
Thinking of names for the characters in your stories can be very easy for some writers, with the names just popping into your head, while for other it can be a torturous and painstaking experience. Sometimes it may not even be that crucial to get the name just right, but there are a few things to remember when choosing names for the people you invent.
Names very often typify characters and conjure up certain images in the minds of the reader. If you need to know what impression a particular name can give, check out the better baby name books. Many of these types of publications inform you in detail how names mean strength or wisdom or beautiful and so on, but some baby name books refer to famous, and even infamous, people who may have had that name or remind you of characters in movies. Hollywood, of course, has been doing this kind of thing for decades. The given names of Archibald Leach, Marion Morrison, Betty Joan Perske, Norma Jean Baker, Maurice Micklewhite and Gladys Smith were all deemed to be surplus to requirements. To conjure up the right image in the minds of moviegoers, these actors respectively became Cary Grant, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Caine and Mary Pickford.
Often the longer a person’s name, the more we think they might be educated, confident, accomplished or possess many other desirable qualities in a hero or heroine. For example, if you want a strong male character in your novel, will you go with Alexander Wainwright or Tom Smith? If your female character is a sophisticated, well educated, statuesque beauty, will she be known as Elizabeth Castlewood or Susan Jones?
J K Rowling also had these things in mind, when creating the names for both the heroes and villains that inhabit the Harry Potter universe. Professor Severus Snape, for example, is a perfect name for the man who symbolizes Slytherin house. It also seems highly appropriate for a serpentine, snake in the grass kind of person that you will never truly trust, no matter how much faith Dumbledore seems to have in him. Malfoy, according the Rowing, means bad faith in old French. However, this is relatively unimportant, since just the sound of this name is enough to personify an evil or at least highly unlikable character. Names are very important and you only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure you make the right choice.
No Tags
Hi Simon,
This is great advice. Since writers have to show instead of tell I can understand how important a name might be, especially to a main character.
Carma