I need a name for a girl in my new book. To meet my criteria, you must do a little roleplaying…
[name_f]Imagine[/name_f], if you will, that you are a little girl, about five or six years old–although you’re not totally sure what your age is. You’ve been isolated from society–one building, fifteen scientists and two other children are all you’ve ever known. To make things worse, you don’t even have a real name. The scientists call you Hartford, after the city you’re from, but that’s not good enough. You want something that you can call yourself that’s all your own. Now… one problem… what do you call yourself?
I’m looking for mostly word names here, like [name_f]Moxie[/name_f] or Wisp. [name_f]My[/name_f] common rule: weird is welcome! [name_m]Just[/name_m] not too outlandish. In case you want a little character description, obviously this is a girl, she’s kinda pale from not going outside a lot, she has grey eyes and blond hair. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] that’s enough info for you to give this poor girl a good name!
I guess I would think about what words she would be exposed to and what words she would have a positive connection to. That would all depends on how she’s treated and how much exposure she has to conversation. If she’s at all exposed to books/stories/movies she’d likely pick a real name. If she knows how to read she’d likely pick the name similar to something in her environment (tag on her bear says ‘[name_u]Berry[/name_u]’, etc.).
Generally, names are names and words are words for children as they are generally very black and white about their world’s. It’s only with socialization and play and exposure to stories and adults that we learn to know words like wisp, much less use them as names.
Maybe something that someone calls her unintentionally? An older scientist she likes calling her [name_f]Missy[/name_f]. The cleaning lady calling her Sweetie or Miha.
I like the idea of [name_f]Moxie[/name_f]. I can imagine her having an attitude and one of the scientists laughing and saying, “that one’s got some moxie!” and her not knowing what it meant but feeling it’s positive.
Or maybe an offhand comment, “she 6, wow, she’s just a little will-of-the-wisp isn’t she?” and she latches on to [name_f]Willa[/name_f].