I need help with names for my novel

[lissapup]

* Dalton- Dad
* Dalton- mom
Willow "Will" Dalton
* Dalton
Madison Dalton

Camille "Cammie" Oakham -Twins
Cassandra "Cassie" Oakham -twins

Lydia Songg
Samuel Songg -twins
Hannah Songg -twins

Fill in the * with the name that fits the most.


Race: Caucasian
Hair Color: brunette
Eye Color: bluish-gray
Height: 5’ 5”
Weight: about 110
Build: Average
Grade/Age: 8th 13
Gender: Female
Description: She is very modest. The main character is the middle child in her family. She has a bad relationship with her family who thinks she is worthless. Her older sister Will is a tomboy, her younger sister Madison is a popular cheerleader. She has 2 best friends, Cassie and Cammie. Cassie is a skateboarder and BMX biker with short blonde hair. Cammie has bright auburn hair that is curly and long. Cammie is shyer than her sister and is more of a counselor, while Cassie is quick to act and is the boldest in the group. Cassie is an alto, Cammie is a soprano, and the main character is mezzo soprano. The main character is Lydia’s older cousin and roll model. Cassie, Lydia, Cammie, the main character, and her aunt and uncle are Christians but the rest of the characters aren’t.

[STORMTURNER]

I don't know what the story is about. So far, it sounds like the first 3 scenes of "Home Alone." Maybe you should be more specific.

[CindyBidar]

One of the ways I brainstorm for names is to try to match the character traits of the person with the meaning of the name. This site (http://www.behindthename.com/)allows you to search for names by keywords appearing in the meaning. It will also give you the origin of the name, so you don't call your German immigrant grandfather by a Japanese name. You seem to know a lot about your characters (good for you!), so this might work out well for you.

Another way to look at it is by choosing names that would have been likely choices in the years your characters were born. For example, if you know the mother was born in 1962, this site (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/)will tell you that the most popular name that year was Lisa. Scroll to the bottom to find it. The search function near the top only goes back as far as 1990.

I hope that helps you out a bit. Good luck!

[reph]

Remember that most people keep the names their parents gave them. What would those characters' parents have named their babies?

[Weren Cole]

I think it is important to be in touch with your character's, know them on a personal level and be able to have related them to your own life. Therefore when I name characters I give them names that remind of the people I have created these characters over. . . Is the father very much like somebody you know? If it is your own father but you don't want to use his first name, maybe use his middle name, or even his brother's name. . . somebody to remind you of the reason you created this character in the image of said person in the first place. . .

does that make sense. . . ?

[macalicious731]

Flip through a baby book. Find an alphabetized list on the web. Let them come to you. For the time being, you can use substitute names, or titles, or blanks in the WIP. You probably aren't going to find any suggestions on a message board "fitting" names, considering nobody knows the characters as well as you do.

[Trapped in amber]

One thing you might want to avoid is having more than one character name begining with the same letter, as you do with Cassie and Cammie. It is surprising how confusing this can be for the reader. When I've come across this in fiction, it takes me a long time to sort the chracters out in my mind, distracting me from the story.

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[reph]

In real life, names don't always match the stereotypes someone might have of the personalities of their bearers. Does a woman named Carmen have to wear bright red lipstick and have lots of dates? No. Not all accountants are named Herman or Harvey. (Not all accountants are boring, either.) It's tempting to pick names that you think fit the characters, but it'll make your story less realistic. Don't lean on a "fitting" name to do the job of creating a character.

[maestrowork]

I like how Reph thinks. What are the character's parents like? What name would they give the character?

[lissapup]

Ivan Dalton- Dad
Caroline Dalton- mom
Maxine "Max" Dalton
Laurel Dalton
Kailey Dalton


Whitney Oakham -Twins
Arielle Oakham -twins

Jonathan David Songg
Deborah Eve Songg -mom
Bethany Songg-
Samuel Songg -twins
Hannah Songg -twins

[lissapup]

www.freewebs.com/characte.../index.htm (http://www.freewebs.com/characternames/index.htm)

my name site (just a list really)

[Greenwolf103]

You'd be surprised where a character's name can be found. I got a name for one of my characters while researching my story.

The thing to keep in mind, though, is that you get your first draft done. Or, if that's not possible, write scenes with your "maybe" named character in action. See if it fits him/her. Write letters to this character, write up a character sketch, act like your character is a person in the same room. How does addressing them by this name work for you?

For the record: I once did a story where my characters were named after people I knew. I did this because I HAD to get the story written and I couldn't focus too much on their names right now. I picked new (perfect) names for them later.

Just my thoughts...

[anatole ghio]

In real life, names don't always match the stereotypes someone might have of the personalities of their bearers. Does a woman named Carmen have to wear bright red lipstick and have lots of dates? No. Not all accountants are named Herman or Harvey. (Not all accountants are boring, either.) It's tempting to pick names that you think fit the characters, but it'll make your story less realistic. Don't lean on a "fitting" name to do the job of creating a character.

This is an important point and well worth considering if you are writing in a realistic mode.

If you are writing in a more stylized mode and are using metaphors throughout your story, than using your characters names to express aspects of their meaning is a tool well worth using.

Read anything by Thomas Pynchon and all his characters are given names that point at some larger meaning (e.g. the main character of Gravity's Rainbow is named Tyrone Slothrop... sloth being one of the 7 deadly sins. Pynchon once wrote an essay about sloth, using it as the counter to the Protestant work ethic that our country was founded on; he cited Bartelby the Scribner as a classic example of sloth as a form of rebellion. So by naming the main character of his novel after sloth, he is making a comment on the way our society is order around certain principles).

Again, this will sacrifice some of the realism and can only be done if it is somehow highlighted in the piece (I once read a story where a character had the nickname "God" because his last name was Lord, and this character was the fulcrum of the piece).

- Anatole