character names

emsuniverse · Jul 24, 2006

Yet another thing I'm curious about... How do you come up with your characters' names?

I usually go to Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names page, where you can see the most popular names for a given year (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/). That way, I can find the names that would have been popular whenever my character was born - this especially helps on my elderly characters!

Em

Angela · Jul 24, 2006

Well, that is a neat idea! I'll have to remember that when I'm working with historical characters.

I get them from different places. A few I've made up off the top of my head (though that's quite rare for me!). If I'm looking for a name with a specific ethnicity, then I usually do an online search. Most of the names just come to me, sometimes they're just names I like, or even from people that I know (although the character is not based on these people!!), but the name has to "feel" right for the character. I started one story and I had a hard time with the MC's name. I was calling her by one name, and it just didn't feel right. It kept nagging at me, but I just kept going. Then I was working on a piece of heated dialogue, and this other character was supposed to use her name, and he said something completely different than the name I had been using and it hit me. THAT was her name! It just fit, it felt right.

Most of the time, though, the names just come to me, unless I'm working on a piece that needs research, like if I need to use Celtic or Gaelic names. I like baby name books and sites, though. I've found some great ones like that!!

LeeFlower · Jul 24, 2006

I spend way too much time geeking out about character names. I look into meanings, historical figures/fictional characters that have some quality in common with the character being named, etymology, etc. In most of my work, pretty much every character with any major part to play has some geeky reference or in-joke attached to their name.

Anagrams can be fun too. I've got a character in my YA W(so)IP named Kait Odekim. Odekim is an anagram of "emo-kid," and she has a bit of that going on.

UrsusMinor · Jul 24, 2006

You look for the 'popular names'? Interesting. I can see this for minor characters, but for major characters I like to have something memorable. I mean, does Bill Caulfield, or Steve Caulfield works as well as Holden Caulfield?

"Baby Names Around the World" by Bruce Lansky is quite useful, as is the (rather expensive and a little too UK) "Dictionary of Surnames."

I often have the name mean something relevant to the character; I think this works well as long as it isn't too blaring. Names like "Rocky Steele" suck, of course. But a protagonist of mine who is an overly rationalistic, methodical, geologist, is named "Walker Clayborne."

And, of course, Kurt Vonnegut's protagonist in "Slaughter-House 5" was "Billy Pilgrim."

And Orwell came up with a wonderful combination of the distinguished and mundane in "1984: "Winston Smith".

Varthikes · Jul 24, 2006

Next to my computer, I keep two books of Baby Names (one of them multicultural). I try to choose the best name that suits the character I'm trying to name.

For last names, I try to think of two random words and put them together (ex: Gemtree, Thornberry, etc.), or I'll scramble together two random first names. Or, if I'm trying to find a surname for a specific nationality, I'll search google for whatever the nationality I'm looking for.

When coming up with names for alien characters, one good place I like to go is the Bible. Take any two of those Hebrew names and scamble them together can give some pretty interesting names. I'll also use the second method I mentioned for Human surnames.

Mark Lazer · Jul 25, 2006

Names are irrelevant to me. Some characters won't even get a name in my stories.

Begbie · Jul 25, 2006

I have The Writers Digest Character Naming Sourcebook. It's good for a quick reference. But most of the names I use are composites of people I've known in the past. For instance, the first name of a bully from grammar school + the last name of a bully from high school = someone who is about to be killed off in the first scene.

KTC · Jul 25, 2006

My characters pick their own names. I just sit back and allow them to pick them.

Thomma Lyn · Jul 25, 2006

bea914 said:
I usually go to Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names page, where you can see the most popular names for a given year (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/). That way, I can find the names that would have been popular whenever my character was born - this especially helps on my elderly characters!

I do this for many of my characters, too. It's a great resource. Ditto on the elderly characters! Mildred Phyllis anyone?

For my protagonists, though, I like particularly distinctive names. My main characters tend to name themselves, but if not, I keep a file of interesting names and if I'm (they're) lucky, I'll find the perfect name there.

Cath · Jul 25, 2006

Since I'm writing a lot of speculative fiction at the mo my character names are usually anagrams of other namesor places. Otherwise, what KTC said.

JumpingJack · Jul 25, 2006

I find these sites very useful

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

http://www.behindthename.com/random/

Soccer Mom · Jul 25, 2006

Sometimes I take the name of someone I can't stand and change it a little and use it for a character. For example, there was a little girl who bullied my son at school. (He wouldn't stand up to her because he had been told to never hit girls. I have since given him permission to smack anyone who beats him up) I took the girls name and changed the spelling. I used it for a prostitute who gets hacked up by a serial killer. I took great glee in writing that scene.

K-Mark · Jul 25, 2006

I like using the plethora of names available in the wide world of sports and tweak them. Example, Pete Rose can be Rose Peters or Donovan McNabb can be Abby Donovan.

emeraldcite · Jul 25, 2006

Don't forget to check the threads in our FAQ.

You'll see some threads linking to other naming threads.

Anonymisty · Jul 25, 2006

Soccer Mom said:
I took the girls name and changed the spelling. I used it for a prostitute who gets hacked up by a serial killer. I took great glee in writing that scene.

*grin* I did something like that. Our critique group included a talented writer who kept bringing the same chapter over and over, with only tiny, minor changes. We loved the man dearly, but we finally got tired of hearing the same thing, since we were having to give pretty much the same critique every time. So we killed him off in our manuscripts, just to get his attention.

Luckily he was a good enough sport that he took the joke in the friendly manner we meant it, and wasn't offended.

IThinkICan29 · Jul 25, 2006

Soccer Mom, you're twisted....I LOVE IT!!!

PeeDee · Jul 25, 2006

My characters just have their names when they show up. Sometimes, the names mean something so that if you're paying attention, it hints at my story or my character. I don't like that. No parent says, "I will name my son Stephen, and it means crown, thus shall people know him to be the Chosen One on his twenty-first birthday." No, they say, "Well, if my boy is named Jimmy James, he's going to get beat, so I'll call him Fredrick." (They are not necessarily WISE parents...)

Sometimes, when I'm out and about in The Outside World (strange place...) I'll find people with really cool names and I'll write them down on my hand so I can use them someday. (Note: if you do this, write them ON YOUR PALM, so you don't the person out by having their name on the back of your hand.)

If it's not a major character, I won't always give them a name. You dont' want to flood the reader.

arrowqueen · Jul 25, 2006

For sheer lunacy you can't beat this site:

http://wesclark.com/ubn/

Toothpaste · Jul 25, 2006

I base characters on either people I know, or film characters. So then I do something with the name that is similar. For example a character in my book is based on the old actor George Sanders, and he plays an amazing character in All About Eve, called Addison De Wit, so I called the character Addison. Sometimes (as I write children's MG) I am just blatent about the names. Like Detective Thickwit, who is exactly what the name suggests. I have a lot of fun with names.

tu_sense · Jul 25, 2006

For one of my longer stories, names were easy because I had developed a rough language for the story. So I could go to babynames.com, take a popular name, and convert it into "their" language.

For shorter stuff, some combination of mythology, other languages, and babynames.com will do the trick.

Marlys · Jul 25, 2006

For a while, I named most of my characters after places in my city, especially library branches. In my latest book, the names are virtually all from a different geographic area that has meaning to me, with a few real surnames of people I knew from there thrown in for good measure. It'll be interesting to see if anyone picks up on it.

MadScientistMatt · Jul 25, 2006

Most of my names seem to have been quite random. Sometimes they slightly fit the character - for example, I've got a character who sees visions who is named Yakob, and that was meant to be a reference to Jacob's vision in the Book of Genesis.

Another character in the same book is named Lilac. She's the heroine, or maybe that should be anti-heroine. The name turned out to be rather inappropriate - there's been a scene or two where she really frightened me. However, she comes from a culture that is rather sexist and gives names that are meant to match gender roles. In a way, it seems her name is kind of a reminder that she is somewhat out of place in her society - but I'm not sure how much of that I intended when I gave her that name at all!

Most of the time, I just pluck a name for my characters out of the air. As long as it fits my world's naming conventions.

KatyaFleur · Jul 25, 2006

Interesting question. I guess the names for most of my characters just pop into my head while the character is developing. Occasionally I consult a baby name list when I have a character name in mind but it doesn't quite work for the story (if the name I first thought of turns out to be too similar to another character's, for example).

What I have a much bigger problem with is names of places. If my story takes place in a fictional town or building, I have a hard time coming up with those names. For my last novella, I spent all kinds of time trying to name a cemetery that was important to the story.

Katya

emsuniverse · Jul 25, 2006

Hey Soccer Mom, after reading your post about naming a bad character after someone you can't stand and I immediately figured out the name for my main "bad girl". I just named the head villian after a woman I hated in high school... It's going to feel absolutely wonderful to kill her off.

Thanks!

Ordinary_Guy · Jul 26, 2006

Naming names...

Lots of great suggestions in here.

I'm definitely an EEO writer – I try to sprinkle in all kinds of ethnicities into my modern stuff. When a name isn't presenting itself, I'll use the web.

If I'm at a loss for a character, I'll flip open the White Pages (which is ironically and conveniently multi-ethnic) and browse until something hits me.

I've got shelves and shelves of books around me and I have sometimes browsed the spines for writer's names. Other times, I've cracked open some huge non-fiction work and browsed the index for names.

I have, at times, borrowed the names of people I've met but I try to keep that to a minimum. I find the personal connection/baggage can sometimes skew the story. If I'm basing the character on the actual person – full steam ahead. If not, I don't want anything subconscious pulling the narrative away from where I've planned for it to go. It's almost karmic: if you're using the name of someone you don't like, it might be cathartic as you write the scene. In the end, though, you may end up giving them far more credit than they deserve.

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