Naming Characters

There are probably thousands of ways to come up with good names for characters in novels. I don’t have any problem coming up with names because the character looks a certain way and the name either fits or doesn’t. I’ve traded out characters’ names occasionally when I’ve given a character a name that was too close to another’s name.

In real life, your name could actually be George, and your son’s name could be George, and your other son’s name could be George, and your other… But not in a novel.

There are websites which offer random name-picking help. There are Baby-naming books. And Character-naming books. Some authors see interesting names in newspapers and take someone’s last name and pair it with that interesting first name. Or the other way around. Some authors put parts of their friends’ names on minor characters in their novels.

There are even lists of most-popular names of children born in a certain year.

Some name their characters by saying the name aloud to check if it sounds good. Say, “Randall Evan Williams, the third.” You immediately picture a certain type of character. Now say, “Toby and Estelle Hanks.” Totally different, right?

Working on the right name for a single character is important, but grouping the names together to see how they work in an ensemble cast is also very important. If you had Randall Williams and Toby Hanks in a scene together, you couldn’t call them by their last names or country music fans would be humming a Hank Williams tune before the scene was over.

This is one of the things I love about writing. Naming characters takes time, effort, and creativity, but it is so fun.

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