Beginner Guide: Picking The Right Name For Your Character

Naming your characters can be challenging considering the fact that there are so many matters to be taken into consideration when deciding on personality names.

1. Keep the time duration of your story and your character’s age in mind.

Names regularly go in and out of fashion. For example, Bertha was once one of the pinnacle 10 most famous names for ladies in 1880, so if you are writing a historic novel, it may be a proper title for your heroine, however if you title a personality Bertha in a modern-day novel, readers will anticipate she’s an older woman.

Make positive the names you select for your characters are traditionally accurate. Do some lookup into when the names you have in thought got here into accepted use. Genealogical web sites and literature written in that generation can be beneficial resources. If your story is set in the US, the Social Security Administration’s internet site is a brilliant useful resource too. It indicates the most famous names for boys and female for every yr as some distance again as 1880.

2. Make certain your characters’ names in shape their ethnic background.

When selecting names for your characters, additionally preserve their cultural and ethnic backgrounds in mind. For example, one of the important characters in my novel Heart Trouble is Persian-American, so I named her Laleh Samadi. The identify of the protagonist in Ask, Tell through EJ Noyes—Sabine Fleischer—indicates her German roots.

3. Pick a title that matches the character’s personality.

People frequently companion positive character features with a name. For example, Mara conjures up specific associations than Brooke, and Zeke implies a unique character than Alexander. Names with tough consonants such as t or ok will extra frequently be related with sturdy personalities, whilst vowels such as a and softer consonants such as d or l may deliver a greater agreeable, hotter personality.

4. If you want, pay interest to a name’s meaning.

Most names have a meaning. You don’t have to disclose it in your story, however you may want to select a identify with a which means that matches your personality and their position in the story. For example, Suzanne Collins named the fundamental persona of The Hunger Games, Katniss, after a plant that interprets to “archer.” (For these of you who haven’t study the e book or considered the movie, Katniss is amazing with a bow and arrow.)

5. Avoid giving various characters comparable names.

If your characters have names that appear or sound too similar, your readers would possibly grow to be stressed and now not be in a position to inform the characters apart.

6. If you supply your personality an uncommon name, make positive you have a right reason.

Of course, you prefer your personality to stand out and be memorable, however giving them an uncommon identify is no longer the fine way to attain that. If your persona does have a identify that stands out, make certain you supply an explanation. For example, the primary persona in my novel Perfect Rhythm is named Leontyne. We locate out that her father named her after Leontyne Price, his favored opera singer. Her father is a violinist, and he desired his daughter to comply with in his footsteps, and that’s section of the hostilities between them in the book.

7. Keep in thought who picked your character’s name.

In most societies, the dad and mom pick out a baby’s name, however that’s now not usually the case. So assume about who named your character–a parent, a relative, the persona themselves, or is there some other naming subculture in the world of your story?

8. A character’s nickname can inform you a lot about the individual too.

Sometimes, characters will pick out to shorten their names or go via a nickname. Is your personality a Mike, or does he insist on Michael? Does she go through Jennifer or Jenny or Jen?

9. You would possibly prefer to keep away from names ending in s.

At least for your protagonist, whose identify you’ll be the use of a lot in the book, it would possibly be nice no longer to use a title that ends in s, e.g., James. Names ending in s lead to awkward possessive varieties such as James’s sister.

10. Make certain the first title and remaining title waft properly together.

Usually, a quick first identify goes properly with a longer final identify and the different way around, and a frequent first identify can be extra advantageous with an uncommon ultimate identify and the different way around. If your personality regularly goes through a shortened model of their name, make positive the shorter title additionally goes nicely with the ultimate name. For example, Jennifer Perry would possibly glide well, however Jenny Perry would possibly not.

11. Avoid the usage of the identify of a well-known actual or fictional person.

Once you determined on a first and ultimate name, make positive it’s no longer the identify of a celeb or a personality from a famous book. it typically appear up the title on Wikipedia.

12. Don’t identify all of your characters.

Not all of your characters want a name. Walk-ons such as the taxi driver or the barista would possibly now not want a name. Naming a personality inside the story tells readers to pay interest due to the fact this persona is going to be important. If the personality is solely going to be in one scene and barely interacts with the protagonist, you may simply prefer to name them “the taxi driver” or “the barista”–unless you have a correct cause to supply them a name.