Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

A Rose By Any Other Name

I love to name characters. It’s one of the first steps I take when deciding what direction a story will take – this is of course after the initial flash of the idea hits me. Sometimes the name will come with it, oftentimes it won’t – unless it’s a sequel or part of a series where the name is a known commodity.

Often the characters themselves will say, “Hey, Kat, this is my name and my story.” But for the ones that are a little more reluctant to name themselves, or I have to pry the information out with a pair of pliers, I have a couple of great baby naming books I use. They are listed in alphabetical order and then give the origin, meaning and derivitives for other languages or regions. I’d say that is probably one of my first sources to use if I’m coming up with bupkiss. I also do my research online, so a quick trip to Googleland to plug in the country (if I want a name common to a specific area) brings up a goldmine of lists to choose from. Then there are the less used places like telephone books, bibliographies, Who’s Who publications, resources like that where you can find first and last names that can be mixed and matched and otherwise shaken up to create characters.

But no matter what source you use, the name has to fit the characters. That more or less refers to the line where my characters mostly name themselves. The ones who don’t tend to be rather picky. So, as I’m going through the lists, they have a tendency to say, “No. I don’t like that one.” or “No, that’s not me.” Sometimes I get, “Don’t make me laugh.” I keep going until I find the one we can all agree on. Then finally I’ll come across a name that makes the clouds part, the sun shines and the angels sing. And I know I’ve got it.

In a university creative writing class once, the professor suggested that characters should be named by concentrating on particular traits and then using names that mean the same or close to the trait. Though I don’t know if I necessarily believe this, I do think it’s a subconcious part of “knowing when the right name comes along.”

Characters, just like people, have to be comfortable in their skin and their names. If you’re ever stuck on a name, try the suggestions I’ve used. And if you have any favorites, pass them along.

-Kat