After getting derailed by the idea of a different book, an existential crisis, some family drama, and homework (ugh), I have finally settled on names for my main characters that I don’t actually hate. Yay! I’m worried, though, that they don’t give the impressions that I want them to give. So without giving you any extraneous information about the characters, I want your initial gut reaction to these character names:
[name_f]Charlotte[/name_f]
[name_m]Liam[/name_m]
[name_f]Ella[/name_f]
What kind of person do you associate with each of these names? What do they look like? What temperaments do they have? [name_m]How[/name_m] do they see the world? What are their interests? [name_m]How[/name_m] do they deal with good news, bad news, anger, loneliness, love? What emotions do these name provoke?
[name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] - soft, light brown curls, button nose and hazel eyes. Shy, quiet and sweet; people are attracted to her kind demeanour and her lovely face. She likes writing and reading and swinging on porch swings. She is optimistic and hopeful.
[name_m]Liam[/name_m] - rogueish and handsome, dark brown hair that sticks up slightly and green eyes, maybe some freckles. He gets what he wants. Sarcastic and funny, he likes breaking rules for the sake of it and playing pranks, etc. Makes light of serious things.
[name_f]Ella[/name_f] - invisible and unnoticed, though similar to [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] in personality. Blonde, light-eyed. Small and mousy. She has a stutter or bites her lip, and is constantly afraid of rejection. But she is always willing to help people, and smiles often.
I can’t see a way for you to gain anything useful from this thread; I mean, I could do what you want and give you a ‘gut reaction’ which to me would be an image of the person I know with the name e.g [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] has black hair, dresses in a Gothic style, has a girlfriend and is into anime and cosplay but I don’t see how that would be helpful in the slightest.
Personally, I don’t think you have anything to worry about; [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f], [name_m]Liam[/name_m] and [name_f]Ella[/name_f] are such every day names that they could all be any person in any modern English speaking nation and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Names don’t come ready made with a life plan for the person wearing them; calling someone [name_f]Sarah[/name_f] does not guarantee them blue eyes and blonde hair even if all of the [name_f]Sarah[/name_f]'s I know happen to look like this. If my parents had decided to call me [name_f]Dawn[/name_f] instead of [name_f]Karen[/name_f] I’d still have turned out exactly the same.
Now, if on the other hand you told me that the three characters are in fact Vietnamese prisoners of war then the names wouldn’t even be remotely appropriate and I could tell you that. Context is everything. Without it, I can give you no constructive advice.