“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – Bill Shakespeare
Towards the end of my first draft, I realized the names of my characters and places weren’t great, usually born from whatever words happened to be in my mind at the time. For example, I had characters named “Sticks” and “Toast” (maybe I was craving French toast sticks from Burger King that day). I thought about how I wanted the story to have a surreal quality and originally, I thought using weird names for people and places would fit in with that spirit. But then I wondered if “weird” names might pull the reader out of the story – a cardinal sin of fiction writing – while they debated the merits of the name. I imagined a reader, likely taking a chance on a new author, wondering why I called a character “Loof” without a good reason when plenty of other names are available, especially in terms of keeping the reader enthralled enough to get through the story, leave a great review, and maybe even pass my book along to a new reader (all while I relax on a pile of money).
Although I’m changing some names that are coming to me through revisions, as the characters reveal more about themselves, I’ve also kept names I made up that I still want to use…based on their characteristics and the comical tone of the story (and the fact that they make me laugh like a child). For example, a minor character is named Mary Swearington because she’s an old lady with a mouth like a sailor (and I’m not talking nautical terminology). There is a line writers can maneuver around when it comes to names, but that doesn’t make it any easier finding names that fit.
Names, of course, have deeper meanings than just identifiers of who’s speaking during dialogue. Maybe their parents thought long and hard about their children’s names, perusing those thick books of names and their meanings (or, more likely for today’s parents, searching the internet), possibly even arguing over why they shouldn’t name the poor kid after Uncle Mortimer, who may be wealthy now, but familial lore about his daily harassment in school stretched over a generation. And there are the common Biblical names, including my own (meaning “only God can judge me,” based on the Hebrew “din” – to judge and “el” – God). But to add even more meaning to my name, I wasn’t named after Daniel from the Bible, but Daniel from the Elton John song reportedly playing on the car radio while my mother was on her way to the hospital to give birth to me. Little stories like that demonstrate how important names are to people and that bringing meaning to the names of characters deepens that character and provides the ever-important believability for the reader. The character doesn’t have to be believable, in terms of reliability, but they are given names or give themselves names which further identifies who they are as people…and believable characters.
Sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card, in his non-fiction book Characters & Viewpoint (published for Writer’s Digest’s Elements of Fiction Writing series), discusses some of the above points behind the meaning of names. Names aren’t just labels…they tell the story of who the person is, their background and ethnicity and therefore, their perspective. Is “Edna” a good name for a member of a men’s motorcycle gang, unless it’s used as a nickname by the other brutes of his inner circle? Could anyone else call him that without becoming the victim of violence? However, the other end of the spectrum is cliché, where calling him “Butch” or “Killer” would be too much leading, unless I had my satire hat on and he was a caricature of the stereotypical Hells Angel. But even then, I’d opt for a name more original but just as effective, such as Hank (except now I’ve learned the Hells Angels was founded by a man named Otto and “Hells Angels” was coined by one named Arvid, which is one of those “too true for fiction” concepts).
Names should be memorable in their own right and different from the other character names in the piece. Using Sam, Steve, Sonny, and Simon for names of characters in the same story may be too confusing for a reader (and likely the writer) to tell apart. However, the need for memorable names does not help to conjure them from the imagination, which is where character development comes in. And characters often reveal their names during that development. For example, my current WIP has a character named “Andrea Oracle,” named both after a friend and the character’s purpose in the story. The only reason she is in the story is to provide information to the characters, but halfway through the second draft, I realized she was telling me her name was Sue Spirit, which is original and still meets the needs for the character…one who uses her intuition (or “spirit”) to guide the characters further down the plot. Even though she isn’t a main character, her actions help shape the story and such a character deserves the name she chooses.
Names of places are in a similar boat, in that place names in real life are often named in honor of people. For example, my adopted city of Detroit was originally styled the fancy “Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit,” naming it after the comte de Pontchartrain, Minister of Marine under Louis XIV. And places are often named after existing places, such as “New York,” “New Jersey,” etc. And even those names come from different perspectives that tell a deeper story about identity than just another representation of a label. Additionally, “Detroit” is pronounced differently today than from the original French, indicating that even the sound of names can change depending on perspective. And place names can be misleading. Bay City, Michigan isn’t really a city at all. West Branch, Michigan is north of North Branch and south of South Branch (which is also north of North Branch). And there are at least a couple “Trout Lakes” that do not offer their namesake fish in stock. Inconsistencies like those are fun to play with while naming places in stories.
Card recommends that if a writer’s name choices are “stuck in a rut,” minor changes might salvage the name somewhat. For example, adding syllables to make “Waters” into “Waterman.” Or changing some names that start with consonants to ones starting with vowels…whatever it takes to keep the names fresh, original, and memorable. The best characters demand nothing less.
All this said, it’s not easy finding the right name for a character. I’ve taken to making a list of original, interesting names (with meaning and/or origin) I come across during my travels through the cultural domain. Anything that “pops” out to me gets written down. Then if I’m deep into writing and have to stop to give a character a name, I can just pull up the list and find one I want to use. If it changes down the road in later drafts, so be it, but it’s a good starting point for character development and often comes with its own story I can use for flavor.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave a comment down below or on my social media if you have an effective way to name your characters and places. What’s your favorite name? Will writers ever be able to use Gatsby or Holden again without adding too much unwanted baggage from their prior use in Great Literature? Who would have the guts? I just might.