The character name game
When you were a kid did you hate your name? Do you have a child that wants to be called Big Bird for a while? (My sister-friend did.) I’m not sure my kids ever did that, but my main character is doing it now. She’s poking me incessantly to call her something else. It’s really annoying — but I can’t help but pay attention.
I painstakingly (OK, it was fun) researched names that would be appropriate for my characters. By birth year. By state. By religion. By socio-economic background. But there was a name that stuck in my head. I ignored it because it’s similar to the name of someone I know. I don’t know this person well, but I know her.
But the name has been in my pocket for the past year and a half and I’m thinking about a major Search and Replace, at least in one chapter, to try it on the character and see if it fits.
How do you choose your characters names? Have you ever switched them around or changed them completely? What made you do it and how did you decide?
Amy, I’ve talked about this on various blogs so it’s possible I’ve mentioned it here, but I changed ALL my characters names between the 3rd & 4th draft (except my MC). At first I assigned everyone my friends’ names, so I knew I’d have to change those, then I realized the majority of the men (all Hispanic) had names that started with either R or A. And I had a stripped named after a good friend of ours.
Massive Find & Replace.
THEN I had to make a cheat sheet because I’d changed so many people I didn’t know who they were anymore. My most recent change was to my secondary MC’s best friend — she switched in the 4th draft and I’m much happier with the new name.
As for HOW I picked, I just ran through all the Hispanic names I know until one felt right. For some for of the minor characters I gave them the toss-offs, but two idiots at the bar are Juan & José — very generic names — because they could be anyone.
^^^ stripper. Not stripped.
Search & Destroy. The character’s your boss.
My daughter asked me to name a character after her and it worked… we now joke about what “she” is up to in the book. She also chose her husband’s name (based on one of her favorite celebrities) and when the character had a baby, she named that too.
Of course if she wanted to name her husband and baby Snuffy and Big Bird we wouldn’t be having this conversation…
The hard part is to not name a character after someone I know. I collect odd/unusual names in a notepad and when I’m developing a new story, I flip through it. Nothing really fancy, but it works. I also have a baby name book as a reference tool too. Best of luck on changing your character’s name! If it’s a historical name you’re seeking, the census records are always a good resource. A database like ancestry.com is useful then.
Now I really struggle with book titles. I often have a senseless working title until I’m done with draft 2 or 3, then I rename it. Any advice is helpful!
I get a very clear in my mind what the character looks like. Then a certain name just speaks to me. He/She looks like a certain name to me. Then I am pretty attached to the name because I see the whole person. It would be tough for me to change it at that point.
I find one of my greatest sources is Movie credits. Do you have any idea how many people with interesting names are in the movie business?!
I’ve kept a mental list of interesting names for a number of years but about a year ago I decided to keep a character journal wherein I write descriptions of individuals that pop into my head or are inspired by real-life people. If I’m having trouble with the creation of a character I find choosing what to call them is the next best step because somehow they become more “solid”, rounded out and alive.
Only once or twice have I ever changed the names of characters and those were because I revisited several pieces I’d written twenty years earlier. The names I chose then, I feel, reflected the times and who I was rather than the names best for the characters themselves.