inspired by the seeds of music or art.
But most of all, in the same way we often find a character growing and developing and even surprising us each time we sit down to write, many names spring up from the Story Well, and these names...just...fit.
It's a silly business, choosing names for characters. The more you write, the more often the names fall in your lap and settle down in just the right way. But whenever this does not happen, you must go searching.
Dear Writer, where do you go to search? Is it random? Arbitrary? Or do the names of your characters come from specific places and have specific meaning?
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For first names (far more relevant, I think, to fiction), I go to the Social Security Administration's list at http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ This is a searchable database of baby names, by popularity among US births, going back to 1879. This gives you a way to ensure that your characters' names will be reasonably good matches to their ages. For main characters, I look for something fairly low, 15th to 25th for instance, while for toss-away names for the kid who sits next to your MC on the school bus, I'll pick something in the top five.
ReplyDeleteThis avoids some embarrassment. For instance, the most common girl's name in 2009 was Isabella. So, thinks Sumdum Writer, I'll be sure and have three Isabellas in my YA high school romance. OOps. Popularity when those girls would have been born was 500 and beyond. There aren't going to be three Isabellas in any high school class now.
Last names? There is a Census Board website somewhere, but it always takes me an hour to find it again. Fortunately for me, there's this local publishing company that drops a brand-new doorstop of a book on my porch every year. Soft paper covers, really cheap paper (mostly yellow), and full of nothing but an alphabetized list of names. I'm not sure what it's for. Something to do with those old phones houses used to have in them? But it makes a pretty good name mine.
Writing fantasy I think I have a little more freedom in process of naming my characters. Two things I don't do:
ReplyDelete1. Give the character the first name that pops into my head.
2. Give the character a name that I can't pronounce. That's my biggest pet peeve with epic fantasy. Trying to enjoy a story is freakin' difficult when I have to stop and pronounce a character's name every time I come across it. As much as I love Robert Jordan he kills me with this.
I put a lot of research into the names I choose. At the moment I'm working on a story where the country is pretty similar to Japan. Therefore, I'll research baby name sites to find out what kind of names they use. I want to pretty faithful to the land and the culture I'm borrowing from.
A final thing I do is try as often as possible to come up with the name myself. I feel that adds my touch to the character rather than taking the name from a name generator, or a website with a list of names.
I have no answers, I'm here to borrow ideas! I find it awfully hard to name characters most of the time (occasionally they come with names or a name just fits) and I have inadvertently named a character the same as a relative and had them assume it's them even if it was. I did read that The Wire writers didn't settle on names for their main characters til quite late, and that reassures me!
ReplyDeleteThis is actually one of the most stressful elements in my writing process. Having taught over 500 students in my life, it is IMPOSSIBLE to name a character that doesn't remind you of SOMEONE. Then again, as a YA writer, sometimes I can use this to my advantage.
ReplyDeleteI always have a character's traits and personality mapped out first. Sometimes, this process reveals a name on its own. I have also spent time researching meanings of certain names, particularly surnames, and explore different options that way.
I consider the cultural background of the character's family. For example, it is customary for the first boy born in an Italian family to be named after the paternal grandfather. There are other cultural traditions that have helped me name characters.
What I can honestly say is each name in my writing is chosen for a specific purpose. It could be something simple, such as naming a character after someone who ignites the same mood in me as the character does for the protagonist. Sometimes it's more complicated - a character name might result from the song playing in the background, a customer in the coffee shop as I'm exploring them for the first time, or even after a certain memory, if that makes sense at all.
I'm realizing through my incoherent comment that it's hard for me to explain. What I can say is naming characters is an extensive process for me, and one I do not take lightly. As someone who has never enjoyed my own name - only because my family is inundated with Paul's as a result of Italian customs - it is a task I take very seriously as a writer.
I always think it's funny when people respond to the Weekend Writing Discussion with @-replies to me on Twitter. After all, the Weekend Writing Discussion is mostly intended as a forum where writers can share their thoughts on the topic and read the thoughts of others...it is not really meant as a way for me to just...you know, be the only person who gets to peruse the thoughts of others.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, here are a few responses to the question from Twitter:
*For me, every name has to have meaning. I'm a huge name nerd, so I keep a running list of names I've researched. :o)
*either off the top of my head or Websters Dictonary dot com
*behindthename.com
this might seem a little strange, buuuut i have a massive list of names i've fallen in love with over the years and decided at one point or another to give my child. the unfortunate part is, i'm only 23, COMPLETELY single (engagement, break up, long horrifying story, annoyingly anti-relationship), and, to top it off, i'm a lesbian. no chance of even accidentally knocking myself up...not that i've thought of that or anything...
ReplyDeleteanyways, my friends call me baby crazy, and that's fine, every woman is on some level whether she ever wants to have children or not. i just have a more expressive and needy womb, that's all. BUT i've found an incredibly productive use for all the wasted names i've scribbled into my notebook--my characters!
it's great. i literally have a list of names i'm super attached to, that have incredible significance and unique meaning to me, and that have become people, children, part of me but separate...in my head.
i used to hate picking names. i'd avoid it until the very last minute. i'd stress over it for days. i'd change it so many times i didn't even know what a name was anymore. but now that i've allowed my baby crazy daydreams to infiltrate my writing space, i have yet to find a time when i couldn't find the perfect name that fit like a little black dress...or a condom.
so essentially, there's my prolix blog comment about how i've replaced my brain with my womb and now give birth to my babies through my pen. huzzah!
I have multiple ways of deciding a characters name. If I have the personality of a character in my mind, I look through a book of baby names and ponder a few that sound good until I come to the right one.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I'll want to have the character's name start with a certain letter (for one character, I felt his name should start with a C) so I look through numerous books and websites for a name that pops out. I'll also look for a name with a certain meaning that gives a further level of characterization. Perhaps the name means the opposite of how the character acts (this is easier with Biblical names.)
Lastly, there's certain characters that I just can't name until I look through hundreds of lists of names, waiting for that one name unknown to me to come forth. That 'Aha!' moment and suddenly the entire character begins to develop in my mind.
Kairos Rae... Loved your response. Very special.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim...raising hand....guilty as charged. I had no idea. Sorry for the tweet instead of following the yellow-brick-road to Oz.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have this place dog-eared...oops...get with the times, I mean listed in my favs...I will jump over here and share. (and add this to my following on my own blog - which is very very new)
I am new at tweets and blogs...that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
^^^that's me up there with the *top of my head or webster's.
If I am writing YA contemporary stuff, I try to use names easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and as common as peanut butter and jelly.
If I mingle a little back yard fantasy into my characters, I give them names I find in Websters in the translation department wayyyyyy down at the bottom of the page.
If, say the spy witch is a little old lady next door, harmless as dew, then I look up the word "spy" in all the languages Webster's lists until I find the one that sorta "sings" to me.
Land of Dragons (almost cliche) becomes, Land of Santan.
The king of all gemstones, becomes Tian Huang.
Names are my favorite thing to research.
One book I wrote (now hiding in the desk drawer) I researched names of gemstones for many of the names of people, places, and creatures.
I like this much better than replying on twitter...I actually got to ramble a bit. Sorry for the gushing.
ciao
word ver: surcr hmmm...
JM? okay...I do wear glasses...sorry for the Jim up there. New sticky stuck on my laptop, now. (blush)
ReplyDeleteword ver: inozeduc - I nose duck. LOL love these things
Here's how I name characters. I'm seated, there is paper in front of me and on that is written three things: People, places and items.
ReplyDeleteThen I grab a pen and just write. I think of things, anything that comes to my head. These go down and are sorted into the three areas. This is the initial process and most will be disgarded. But some remain. Those are then looked at with a more critical eye.
A list forms and if none seem to fit, they are kept for the next one. I don't use external agencies. Not that I discount them but because my characters can't come alive for me unless my mind breathes it into them. Because even though I am thinkng of names I am also getting into the very heart of the character. Simple neames for simple people, complicated for...well you get the picture.
Do you ever meet someone and think...She's not a Melissa, she's more like a Pauline. Or, he reminds me of a Gary etc...
This is what everyone does, we do it with greater thought. I don't worry about them remiinding me of someone I know I worry about them reminding me of someone I don't know. For I need to know my characters, warts and names.
(I have been known to a be somewhat obsessional Ha!)
I actually struggle with character names quite a bit -- I often worry that the ones I pick sound fake. I thought the show LOST handled names brilliantly. On the other hand, as Syd Field noted in his book SCREENPLAY, in the section about developing characters, "a name is a name." (paraphrasing here). I guess thinking about character names and making them unique is fine as long as you don't lose sight of the big picture.
ReplyDeleteI realize I didn't get this posted before the weekend. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteI write fantasy, and the people in my story descend from various real cultures. To simulate the way that languages change when divergent cultures meet, I make my character names using parts of words from both cultures.
That said, I try to make them pronounceable and easy to remember, which was difficult using parts of the Aztec language.