Soooo, since the story I’ve been working on for months has reached a standstill, I’m working on short stories to keep my mind busy. I’m on a roll with one, but I’ve managed to plan the whole story without much thought to character names. Help, please?
It’s set 1900-1910. The more I plan it, the more I see parallels with [name]Jane[/name] [name]Eyre[/name]. Basically, man of the house runs off with the children’s nurse in the end
The leading guy, Mr Chapman, 35. Need a strong name for this chap who’s put up with a lot of cr@p in his life. [name]Sam[/name], [name]David[/name], [name]Andrew[/name]? Nothing feels right
I’m not checking for doubles, so if there are some, they are seconded!
Leading man: [name]Roland[/name], [name]Oscar[/name], [name]Edmund[/name], [name]Gregory[/name] or [name]George[/name]. Or something surname-y, like [name]Hendrick[/name] or [name]Fairchild[/name].
The daughters: [name]Helen[/name]/[name]Helena[/name], [name]Eva[/name], [name]Imogen[/name], [name]Grace[/name], [name]Gertrude[/name], [name]Willa[/name]
The nurse: [name]Katherine[/name] (goes by something else like [name]Kitty[/name]), [name]Theresa[/name]/[name]Tess[/name], [name]Anna[/name], [name]Louise[/name]/[name]Louisa[/name], and, if she’s from a really poor, odd background, I think [name]Pepper[/name] might suit (Obviously she’s going by Miss [lastname], so most anything could work without being obvious)
Wife - [name]Mary[/name] [name]Alma[/name] / [name]Mary[/name] [name]Eustacia[/name] (In my mind her name was something else before, something a little more frivolous and as she became more religious she renamed herself like nuns do)
Three Daughters - [name]Henrietta[/name], [name]Josephine[/name] and [name]Philomena[/name].
Nurse - [name]Caroline[/name] ([name]Caro[/name]) or [name]Eleonora[/name] ([name]Leo[/name])
The leading guy, Mr Chapman, 35. I think something like [name]Albert[/name], [name]Arthur[/name], [name]Alfred[/name] for him. I don’t know, I just see him as an [name]Al[/name] for some reason.
His wife, Mrs Chapman, 33. Increasingly distant, cold, unfeeling. Slightly mad. Ultra religious. - I agree that she might have renamed herself [name]Mary[/name] after the mother of [name]Jesus[/name]. [name]Mary[/name] [name]Grace[/name], [name]Mary[/name] [name]Ann[/name], [name]Mary[/name] [name]Elizabeth[/name].
The daughters, 12, 10, 9. A nasty and malicious bunch. - If the mother’s ultra religious I could see them having virtue names. [name]Felicity[/name], [name]Verity[/name], [name]Grace[/name], [name]Constance[/name], [name]Virginia[/name] etc. Or names from the Bible - [name]Ruth[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Sarah[/name], [name]Mary[/name] etc.
The ‘[name]Jane[/name] [name]Eyre[/name]’ nurse, 29. She’s not a plain [name]Jane[/name] though. A feisty young lady. - I’d call her something pretty common and unassuming, but give her a nickname that brings out her feistiness. [name]Catherine[/name] nn [name]Kitty[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name] nn [name]Lizzie[/name], [name]Ann[/name] nn [name]Annie[/name], [name]Philippa[/name] nn [name]Pippa[/name], [name]Margaret[/name] nn [name]Maggie[/name] etc.
Mrs Chapman is such a [name]Ruth[/name]! Would’ve been a [name]Mary[/name], but for me the name is tied to lovely little [name]Mary[/name] [name]Lennox[/name] from the [name]Secret[/name] Garden.
The girls have become [name]Esther[/name], [name]Maud[/name] and [name]Phyllis[/name]. Didn’t want anything to frilly. Most biblical names were too ‘goody two shoes’ for me.
Nurse is [name]Anna[/name]. I like that it’s common and unassuming but lively as well.
Mr Chapman is my undecided. He’s either an [name]Alfred[/name] or a [name]Frederick[/name] It’ll come to me at some point.
Thank you again! [name]Just[/name] got to get started on my writing now
(Obviously she’s going by Miss [lastname], so most anything could work without being obvious)
I’ve got them all named but one.
It’ll come to me at some point.