Naming conventions - first name or surname?

Depends. For example, if two friends share the page space, be consistent with the naming. If it is a boss and his worker sharing the page space, though, you can (and should) refer to one as Mr Smith and another one as John.

I use naming as a way of saying how close my point of view character is to the person they're naming. How they think of the person. So in my WIP there are two main POV characters, and one of them thinks of her brother by his first name, while the other thinks of the same person - who is a stranger to him - by his profession/title.

I also have at least the one POV character who thinks of some people by their first names and some by their last. His flunkies are first-name, his social superiors are last-name.

In real life, we do think of some people by their first names, and others not so much. I think it's a useful social cue. If we use it, we have to be extra careful, of course, not to be confusing But I think it's possible.

The most ruthless of the criminal gang in my second book is Herr Muller. Even his colleagues call him this. Knights are always Sir Cedric etc. Others are first names. That's how I do it, anyway.

Whichever method you use - be reasonably consistent for the duration of that particular POV - so long as the reader knows to whom the name refers it's no great problem. How formal or warm a connection to the character do you wish the reader to have?

Incidentally, the highlighted section below is not written from the POV of Bloggs. It's an omniscient observation from the narrator.

Isaac Espriu said:

Thanks for the comments so far.

I just re-read my initial post and i should probably clarify the question a little more...

This concerns characters whose POV i am writing from. If, while writing from one characters POV i name him Smith, should i then, when writing from others characters POV refer to these characters by their surnames?

Say when writing from Smith's POV: "Sounds about right," Smith said as the woman placed her groceries on the belt.

Then when i write from Bloggs (note, these are not my characters actual names ) POV should it go like this: Bloggs hated grocery shopping. It was one of those essential things that she couldn't get out of the way quick enough.

Or could i write it by saying: Nellie blah, blah, blah?

Yeah i know it sounds like a dumb question, but my current WIP has me juggling POV's from seven different characters and it suddenly hit me that in narrative from their respective POV's i refer to some by first name and some by last name. Do i need to be consistent or is it okay to jump around like that?

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Bufty said:

Incidentally, the highlighted section below is not written from the POV of Bloggs. It's an omniscient observation from the narrator.

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Bloggs hated grocery shopping. It was one of those essential things that she couldn't get out of the way quick enough.

This sounds like a type of statement that I would make although I'm writing in 3rd person limited, which leads me to question (once again) my understanding of 3rd person vs. omniscient.

Should statements like the one above be avoided if writing in 3rd person limited?

Isaac Espriu said:

Right, i figure this is a fairly basic writing question - hence why i'm asking it in this forum...

I know it's never a good idea to refer to a character by first name in some places and last name or other names in other places - very confusing for poor Mr Reader.

However, if i have several characters sharing a lot of page space is it best to use the same naming convention for all of them?...e.g. Joe Smith is always referred to as Smith. Does that mean that Nellie Bloggs should always be referred to as Bloggs? Or if i think that it sounds better can i refer to her as Nellie instead but still refer to Joe Smith as Smith?

I'm thinking that for consistency i should always use the same naming convention for all characters, but i'm not one hundred percent sure...

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Invariably, I refer to a character using the name the POV character would use, even if that name changes when I switch POV characters. So my character who thinks of herself as "Rebecca" is always called "Rebecca" when the story is in her POV, but switches to "Becca" in her husband's POV, because that's what he calls her and how he thinks of her.

If my readers can't follow that, then I haven't made the story clear enough or engaging enough.

What I'd avoid is switching between first and last names (or nicknames) in a single POV just for the sake of "variety." But I don't see any reason at all to call every last character by the same kind of name, i.e., only last names (Smith, Jones) or honorific + last name (Mr. Smith, Mrs. Jones) or only first names (Dave, Candy). The only reason to do this is if you were writing from the POV of a character (or narrator) who had some weird, anal compulsion about referring to everyone by their last name, or something.

I don't think a categoric 'No' is right here, because if it were an opening statement, say, prior to popping me into Blogg's experiences I wouldn't mind.

But if the quoted statement appeared in the middle of a true Blogg's POV paragraph it would give the reader a jolt because it's obviously the writer giving information about Bloggs directly to the reader and not the reader learning something through Blogg's actions and/or thoughts/reactions.

So think before using is the answer I would give. I'm sure someone else will answer you better -we'll see.

MoonWriter said:

Bloggs hated grocery shopping. It was one of those essential things that she couldn't get out of the way quick enough.

This sounds like a type of statement that I would make although I'm writing in 3rd person limited, which leads me to question (once again) my understanding of 3rd person vs. omniscient.

Should statements like the one above be avoided if writing in 3rd person limited?

Click to expand...

Invariably, I refer to a character using the name the POV character would use, even if that name changes when I switch POV characters. So my character who thinks of herself as "Rebecca" is always called "Rebecca" when the story is in her POV, but switches to "Becca" in her husband's POV, because that's what he calls her and how he thinks of her.

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Couldn't have said it better myself. IMHO, this draws the reader further into the head of the POV character and can reveal a great deal about the relationships between characters.

I'd suggest staying consistent with a name in the narrative throughout the entire book. I've had books where it lost me because the narrative switched names for a POV, and I couldn't figure out who that was. Of course, in dialogue, the characters can call either other by whatever other preferences because the narrative will tie it together.

This thread reminded me of a fan fiction writer I knew ages ago. She thought it was terribly repetitive to use the names, and so she would have one section of a few pages where a character might be referred to in narrative multiple ways (i.e., the captain, the skipper, John, Smith). Some readers thought they were four different characters!