First, some background on my own name before I get to my main protag's name.
My nom de plum is Sheila West. I use it on my manuscripts and on my message board registrations. As for my REAL name (not tellin'!), it's annoyingly hard to pronounce. I have spent my whole life correcting people who read it and then misprononce it, or else correcting people who hear it and then misspell it. I vowed that if I ever became a writer, I would come up with a name that NO ONE would mispronouce upon reading, or misspell upon hearing.
Well, I invented the name Sheila West this past winter at the same time I was writing my current screenplayn and that resulted in a cross-over with my main protag. Now, I diligently searched out the symbolism for for the name "Galvin" as the first name of my main protagonist. And as for his last name, I wanted it to be a quick one-syllable name that was easy and memorable and kinda cool-sounding. I wanted his last name to be so un-difficult as to off-set the admitted strangeness of his first name.
So ........... since I had only just dubbed myself Sheila West a few days earleir, and registered at a couple of web sites under the name Sheila West, my main protag's name wound up being Galvin West.
At the time I thought nothing of it. But now, it poses an overt yellow light to people of my possibly having a serious case of Mary Sue-ism. Thus the need to change either his name or mine.
Because it's a pain in the arse to change my web registrations, it's easier at this point to simply change my main protag's name. Here's what I want:
1) One syllable. I like the syllabic rhythm of his current name: Galvin West. (If a REALLY cool 2-syllable name comes up that somehow sounds ultra-cool when paired with "Galvin," then I might consider it.)
2) Four letters (or three). I need to execute a "find/replace." And --as most of you know--screenplays have very strict formatting. So as long as I can keep the same number of characters (or less) in his name, I won't rock the boat on formatting and page count.
3) Something so common that it won't sound strange. As I said above, I want his last name to be easy enough on the ears and the sensibilities of a typical movie-going American to off-set the oddness of his first name. It needs to be an EFFORTLESS name to hear and pronounce.
4) Something kinda cool-sounding. To me "West" is a cooler than cool name in an understated kind of way. It's not terribly biting, but instead has a gentle glide to it. Very low key.
5) Something kind of American-sounding. Galvin is a nice white-bread lad from Back East. His last name needs to be more American in flavor than (say) German or Italian or Czech.
6) The entomology must be positive. Something upbeat and friendly.
7) It can't be a color. I already have another major character whose last name is Brown (and there is a critical symblic reason why I chose Brown for that other character, so I am NOT changing that other character's name). Thus, having another character named after a color would just draw attention to itself. I am NOT Quentin Tarantino, and this is NOT Resevior Dogs I'm writing here.
8) It can't be an animal. The name "Galvin" is already an animal -- specifically a sparrow (that is my intended symblism). So having his last name also be an animal would result in a bizarre and maybe even laughable zoological hybrid, short-circuting my symbolism. And I can't have that.
Here are some possibilities I came up with, but each of them fell short by one of the above criteria.
Galvin Best (kinda hoaky-sounding--and that's not cool)
Galvin Lisle (hard to pronounce and hard to sound-out if it gets read off the page; and it has 5 letters instead of 4)
Galvin Rook (the entomology denotes trickery and deception)
Galvin Blake (it's also a first name--so some people might be inclined to call him "Blake Galvin"; also too many letters)
Galvin Brook (again, it's likewise a first name, and a GIRL's first name, and it has too many letters)
Galvin Wells (this was a really close call -- I almost went for it, but it has 5 letters)
Galvin Rigg (there are a few famous people named Rigg, one of whom is a female)
Galvin Boyd (kinda clumsy to pronounce when paired with the first name "Galvin")
Galvin Dale (again it's a first name, and sometimes a female's name)
Galvin Day (a female first name)
Galvin Deke (the entomology means "deception" and it sounds too close to "Dick" --and remember, guys this has to SOUND good during a MOVIE, so for someone to call him "Deke" and it winds up sounding like "Dick" just wouldn't work at all)
Galvin Dray (another close contender, but it has a weak sound to it)
Thanks ahead of time.
My nom de plum is Sheila West. I use it on my manuscripts and on my message board registrations. As for my REAL name (not tellin'!), it's annoyingly hard to pronounce. I have spent my whole life correcting people who read it and then misprononce it, or else correcting people who hear it and then misspell it. I vowed that if I ever became a writer, I would come up with a name that NO ONE would mispronouce upon reading, or misspell upon hearing.
Well, I invented the name Sheila West this past winter at the same time I was writing my current screenplayn and that resulted in a cross-over with my main protag. Now, I diligently searched out the symbolism for for the name "Galvin" as the first name of my main protagonist. And as for his last name, I wanted it to be a quick one-syllable name that was easy and memorable and kinda cool-sounding. I wanted his last name to be so un-difficult as to off-set the admitted strangeness of his first name.
So ........... since I had only just dubbed myself Sheila West a few days earleir, and registered at a couple of web sites under the name Sheila West, my main protag's name wound up being Galvin West.
At the time I thought nothing of it. But now, it poses an overt yellow light to people of my possibly having a serious case of Mary Sue-ism. Thus the need to change either his name or mine.
Because it's a pain in the arse to change my web registrations, it's easier at this point to simply change my main protag's name. Here's what I want:
1) One syllable. I like the syllabic rhythm of his current name: Galvin West. (If a REALLY cool 2-syllable name comes up that somehow sounds ultra-cool when paired with "Galvin," then I might consider it.)
2) Four letters (or three). I need to execute a "find/replace." And --as most of you know--screenplays have very strict formatting. So as long as I can keep the same number of characters (or less) in his name, I won't rock the boat on formatting and page count.
3) Something so common that it won't sound strange. As I said above, I want his last name to be easy enough on the ears and the sensibilities of a typical movie-going American to off-set the oddness of his first name. It needs to be an EFFORTLESS name to hear and pronounce.
4) Something kinda cool-sounding. To me "West" is a cooler than cool name in an understated kind of way. It's not terribly biting, but instead has a gentle glide to it. Very low key.
5) Something kind of American-sounding. Galvin is a nice white-bread lad from Back East. His last name needs to be more American in flavor than (say) German or Italian or Czech.
6) The entomology must be positive. Something upbeat and friendly.
7) It can't be a color. I already have another major character whose last name is Brown (and there is a critical symblic reason why I chose Brown for that other character, so I am NOT changing that other character's name). Thus, having another character named after a color would just draw attention to itself. I am NOT Quentin Tarantino, and this is NOT Resevior Dogs I'm writing here.
8) It can't be an animal. The name "Galvin" is already an animal -- specifically a sparrow (that is my intended symblism). So having his last name also be an animal would result in a bizarre and maybe even laughable zoological hybrid, short-circuting my symbolism. And I can't have that.
Here are some possibilities I came up with, but each of them fell short by one of the above criteria.
Galvin Best (kinda hoaky-sounding--and that's not cool)
Galvin Lisle (hard to pronounce and hard to sound-out if it gets read off the page; and it has 5 letters instead of 4)
Galvin Rook (the entomology denotes trickery and deception)
Galvin Blake (it's also a first name--so some people might be inclined to call him "Blake Galvin"; also too many letters)
Galvin Brook (again, it's likewise a first name, and a GIRL's first name, and it has too many letters)
Galvin Wells (this was a really close call -- I almost went for it, but it has 5 letters)
Galvin Rigg (there are a few famous people named Rigg, one of whom is a female)
Galvin Boyd (kinda clumsy to pronounce when paired with the first name "Galvin")
Galvin Dale (again it's a first name, and sometimes a female's name)
Galvin Day (a female first name)
Galvin Deke (the entomology means "deception" and it sounds too close to "Dick" --and remember, guys this has to SOUND good during a MOVIE, so for someone to call him "Deke" and it winds up sounding like "Dick" just wouldn't work at all)
Galvin Dray (another close contender, but it has a weak sound to it)
Thanks ahead of time.
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