Month: October 2019

So we’ve gone through a couple of pitfalls to avoid when coming up with character names. Now you know what not to do. But how do you come up with the perfect handle for your hero—or the shopkeeper on the corner?

Here are a few ways I do it.

Dust off the phone book

Or at least, open the phone book app. I’ve spent yours flipping through lists of names with a notepad at my side, jotting down what appeals to me. I speak them out loud and decide if I like the way they sound.

I search like this for both first and last names, sometimes opening the book at random, sometimes making my way through a whole letter. One caveat: never take both a first name and a last name from one person. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Throw a baby shower

Or at least visit a baby naming site or invest in a baby naming book. The advantage of this tactic is that you can also check out the ethnic origin and meanings of the name. Does it suit your character? If it’s a foreign name, how would someone from that culture react to it? And just as with naming a real life baby, make sure the name can’t be twisted into something obscene or insulting. A mean or crappy nickname is a hard thing to shake, even if you’re fictional.

Make stuff up

Because why not? It’s your book. Come up with something that sounds good and appeals to the eye. Read it out loud and see if it sounds right. It’s an especially good trick if you write fantasy or sci-fi. I seriously doubt a three-armed sub-lieutenant from beyond the Crab Nebula would have an Earthy sounding name.

Have a laugh

Amuse yourself with a whacky and entertaining name, especially for a walk-on character who won’t be around long enough to be annoying. Let it be your little joke. Because writing should be fun.

Use an online name generator

A good name generator will ask questions about your character’s gender, religion, ethnicity/origins and personality and then attempt to come up with a list of names you can use. It’s not only useful; it’s addictive.

I just tried to find a name for my Jewish female Afgan zombie of Trinidadian parentage (born in my birth year), and it came back with some gems, including Yuk Lozano and Yulia Lawrie. How could you not love that?

Use anagrams

Some people love finding Easter eggs in their books; hidden treasures that bring them a gasp of pleasure when they’re uncovered. Wouldn’t you love your reader to discover that your character’s name contains a hidden meaning?

Give them just one name

Hey, Cher and Elvis didn’t invent it, and you have to admit that having just one name makes your character look cool as hell. Or sinister. Or commanding. Or godlike. Make them feel like a legend!

Forget names entirely

Hot skater dude. Pink Mini-Skirt. The Bread Lady. Anything that brings a vivid image to your reader’s eye and remains in their mind after they’ve read your story.

Slip a notable characteristic in there

Yeah, yeah, in my last post, How Not to Name Your Characters, I may have suggested this wasn’t a good idea. But it’s too irresistible not to try at least once. Pick one characteristic and play with it; you’d be surprised how appealing your reader will find it, especially if the nickname is bestowed upon them by another character.

Bug-eyes Malone. Legs Maraj. Twitch.

Oh, just have fun. If you do, we will too. I promise.

Naming your characters can be a pain in the butt. You want your readers to be able to tell them apart, of course, but you also try to convey some sense of identity, some element of their personality, through their name. The same image certainly doesn’t come to mind when you hear Beulah or Anastasia, does it? What about Count Dracul versus Muffy?

Just like a person’s name, a character’s name can influence how others see them, even shape their destiny. So when you’re brainstorming. here are a couple of pitfalls you might want to avoid:

Double-letter dullness

We were all raised on Sammy the Snake and Wanda the Witch (Sesame Street kids know what I’m talking about). It’s tempting to use alliteration, especially when naming animals or characters in children’s books. But Barry the Badger and Barnabas the Billy Goat becomes boring.

Lazy characterisation

Lewis Carrol and Charles Dickens were great at conveying the physical and personal characteristics of their people using their names, but in a modern setting it seems lazy. You can name a character Nicholas One-Eye to comic or ironic effect, but otherwise . . . really?

Janet and Jane

For the sake of my eyes and my tired, confused brain, please don’t give two characters such similar names that I wind up getting their plotlines and character arcs confused. Was Alice the bank robber or Alison?

Alphabet soup

Does your character’s name really have to have five consonants in a row? Unless she’s Welsh, I’d guess not. I know it’s all the rage to come up with fancy names, with unusual spellings and a half-dozen punctuation marks thrown in, but most of us hear a voice in our head as we read. So the next time you make me stumble over a character named Vercingetorix Llewellyn Berggren, I’m going to throw the book at you.

Twisted timelines

I’m sure there are kids running around these days named Beyoncé or Daenerys. But remember the time frame your story is set in. Please don’t inflict them on a kid born in behind enemy lines in WWII. Many names are peculiar to their timelines. Probably why there’s nobody out there under 75 named Mildred.

Tripping on their roots

Kunta Kinta resisted being called Toby until they beat it out of him. Why? Because his name was part of his self image. It was one of the last things he could hold on to from his motherland. It helped remind him of who he was.

Names are our identity, often entrenched in our ethnic roots, our gender, our homeland and our parents’ dreams for us. You character’s names should reflect who they are . . . without descending into insulting cliché, of course.

As always, it’s your book and you can name your characters anything you want. You can name your guy Phineas J. Finklebottom. You can call your heroine A. You can break any of these guidelines to achieve the effect you want. Many great authors have done it.

But I’m just sayin’ . . . .

What’s the best or worst character name you’ve ever seen? Tell us in the comments.