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Aug 28, 2012 · No matter what sort of character name you're pursuing, heed common sense and follow these seven tips to make sure you pick the best names possible for your story. Choosing a character name for your novel is as pressure-filled as picking a name for a baby.
- Naming
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- Naming
- By Anne R. Allen
- Always Google Your Characters’ Names!
- Choose Names That Fit The Character
- Choose Names That Begin with Different Letters
- Avoid Generic Or Over-Used Names.
- Be Creative When Naming Fictional Characters, But Make Names Pronounceable.
- Name only Featured Players, Not walk-ons.
- Don’T Change Names Mid-Story.
- Choose Names to Fit The Setting, Period, and Age Group.
- Try A Character Name Generator
The old-school advice for naming fictional characters was to comb the obituaries. But not a lot of people get newspapers these days, so we need other sources of inspiration. For me, spam is turning out to be one of the best places to find unique names. Every week I cull a few from my email and blog spam folders. I can always perk up a story by subj...
I once wanted to name a porn star Peter McHugh until a Google search showed a local politician with that name. I don’t suppose he would have welcomed one more off-color joke. And you want to make sure there’s not a real Galveston Ngyen, or you might find yourself in an embarrassing situation. Sometimes failing to Google a name can lead to more than...
Would Jack Reacher be such a phenomenon if Lee Child had named him Phillidus Frogmore? Would Miss Marple have been able to do all that surreptitious investigating if Agatha Christie had called her Fifi LaRue? Inappropriate and misleading character names are what prompted this post. You don’t want to give a character a name that sets up the wrong ex...
It’s best to vary the length as well. You want to choose names that look different from each other on the page. Names that begin with the same letter will always confuse the reader. So don’t give your heroine rival boyfriends named Tim and Tom unless she can’t tell them apart either. This gets tougher as you move along in a series. If you carefully...
I’ve seen agents complain that all variations of Catherine/Kate/Caitlin have become ho-hum. Personally, I’m tired of Jake/Jack. This summer, when I was bed-bound and reading dozens of books a month, I once read three books in a row with love interests named Jack. I couldn’t figure out why Jack the mechanic didn’t arrest the bad guy when he caught h...
Making up names is fun. But make sure humans can pronounce them. One of the most common “pet peeves” readers complain aboutare the unpronounceable character names that show up in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. We may think that since the story is presented as text, it doesn’t matter if you can say them out loud. But it’s amazing how much we need to “hear” eve...
Don’t clutter the story with too many names. A named character needs to play a significant role (whether dead or alive.) Otherwise, just call her “the Uber driver” or “the mail carrier.” If her only purpose is to transport the protagonist to the family reunion or deliver an Amazon package to Uncle Sanjay, don’t name her. Or the reader will think sh...
So your heroine finds out halfway through the book that she’s the king’s daughter, and she’s not really Sally the milkmaid but Princess Ursula von Milkenberg. Avoid the urge to start calling her Princess Ursula in the narrative. Obviously it will become necessary in dialogue, but if we met her as Sally, keep calling her Sally to the reader.
I once had an editing client who named a contemporary sixty-year-old librarian “Mildred”—an unlikely name for a Baby Boomer. I suggested Linda, Susan, or Judy. On the other hand, Linda, Susan, and Judy don’t even rank in the top thousand names for the last decade. If your female character is under twelve, try Sophia, Emma, or Olivia. I made a perio...
Character name generators are great fun. And they can be a goldmine for minor character names. Just Google “character name generator” with the genre. There’s one for naming male characters in Regency England. And one for naming fictional characters in fantasy and steampunk. I played around with a steampunk name generator that gave me the names of t...
Aug 16, 2018 · Before you’ve even started your novel, you’re in danger of stalling on one crucial detail: how to come up with a character name. Will you choose a short, blunt name, like James Bond? A memorable one, like Holden Caulfield? Will you go with self awareness, like Artful Dodger, or absurdism, like Ignatius Reilly?
- Match Their Personality: As I mentioned earlier, a character’s name plays a big role in how readers perceive them, especially during their introduction!
- Consider Your Story’s World: Next on our list, when it comes time to name your characters, you need to consider your novel’s worldbuilding. After all, the world around us plays a big role in what names we’re given—or perhaps choose for ourselves!
- Think About Meaning: While some authors think hiding meaning in their characters’ names is silly, some lean into this practice hard—and honestly, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong here.
- Avoid Repeat Letters: For rule number four, we have something that’s often easy to overlook—but that can make a huge difference if you’re juggling a large cast of characters.
Oct 8, 2024 · With so much riding on a name, how do you pick the right ones for your characters? In this blog post, we’ll explore practical and creative ways to choose names that suit your characters and enhance your storytelling.
Would you like tips for choosing character names for your story? Here's a no-fail guide to sourcing unforgettable and perfect names.
Jan 17, 2018 · 15 different ways to choose the memorable and appropriate names for the characters in your self-published fiction books, using sources from the cradle to the grave!
