Name Picking

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Tue, 2006-02-21 09:35

Name Picking

How do you, as a writer, pick names for your characters? Sometimes I find it very hard, sometimes the name just pops into my head, fully formed and 'just right'.

I've realised that in a lot of books I've read I get sidetracked when I think the author has given their main character an 'aspirational' name. 'Lily' seems to be the one that does it most for women. 'Jake' for men. As soon as I see a character called Lily or Jake I can't take the book quite so seriously.

It's like I could never call a female character something like Leila. Who would I be trying to kid? (remind me of that when my next book is about a woman named Leila who's fighting over a bloke called Jake with her sister Lily).

I've had a really pain in the rear picking a name for the love interest character in my novel. It's changed several times and I'm never happy with it. He was Hal first, then Paul, then Nathan, then Ned, then Paul again, then Nathan - but they were all, somehow, 'wrong'.

Then this morning I thought, 'Maybe I can't name him because he is a 2 dimensional character' and that started me off on a whole new neurotic train of thoughts.

How does anyone else pick names for their characters? I'd be interested to know.

Tue, 2006-02-21 10:19

maddan

I find the backs of DVDs and the thank you notes on CDs helpful. Names of towns are a good source of surnames (just scour through a road atlus, you can even pick accordin to region). I tend to start with an idea of what I want. Somehting like: this man will have a surname that could also be a christian name or vice versa, this woman will have an old fashioned name from the bible, this girl will share the name of a plant. Any female love interest I particuarly like is almost always named after a Nick Cave song (90% of the time they're called Lucy)

Tue, 2006-02-21 10:34

maddan

When I needed the name of Professor of Solid State Physics, I simply used the author of a solid state physics textbook. There's probably some law against doing that.

Tue, 2006-02-21 10:37

fergal

Yes the good old plant name for a woman. I've given up on those recently due to aforementioned 'aspirational' aspects (I would quite like to have been named after a plant). My main character of my novel is called Diana and I am not fond of that name at all but it suited her and I had no choice. I like biblical names, but they don't seem to quite fit for said bloke character. My favourite name in all literature is Gabriel Oak from Far from the madding crowd. I don't even like the book, but want to meet someone called Gabriell Oak. He would obviously be a complete fox. I did think of calling my main bloke character Henry Lee after the Nick Cave song, but thought better of it. Surnames are another matter. Normally I like picking names. The names of the two characters in the novel I've recently started are called Otto and Beatrice. They are in the 70s. Their names just picked themselves. Today the only name I can think of is 'Johnny Allen' because on Eastenders they are always saying his name.

Tue, 2006-02-21 10:39

fergal

Ah, Bernard Cornwell wanted a name like Horatio Hornblower for his hero of the Sharpe books. He just inserted the name of a rugby player, Richard Sharp, he knew of for the first draft and intended to change it later... All he did change was add an 'e' to the end and a legend was born.

Tue, 2006-02-21 10:46

maddan

Phillip Pullman named Lee Scoresby (His Dark Materials) after Lee Van Cleef and an Arctic explorer called William Scoresby. That's a great name.

Tue, 2006-02-21 10:54

fergal

It is a very good name. Dickens was good at names, but I am not certain about calling the fanciable male in my book Jacob Phwoarsworthy.

Tue, 2006-02-21 11:31

josiedog

I tend to use a "working title" for my characters' names, just so I can get on with the writing, then think of a suitable name afterwards. I get more of a feel for it then, seeing the name in different contexts and uses. Having said that, some have stuck, some have taken on a life of their own, and some, I've just realised, I simply forgot to change.

Tue, 2006-02-21 11:39

maddan

I can never use 'working titles', the wrong name bugs me too much. If I need a name all work stops until I find just the right one. I hardly ever change them afterwards.

Tue, 2006-02-21 11:49

#10

josiedog

That's why I sometimes use 'em, because otherwise the work stops, and if I've got and idea that needs to be put down I have to use a device that'll allow me to do that. But it does bug me, especially if it's not so much aboout the idea but the creation of a character, then you can find me walking round town spouting stange and wonderful names to the good people of Battersea.

Tue, 2006-02-21 13:49

#11

ivoryfishbone

my characters tend to appear with their names already attached ... not like i have invented them but more like i have just met them ... i couldnt have a working name because for me the name is so much part of who the person IS ... my latest character arrived - her name is Elin - before i had fleshed out the story or her family and when i looked into the origin of her name it fitted perfectly with the story line i was working on ... lovely when it happens ... my eldest son is called jake and when he was home the other day i said to him i wished i had called him jacob ... jakes always seem to be bad - cowboys/pirates ... but he likes his name ... names say an awful lot about people ...

Tue, 2006-02-21 14:00

#12

fergal

I think Jake is very fanciable name. I suppose that's what I meant by aspirational. If I see the name Jake in a story I think 'eh up, here's the fancy man'... (my nephew is called Jake, not Jacob, and perhaps my attitude to his name will change as he grows up...) Yes, names do say a lot about people, but sometimes they don't. I think 'Hayley' is a sort of non-name. It has no particular history. It doesn't mean particularly anything. My parents got it off Hayley Mills because they thought I might grow up with oodles of confidence and take to the stage (yeah, right)... I like my name now, but in terms of reading a book, I cannot imagine a character named 'Hayley'... what on earth would she be like?

Tue, 2006-02-21 14:03

#13

rokkitnite

Writing Fantasy I find my main problem is that I've got a backlog of names I want to use! Here's an obscure and useless piece of trivia for you: when I'd finished writing the latest draft of Joshu Replied, I discovered that all the spider characters' surnames were in trochaic dimeter. Whoop-de-effing-doo.

Tue, 2006-02-21 14:31

#14

maddan

etymology of names http://www.behindthename.com (I'm afraid Hayley has a very dull meaning indeed, but Fergal means "man of valour") I am guilty of doing things like calling particuarly intelligent female characters Sophia.

Tue, 2006-02-21 15:51

#15

lisa h

Eek! One of my secondary characters is called Lily, she named herself, I couldn't change it now.

Tue, 2006-02-21 22:18

#16

yan

Grieves Modern Herbal.

There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed -
Dennett

Wed, 2006-02-22 00:23

#17

ely_whitley

is penis a real name? I'm sure I went to school with a penis.

Wed, 2006-02-22 08:07

#18

fergal

Lisa - I'm enjoying your novel as it gets posted up on here and thought Lily did suit your character - and she did choose it which is different. Yes Dan, Hayley does have a very dull meaning basically it means hay field. Great. Ely. Penis is a name. I've worked with several in offices over East Anglia.

Wed, 2006-02-22 09:39

#19

poetjude

I usually chop up names of people I know or famous people I admire and mix and match first and surnames. The name has to be ordinary but not in a clicje john smith way.Jamie usually works for either gender. I find female characters so much harder but like to use shortened names, Lou, Beth etc.

Wed, 2006-02-22 12:28

#20

lisa h

I find watching the credits at the end of a movie is useful, as is scanning news reports. Best one for me is those spam emails with strange names, I chop them about until it feels right. Fergal - I changed Alex's name from Cat/Catherine. I still think of her as Cat.

Wed, 2006-02-22 12:54

#21

fergal

I think Alex suits her, although Cat might too... I changed one of my characters name from Gwen to Juliet, but I still talk about her as Gwen to my housemate who refuses to accept that her name has changed. 'But I know her as Gwen,' he says. 'But she's Juliet now,' I say and he shakes his head as though his reluctance to change is going to change my mind. My favourite character's name in my book is Benjy Burne, who writes on men's fashion for a broadsheet. It just suits him. I also have a sculptor called Victor Eve, which I think is a great name, and said housemate thinks is not. I've picked Patrick as the love-interest's name now. I bet it will change before I'm through with it.

Wed, 2006-02-22 12:55

#22

QueenElf

I think it depends on what I am writing. If it's based on something from the past then I use names common at that time. While researching material for my (stalled book) I needed names that could be both English and Greek. i.village is a good site for baby names, giving the ethnic background & meaning. It's quite fun to look up your own name, mine is hilarious (I have three names). Lisa.

Lfuller

Thu, 2006-02-23 08:31

#23

fergal

The bloke in my book is called Toby now, and I really fancy him.

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