And it's KT.
No, in all seriousness, I'm going to be talking about naming characters. Which I think has been done before, but I am ME and I name my characters my own way, right? Right. Hopefully.
Well, I happen to really enjoy naming characters. And hate it at the same time. Some names literally just come to me, and others I debate over for hours, days, years (not really). Most of the time, a main character's name comes the easiest for me. And it's a mix between the name fitting their personality and then sometimes shaping their personality to their name.
And a lot of the time, that personality thing happens to come from the meaning behind their name. In which case, babynames.com is the best invention ever. Let's take my characters Devin and Ember, for instance. Devin's name means "descendant of the dark-haired one." Um, well, Devin has dark hair, so that fits. But his name was a case of it just fitting his personality. Ember's name meaning is a little obvious--it has to do with fire/a spark. And I can sometimes see her being kind of sparky like that. And astrologically, she's a fire sign. However, her name came to me first more so than her personality. So, in that one book, my naming came from both sides of the spectrum.
...And then there's the fact I have an epic fantasy and I did that sometimes annoying thing that fantasy writers do. And I made names up. For instance, my MC's name is Lanani (which, if you want to pronounce it, it's "Luh-nah-nee"). I don't quite remember HOW I came up with that, but I was just writing and *poof* Lanani's name appeared, and I ran with it. To me it doesn't seem that weird anymore, but I know that if more people read it someday, I'm probably going to get some weird (figurative) looks... not to mention the male lead's name is Ranu. Weird. I know. My apologies.
And that's pretty much the way I name my characters. I look for meaning, how it fits the character... and sometimes I just make things up. And, actually, unlike some other people, it's not hard for me to name a character after somebody I know, or a name similar to mine (I have a character named Kate, too).
How do you guys name your characters? Any things you avoid in particular? (I do try avoid names I absolutely hate, unless it's a character I want people to dislike. Mean author is mean.)
RANUNCULUS!!
ReplyDeleteUm. Avery was me complaing about this DARN character who wouldn't pick a stupid name. Then a friend (before I knew you, lol) asked me about her. And Ava was the number 5 most popular name in 2005. She bounced between Ava and Avery for a while, but Avery just stuck. Then Gardener was nice and a bit like Ava Gardner which was cool. Sebastian... that was just his name. Cameron was the same after a while. Most everyone else in that book was either things I considered and had written down for Avery or just felt right.
Harley's name was popular in her birth year, I think. She was almost Delaney. I like that name as a first name, but it didn't fit her, so I gave it to Evan instead :P Evan was just his name. I had actually used it before but... it fit him better and I'm never going back to that story.
In SMN (I have too many books), you know most of that 'cause you helped, but I'll say it anyways :P Lennie, I really struggled with because NOTHING FIT HER, so I ended up giving her a random nickname from Elenora. Nolan, I wasn't entirely sure if it fit him right away. And I think I called him Noel for a while, didn't I???How weird is that now. And that other person chose the only name I didn't want him to choose ;)
But a lot of people in that book have names that have to do with the Irish mythology in it, so that actually made things easier because some of the characters came with names and sometimes even histories attached. (Although sometimes I fudged things. I am NOT writing a character named Oonagh. I'm just not. Una works FINE.)
The TL;DR version for anyone but KT: Lots of whining, some random names, and I make KT come up with insane lists of names for me a lot ;)
Also ;D is a cute smiley.
Did you call him Noel? I don't remember that XD I just remember looking up Irish boy names like CRAAAZY.
Delete;D is a cute smiley indeed.
I think so, yeah, for like five minutes. But I had two four-letter N names already :P
DeleteOh my gosh, that was a long comment...
ReplyDeleteI try to avoid names of people I know at all costs. I am so paranoid about someone reading my writing on day and go "is that about me?" Also it's really hard to have a love interest who shares the same name as a relative. It makes romantic scenes AWKWARD. I love their names from a writer's point of view, but as someone who actually has to write down that romantic stuff, it's just a little weird for me. So yeah, I kinda just rambled there, but to answer the question people I know names' are off limits. Great post. BTW Lanani is such a cool name :)
ReplyDeleteI think I've just gotten used to naming characters of people I already know from reading books with the names of people I know? Like in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, the main characters are Richard and Kahlan... and they're love interests. My brother's name is Richard and my name is Kaitlin (which is close), so I just learned to dissociate myself XD
DeleteThank you!!! :D
I write fantasy and science fiction. And I make up a lot of names. XD
ReplyDeleteInteresting that this post would appear now, because I've just begun the heart-breaking process of possibly changing a character's name.
Viss Arach is Viss Arach. She always has been, and always will be. But I've gotten comments on it before, about the 'Arach' bit being too close to 'Arachnid'. Which is admittedly kind of where I got it (and, *cough* she's a spider-person... -_-)
So now I might have to settle for Viss Arrak, or Arak, or... Something. And it is KILLING me having to decide this.
Certain characters, changing their names are no big deal. And others... GAH. XP
Dude! Viss Arach is an awesome name and I think that it makes it way cooler that she's a spider-person and that's what her name is from. I think little symbols/connections in books like that are SO COOL. Personally, I think you should ignore those people and keep it XD
DeleteI like Viss Arach, too!!!!
DeleteActually, where I live, things like "Littlechief" and "Standingready" and stuff are pretty common so Arach seems sorta normal...