Inhabiting a Name
By Jeanne Kisacky | November 26, 2024 |
Naming characters is my least favorite part of writing. A character’s name imparts more than just a moniker by which to differentiate actors in a plot. Names are powerful—they provide limits and possibilities to what the character might be or do. For me, the wrong name for a character throws things off in the writing. A character that has not been given the right name misbehaves. Beatrice would not speak the same way that Susan would. Ernest would choose different clothes from Roderick. Until I find the right name for a character, they don’t willingly occupy their role within the larger story.
While clearly I tend to overthink things, these expectations are extensively influenced by stereotypes and preconceptions. The connections we make when we hear someone’s name are as instantaneous, as deep-rooted, and as difficult to shift as first impressions. Getting them right is worth a little extra time and consideration.
I’m not going to tell you how to choose or derive a name—there are numbers of name generator tools on-line. I’m going to try to highlight the complexity and variety of ways in which a name can influence first impressions to help provide you with ways to assess what name best fits your character and your story.
The Power of Names:
Names create expectations, not just of the person’s individual characteristics, but also of their background:
- Gender. Most names provide a clue to whether the character is identified by the parents as male or female. Since names are given at birth in most cultures, that identification is something a character can grow into or out of. Using more neutral gender names—Avery or Alex–never fully avoids those expectations, but it provides the character different options.
- Beliefs. Names drawn from well-known religious texts are common and can often provide clues to the faith background of a character. Luke, Michael, Peter and John suggest a much different faith background than Aparajit, Jai or Vishnu.
- Time and Place.
- Historical Eras. Names can evoke specific eras, which can be useful in historical fiction. Bessie would be better matched to a story set in another century than the twentieth.
- Specific Decades. For works set in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a name can give clues even to the decade or year a character was born. The usage of certain names is linked to specific years. Emily was the most popular name for girls in the US from 2000-2007; Olivia from 2019-2023. Ashley was probably a child of the late twentieth century. The Social Security Administration’s baby names page is a fabulous tool for investigating this as it lets you look at the popularity of names in a given year or decade, to track the changing popularity of any given name, and even to narrow the results by state or territory.
- Heritage. Names can indicate specific social, ethnic, and racial backgrounds, illuminating a character’s heritage in an instant. Alfred, T’Shonna, Giovanni, or Vivek will bring different expectations of a character’s background. Niles or Vivienne conjure a very different type of family class background than does Cody or Mabel.
- Place. Names can provide clues to where a person was born or lives. In the American South, the use of two names as a first name, like Mary Rose, is a whole thing. Larson, Nelson, Olafson are the result of Nordic naming patterns, and in the US, they are common in areas that were settled by Nordic immigrants. Jones or Smith, however, are less specific, and so less evocative of a specific background or location.
- Meanings Many names have meanings in specific languages. Authors (like parents) regularly use those linguistic associations to indicate core features of their characters to readers. Names that mean ‘light’ (for example Claire, Lucius, Bodhi, or Niamh) exist in many locations and cultures, but also in many book characters.
- Literary Associations. Some names are so linked to a specific literary character that using them evokes the book as well as all the other associations – Heathcliff and Oliver in today’s world are doomed to know they share the name of characters in well-known books.
Science Fiction and Fantasy stories regularly play with these associations by creating new variants of common names. When done well, these variants provide a tenuous connection to the common root name, but also create a sense of difference that supports the otherworldly setting and timing. Peeta sounds like the common name Peter, but it isn’t the same.
The Power of Inhabiting a Name
Names may inevitably trigger all these associations, but how a character then inhabits or rebels against their name can provide depth to their story arc and refine the reader’s understanding of exactly who they are. If Beau Reeves is a shy bookworm, it gives the reader one set of understandings; if he is a varsity athlete it gives another. The character can also choose to ‘own’ their name, or they can ‘disown’ it. Scarlett O’Hara lived the flamboyance of her name; Peter Parker used the normality of his name to hide the abnormalities of his alter-ego. Jon Snow’s name–and all it implied in his world–slowed his own acceptance of his extraordinary role. Inigo Montoya and Anne Elliott each, in their own way, lived up to their name.
Names can even reinforce the story arc of characters. Some will grow to fit a powerful name (Daenerys Targaryen or Luke Skywalker). Others can escape the boundaries of a more pedestrian name (Clarice Starling or Jane Eyre).
Characters can even opt to change their name, as did Jean Valjean to Monsieur Madeleine, to hide or to become someone else. In fact, this blog post was inspired by my own reactions to a person close to me who is in the process of changing their legal name. I have struggled to use their new chosen name, because it changes my understanding of the person. All my history with this person is by the old name, and I’ve not yet connected that history to the new name. This makes them a stranger, and yet they are the person I’ve known for decades. It’s an odd dissociation, that I expect will ease with use, but it is impossible to ignore.
Choosing a Character Name.
I really wish I could give you decent advice on how to find the perfect character name, but I can’t. Sometimes (rarely) I get lucky, and the character comes into my head with a name already established. They literally introduce themselves and I can write away happily. Sometimes they show up in my head without a name. I can suss out their traits, their background, their individual quirks, but until I call them by the right name, they do not behave as I want them to in the story. In early drafts of one of my stories, I tried more than a dozen different names for one of the characters until he settled into one and it fit. Then the writing finally flowed.
If you have an easier time with naming your characters, I would love to hear it. Do you use name generators? Do you have an idea of the character, and then search for a name to match? Have you ever renamed a character? Have you ever written a character that changed their name?
Useful Websites for this post:
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
https://www.behindthename.com/names/list
Name Tag graphic designed by Jeanne Kisacky
Jeanne Kisacky trained to be an architect before going back to her first love–writing. She studied the history of architecture, has written and published nonfiction, and has taught college courses. She is the author of Rise of the Modern Hospital: An Architectural History of Health and Healing, 1870-1940.
[coffee]
Hi Jeanne!
That’s so funny, names are my *favorite*!! I write down interesting names I come across and try to keep a list! I love them so much, every character I write definitely has a first *and* a middle name! But because I mostly write fantasy and speculative fiction, I never thought about what names are generationally appropriate until this past year when I started an urban fantasy story that takes place generally in our world, in our time. Then I was thinking about popular names and how for each generation (there are three) names would be very different and so important! This was an interesting read, well done! Thanks!
Hi Lara — I kind of expected that my approach to names might be a little to the fringe side of things. I have never thought about keeping lists of interesting names, but that is a good idea to have them available to try out. Definitely what you write expands your understanding of naming, so when you do a multi-generational story, the different eras do become much more apparent.
From one Jeanne to another, great post! Very helpful to think about the different aspects you listed. Like Lara above, I keep a list of great names I come across and think of what they might reveal about a character in fiction. As for people in real life, my daughter changed her name about ten years ago from Emily to Ida. I had named her in 1991 before the Emily craze and thought it so “novel.” Of course it was a reflection of my own time, place, and background. Getting used to her new name took quite a while, but just as you observed for fictional characters, I eventually saw how she inhabits her name and how it has empowered her to define herself.
Hi Jeanne –Thanks for the reply. Since you are the second to keep a list of names it does sound like something I should consider doing. It is funny how hard it is to get used to calling someone by a different name, but as writers, taking that experience and putting it into the work is the best way of coping!
Jeanne, I *love* names and their meanings (mine means victory) and it’s always so interesting when a character shows up and you just know who he or she is. I also love nicknames and how they shape a person. Names have so much power and I think this is why people do change names, as we do upon marriage. I now belong to my husband. The Bible has great examples of the Lord changing names of people when their identity or mission changes: Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Saul to Paul.
Vijaya — it’s interesting to me that you know the meaning of your name, and that is a wonderful meaning to have been given. Changing names is definitely something that carries great power and significance. I did not take my husband’s last name (for a number of reasons) but I think one of the strongest was that we married at a time of great fluctuation in my life and I did not wantg to be a stranger to myself at that moment. There was enough else under transformation. Luckily, my husband had no issues with my decision.
“stranger to myself” is such a good way to put it. I was married for 5 yrs before I changed my name. So much of my identity was wrapped up in my work but once I stopped, with baby on the way, it felt so natural.
Hi Jeanne! The names are one of the easiest parts for me. They sort of find me. I wrote the name “Olivia Moon” on a piece of paper maybe five years before I started writing The Moon Sisters. Beside that name I wrote “pseudonym?” In other words, I had no idea who Olivia was, but that didn’t prevent her from making me ask questions about her from moment one. Getting her voice, however — that was an effort.
Interestingly, I am writing a character now who has 4 names, but I’m still in the “don’t write about it” stage of the project. I’ll tell you more down the road.
Happy Thanksgiving, my friend.
Therese–Ooh! One character with four names sounds like it’s going to be an interesting ride for all of us! I’m so glad to hear that you are in the ‘envision it’ stage, but I do hope that the ‘write about it’ stage shows up and treats you kindly very soon! I think when the character shows up and says HI! Here I am and this is my name and I know my story and don’t mess with me, it’s a very different writerly discovery than when they have to be named.
Hello Jeanne. First, this is as complete, precise and clear an essay on character-naming as any of us is ever going to see. But in answer to your question, “Do you use name generators? Do you have an idea of the character, and then search for a name to match?”
I don’t know what a name generator is. It sounds like some precursor to AI. When I see people on
Facebook asking for suggestions for naming their new dog, I always comment that they should watch and listen to the dog, and the true, unique name for that specific dog (not a generic name) will come to them. I pretty much do the same thing. I begin with the idea for a character, and that leads me the name. As you say, names are serious business, and a character’s name should help to define or identify her/him.
Thanks for a great post.
Barry–I think you and I have a similar approach. The name comes from the individual not from the ether or the AI, and it’s a product of a whole bunch of factors within that individual. I had a cat named ‘Meep’, even though it was a nonsense sounding name, because that was who she was–short, sharp, bright and to the point. One example of name generator I’ve looked at is donjon — which is used a lot by Dungeons and Dragons players, but also by SF/Fantasy writers. (https://donjon.bin.sh/)
On naming cats: I was given a rescued kitten to “babysit” for a couple weeks. Uh huh. You know how that ended. I watched this kitten, and she was obsessed with climbing into paper shopping sacs, like a nest. And one of my favorite jazz musicians, Milt Jackson, is nicknamed Bags. You know the rest. I “babysat” her for a decade.
I wish there were a heart emoji response for these replies! I love that cat name.
Hi Jeanne, my earliest and best friend for many years was JEAN. I have never used her name in a short story or one of my unpublished novels, probably because her name is filled with memoires. And when I begin to create a character, she or he must not be trailing certain memories–that’s my role, I am going to infuse them. I did use a name for a main character, a name I might have given to one of our daughters, but my husband did not agree. I will always love that name…even if a child of mine does not have it, and now one of my CHARACTERs does. Thanks for your interesting post.
HI Beth, I have a rule against using names of friends or acquaintances as characters — not just because of the issues about whether the character is based on a real person, but because it is too difficult to separate the real person from the character in the story. I love the idea, however, of using an unused baby name for a character in a book. It honors what might have been!
Catastrophic the Great
Temptation Jones
Cassandra Truth
Whiskey Moon
Bobby de Joy
Ned Freckelstein
Godwinder Poostrum
Yes, good point. Why go with any old name when the character name itself can already do half the work? Loved this.
Hi Benjamin — Exactly! With a name like Catastrophic the Great, what is there left to do but tell the story? It sets tone and attitude in two words.
I’ve long kept lists of potential character names. My lists are first name male, first name female, and last names. Most of them are names I come across that I find interesting, unusual, or serviceable in some way. I seem to end up with a lot of last names that start with C, M, or S, so I’m always on the lookout for names starting with other letters.
For main character names, particularly for my whodunit novels, I try hard for names that signify something. For example, in my whodunit Rope Burn, set in contemporary Wyoming cattle country, my main character is a former Baltimore detective who’s hired as a stock detective. I intentionally chose the non-western-sounding name Nick DeNunzio because it conveyed his outsider status (he’s a fish out of water). Or David Dartman for an amateur sleuth trying to solve a murder amid a harried family and professional life in my No Time for Murder. Or Ruby Dark, a tough bail bond agent with red hair and an unknown past.
I’ve also looked up origins of names for some of my short story characters.
One last tip: for each novel, I keep a spreadsheet of the first and last names of my characters. That helps me avoid have five characters whose last name starts with S!
Hi Bruce — you bring up a good point. Having characters in a story with similarly spelled or similar sounding names can get confusing to a reader. Not only using the names to establish the main character’s identity but setting secondary character names that make the work readable and easily comprehensible has to be considered.
I can’t write seriously about a character until I find their name. Sometimes the name comes first. Sometimes I like a name that does not reflect the character’s essence, but its opposite. I’ve written about a sexy, melancholy young man named Barney and a woman in a position of leadership who is called Kitty. My WIP is long and involved, with a large cast of both principal and minor characters, and I have struggled a lot with finding the right names for everyone (and probably failed in at least a few cases) — but the names of the three VPs and the half-dozen or so other principal characters were right there when I reached for them.
Oh, I like that grumpy–choosing the opposite of a character’s essence.
I keep a name list too, and for me naming is one of the things about writing that I get the most fun from. I’ve also used name generators and other online sources. Often I have little secrets about names that the reader won’t know but that amuse me. Such as a Potawatomi woman I named with a native language name that meant “beautiful woman” when she was described as plain. I’ve also named characters for intersections in the towns the book is set it, wondering whether local readers will discover my joke. Of course, they have to fit the character as well, as you so wisely point out.
So good to read your post today. I’m just in the process of naming the characters in my new novel–five women who I have been identifying by what they do: teacher, yoga teacher/gardener, writer, traveler/photographer, and artist. Some of their names I hit first time, others I’ve changed a couple of times. I love this part, as the characters reveal more and more of themselves to me. Interestingly, someone recently told me my name: Judy Reeves, sounded like a writer’s name. Ha!
Good post, Jeanne. Giving characters family names that are passed down for generations can add another dimension to their personality. A “III,” “IV,” or “V” may feel burdened by — or privileged with — a lot to live up to, or down to, or to rebel against completely.
I love the naming part. I used to give characters names that seemed overly done, but I’ve toned it down now. Names and meanings are important.
My name means River by the way.
I once read that Scarlett O’Hara was originally named Pansy and the editor decided to change it because the name Pansy didn’t work for the character.
I have a copy of Character Naming Handbook by Writers’ Digest hidden somewhere on a shelf.
Usually characters walk into my head with their names attached but in one case I had to look up some traditional Welsh names. The one I chose led me to the most important strand in the plot.
It’s wonderful when a character just arrives in my mind complete with their name.
I write fantasy, so I end up making up most of my names for the ones set up in a completely different world. I may have gone a tad overboard actually in writing out which parts of the IPA chart each culture is more or less inclined to use (or doesn’t use it all). Though I did use a couple real-world words for character names where it felt appropriate (Desiderium and Jewel so far).
My urban fantasy comes with the ease of already existing names, but, as you examine in your post, that means I also have to keep in mind the accompanying connotations.
I appreciate your inclusion of the possibility of a character having changed their name. Several of my characters are trans or otherwise genderqueer, so many of them chose their own names. It’s another interesting angle to come at names from – how does this character view themself or want to be viewed? What name do they decide reflects them? Or what name do they just like the sound of? I know the name my parents gave me never felt like it fit me, though I couldn’t place why until a ways into college.