A name for Death

Writers' Corner
1

Hello fellow Writers’ Corner Berries!

After having a character name problem that still isn’t solved after 6 months, I knew I had to come here. I’m in at chapter 27 of my current novel, a YA/Paranormal book about a girl that is taken to the underworld by Death. Death is my problem here, then again I should have figured he wouldn’t be all that cooperative.

At a few points I need something to call him something other than Death, because it’s getting a tad tedious and I don’t want to overdo it. I already have a sort of prequel about Death in prior years planned because I’ve come to love his character so much I want to explore it more. In that novel another character will give him a “real” name because Death is “simply too morbid” and it’s that name I am stuck on.

At first I was thinking of something very classic and well known like [name]Michael[/name], [name]Edward[/name] or [name]Peter[/name], but none of them fit. I moved on to a few slightly more adventurous names, such as [name]Lucius[/name] and [name]Josiah[/name], before trying the really out there like [name]Lazarus[/name] and [name]Emmerich[/name]. This is driving me crazy! I just can’t peg him. So I want to know your thoughts, any names that come to your mind, shoot them out! They can only help!

And for anyone wondering, Death has the appearance of a normal human, and I picture him exactly like the actor [name]Joseph[/name] [name]Morgan[/name] just with darker hair XD

Thanks in advance for any comments!

2

Well in The [name]Day[/name] of the Locust the main character’s name was [name]Tod[/name], which is a [name]German[/name] word for that. Maybe you could play around with that some how. Look around and see words in other languages and see if any of them seem name like, but discreet enough that it doesn’t hit anyone in the face that it means “Death”. Those are always the ones that work out best, IMHO.

3

The first name I thought of is [name]Jasper[/name]

4

Hmm. [name]How[/name] about:

[name]Julius[/name]
[name]Xavier[/name]
[name]Caspar[/name]

Good luck!

5

What about something that means “dark”?

[name]Carey[/name] (“dark, black”)
[name]Duncan[/name] (“dark warrior”)
[name]Krishna[/name] (“dark, black”)

Or maybe something quite the opposite? Since you see a light when you die, maybe he can be that light that takes you?

[name]Lucian[/name] (“light”)
[name]Kiran[/name] (“ray of light”)
[name]Meyer[/name] (“bringer of light”)

6

I looked up [name]Joseph[/name] [name]Morgan[/name] to get a physical description of your character and these are the two names that come to mind:

[name]Vincent[/name]: Conquering
[name]Hector[/name]: Holding Fast

I think that both name meanings are attributes of death. But I also think that there’s something dark and appealing about [name]Vincent[/name].

7

[name]Victor[/name]. After all, Death always wins, in the end.

8

I’ve been looking around for that and seem to be getting a lot of god of death names, but shortened some of them could work well. Thanks! :slight_smile:

9

I quite like that, thank you :slight_smile:

10

[name]Xavier[/name] feels a bit too modern, but [name]Julius[/name] and [name]Caspar[/name] can both work. Thanks :slight_smile:

11

I like that take on it, and [name]Lucian[/name] seems to fit pretty well. Thank you :slight_smile:

12

I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Vincent[/name], one of my favourites so far. Thank you :slight_smile:

13

That’s great! It’s gone to the top of my list, thank you :slight_smile:

14

You can reply in one post you know :wink: It’ll save you writing out everything a million times.

I’ve played a character called Death on my website for ten years. We did an ‘alternate universe’ thread once where his name was [name]Daniel[/name] Eath (apparently a real surname!) but he never really felt like a [name]Daniel[/name].

15

I did not know that ^^; Newbie [name]Berry[/name], I joined a little while ago but haven’t really used the site a lot, so thank you XD

Haha, D.Eath, I love it!

16

I would name him [name]John[/name], because it’s an extremely common name and I can imagine a character with a good sense of humor naming him and saying something like “Death… Death, you know that’s a pretty morbid name, Death. I think I’m going to call you something more normal. [name]How[/name] about [name]John[/name]. [name]John[/name]. I like it, don’t you [name]John[/name]?” and Death despising the idea. I don’t know, just my thoughts.

I also like [name]Victor[/name] and [name]Vincent[/name].