Naming your characters...

Now, I appreciate the interesting name as much as the next gal. However, there are some names (a la HP Lovecraft) that are simply unacceptable to use. When naming characters in a hurry, its tempting to fall into the 'kreatyve spelynk' trap. Taken too far, your characters are suddenly falling out of the tentacled face of Cthulhu himself! Ihiqugygh, Lot'yilartha, Mmiqugni, and Mmm-raa are not names. No matter how tired your brain may be.

I like to keep names short and simple. Kimiko, Alex, Bailey, Elizabeth, maybe I'll get as interesting as Kahlan. For fantasy creatures Maeve, Luned, Mim, Hebb, Povita...names people can pronounce. I read aloud, and names that I can say easily are a sign to me that the author has considered my brain. S/he has factored in the desire that most readers have to be able to speak the names of the MCs out loud. Call me old fashioned but I can (and do!) appreciate a Mike or a Karen.

I know I probably sound completely pretentious, but I'm not too worried about it.

What do you all do to avoid falling into such habits? Do you appreciate names with a bizarre sound or look, or do you prefer simplicity?

Discuss!

My novels tend to be region specific, or perhaps I tend to be region specific. ^^; For example a novel I am in the middle of working on-ish (it actually stopped because I was eaten by NaNoWriMo XD) is set in Russian, and so the names get about as crazy as Appolinariya Lescheva Predikin. Thankfully, though, I just call her Appolya. ^_~

For this years NaNoWriMo, all of my names are German: Armin Fürcht, Ludger Gottschalk, Hedwig (Hedy) Traugott. Oh, and I have Rudi, I think his actual name is Rudiger. That's Armin's son. So most of the names are good, not too hard to pronounce, German names.

I tend not to go for easy OR hard, I just pick them if I want to. Sometimes, though, I can fall into holes. For example: in probably one of my best short stories I ever wrote, my character's name is Świętomierz Wieczorek. I just had to pick that hardest name ever. This actually was something that a magazine told me was bad... I doubt that itself cost me the publication, but I'm not simple like that. I couldn't pick a name like Sztev, and then call him Steve XD I do not work that way, dang it!

But, I think with that at least, I learned my lesson. #_#

I am right with you on this one, Gal; if I can't pronounce it, I just skip over it. It drives my younger sister crazy when we've read the same book and she'll ask me about so-and-so, and I won't know who she's talking about. She'll say, "You know!" and then pronounce the name, and then finally I just tell her I've only been reading the first syllable of the name for the duration of the book.

I tend to stick with mostly traditional names, sometimes old-fashioned ones. Every now and then I'll pick pretty or exotic-sounding names, but I prefer relatable ones. Growing up I always hated when the girls at school would decide to call each other by their middle names. They all had middle names like Catherine and Anne and Elizabeth - mine's my paternal grandmother's maiden name, Collier. So I think I've always sympathized with people who have nice, solid names, rather than fancy ones.

Dear lord, have Ihiqugygh, Lot'yilartha, Mmiqugni, and Mmm-raa actually been used as names? If yes, *dies*

I try to avoid ridiculous names by using name sites like www.behindthename.com and finding names that hint in some way who or what the character is. Give some actual meaning to their names. Of course, sometimes I go with what sounds good.

In the past, if a character was based on a person I knew, I would take the first syllable of that person's name and created my own name (I'd also do this with words I liked, like Sage). I would tell those names to a friend and they would read it or comment and I'd change the spelling to try and make more pronounceable. However, I'm going to change two or three of those.

I prefer names I can read and pronounce. And that aren't spelled too weird, because then my dyslexia kicks in and 'Cthulhu' is read as 'Chitchellu'. I literally did not realise that's not how it's supposed to be pronounced until I read your post a second time and looked at the Cthulhu wiki page (which I've viewed/read before). XD However, if there are enough vowels, and I think the name's cool, I can forgive the namer (otherwise I tend to use dyslexia to create a different name I can pronounce, like Chitchellu). And it helps if they're actual names.

Uhhmm, I like strange spellings?

There is a point where a name bewilders me, but, in all honesty, I don't have a problem with a few semi-complicated names. In some ways, I think it adds to the personality of a character. *shrugs* I like to base names off real names, but adding twists is certainly fun. ^_^

I prefer simple names for my characters, and I really don't give a cracker for the meaning. A lot of times, especially with surnames, I try to keep it territorial. My bevy of Scottish characters all have clan names- MacAllister, Fergusson, Sinclair (and then there's Craig the Barman, who just doesn't have a surname. I was feeling playful. xD) and the like.

First names are a lot simpler- just whatever happens to pop into my head when I'm thinking of them. That tends to happen with stuff like birthdays and ages as well. They'll tell me. "Eric MacAllister, May 17th, 1979," stuff like that. And the major characters usually name the minor characters: "Siblings: Catherine, Wyatt, Penny, Jasmine, Mark. Parents: Alexander and Paige."

Stuff like that, if it makes any sense at all. xD

Oddly spelled names bother me when I use them, and I tend not to use them, so they don't bother me at all. I read a book once- rather a series of books- with a major character named Siobhan. And if you guessed the pronunciation to be anything other than "Shiv-ahn," you're not alone. But it's a pretty name, nonetheless.

This, my first NaNo is set in Victorian times, so I can have weirdish long names, so long as they're actual names. And because I'm trying to use imagery and all that, the names I pick usually mean something. The weirdest name I have so far is "Beatrix Traviata". And it's supposed to be long and grand, but the poor girl who has been saddled with that name absolutely hates it. She calls herself Nessa instead, which also means something significant.

hmm...my novel goes back and forth between a sort of fantasy world and modern times. i think the grandest name in it is my main character's - Marcella Lucille Beauregard. But she absolutely hates it, so it's Marc for short. as for the others, I have Jake, Vanessa, Brand, Hatta, Zephyr, Rae, Horren, Sovann, Rodylla, Daniel, Dr. Halberg, Rabbi Benjamin Levy... yeah. not too grand. i don't like to struggle with pronunciation either.

You definitely don't sound pretentious!

For fantasy creatures Maeve, Luned, Mim, Hebb, Povita...names people can pronounce. I read aloud, and names that I can say easily are a sign to me that the author has considered my brain.

I couldn't agree more!

What do you all do to avoid falling into such habits? Do you appreciate names with a bizarre sound or look, or do you prefer simplicity?

I like a mix. For example, one of my characters inherited the name Barnabas from his father, but has gone by the nickname Bao since he was a child [and he certainly didn't want to inherit his father's nickname of Barney >.<]. So simplicity mixed with oddity is what I like. Then, of course, the rest of the characters in that story have pretty much normal names: Constance, Charlie, etc. Though I did fall into the bad habit of starting so many with the same letter...

To avoid this problem altogether, I try to look for names that already exist, or if I make them up, to check and see if they're already listed somewhere. [http://www.behindthename.com is a lovely place to look ^_^]

Ha ha.

Dude, twit, your Beatrix and my Beatrix should hook up. Your's has a pretty last name.



When looking for a character name, if it hasn't come to me already, I usually hunt around name sites 'til something catches my eye. Last names are always the hardest for me, so I go here: The Last Names Dictionary.

Names such as Regan [pronounced: RAY-GAN] come from literature. Archie got his name because I really like the name Archibald/Archie, and all the connotations of what it means to me.

But, most of all the name has to fit the character for me.

As for those odd or long-ish names, I don't have problems with them, just expect me to have a certain way of saying them that probably has nothing to do with how they are actually pronounced. I have issues with fantasy names that have too many apostrophes in them.



Ta,
Cal.

I don't really know about my characters...since most of them are either angels, demons or familiars I tend to give them some fantastic name, but nothing that is to hard to pronouce....at least I don't think so lol, let me know.

JJ Delmara (Birth name Fredrick Frances Ferdinand, meaning to the FFF)
Michael (working on a last name)
Gabriel
Raphael
Magog Castimonia
Lucifer Castimonia
Gog Castimonia (they are family)
Eve
Adam
Subigo
Busca
RatSach
Caos
Greevus
Jeychel
Isiah Wilder
Vee Chi

Now that I look at it none of my character's have last name!!!!!!!! *runs to work on it*
But I guess if I want to give my character a fantasy type name I try to either base it off of some historical figure or just come up with something that I'd image after seeing the characters image in my mind.

I try to maintain a balance between sane-names and insane-names.

For example, my three MC's names for Geezer's are simple but uncommon.

Rowan Hart
Sherman Sharpe
Leah Cadence
Frank Lovelake


However, I also try to stay relatively-sane with fantastical characters:

Fungal
Brownie
Imp
Saya
Maris
Mathea



I have a system: If it needs an apostrophe or umlauts or whatever, or is longer than my entire name, it's out.

*sighs* I use apostrophes... but it makes sense for the story. My main character's name is basically her grandmother's name shortened, so the apostrophe shows where letters are missing. And it's a short name (L'ira), so it's still pronounceable.

I think the worst name I've come up with so far is Glaeseerin Demeryan. But she's supposed to be wacky, and her name gets shortened to Glae all the time. So if people only read the first syllable (*cough Ari cough*) than it doesn't matter.

I like odd names, that really aren't odd but they are odd for the gender. But, now Clau, the specific setting of the story plays in quite often. I have a character from the 19th century named "Petunia", but I wouldn't us it for a present day story. It all depends. I like an odd name just as much as the next gal, but it does get obnoxious when absolutely every name is nearly unpronouncable

I like my characters to have unusual names, but not ones that are hard to pronounce(or just seem wrong for that character). I had the insane idea to call my main antagonist(whose name is Roderick now) Excre. I thought of it during health class, and I won't go into how I thought of it any more than that. I eventually changed it because A., it was a stupid name, and B. it wasn't that easy to pronounce. It takes awhile for the character to grow into a new name, but it does work in time.