What Do I Call You?

Finding the right name for your characters, does it even matter?

Ladies, gentlemen and gentlefolk, it’s the weekend!

I have been very excited to get to the end of the week. If you have children, you’ll know that first week after a holiday is a bit wonky so I am very ready to have a “relaxing” weekend.

Today we are talking about naming characters. How do you name them? Does it even really matter what you call them? How does a name define a character?

If you have any tips or musings on naming your own characters let me know in the comments.

A little note: Next week The Blister Pack will be taking a break but we’ll be back the week after with new stories and writing musings.

See you then,

Jordan x

The inspiration for today’s post comes from a little moment that took place this week. I was writing a short story and needed a name for a male character. My partner was sitting next to me so I asked him for a name suggestion. What started off as “Give me a name, doesn’t need to be a basic guy’s name” ended up in my partner shaking his head at me and laughing as he left the name in absolute amazement because I take choosing character names quite seriously.

Ok, I don’t mean in a severe way but I put deep consideration into choosing names for my characters no matter how big or small their role is in the story. Even if they feature in one paragraph, are mentioned in passing and have zero lines of dialogue, I put effort into their name.

Why? Well we’ll get to that in a bit. First let me tell you that after about twenty minutes of back and forth of names suggestions, pressing the button of my name-generator-fiancé, I finally landed on a name that I came up with, (hence the amazement) and so Wesley was born.

Sometimes names just come to me. Like a vision, the character comes fully formed and they tell me their name. I do not mean literally - think of it as coming as a flat-pack character, I can see what they look like, sound like, their characteristics and their name is on the packaging. So instead of a KALLAX unit I’ve got Sacha, a twenty-something pilates instructor with a slender build and a temper problem she keeps hidden from everyone. Now all I need to do to build her is flesh Sacha out on the page and make her perceivable to the reader.

Other times, I am stumped for names and after an initial racking of my brains I have to set about finding a name for my character. One of the most useful and tangible tools is a baby name website. Not only does it give you suggestions and name inspiration, it also gives you the meaning of a name which can be useful in attaching the attributes of your character to their name. Perhaps you want to be quite on the nose: You have a beautiful woman so you name her Bella or perhaps you want to create a sense of irony so instead you name her Olga which actually means beautiful in Russian but is always thought of as an ugly name.

For me, baby name websites are a last resort, here’s what I usually do before I hit the search bar in Safari.

Who am I looking at? First I want to get a sense of the character, what do they look like? It’s quite common to hear someone say, “Oh that person looks like a enter name here.” Or even the opposite if they don’t look like their name matches their face. It’s strange but most of us find ourselves doing it. Imagine a man in his fifties, medium build and height, bald head, slight blonde stubble and wearing rectangular steel framed glasses? Almost definitely a Steve. But if we change his name to Adonis… suddenly it doesn’t feel right. So I need to picture their face and I can usually get a sense of what/who they look like.

If that doesn’t work… I move onto personality and their make up. Who are they on the inside? What factors surrounding their childhood have shaped who they are? Are they happy go lucky or perpetually pessimistic? Are they working class? Middle class? Usually I build up a profile of their character, including their physical features and work through a list of names that match this person. If I imagine a down to earth, middle class teenage girl who is quiet and studious, names like Beth and Naomi come to mind. Now this is a simplified example. There are other things to consider such as, their cultural background, the character’s age and the time period it set in. If I want their names to have any special meaning or does it need to serve as a literary device (see irony example mentioned above).

In the real world names are important, if they weren’t we wouldn’t have people changing their names by deed poll and bans on certain names like, Hitler and Satan. Names are how we identify ourselves and how other perceive us, so in the world of literature names are how readers not only identify characters in a literal and metaphorical sense but also how readers perceive those characters. Characterisation as you might well know is how well a writer builds a character and sells that character to the reader, in essence if you want to create believable and relatable characters you need to do the groundwork in characterisation. There are so many ways to do this and for me, a character’s name is one way to lay a strong foundation for solid characterisation. In the same way that we associate a name with how someone looks, a name can make us feel a certain way about someone and therefore a character. You might have known someone when you were a child that you really didn’t like and now whenever you hear that name it makes your skin crawl or you might associate certain names with certain characteristics. How we name our characters is one of the ways we shape the way readers connect with them and how the reader will feel about the character. Of course a lot of this comes from our own lens and how we as individuals also feel, think and connect to names. However, I do think there is a general consensus on some names (Tarquin is upper class and stuffy. Whitney is working class and outgoing) and that is why research is a vital part of the writing process.

On that note is also another thing to consider about the significance of naming a character and that is due diligence. As writers and creators it is our responsibility to take the time to research and carefully consider the work we put out, especially when we aren’t writing from our own world view. If a writer wants to write about a character with a background from their own they absolutely can but they must be aware of the work they need to put into it before doing so this goes for the physical features of the character and their lived experiences, it also goes for their names. For example, if you aren’t Chinese and you want to write about a character who is Chinese, you will research Chinese names properly, considering that different names are popular in different regions and some names may differ. But if you name the character a random “Chinese sounding name” (here’s looking at you David Walliams and Matt Lucas) it sends the message that at best you do not care about your readership and are a lazy writer and at worst that you are racist. What about satire you ask? The thing about satire is that it is funny because it is intelligent. Creating characters that show off your ability to offend a minority group isn’t intelligent, anyone can do it and just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. That is all I will say on that *steps down off soap box*.

There are no pictures in an adult fiction book to show readers what a character looks like, all we have as writers are words and some very interesting literary devices in our arsenal. When we take all of a character’s characteristics and present them to a reader we are painting them a picture of this person in our head. A name can do so much in painting that picture as an initial introduction and can even reveal some of the writer’s intentions for the character and the story. If we don’t put the effort into choosing a characters name, we miss a little but significant step in giving the reader the pieces of a character for them to build in their own minds. So the next time you think about building a character, think of them as a flat pack package your reader is getting off a shelf and on the front of that package is the name of the character.