The Business of Naming Characters

I received this in an email this morning and thought all of my readers could appreciate it.

"A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." - Thomas Mann

And so we find ourselves discussing names, something that most people seem to take for granted. But characters with really awesome, iconic names, like Indiana Jones and James Bond, names that have themselves become a hallmark of good stories and a brand name of sorts, did not just spring into being overnight. Their authors and creators thought about them for a long, long time.

As the recent celebrity baby boom can attest, choosing the right name for your child (or character,) can be made into a big deal. And well it should be -- a name is a very, very important part of a person's identity, and something so sacred that in some cultures it is customary to give a child two names, a public one and a private name that only members of the family know or use.

One of the first hallmarks of a Mary Sue is a name -- normally when I see a story summary involving a girl named Serena Adelina Starchaser I run screaming in the opposite direction. It's too much, and who decided that Serena and Selena and Crystal and Mykenzye were all great names for a protagonist, anyway? And if you're naming your child Zaphod Beeblebrox, what kind of parent are you going to be when that child is old enough to hate you?

So, when you get around to naming a character, there are a few things to consider.

First, the gender of your character. I know this sounds kind of obvious, but I have a problem reading about a boy named Sue and a girl named Fred. Especially if you're writing a historical type story, the gender of the name is very important. Girls were not named Christina and called Chris in 1900 -- they were named Christina and stayed Christina.

That leads me to my next point -- time period appropriateness. I'm in the middle of writing a story that takes place during the Second Crusade, in approximately 1185. I cannot name my character Crystal. It will not work. However, most of the under fifteen crowd seem to think that Crystal is the coolest name on the planet and will insist on naming their Crusader's daughter Crystal. My character's name is Audemande, because back in the 12th century, names like Agnes, Audemande and Hildegarde were hot sellers.

Think about what the primary literary influences of the period were. In my case, it's the Bible and the occasional Roman-Latin leftover like Sybilla. Hannah, Agnes, Anna, and Miriam are all appropriate choices. Crystal will only work if your character is a scion of anyone after 1990. End of story. If a major historical figure has that name, chances are it will work for you. Do you see a bunch of queens named Crystal running around? I don't either.

(By the way, if your name is Crystal, don't think that I have it out for all people with that name. It just bothers me when Fanfiction authors seem to think it's the be-all and end-all on cool names. There are so many more.)

After considering that, look at geographic location. Let's return to my Audemande example. Audemande is from Poitou, a region in southwestern France. Originally, the character was named Godeleve, but Godeleve is an English name, and not appropriate for someone who speaks Occitan French. Crusaders generally came from France, Italy, Germany, and a very few from Spain (which was under the control of the moors for some time during this period) and England.

If you're writing a sci-fi or fantasy character, all bets are off. The rules that I've given here do not apply, but there are others that do. Think about cultural associations with your names -- in Dune or Star Wars, most of the characters have kind of wild names like Mace Windu and Liet Kynes or only moderately wild names like Luke Skywalker and Paul Atredies, also called Muad'Dib. Don't go around naming your Star Wars characters Tessica Clouddancer or something because 'It sounds like Skywalker!' All Clouddancer sounds like is camp, kitsch, and My Little Pony. And honestly, if you've got pink plastic ponies in your Star Wars story, you need help. And Tessica? It sounds like Tapioca to me.

When I talk about cultural associations, I mean researching the foundation the author of your fandom (or yourself, if it's an original character) meant for the characters. In Lord of the Rings, the Saxons were a base for the Rohirrim. So, I've got Saxon names for my Rohirric characters. In Dune, the Arabs and Muslims play a big role in the culture of Arrakis and the Fremen, which is why the characters go around shouting Arabic exclamations and going on jihad.

On the subject of using your own name, for any story, realistic or fantasy, my advice is this -- DON'T. When people criticize your character, it'll feel too much like they're criticizing you. I've used diminutives of my name and even stayed in the same letter province (my name, both online and in real life, begins with an M) but I've never used my real name in a story.

The meaning of a character's name generally means little to a reader of fanfiction. Unless someone in your story makes a joke about how your character Colomba (which means 'dove' in Latin, for the record) always wears white and looks like a dove, then don't bother with heavy handed name symbolism. Your character's name is not something they gave themselves (unless in very exclusive cases) and therefore is only a very pale reflection of the essence of that character.

Let's do a quick drive-by of characters that I've written and why I named them what I did. This is a chronological list, more or less, so you can see how the pattern changes.

Gabrielin -- LOTR. An elf of Mirkwood. This is one of my earliest characters, which is why her name doesn't fit with the generally accepted naming scheme of LOTR characters. I thought it was a pretty name when I discovered it, and decided to use it. She also appears in a Harry Potter story I wrote as Gabrielin Malfoy. In that case, Gabrielin is perfectly appropriate for the Magical world; a little strange and oddly mystic sounding, she fits right in with the Minerva McGonagalls and Hermione Grangers of the wizarding community.

Rhoswen -- LOTR. A woman of Gondor. Here is a name I chose because of its meaning, White Rose, and whose meaning does come up in the story; She is a very beautiful woman and is called the White Rose of Gondor because of that. Boromir (her love interest) also makes many references throughout the story to tending flower gardens and pruning rose bushes because of her name. Since this is a fairly obvious comparison, I didn't draw too much flak over it. In fact, Rhoswen's one of my best loved characters.

Phaetis -- Homer. A daughter of Apollo who goes to Troy to fight with the Greeks. Phaetis is a character many of my readers don't know about because I'm one of the only people on the planet who enjoys reading Homeric epic poetry. She's a Greek, she gets a Greek name.


Gabrielle Campion -- National Treasure. Gabrielle is a woman of the 21st century, so she gets an appropriately 21st century name. Her family's French, so her name is also, appropriately, French.

Astrid Sigurd's Daughter -- A Norsewoman and heroine in the epic style. Astrid is an original character I wrote for an independent study project in high school. Her story was a 43 page epic poem written in the style of Beowulf, so like Beowulf, she needed to have a suitably Scandinavian sounding name. Some of the other characters in this story didn't fair so well on the accurate naming front. The prince she rescues is named Aracin, which is Welsh. I probably should have named him Hunlaf or Gunnar.

Margaret Ramsden-- Narnia. A college student with Peter. Margaret was born in the 1920s in England, so her name had to be one of those old English standby names that come up tirelessly from 1200 to 2000. Anne, Margaret, Jane, Elizabeth. All safe bets when you're naming an English character. My name is also a diminutive of Margaret, which added to the allure of writing an almost self-insertive character. My readers, of course, didn't know that.

Meredith Lords -- POTC. A pirate captain in the Caribbean. Meredith is a name I love immensely, so I had to use it for my spunky, spitfire POTC OC. Another name chosen for the period-appropriateness of it.

Mercy Otis Warren Gates -- National Treasure. Ben and Abigail's daughter. Anyone with any American history background at all will be able to point out the proclivity to American colonial historical figures as names for the Gates family. Benjamin Franklin Gates, Patrick Henry Gates, you get the picture. Mercy Otis Warren was a female playwright during the American revolution, and her brother, James Otis, was a prominent figure as well.

Rhiannwyn -- Narnia. The daughter of the Queen under the Mountain. In a name taken from Welsh Myth, Rhiannwyn is based on a character I rp'd with for many years, Rheas. Since the name of the mother of the founders of Rome wasn't quite Narnia-fied yet, I chose something that sounded similar and had a few more mystic associations for this Daughter of the Sun.

Procne -- 300. A Spartan woman. Another character a lot of people don't know about (because unlike her sister Phaetis, she's never been published) Procne is a name taken from Greek myth. I don't remember which one, because that part wasn't important.

George Darcy -- Pride and Prejudice. Darcy and Elizabeth's son. The Regency is also known as the Georgian Period, because during that time two Georges, the 3rd and 4th, were ruling. There's also speculation that Fitzwilliam's parents were named George and Anna (hence Darcy's sister, Georgiana) so the practice of borrowing praenomen would also apply here. The only male OC on this list, he's very near and dear to my heart.

Evelyn Langford -- Dead Poets Society. Evelyn's family comes from a lot of money, so it's right and proper that her name's a little pretentious. She goes by Evie (partially because it's easier to type and partially because I love Rachel Wiesz's character Evie O'Connell in the 'Mummy' films) most of the time.

Aleybis -- Narnia. Ramandu's daughter, a Star. Naming a pre-existing character is hard work, mainly because there had to be a reason the author didn't name them in the first place, and you're afraid of what everyone will think of what you do decide to call them. This is a name I came up with off the top of my head and decided sounded pretty. Being a Star, it had to sound foreign enough to be Narnia-fied, but easy enough to pronounce. This name sounds vaguely Dutch to me, but I've googled it and the number of responses (15) to my query have assured me it's not a common name.

Beth Danderidge -- Age of Innocence. A debutante of 1900s New York. Beth was a character that popped into my head without a name, and as such, got one of those good standbys to use when finding a historical name is a little hard. The turn of the century is difficult because it's too late to be true Victorian, and not really Edwardian yet either. As for her last name, well -- she's inheriting a rather large sum of money. She's entitled to a frivolous last name like Vanderbilt or Danderidge.

Portia Demetrios -- Batman Begins, Dark Knight -- My Batman OC, Portia's another character who needed to show a little nationality in her name. If you didn't get it, her family's Greek. Portia's also a name I admire for the women who've borne it before, namely Shakespeare's two heroines, Brutus's wife Portia in Julius Caesar and Benvolio's love interest Portia in The Merchant of Venice. A name that inspires powerful images, Portia's position as the head of a multinational company backs up her name.

There are lots of tools to help you name a character. The dozens of baby naming sites and random generators you'll find on the web are good to start with, but also sites like Saint Gabriel and The US Census Bureau will help you with period appropriate lists. (For common names in a certain decade, I use this site -- http://www.weddingvendors.com/baby-names/)

After you've gotten your first name down, the last name is just as important. Some characters will not have last names, because believe it or not, they're a fairly recent innovation. Before about 1300, most characters would have been called by their father or mother's name (Astrid Sigurdsdottir) or identified by the province they were from or the land their family held (Audemande of Vinceaux, Godfrey of Ibelin) Early last names are also diminutives of personal attributes or occupations. People with the last name Baker...came from a family of bakers.

It's important to pay attention to last-naming cultural traditions, too. It's still common in some Scandanavian countries to continue that Sigurdsdottir/Sigurdson naming. If your character is, let's say, Welsh, you'll have to find a good Welsh last name, like Powlett-Jones, to suit. You can't say your private eye is Spanish and then give him a name like Dave Jensen. Spike Velasco sounds so much more cool.

If you find a name site you like using, bookmark it. I have an entire folder of bookmarks labeled "Writing Refs" for things like last names, first names, language translators, and folk song lyrics. Just make sure that these sites are legit for the purposes you're using them for. Period appropriate names are sometimes hard to find, or worse yet, mislabeled.

So that's naming your characters. Now you're properly armed to enter the wide world of fanfiction with a character who at least has the good sense to have a spiffy (and un-ridiculous) name. And if you see any Crystals walking around, tell them I said hello.

Post-Blog Quiz-- Name three of the books/tv shows/songs I obliquely reference in this blog post. Dune and Star Wars don't count. I'll comment back and tell you if you're right. (Serious Pop Culture Points if you can name find all of them.)