Character Names

[etoiline]

Coming up with names has usually been pretty easy for me. Of course, as people have mentioned, writing fantasy means I can use pretty much whatever I want I tend to use my one foreign language (french) and mash it up with words or sounds that I like. I've been looking at more word meanings (latin, usually) to really describe the character, if I can. Then there's always the alphabet game: write the letters of the alphabet and make up a new name for each letter by putting together interesting combinations of other letters...I had a long list of names to pick from for my latest NaNo novel using that method...

Someday I'm going to be just like Tolkien, making up lists of grammar and names, I swear.

I'm also fond of the good old baby names websites. When I was writing my modern-day king arthur story, I looked up the classical names of the knights and tried to find modern names that evoked those. that was interesting, let me tell you.

I like the idea of a fire-mage named Frost.

~Cal

[taralon]

There's backstory to a pyromancer named Robert Frost.  Maybe he's the black sheep of a family that's been ice mages for generations, where there's always been a Robert Frost around to lead the family.  Unfortunately his mother's genes kicked in.... 

" For one thing, I wouldn't have named that character Robert Frost anyway if I'd thought about it for another five seconds or so because his main magic is based on fire. "

Actually, having a fire-magician named Frost sounds good.

Names normally just come to me (or I stumble across something that would work beautifully, like Grady Niblo Rd outside of Dallas). Sometimes, they're homages and injokes (like changing the protagonist's name to Ellison in my first published story).

Maybe on the Cogni boards, we'll play a name game where I toss out a few names, and people write a random story where the names influsence the characters they create.

[Abstruse]

My main reason for changing the surname was the poet Robert Frost...

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

[taralon]

So there's a famous poet of the same name.  *shrug*  That can be worked into the story as well.  Being rabidly set against using a name because it happens to also belong to someone famous is throwing out a lot of good names, and some good banter thrown in. 

For example my own first name is Jeb (short for Jebediah), and I always get this:

"Good to meet you, Jeff..."

"Its Je*b* with a B." 

at which point it devolves to one of the three:
"Short for Jebediah? Did you know that's a biblical name?"
"Like Jeb Bush down in Florida, the president's brother?"
"Oh, you mean like Jeb Stuart.  Now there was a general..." 

Depending on circumstances, how I feel, the phase of the moon etc, the conversation will either go well from there, or I'll purposely make a farce out of the whole thing because I simply don't like them, or because I've decided they purposely got the name wrong in the first place.

Names are important.  Its one of the reason's that the Dresden files is so good in my opinion, Harry was right in there that first book talking about his name, Jim handled Butters in much the same way.  Names define who we are in a large part, how we react to society.  A good name will help you out in places, a poor one can be a hindrance your whole life.  Having the same name as a famous person can be both.  Maybe Robert Frost the pyromancer prefers to be called Bob, or Rob, or Bert because of the onus of living under the name, maybe he's up front in your face "That poet guy is giving us a bad name" about it.  Character names are quite often neglected by authors.  They come up with a name for someone, but rarely do you ever see how that name affects the characters life. 

[Soulless Mystic5523]

http://www.behindthename.com/random/

This is, in my opinion, one of the BEST places to find a name. Not only is it one of the largest collections i've ever seen, it gives you the meanings behind the names. And if you have a meaning in mind, you can do a search for name meaning and it spits out a list of all names with meaning similar to it.

I use it to name all my Role-playing characters, everything from WoW the LARP.

[Kali]

I have to have the right name before I can write.  The name cements the character idea, for me.  Like when I wanted to write about a witch who is NOT uber-powerful/uber-sexy/uber-OMG-everything, I wanted to pick a nice, normal name.  Something that would emphasize that she's basically just this woman who also happens to be a witch. Nothing named after an animal, a jewel, or a Shakespearean character.  So I went with Rachel.

On the other hand, I have used Shakespeare from time to time.   When I wanted to contrast a strong, independent woman against peoples' first impressions, I gave her a name loaded with preconceived notions: Ophelia.

Also, I wouldn't fret too much over how the meaning of names is going to impact the reader.  Abstruse said earlier:

If I name a minor character "Aiden", then you'll think of fire (Aiden means "Flame-bringer" or something like that).

No I won't.   Aiden, to me, is a soft-sounding name.  A little feminine, someone who's sensitive and gentle maybe.  If I knew someone named Aiden, the name would make me think of him or someone with the same general personality traits.  The meaning of a name only matters if you look up the meaning of the name. 

It can be a good tool for the writer.  Abstruse, for instance, knows the name means something like "flame-bringer", so that's the association for him.  But as a reader, I'm going by 1) anyone I know who shares the name (including famous actors or a well-known character -- say "Quincy" or "Angelina"), or 2) the sound of the word.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Also, I wouldn't fret too much over how the meaning of names is going to impact the reader.

The problem with that is illustrated by such books as Diane Duane's Tale of the Fire series, in which a major character's name, an innocuous foreign-sounding monosyllable in English, turned out entirely accidentally to be an extremely rude word in Norwegian (I think it was).

[Dread Pirate Sayessa]

Terry Brooks is very adamant about names, to him a name means everything.

That's HILARIOUS because I always wondered why he got so much grief for naming a bad guy after a city in Washington...  "What do you hate about Pe Ell enough to name the bad guy after it?"

My main reason for changing the surname was the poet Robert Frost...

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

You could use that to your advantage, as MaryJanice Davidson does in her vampire books.  The main character goes by Betsy because her real name is Elizabeth Taylor.  Lots of good lines about the grief she's gotten over that name happen in the books.  Not that I'm suggesting you rip off how she did it, but if you can't think of him as anything other than Robert Frost, I'm sure you could work the name into the story somehow.

I do agree that names are important, so if it's a real name I need, the phone book or a baby name book or website often work well.  I tend to write fantasy so my names aren't as important.  The story I wrote for NaNo's main character is a dance mage, and the most powerful dance to her people is the Grey dance, so her name is Grey.  Her suitor is a horse mage, so his name is Hup.  I decided they take their names from what they do well, or are known for.  Her old beau has beautiful eyes, so his name is Hazel.  Sort of a take on Native naming stereotypes.
Grey's best friend is not of the same people, so for her I took a name I really liked (Alyssa) and stuck a C in front of it.

The sticking word sounds together also works well for me.  I call it "Scrabble" naming.  I pick out random tiles (well, when I had a scrabble set) and move them around til I come up with something interesting.  Of course, that meant I inadvertently named a character "Inadrin" and by the rules I'd made up for their language, when she is in hiding as a man her name became Nader.  Yeah, like the seat belt guy.  Took me forever to figure that one out.  Oh well, I still like the name and like you, I've thought of her as Inadrin/Nader so long I can't picture her as anything else.

[swalizer]

I guess I'm lucky, character names usually just come to me. Occasionally I'll need to do a bit of research, though.

For example recently I had the idea for a character of Russian descent who operated a bar. I knew I wanted to have the bar named after him, so I googled 'russian surnames' and came up with this page:

http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/Former-Soviet-Union/Russia/Surnames.htm

I then went through and tried out each surname as a bar name until I finally settled on Zubov for the character's last name, and Zubov's for the bar. The character's full name is Anton Zubov. The Anton part just came to me and it sounded right so I kept it.

Maybe I'm odd, as characters usually spring into my head mostly formed. For example I knew as soon as I thought of this guy what he looked like, what he acted like, generally who he was, I just didn't have a name for him.

[[beatle mania]]

I usually either find the names randomly or steal them from places. My characters' names are all over the place. xP!

Here's a few and their origins, for comparison.

Simon Murphy - 'Simon' or 'Si' as he likes to be called, is named after Sick Boy from Trainspotting, whose real name is Simon. The Murphy is from me being lazy about finding an Irish last name. It has nothing to do with the Lt.; I've been using that last name since before reading Dresden.

Taichi Schwartz and Yamato Seiburem - These characters' first names are after the two main characters from the first season of Digimon, because that show was AWESOME. 'Schwartz' means 'black' in German, which fits Taichi's insanity. 'Seiburem' was the mangled translation in a bad fansub of Rem's last name from Trigun.

Aleksei Tchaikovsky - 'Aleksei', to me, is just a really really sexy Russian name that fit my character. 'Tchaikovsky', of course, is the dude that wrote the 1812 Overture.

Severin - My favorite demon character, freaky as hell- ...the borderline luminescent, blue-tinged white skin is transparent enough so that all the superficial arteries and veins carrying black demon blood are visible. -was named, simply, after the Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs"

Sünde Verrat - His name means, literally, 'Sin Betrayal' in German. This goes against his lovable and loyal self. xP!

I have characters named after biblical figures (A Cain, Abel and Seth respectively), rock stars and even movie/book characters. And then I have random translated words, and names I hear and think are cool. I really don't have any funky fantasy names, only random Japanese ones. I actually have a Maeve (last name is 'Slate', lawlz), who was inspired by Jim!Maeve except for the fact he is male, a cannibal, and enjoys stabbing people to death while having sex with them. 8D

...okay, maybe I should stop talking about my characters now. xP

[Dread Pirate Sayessa]

I then went through and tried out each surname as a bar name until I finally settled on Zubov for the character's last name, and Zubov's for the bar. The character's full name is Anton Zubov. The Anton part just came to me and it sounded right so I kept it.

I knew a Russian guy named Anton, so yeah--good choice!  (He was adorable!  And married...  Then again, so was I.  )

And Abstruse-- I was tired when I made my post, so I didn't even think to ask if the story took place in the real world or your own, which of course would make a HUGE difference in whether you could use the Robert Frost name game thing...

[Kali]

So, I'm in Chemistry class a few years ago, right? And the prof is making a list of elements for some reason.  She writes on the board:

Ne, Na, P, Ar, K. 

I went, "Nena Park.  Good name!"

*tap forehead* Allllways thinkin'...

[Darrington]

I'm a huge believer in the feel of a name.  How it sounds.  The meaning doesn't mean anything to me, so I hate looking up names by their meaning and origin.  Unless, of course, it's a real-world setting and they come from somewhere else.  Then origin means something, but meaning still has no bearing on names to me.

For fantasy names, I normally select a letter to start with, whether it's a hard or soft consonant, or an uncommonly used letter.  That starts the feel for the name and feel of the character.  Then I just try out different letter combinations in my head to try piecing together a sound that fits.  I've come up with names for several other people as well as my own characters this way.

As for the realistic settings, with normal names, I incorporate preconceived notions to names.  Take advantage of that, to some degree.  Depending on the character.  As an example (I hated using it, but there could never be anything that fits better), I have a character named Jane that is, well, plain, simple, overlooked.  To double-layer it, though, there's the Jane Doe aspect of the name.  No one will realize she's missing if she disappears.  Another name.  Angelina.  Now, I'm not up on celebrities and such (someone mentioned that back a few posts, I'm too lazy to reference), so Angelina, to me, sounds very regal.  Long names like that take on a more sophisticated air to me.  Of course, that might not be the same to all my readers, but you can never control everyone's reactions to a name.

In summary, the sense and feel of a name is more important than an actual name to me.  It conveys a lot about a character, depending on how you handle it.  Angelina, for example, might be far from a regal person.  A loser in life who's been beat down at every turn.  She hated it when her parents called her their "little Angel."  So she cuts it down to Ann.  People are entitled to hate their names or butcher them so it's nearly something else.  On the other hand, people can love their names.  Angelina could very well be a regal person who could walk with books on her head all day.

And I could probably keep ranting, but I'll quit.

AD

[ButMadNNW]

A funny anecdote:

I've always liked the meanings behind names, so when I started getting more into my writing and into role-playing in my teens, I went to the bookstore. After looking through several baby name books, I chose one and took it up to the counter. The cashier looked down at the book, looked up at me, donned a slightly confused expression, and said, "Congratulations?" ...

Took me a second to realize she thought I might be pregnant! Then I laughed and assured her that wasn't why I was buying the book!

Anyway, I had a character walk into my head maybe 5 years ago. What with Real Life distracting me and being stressed, I didn't really start working with him until recently. And even then, I couldn't write, because he refused to tell me his name! I started paging through name books, pulling names off TV/movie credits, trying to find something that resonated with me. At some point, I decided he was an ex-pat Brit, so I started pulling names off the credits for Wire in the Blood. In one episode, there was a kid named Corran. That name followed me around long enough that I finally had to admit that was the first name.

But surnames are where I always have trouble. I finally wrote to a friend in London and asked her for help. She told me that "Corran" is Scottish (my book says Irish, and the kid in the show lived in north England, so I'm confused), and got it into her head that he's a highlander. She even hears his light-brogue accent (I still can't), and when she heard that same accent at work, she wrote me an email with that guy's last name. "What," she asked, "do you think of Corran McLaughlin?"

So, for now at least, my main character is Corran McLaughlin (middle name Rene, after his French grandfather, and as an in-joke). He's probably stuck that way, because I'm like some of you - once I have a name, I canNOT think of the character with a different name. If I start writing before I've decided on a name, I go so far as to put [C] as a placeholder for the main character, [P] for his/her partner, etc., so I can't get stuck on a name.