How do you choose your characters' names?

Writers' Corner
1

When I write, knowing a character’s name is important for me, it helps them to take shape in my head. It helps create who they really are. If I don’t know their name or if it doesn’t fit then it bugs me until I get it right.

Usually for me the characters come to me named, but if I’m looking for a name for a character I flip through a book or a site, write down the names I like, and try them out. I have to say them, sign them, feel them, before I can decide. For example in the novel I’m revising [name]Serendipity[/name] and Alliana came to me just as they are, with the nicknames Dip and [name]Alli[/name], but a minor character who becomes important later, [name]Ashley[/name], took forever to name. Simple name, it just felt right for a traitor. Which is not to say anything bad about any Ashleys I know.

[name]How[/name] do you name your characters?

2

Normally I come up with a story and each character has a personality, then I look for a name that fits that characters personality as well as their appearance. Sometimes I try to find a name by searching for a meaning, so if I want a peaceful character, I look for a name that means or relates to peace. Other times the names just come to me. It also depends on the era/genre the story is written.

I normally don’t have any problems finding names since I have a huge list and I make a list for each story that I think the names fit in. Then I pick from that list as I come up with characters. Usually for minor characters I just pick random names since they are minor. I spend a little more time on the major characters.

3

I have a notebook full of names which I’ve heard or seen and liked. When I have a new character I usually just flip through it. I also spend a lot of time on NameBerry asking for help with my characters. I have the same problem as you, I have to have a character’s name before I even think about writing them. I had that problem recently with my MC’s future baby. I’m still a very, very long time away from actually mentioning the baby but I still have to have his name ready. I finally settled on [name]Charlie[/name] Snowden after a list of about 20 names!

4

It depends on what I’m writing–genre and requirements.
I usually just pick something that feels okay to be getting on with. Then as I get to know the characters I reassess.

I definitely keep lists of names I like, especially for villains or apathetic characters since I tend not to naturally love their names.

5

Picking names has always been pretty hard for me. I change my name alot, and there are a few key names that I like to bring out every story. Which isn’t that good! Usually I go through list after list, pick one, see another name I’d like, go back and forth, then quit.
This summer I’ve begun worknig on an old novel idea, only it’s been revamped. This time, there was no difficulty. Each character had a name almost instantly. No need for reasearch or length pro-con lists. They simply worked themselves out. The four main characters are [name]Edith[/name] [name]Magda[/name] [name]Louise[/name], [name]Theodore[/name] [name]Bruno[/name], [name]Marcel[/name] Léopold and [name]Genevieve[/name] [name]Elinor[/name].

  • [name]Athena[/name]
6

I’ve compiled a list of names that I like (and a few I don’t, for mean/snooty characters). But it usually takes me a while and a bit of searching before I come across the right name for a character.

7

My thing is I decide the character before the name, pretty simple. Like, I’ll choose the character’s ethnicity or think about their parent’s preference or personality. Basically, I have to come up with a logical reason my character would be named what they are, which ultimately leads back to their parents. The character’s parents aren’t going to name their kid [name]Sparrow[/name] if they aren’t hippies or Francois if they aren’t French. For example, I have a character I named [name]Barbara[/name] because her mother is very snotty and uptight and a little old fashioned, but then [name]Barbara[/name] ends up being a sort of rebel tomboy and calls herself [name]Bobby[/name]. I love that :slight_smile:
[name]One[/name] way I always know if I named a character right is if it’s impossible for me to picture them as anything else. I envy those people who can just decide the name doesn’t work and go through and change it, that never works for me. If I name a character [name]Emily[/name], then her name is going to be [name]Emily[/name]. That’s why I spend an inordinate amount of time researching before I write each character in. I don’t have to like the name, it’s just got to fit.

8

I keep a list too. My friends and family think I’m kind of nuts since I don’t have kids and am years away from it, even when I explain it’s for characters. It’s nice to know other writers do it too.

9

Usually by the name’s meaning.
I typically base names off a characters personality traits. Sometimes physical attributes. Sometimes it based off their ethnicity. Sometimes my characters name themselves. It’s funny how fictional characters can grow in to a fleshed out being, isn’t it?

10

I always joked that I started writing in second grade because I ran out of dolls to name and started on characters. Always been a name geek, so new stories with new names are fun. Usually I get the character first, name second, and then flesh out the character. Though there was that one time something inside my head said, “Write about a [name]Judd[/name] and a [name]Monica[/name]” I changed the spelling to [name]Monicka[/name], but I wrote about them.

I often use meanings. My last novel had Halyn Mugarson as the main character, with [name]Esteban[/name] [name]Sanchez[/name] as the love interest. [name]Steven[/name]'s always been a favorite name of mine, but I’d used it too many times and ended up giving [name]Esteban[/name] the Spanish version of the name, and that gave him his heritage. He broke into spontaneous Spanish throughout the novel and had a mother named [name]Mercedes[/name] (which inspired his daughter’s name, [name]Mercy[/name]) and siblings named [name]Emiliana[/name], [name]Mariela[/name], and [name]Marcos[/name]. Halyn means “special, unlike any other” which is exactly what Halyn was trying to be, trying to feel like she wasn’t worthless. Mugarson came from the name Muga, which means “nothing” or “nothingness” and that’s how her father, the man who gave her the name, makes her feel. Like nothing. Oxymoronic! I love it! In the story, her mother calls her “Lynnie” and her dad calls her “[name]Hal[/name]” Halyn explains that her dad wanted a boy named [name]Hal[/name], her mom wanted to name her [name]Lynn[/name]. They both got what they wanted with Halyn.

Other times, I’ll use a certain origin. In my Beauty and the Beast retelling, determined not to name Beauty Beauty, [name]Belle[/name], [name]Isabelle[/name], or anything -belle, I found a greek name that meant “most beautiful”- [name]Calista[/name]. And named all the other characters with Greek and Latin names from there. I hate having characters with the same initials ([name]Judd[/name] and [name]Monicka[/name] had a [name]David[/name] and a Dinyaza in their story and I hated having two D names. [name]Just[/name] bothered me. I like to use initials to abbreviate names in notes.)
Anyway, the cast of [name]Calista[/name]'s story is by far one of the more extreme examples of that- but at least I remember all my characters:
[name]Aurelia[/name], [name]Briony[/name], [name]Calista[/name], (the sisters) [name]Damien[/name] (the beast- [name]Damien[/name] ironically means “to tame”) [name]Elani[/name], [name]Flavian[/name], ([name]Calista[/name]'s parents), [name]Gabriel[/name], Haemon, [name]Ignatius[/name], [name]Julian[/name], [name]Kyrie[/name], [name]Lysander[/name], [name]Melina[/name], Natham, [name]Olympia[/name], and [name]Pandora[/name].

11

I usually think about the character, and just skim through my name journal and see what fits. If they seem mean, it’s [name]Vyna[/name]. [name]Innocent[/name]? That’s [name]Charity[/name]. I really don’t know how to describe it any other way.

12

I get what you mean girlychock :slight_smile:

~[name]Jasmine[/name]

13

When I name characters, I have to have the whole plot and their personalities lined out in my head. I, like so many before, keep a list, though in three notebooks: boys, girls, and surnames. If I can’t find one in there, I usually come to nameberry and other sites. I like to name by orgin, meaning and feel. I love the process, although it can be quite frustrating. My current characters are [name]Kit[/name] and [name]Ash[/name], two teens.

14

My character’s never come named. They come unnamed and usually with a half-completed personality. Then, I check out the names of the era that my story takes place. Right now, I’m writing a fantastical novel that has the medieval feel. Because of that, my characters have names like Fendrel, Huneric, [name]Alys[/name], and Terrowin. (Those are secondary characters, by the way.) I really choose names by how they speak to me. Their meanings usually do not factor into it. Gasp, I know! An author that does not take their meanings into account? Blasphemy ;). If the name strikes me, then it’s usually a good one for the character. If it doesn’t, we move on.

15

I choose my characters’ names much the same as you. I take into consideration what kind of names their parents would have liked. If I have a REALLY tough time coming up with some names for a particular character (which has happened to me more than once), I like to visualize exactly what they look like, and then imagine them wearing a name tag (as if they were working or something), and usually a good name will pop up in my mind.
I find it hard to write a story without the perfect name for my characters, so if I don’t have a name, but really want to start writing the story, I just substitute their name with ‘X’ or ‘Y’. Then when I find the right name for them, I search for the letter and then ‘replace all’.

16

My characters usually pop into my head fully formed, names and all. I remember one particularly stubborn character named Flute. Yes, Flute. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get her out of my head–her quirks, her beliefs, her sorrows, her appearance. And then, rather irritatingly, came along more of her cast: Wheel, Alfalfa, [name]Clarity[/name] (actually, that’s kind of cheating, since I based her off a previous character named [name]Claire[/name]), and Visesa. Yes. I had, fully formed, a Flute, a Wheel, an Alfalfa, a [name]Clarity[/name], and a Visesa. I wound up creating an entire city for them, with a million cultures packed into five tiers. And then, another city, directly below, for them to discover: Ascension and Descension. Their story’s on hold right now, since Flute finally got out of my head, but I’m gonna get back to it.

I find that when my characters don’t come already named, it’s a sign that their story isn’t ready yet. For example, I have one story where everything seemed perfectly formed except the characters’ names, but after I got the names and sat down to write…nothing. Zilch. [name]Nada[/name]. I figured it worth mentioning.

17

Naming the characters is the part that kind of solidifies who the character is for me. Generally I’ll have an idea of the character’s personality and story arc, and then once I find the name that clicks, they become a full person!

The meaning of the name is sometimes a jumping-off point for me when i’m searching for the right name. Other times I’ll know I want a longish, super-feminine name with a tomboyish nickname, or a distinctive name that the character found a “normal” nickname for when he rebelled from his quirky parents. For supporting characters that don’t have much of a role, I generally go to the ssa website and search for the top ten names on the approximate year they were born.