Naming your MC and other characters

I'm writing in multiple first person: the three narrator's names are: Jack Ingram; Ryan Ingram and Christian Bailey.

Ryan and Jack came from a baby name book, but they are names that resonated with me. I chose the name Ingram because it means 'white raven' which sounded very poetic to me. I think it works well.

Christian came from a gravestone in Dunblane Cathedral. Bailey - I think - came from Yellow Pages.

Names are the hardest for me. I usually end up with names I'm not thrilled with, but by then it's too late. Baby books is one way, another is a big telephone book - say, a New York phone book. Or Chicago. Or LA, etc. Where you'll find a variety of ethnic names to choose from.

"The Weed of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit!"

Names are the easiest thing for me, most of them anyways. By the time I sit down to put my MC he's already half way devoloped. For last names I usually close my eyes and point at a phone book, then typo and it's like a totally made up last name.
Clyde Faurie.

Graveyard shift

Not for everyone, I realize, but I usually write about locations I know. Visiting passed family and friends in cemeteries, I note local names and draw from them. Annoying to a few, they aren't always short and cute like Curt Stark and Ann Pert. Stanley Jerome Hoffenburger and Melissa Marie DuFresne. But as some have said, they can be called Lissa and Stan.

My character Jimmy, I named him Jimmy cause I have always had a thing for J's. Jimmy, Jason, Jeffry, Jonathan...

I dunnkow why!

Now, Pixel I named cause every E.L.F's name (enhanced life form...basically, the PC Term for cyborg) has to be some kinda electronic/computery thing. And if it shortens to something that sounds good (Pix/Pixel, Quantum/Quant, Circuit/Cir, Vacuum/Vac) all the better.

Fun fact: Quan, Cir and Vac are three siblings. Vac was born first, Cir was the middle child and Quant is the youngest. If you get the really obscure joke in their names, you win a cookie!

I sometimes borrow names from TV series, but not the major names, just the minor ones. Few remember, for example, that Khan from Star Trek's full name was Khan Noonien Singh; I have a Doctor Singh in one of my Sci-Fi stories. A detective lead in a mystery thriller bears the name Ryker (with a "y" not the Will Riker spelling). Other borrowed names are peppered throughout various shorts, novels and scripts. I dare say they give me a quick mental/visual image, if and when I need one. "Write what you know."

-Derek

Often I mix and match first and last names from different people I know, or convolute the names to be something related (in my mind) but not the same.

And sometimes I just put together names I like the sound of, or the associations.

excellent thread topic!

naming characters is one of my favorite things about writing. I have a "thing" about names in books. Stephen King, bless him, annoys the bejesus out of me with the mundane, forgettable names he gives to otherwise interesting characters.

My writing usually has a "gothic" bent, whether it be Southern Gothic, Vicitoian England, American Rural, or Old Hollywood (that's as far as I've gotten so far, folks). Lucky for me, these mileaux have allowed me to go for some pretty colorful stuff.

Here's how I come up with them:

For the most part I will choose names that come from Old Testament religion, fable/mythology, or historical figures. I also take names from known film and fiction. I currently am using a number of variations on character names from the films Vertigo and Mulholland Drive which, to me, lends subtlety to a WIP that involves exchange of identity. For my Victorian story I consulted lists of British surnames on the internet, did the same for French/Arcadian names for my Southern Gothic. When I am in the early stages of story creation I make lists of names in an Excel spreadsheet. Long lists of names. I will happily sell one of these lists for 5 USD payable through PayPal. Even when I need a mundane name it is usually picked based on some external reference which, if nothing else, has meaning to me.

In a pinch I grab the nearest novel from my bookshelves and page flip till I find something, then it's back to work!

I use the Behind the Names site for ethnic names. It provides first names but I use them for first and last.

And the Social Security 'Popular Baby Names' site for other names.

Other times I pluck them out of the air.

Sometimes I just know. Other times I pluck them out of the air. Some characters get a placeholder name until I find the right one (it took me five months to get my villains name right).

I'm writing a historical work, so I'll go back and look at what names were the most popular for the year my character was born. I also look at phone directories and databases for last names. This is especially important if you want your character to be rooted in particular region. Plus, I have a baby name book.

I also do a little of what Derek does and sprinkle names that have meaning to me here and there. One of my character's middle name is Fitzgerald, an nod to F. Scott, one of my favorite writers. When my heroine has to change her name, her new last name is the same as one of my favorite characters in literature: Sir Francis Crawford of Lymond from Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles series.

You can draw from real life too. One of my characters is named Patrick -- that also happens to be the name of a friend mine. I mentioned it to him and he said it was fine as long as I gave him a big [XXXXX].

I like the ordinary (love the Stephen King names - to each his own!) because it's the ordinary in life that makes the extraordinary in fiction pop.

Currently, I have 2 WIPs, one where the main characters are Kitty Morse, Jeff Cormier and the dog, Coco. Jeff explains that he made his name up from a Chevrolet commercial he saw. The other features Jimmie Wilson, a detective named Jeff Miller (I'm partial to the names Jeff & Tom) and Kathy Wilson.

Their names just sort of slid into the characters. Sometimes I write whole chapters and leave names blank until there's a good fit - and names are a great use for the "search and replace" button.

I usually keep notes about names I like. When stuck, I flip through baby name books. For last names, I often use the phone book.

I have to have the names of the main characters before I can write.

I use phone books. I collect them from various cities.

I have used this Random Name generator, but like phone books better.

FWIW:

"Jack" and "Ryan" instantly reminded me of Jack Ryan from all those Tom Clancy novels.

It's also the name of a politician who married Star Trek actress Jeri Ryan and was accused of running around on her. (Gods know WHY, the woman is supernaturally hot according to 1000's of her fans.) He had to withdraw from the state senate race. His replacement lost the seat to Barack Obama.

Be careful about using nouns like "Lane" for names.

I thought of Superman's GF Lois Lane first, and there's a "Dana Lane" in my city. I'm not going to talk about "Della Street" from the Perry Mason books.

I think Stephen King uses ordinary names as a means of getting readers to better identify with his MCs. It's easier for mainstream readers to ID themselves with "Johnny Smith" than the comically exotic "Hieronymous Finkleburger."

Though the name Ignatius Reilly served John Kennedy O'Toole well. He got a postumous Pulitzer for A Confederacy of Dunces, which every writer needs to read at least once.

:editor's hat on:

When picking MC names, avoid having them sounding too much alike or beginning with the same letter.

Lorilee, Merilee, Jerilee will annoy me, as will Bob, Bill, and Ben.

I usually divide a paper up into 26 blocks with a letter in each block.

If I name a character Sam, I put it in the S block and don't name any other characters with that letter.

In a book with a LOT of characters you will have crossovers, but the main names should be different if at all possible.

You can have a Winifred and a William, but call her Freddie or him Bill, and I won't ask for a change.

I've gotten into the habit of googling names I come up with, just in case I've accidentally named a character after someone famous that I never heard about. (I leave the set off a lot to write.)

Gillhoughly said:

:editor's hat on:

When picking MC names, avoid having them sounding too much alike or beginning with the same letter.

Lorilee, Merilee, Jerilee will annoy me, as will Bob, Bill, and Ben.

Click to expand...

Not for main characters, but sometimes I do this as a kind of joke. E.g., for one play idea that never got off the ground I wanted a kind of chorus of three supporting characters named Dana, Darryl, and Dale. Who also could be cast in any combination of sexes with those names, since gender wouldn't be particularly salient to their characterization.

For another play, I wanted the main characters to be named Jody and Jocelyn for reasons having to do with where I got my inspiration from. But sort of as a joke I thought Jody could have a boyfriend named Jay.

On another project my coauthor introduced two fairly similar characters with different longer names but both called Bree for short, which became a running joke.

Real-life example, I once worked at a theatre company with two Jims, whom we referred to as Jim Piano and Jim Tan (because of his complexion) or Jim Nast (because of his gymnastic skills). I don't remember their real last names.

But yeah, that kind of thing works better for minor characters.

My MCs name [full name] is Tessa Abigale Curtis. For short I just use Tess. Simple, yet I love the name. I feel it fits her. I found the name from a baby name website.

I'm totally random with my MC's names. I just pick them out of the air. They could be influenced by a show I watched that day or a book, who knows. I usually go with my first instinct.

My current MC has been in my last 2 attempts at a book, and she stuck with me.

I usually go two ways:

1. I use a real name of a person I know. I have two WIP's where the names are of real people, one for the purposes of an homage and one because my kids are the characters and the story is for them.



2. I use the names of people I know and change them slightly - sound alike names or, if possible, switch the first and last name around (eg Peter Stephens becomes Steve Peters).

If you want the name to have meaning, then the baby name book is good.

Of course, you can eliminate your problem altogether if you write in the first person and not bother to have a name (like Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest). I have a WIP that does this.

Of course, when all else fails, you can use the method people use to create their nom du plumes - middle name + name of a street you've lived on: all hail Todd Kendall and Corinne Dunfield.

RJK said:

I use the Behind the Names site for ethnic names. It provides first names but I use them for first and last.

And the Social Security 'Popular Baby Names' site for other names.

Other times I pluck them out of the air.

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Great sites. Thanks.

I pick names I really like. The exception is in humor, however. The names have to amuse me in some way.

I recently had a crazy experience.

I've named my narrator after a fellow I knew in university (20 years ago). I've always liked his name and I thought it fit.

Anyway, just the other day I got an email--totally out of the blue--saying: Søren Ambrose (the name of my character) has sent you a message on Facebook!

It was crazy. For a second I actually thought my character was trying to contact me.

Interesting (though frustrating) point: the real Søren Ambrose is much more interesting than the fictional one!

Wow - I would love it if my character tried to contact me. Damn, there's a story in there!

I work with the Baby Name Voyager online (Google and you'll find it!), which indicates which names were popular in which decades, so I can make sure a character's name fits the era he or she was born into. I do a lot of thinking about the character's parents, what they were like and what names they might have chosen for a baby; this helps because it also tells me a lot about the character. I make sure that people's first and last names sound good together and that there aren't too many similar names within a story. Finally, I think it's good to go for the "slightly unusual" instead of the "totally unique" or "totally ordinary."