Naming characters

@toddjones Do you have a certain way to go about it when you then pick out the final name?

@patricia-a Recently, I've been using names that are easier to pronounce, but representative of the country they are from. Nothing worse than a reader stumbling over a name all the time. My writing of awkward sentences makes them stumble enough.

I use (name) if I haven't decided on a name. I'm working on a science-fiction story and I started out with Rose as the main character's name. After a few pages into my writing, Rose didn't seem to fit in the story- every supporting character had a unique and sounded more fitting for space travel. I changed to the name. Has anyone had a name not seem to fit what you are writing?  How did you make a decision on what to use?

@stephanie1980 Yes, I absolutely have. Sometimes the character changes, sometimes the name just doesn't fit with the setting or the plot. I'm not a big fan of complicated fantasy names, so I try to make sure my names are easy to read in one pass and follow common pronunciation options, even if I'm making up a new name.

I often change character names as the story evolves. Sometimes its aesthetic like their name doesn't fit the world, or their character but just as often its because I realize I have too similar sounding names. Other times I'm writing from different computers and simply don't remember the right name, or how the name is spelled (even for common names that have multiple spellings)

The key here before submission - and I ran into this literally yesterday - is catching ALL the times I've addressed said character and making sure the name is the same throughout. It seems not worth it to do a computer search on a flash but it is! Yesterday I had read the story a dozen times and not picked up on a character name change mid-story. The computer picks up on these things more reliably than our brains

Naming is a pretty big deal for me. My own practice coincides with your number 1, then deviates from there. I’ll initially drop in a name like [Sam]. The brackets let me know it’s something I mean to return to, and I do something similar for other parts of the narrative I mean to circle back on such as [describe setting] & [improve description].

For names in particular, I realized something important while working on a novel project. It involved an orphan MC. I think we aspiring storytellers want our main characters to have super flashy names, but we’re neglecting an important detail. In the character’s world, who would have named them and why would they have chosen that name?

To give you an example, this orphan’s name is Mioko. Initially, I dropped [Sarah] into place just to keep the draft going while I figured out what the story was about. But when [Sarah] turned out to have a Japanese lineage and a shortened lifespan, her parents would have viewed her as something short lived, yet beautiful—a Japanese sentiment synonymous with the Samurai way of life and the blooms of a cherry blossom tree.
So, [Sarah] became Mioko (Mio: beautiful cherry blossom, ko: child)

After you know more about the plot and world, what’s the given character’s background? You could include some theme or sentiment that his/her parents held while naming them. So if you had a Slavic character whose parents wanted to name him/her something meaning courage or strength, you could try searching names with similar key words: ‘Slavic name meaning strength.’

Hope this helps!

@morgan-broadhead Just a quick question, dear sir: Is it important to add basic details like birthdays, family background, introvert or extrovert traits? Where should we get this information from? Should we use random generators like this (just a reference tool like fantasynamegenerators), I’m a newbie and asking this question.

Posted by: @jamesavery7

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@morgan-broadhead Just a quick question, dear sir: Is it important to add basic details like birthdays, family background, introvert or extrovert traits? Where should we get this information from? Should we use random generators like this (just a reference tool like fantasynamegenerators), I’m a newbie and asking this question.

Welcome @jamesavery7. The system won't let you put links into your first 5 posts due to a spam control setting built into the forum software, thus it was removed... 

Posted by: @jamesavery7

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@morgan-broadhead Just a quick question, dear sir: Is it important to add basic details like birthdays, family background, introvert or extrovert traits? Where should we get this information from? Should we use random generators like this (just a reference tool like fantasynamegenerators), I’m a newbie and asking this question.

So I will take a brief stab at this though I'm definitely interested in others takes on this.

For me, using a random generator can work for some things - in the same way that writing to a prompt can sometimes make your brain twist a little and force you not to follow your old well travellled paths and help you write a very different story.

However, I do not use these for things like birthdays, family backgrounds and introversion vs extroversion. For me, all of these should be evolving from the story itself and support it in some way.

For example, tension and conflict help (make) a story. So if the story is about an older sibling dying so the younger one suddenly has to step up and take that siblings place as bread winner/family head/ king/whatever, who is going to have more struggle standing up to get a crown and leading? An extrovert who always wanted the limelight? Or an introvert who just wants to stay home and read and paint and never bothered learning about all the state craft they are now in the center of? The second makes a more interesting story, so in that way the story has chosen. Or if you like to think about it the other way round, these choices should serve story.

If the story is about Mars becoming independent from Earth, it may be symbolic for their birthday to be such that they were born on the day they left Earth. Or perhaps they were the first Mars baby, the first true Martian. Conversely, if conflict is more important than the symbolism maybe they should have grown up on Earth and still have allegiance or affection for it.

Posted by: @jamesavery7

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@morgan-broadhead Just a quick question, dear sir: Is it important to add basic details like birthdays, family background, introvert or extrovert traits? Where should we get this information from? Should we use random generators like this (just a reference tool like fantasynamegenerators), I’m a newbie and asking this question.

Personally, I don't spend much time filling out detailed character reference sheets or diving into a character's background or genealogy. I'm more interested in a character's weakness, need, conflict, etc. As @gideonpsmith mentions above, that's really at the heart of a story and far more important than hair color or eye color or birthday or whether they are the oldest or youngest kid in their family. Unless, of course, those particular characteristics are somehow vital to the plot or resolution of the story. (Looking at you here, Paul Muad'dib.) Then again, I haven't won this contest (yet) and haven't sold a single story (yet), so maybe I should spend more time on character creation...? <shrugs>

My character names are mostly pretty randomly selected from names fitting the character's society.

For stories set in the USA after around 1890 through the near future, that is very literal. I have a spreadsheet page with number ranges for men and women listed from rows 1-500, with larger ranges at the top and smaller ranges at the bottom, based on the actual numbers of babies born for the first, second, third, etc. most popular names a couple generations ago. For women, 1-56037; 56038-97587; and 97588-131585 are the ranges for the top three names. Then I use a random number generator, find the ranking for the range that number fits into, and check the social security name rankings for their year of birth.

I also have a page with a big long list of surnames, with origin if I can find that information, that I pick from.

Farther in the future, I decide what styles were popular at the time the characters were born, list names that fit those styles, and either pick what I like or use the random number generator to pick for me.

If I end up with something like Parker Parker or Carl Sagan, I choose a neighboring name (#47 instead of #46, for example) or regenerate a number.

Fantasy worlds, I create a list of names following certain letter/phoneme patterns and pick from the ones I like.

For siblings, I pick names from the same original set that seem like they would have been chosen by the same parents.

If at any point I think a name needs to be changed - like if the way they feel about having a different name could display their character well, or I realize two characters have easily confused names, or something - I'll pick something new and find and replace.

^ This is very cool. I always appreciate a good spreadsheet. I use them for all kinds of things. Not for names, though I probably should so I stop losing them.

Circling around to actually answer the question - heh - My favorite place to get names is gravestones. I literally got my pen name from one (the last name, anyway). Found my ancestors' plot, pretty much exclusively theirs, and they were all over the place. Underground, not walking around...

I take pictures of my favorites for possible later use. I've got an Elnathan Cory, a woman named Zonie Lampkin. And my favorite which I used in a short story and an entire trilogy:

I often pick names based on their meaning, selecting one that fits the theme. For example, "Whelan" (meaning wolf) in a werewolf story, "De Boer" (farmer/landsman) for an arborist character, "Ajal" (time of death) in a story about death, and so on. I consider these tiny Easter eggs, even if I'm the only one who knows the hidden meanings. 

I also often work in my daughter Molly's name (or something related to her) where possible. In one story, I named an AI "M011" and in another, I named a stuffed animal "Flip" after her real-life favorite stuffie. 

Posted by: @stricklandia

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I often pick names based on their meaning, selecting one that fits the theme. For example, "Whelan" (meaning wolf) in a werewolf story, "De Boer" (farmer/landsman) for an arborist character, "Ajal" (time of death) in a story about death, and so on.

https://namerology.com/2021/10/26/are-you-at-risk-of-becoming-a-werewolf-heres-how-to-tell/

Sometimes, the name exists, and then the character grows to fit the name.  But if I don't have a name for a character yet, I'm often in the "names with meaning" camp.  I'll just google "names that mean [insert defining characteristic here]" and find something that feels like it fits the character.  I ended up naming a blacksmith "Blake Ferron Smith" (Black Blacksmith Smith if you're going by the meaning 😆) just for my own personal sheets and geeggles. It fits with the setting pretty well, since it's kind of absurd fantasy humor.

I love on-the-nose yet hidden meanings in names.

Ferron is a good one.

That’s a thoughtful approach! I usually start with a feeling for the character, then test out sounds or cultural references until a name just clicks. Sometimes placeholders help, other times I browse lists for inspiration.

I am thinking of using a new method.

Shouldn't names come from the story, or similar?

For example John and Jack are nearly every US main male character, as it's a popular every man name, I assume?

Female? Hmm...

Elle, Ellen, Anna, Sarah?

I guess, while men can get away with the same suits, women all have different dresses.

I'll have to look into that some more.

Or the theme?

Adam and Eve in a similar story to Genesis? For example.

Sci-fi has a lot of science/tech names. Neo, Data, Quarks, so on.

George Lucas named a droid while editing American graffiti (I think it was) Reel 2, Dialogue 2.

There's also the Marvel (Stan Lee) way, have people's first and last names Start with the same letter. Dr Doom, Peter Parker, Sue Storm, so on.