[name]Imagine[/name] an orphanage, where children have been abandoned at birth, but they were not given names by the people that raised them or any sort of education; instead, trained to fight and be the next generation of soldiers. A few of these children get rescued - ones that are still quite young. But obviously I’m going to need to identify between the group of children (likely going to be about six of them), but I don’t know how.
I could have the people that rescue them give each of them a name, but the child is unlikely to recognise their name after not having one for the rest of their life, and I can’t have the child pick their own because they won’t understand the concept of names.
[name]Do[/name] I just refer to each of them by a characteristic and turn that into a sort of nickname - [name]Ginger[/name], Freckles for example?
I can’t call them Rescued Boy 1, Rescued Girl 3 etc, but I just don’t know how to term them.
And if I do go for the people rescuing them giving each one a name, what sort of names would work? Something simple that they don’t know anyone else by that name? Name them after a fallen friend or family member?
It’s a bit of an unconventional naming question, but I’d appreciate any thoughts on this. And also, if I do go with a simple name, what sort of names do you put under that category?
In order to be effective soldiers they will have had to communicate with each other somehow so it’s most likely that they’ve given each other nicknames to distinguish one from another. So either based on their appearance (Small-[name]One[/name], Fattest, Angry, Fails etc words that aren’t overly descriptive as you said, they’re not educated) or ranks associated with their function on the battlefield ([name]Gunner[/name], Infantry, [name]Captain[/name] that sort of thing). When freed they’d probably want to keep those names as it’s the only piece of identity they have.
That’s a good point. Maybe I need to think the plot through a little more; the idea of them not having names was because the people who were raising them wanted them to be all the same, removing identity as a sort of control mechanism. But like you say, they need to communicate with each other somehow - maybe give them a military number instead?
I don’t really have any great ideas, but in The Handmaid’s Tale [name]Margaret[/name] Atwood gave her concubine characters names that consisted of the word of and the name of the man they belonged to. So they were offred, ofglen and ofwarren. Not saying you should do that, but that was a way to distinguish them from each other and still keeping it very impersonal and industrial. Numbers can be tricky to remember, just keep that in mind for the people who have to read it. I hate novels where I have to flip back and forth to remember who was who.
Oh, that’s quite a good idea. I’ve never read that book but I might have to look it up, it might give me some more ideas. I agree numbers might be confusing for the reader, but I need something impersonal. What about if they’re just called demeaning things by the people in charge - “[name]Hi[/name], my name’s Ugly” sort of thing? So to them it’s important, it’s their name, but to the reader it’s a sign of control from the people in charge.
To me, it would seem like the people training them and holding them would give them a number or something bland like that. Jane12 and John32, maybe. But then, the children would be more individual than their “official” name declares. The children themselves would have either taken on their own names, or given each other more distinguishing names to call one another. Like Freckles. Or Fatso. Or Pretty Boy. [name]Princess[/name]. Etc, etc. Think of the mean nicknames kids give one another and go with it.
Really this is a world building question. What do you want to define the characters? The identity that they had in the orphanage or the new identities they get when they are rescued? Perhaps some will stick with their orphan names and others will seek new names? It’s a great character/world decision to make, so think about the underlying themes and ideas you want to convey in the story as you make the decision.
Other ideas…
In the Game of Throne series, the Unsullied are soldiers that technically have no names, but they go by the vermin names their trainers called them (i.e. “[name]Grey[/name] Worm”) because even if you’re not supposed to have a name, people have to call you something.
My other thought was you could to Latin number names (or numbers in any other language) to balance the idea of them being numbered, but also not confuse readers: Quintillus, [name]Sextus[/name], [name]Septimus[/name], [name]Octavian[/name], etc.
[name]Just[/name] how old are they? At first, they aren’t understanding the concept of names, but then, they are giving each other nicknames. First thing: pick an age range. Still very young, as in 5-8, where they are understanding basic concepts and have real intelligence and a sense of self and identity, or younger, when a personality hasn’t yet developed? If it’s younger, then the names would be more physical characteristic-based, whereas if they already had some intelligence, the might have a personality, to name them by, or they might already have names for themselves. If they are old enough, they’ve probably given each other names. If they’re younger, then they haven’t.
I don’t like the idea of naming using numbers, it would keep the story much more impersonal and distant, as well as hard to keep track of. If you right, “Six ran down the hallway, took a right, and gasped in surprise as he ran straight into [name]Winnie[/name] the Poo”, the most personal, recognizable thing in the sentence is [name]Winnie[/name] the Poo, but you want it to be your character.
Perhaps they could all have military numbers, like people have suggested, but these are combined with a characteristic defined by the children to make themselves distinguishable? So if there were three children, one short and blond, one fat and short, and one tall with freckles, they might call themselves Blondone, Fattwo, and Frecklethree? [name]Just[/name] a thought.
Also, Latin numbers would be a cool way of doing it. From 1-10, ordinal numbers sound cooler:
I. primus
II. secundus
III. tertius
IV. quartus
V. quintus
[name]VI[/name]. sextus
VII. septimus
VIII. octavus
IX. nonus
X. decimus
Then you could refer to them more easily.
Also, what kind of place are they living in? I know you said it is a military training program, but as it sounds like science fiction, perhaps they could have their own number system- that would be more obvious.
[name]One[/name] more suggestion- how about giving all the girls and all the boys the same name, but adding numbers? I know a pp said this, but if they were all Jane322 and John478, you could have them not quite properly understanding and keeping the numbers, but not the names. They could spell the numbers fonetickally, or add a characteristic. If they have several numbers, some could be dropped so you aren’t writing something like fiveninethreeredhead the whole time. And the names could change over time, becoming new, distinguishable nicknames. So John478, fat and blond, might be:
forsevenateblond to start, then become
sevenateblond
sevanateblon
venateblond
and end as venteblon.
But that could be time consuming and hard to explain to readers how someone called ‘John478’ by the people training him became ‘Venteblon’ to his friends, without showing the entire process. So maybe that isn’t a good idea.
This reminds me of Sonmi451’s story in the book ‘[name]Cloud[/name] [name]Atlas[/name]’ (huge disappointment btw). There are different types of clones and each type has its own name and then numbers to identify the individuals. It works there.
@[name]Ren[/name]: Never read [name]Cloud[/name] [name]Atlas[/name] but interesting to know the name/number thing has been used before and works.
@Merrybells: It’s a sort of dystopian [name]Earth[/name] - overpopulation means every family is restricted to two children, these ‘army kids’ are the surplus births that have been taken from their families when not given up voluntarily and trained as military to keep the nation safe. They’re treated as second class citizens because they legally shouldn’t have even been born.
@Stardust: I haven’t quite decided on the ages yet. They’re going to be old enough to look after themselves but not too old - probably somewhere between the ages of six and ten, or a mixture of ages in that range.
You’ve definitely all given me a lot to think about.
I don’t think you should give them degrading names; something completely neutral would be the best. You need something no one would have put any thought into at all. They are not considered persons, so they don’t need something to show individuality. I think the name of whoever found them is a good idea, or where they came from (this was quite normal in Ancient [name]Rome[/name]).
Agree w ottilie. It’s an interesting concept. I also would NOT use numbers, especially long numbers like 479, since the average reader will not remember them and won’t even be able to keep up with the cadre of six main characters let alone accessory ones.
In real orphanages like this, the naming was entirely impersonal. Take religiously-run institutitons; children were named according to the calendar of saints based on the day they were presented. Modern overcrowded Chinese orphanages simply name the children [name]Baby[/name] Girl 1, [name]Baby[/name] found on [name]Tuesday[/name], or equivalent. Obviously you won’t have a religion factoring into this world but could you have some sort of state calendar with illustrious heroes of the people or something according to which the children are named? Again, they need names both for your readers’ sake and for verisimiltude in this world. Also, you could try naming them for the streets/buildings next to which they are found/dumped. That probably wouldn’t be realistic though as most of the children would be dumped at the gates of the orphanage itself.
It would be fun to have just 1-2 redundancies-- you know, two children who entered on the 6th day of the 7th month so had the same name, just with an identifier attached (physical or numeric).
And they could all have the same surname based on something militaristic, or related to the name of the state (to show they belong to the state).
I still think having real names keeps the story more personal and in-depth, but that’s just my opinion. Also, what if their names came from their numbers? Like, if your name was [name]Seven[/name] Eight, phonetically, you’d be sevenate (yes, I know merrybells used this), but then, you could become [name]Nate[/name] (sevenate) and if you’re just [name]Seven[/name], you’d become [name]Evan[/name].
What do you think about having the adults take one name and name the children all the diminutives of it before moving onto another name? Would having [name]Lizzie[/name], [name]Beth[/name] and [name]Ellie[/name] in the same story - all diminutives of [name]Elizabeth[/name] - be too confusing? I’d try and use distinctive diminutives - not a [name]Lizzie[/name] and a [name]Libby[/name], for example - for the children rescued. To me it seems like a compromise between being impersonal but also individual enough not to confuse the reader.
It’s a nice idea but at first glance it would appear to me that a given adult would be claiming responsibility for those children, in a parental, warm fashion. Since you want to invoke anonymity and the total ownership by the state, I think it might undermine that.
I like the idea of being named for who found them or where they were found. Alternatively, they could just have a list of names and everyone just got a name from the list, the next one available. They’re soldiers, right? So if there’s a list, say, it’s [name]Abby[/name] then [name]Amy[/name], and [name]Abby[/name] dies in battle, the next baby that comes in is named [name]Abby[/name]. So there’s only as many places in the army as there are names.
Or, you could have more than one soldier-training-orphanage, and at one, all the soldiers get a name from the list A-J, and at another, it’s K-Q. [name]Just[/name] throwing out ideas, here. I’m still against numbers, though. Too impersonal + too confusing for a reader.
(the concept of naming from a list is used in the book Daughter of Smoke and Bone & the sequel, Days of Blood and [name]Starlight[/name].)