What's in a Name?

[danielle100]

Posted this on my blog today. What are your thoughts?

What's in a name?

A lot. Especially if you're the person being named. Thank goodness it was up to my father to name me otherwise I'd be called something ridiculous. I'm glad I don't remember it. But I do remember thinking how I'd be an entirely different person if I had that name.

Now that I think about it, my mother must have been trying to sabotage me. Also, she wanted to name me Dani after a crotchety old woman in a black-and-white film. Really, Mom? If you're going to name me after someone let it be someone who has grace. Anyway, most of my family still calls me Dani. (I wonder if they're trying to tell me something.) Luckily, my dad wanted Danielle. Thanks, Dad!

I believe you have to look at naming your characters in the same way. When we were naming our son, I couldn't look through those endless lists of baby names starting with A. It drove me crazy. I am the same way when choosing character names. I can't bear to look at those books.

So, last fall when I began writing BACK IN FOCUS, I was watching a lot of Nick Jr. with my son and trying to figure out names. When it hit me. Nickelodeon is the perfect place to find names because the names are somewhat unique. So that's how I named the restaurant Marley's after the cute Bob Marley video of "Three Little Birds." (Click the blog link below to view the video.) I also got a secondary character's name Nell after the dog (named Mel) on Jack's Big Music Show. I wanted certain characters to have names that I thought were unique because they were important to the story. I wanted to love the names of the characters I loved.

Also, I named Ethan after an old friend who is also the inspiration for the character. The main characters, Chance and Abby, were not chosen this way. I don't know anyone named Chance, but because one of the themes of the books is chance that's where that name came from.

Initially, the book was going to be titled Chance and Faith, and Abby's name was going to be Faith. But I thought I was being cliche enough with the Chance name. Then Abby just sort of popped in my head. If you've ever read The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the antagonist in the story is Abigail Williams. My Abby, however, is nothing like Arthur's Abby. Arthur's Abby is a bit of a control freak to say the least. My Abby could probably learn a thing or two from her about being more in focus and going after the things she desires. I suppose we all could, but that's another blog post!

How did you decide your characters' names?

Danielle Spears
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[Watcher55]

I appeal to the ancient practice of assuming descriptive or symbolic names, even later in life. All my characters' names are symbolic, often in more ways than one. Whether it's a translation (The Greek name Filipos implied one who was fond of horses), an allusion (Jean Louise is an anachronism whose father's name is Atticus), or an outright giveaway (Anomali).

[dios4vida]

Most of my names are scrambled-up words and letters that just sound right to me. I have a set of Bananagrams in my desk that I'll play with like blocks - lining up letters and mixing it all up until I find something that works. I have a list of cool names on my white board as "storage". I, like Danielle, want my characters to have unique names. For a while I tried for Watcher's symbolic theme, but I got so lost in names and meanings that I didn't get anything done. It was super-fun research, though!

I usually give my characters a temporary name while I get to know them. Sometimes, though, I'll stumble across something that just fits, and then I know it's right. For instance - I knew right away that the anatagonist in my WIP would be Shaize, so I crafted her after that name. I wrote my protaganist for a while before naming him Qeerith. I still don't have a name for my female lead.

I think that's one reason why I like writing fantasy. I couldn't write about an accountant named Qeerith, but an Underground-dwelling Cairumen (race) who discovers he has magic when he journeys to the surface? Sure! Qeerith works! :)

[polymath]

Are names taken for granted? I feel they have real magics in their underlying meanings and origins. Santiago, the protagonist from Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea means St. James, for James the Greater, apostle of Christ, a fisherman along with brother John and brothers Simon and Andrew. Manillo, the boy, is a nickname for Immanuel, the Christ Child.

Los Angeles is a truncation of El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciuncula. The Pueblo of our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the River Porciuncula.

John through English, Biblical, Greek, and Hebrew etymology simply means God (Yahweh) is gracious.

Desirae has varying meanings, desired for one, death of woe for another, not too far apart in any case.

Liu or Lee or phonetically identical variations thereof are the most common given name. Mohammed comes in second.

Aloysius Thibodeaux Hieronymous Pendergast, IV. Quite a handle to hang on a child. Cruel magics, I'm sure, with possibly great and tragic outcomes. I'd call him Al.

Mom named me. Dad objected but acquisced. Two of my names are given, my birth name and infancy passage name (christening, baptismal, tribal acceptance). My surname is institutionally assigned for all statutory purposes and intents. My full, legal, formal name has a suffix. I chose a fourth name at age of adulthood entry. Malicious malefactors have hung cruel and spiteful nicknames on me from time to time. I have a spirit name I took at age of majority known only to me and perhaps my maker. I have dozens of usrnames, e-mail accounts, and screen names. In all they represent my self-identity, no one alone.

In the Merry Old Order of Robin Hood, circa 1400 CE, the peoples practiced matrilineal succession as the Druids and Gaels did of old. Sons took their father's surname at passage into manhood rites. Daughters bore their mother's surname. Sons born nine months after Morris Day, May 1st, were suspected of being issue from a man different from the mother's spouse, and surnamed accordingly.

Thar's magics in them thar names.

[sierramcconnell]

I just sit there and go, "Okay, tell me your name."

So far that seems to work. XD I also get hints in things so I wikispiral until something comes up.

Currently, what I was calling Peter (who never liked the rest of "his" name or anything else for that matter that I tried to make "him" into) has now came up with this:

Petyr Tetranovsky (and depending on the mood, something of a strange place surname is added here. It shifts, like /she/ does.)

The odd thing is, I really have no real idea where these things come from, but strange stuff always seems to line up later when I say, "Alright, I'm just going with it."

I honestly think I'm just haunted.

[oldhousejunkie]

I'm lucky because I write historical fiction. So I need to operate within the parameters of names used in a particular time period. But I also rely on what I know about my characters. The female protag in my novel was somewhat tom-boyish, so I chose Julienne, the female form of Julian. Also her mother was French, so that worked out. The male protag ended up being Alexander or Alex, which as a name, I really don't care for, but it seemed to fit him. So I went for it.

The new novel that I am drafting is set in 18th century Ireland, so I've had a field day picking out Irish surnames. I'm trying not to be too stereotypical though. :-) One of my male protags started out as Edward Fitzpatrick, but ended up being Edmund Kilpatrick as his character started to flesh out. I liked it better in the end.

[TheZies]

yeah, the crazy thing is you name a Character and then several drafts later, you could never imagine them being anyone else.

my names are simple.
Jake
Michelle
Alex
rebekah
chelsea

but that's who they are. I can't see naming them anything else.

[Chantelle.S.]

I was thinking about this same thing just the other day.
The series I'm working on is centered in a fantasy world filled with magic and different races, etc. So when I picked up a book that a friend of mine recommended to me a couple of years ago, titled The Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan, and started to read the second book in the trilogy (The Novice) I was very... well... discouraged. Some of the races she described in there, although not akin to my own, still reminded me of the different races I have popping up in my own work. What got to me a little was that just about all the names - of the characters, of the locations, and of the different races - were all different. Unique. Names that I haven't come across in literacy yet.

And it made me wonder whether trying to BE unique with names is just categorising myself with the rest of the writers in the world who are also playing around to find unique names. Not that it's a bad thing, but to me it's becoming a new stereotype - you know THAT book with THAT character's name you don't REALLY know how to pronounce because it's so DIFFERENT.
Although the names I've been using aren't that unique. Isabelle, Sebastien (purposely spelled that way), Demitrius, Galen, Faye, Darius...they're all names that I've heard before, or of people that I've met before. The only one that is 'unique' so far is Somero, inspired by a certain Romero I know.

But back on topic, as far as naming a character goes: whatever suits. Most of the time I'd research the meaning or origin of a name, something that has to fit my character in some way, such as one of my latest critters is called Desi (short for some other name that is something like Desdemona, with the meaning 'demon' or 'devil') because she has demon blood inside of her. Another of my characters is called Mikael, the Jewish version of Michael, but specifically named after the arch-angel Michael due to the character in Supernatural. I tend to have more trouble naming my novels than my characters.

[Beethovenfan]

The main character in the MS I recently finished is named Jane. I chose it because of its ordinary-ness. She is a young woman who is anything but ordinary so I figured her name could be - no, should be plain.
A lot of the other names in my story I chose because of who their characters are. For example, one woman who works in the kitchens is named Ms. Filpott. Another, Master Troubere, is a derivitive of the word troubadour, because he is a singer and voice teacher. I have a lot of fun trying to come up with names that have meaning for my characters. Perhaps they are a bit obvious, but I like it. It works for me.

[Leila]

Good question. So far, I've found that some characters appear in my head fully formed, with names attached. Others appear in their physical form, but without names.

I tend to choose names based on a character's qualities, values and characteristics, then test them against my own internal filters. Sometimes that is a conscious thing, (when I'm not sure what to name a character) and sometimes subconscious (when the character appears in my head with a name). I think strong characters need strong names. How do you choose a strong name? I look at the meaning behind the name, from whatever angle or filter I can find, then fit it against my values, which, lets face it, are connected in whatever way to that character exists. Even in an oppositional sense.

In any case, I believe names are very powerful and act almost as a front facing attribute of the person they are attached to, if that makes sense.

[danielle100]

Sorry about it taking me so long to get around to responding to your posts. I promise to do better. But can I just gush for a minute over you wonderful people and tell you again how glad I am to have joined the Bransforums? Truly I am :)

I have to say that hearing how you guys search for names with meanings, my way of using Nick Jr. to find names, seems sort of juvenile. I will try to be more open-minded (for lack of a better word). I do have a few cliche names, but now that I've finished the book, I can't imagine them with any other, as a previous poster also stated.

[sierramcconnell]

Dani, I just used wikipedia and a word scrambler for alien tree names. I think Nick Jr works fine. :D

Also, on my very first book (which one day I will rewrite, Tema, I am not forgetting you) I got his name from my half-blind staring at a slide show in school. Ternary came up on the board in a database class and I saw the r and n go together. I thought 'Tema' would be a cute name. I swear I have seen it since then.

Terelyn L'fiel (same sorry book) came up because of a misheard foreign song lyric. XD

So honestly, get them where you can.