Young Writers Society

I'm completely stumped!

Camp NaNoWriMo has yielded me a nearly-finished children's book that I am writing for my youth relatives. However, right now, the three primary characters aren't named.

The premise:

Characters in need of names--

The Princess: A bright, lively maiden with an appetite for adventure. She is outgoing, bold, and, to the writer's chagrin, very willing to drag people outside their comfort zones. She is resourceful, always looks at the potential in bad situations, but she can be stubbornly optimistic. She has a pet hedgehog named Clover and finds pleasure in all creatures, including bugs. She is tall, has long blonde hair, and prefers to wear bows, ribbons, and dresses, even when she probably shouldn't.

The Writer: A quiet, sometimes bitter young man who struggles with fierce anxiety. Despite his overly-cautious nature, he is incredibly intelligent and has a profound grasp of the magical world. It is later revealed that his nervousness is due to the fact that, eleven years prior to the present events in the book, he was turned into glass by a witch and is now terrified he will break apart. He has brown hair, always wears lots of layers of clothes (like stockings, boots, vests, jackets, coats, etc.), and wears ties around his wrists and neck to keep his head and hands from potentially falling off. He has glasses and is always carrying around a pack full of books.

The Coven Leader: The queen to the witches in Nalem, she is savage, fiery, and twisted. Ruthless, she is willing to do whatever it takes in order to get what she wants. She uses her dark magic to torture, warp, and transform people for her own amusement. She has blood-red hair, yellow eyes, and, as the story progresses, her hands, and then arms, become black as the magic keeping her alive slowly wears away.

So the way of naming a children's book character is exactly the same as naming any other character:

1- Find what sounds other names in the areas use

2- Determine how/why the name was chosen (self selecting or parents choosing)

3- Look up names that could fit the above two criteria

Step One

First, I pick cultures I want the names to come from and just start pulling from those cultures, because that really helps narrow this list down to a more manageable chunk.

Second, I put together a masterlist of names. You look at all the names, break them down by region/class, and see what patterns line up. To show what I mean, here's part of my list:



So from that, you can see I have a fair chunk of hard sounds, with lots of stops (n, t, g, k, m), liquids (r in particular) and a lot of tense vowels (a and i). In a different area of the country, names have more lax vowels and fricatives (Deven, Mohini, Chandra). I also play around with emphasis, with the list in spoilers usually having emphasis on the second or third syllable, while the other region tends to have emphasis on the first syllable.

When I look for names, I then proceed to match up patterns. It's unlikely I'd put a name like Calib in the first list (emphasis is on the first syllable), and instead I'd pick Suraj (emphasis on second syllable, r sound).

Now, that being said, I am particularly meticulous about linguistics and I've always had a good sense for how words are broken down. If you lack this sense I would suggest learning the IPA, which will allow you to translate the arbitrary sounds of English into their actual pronunciation, which means you can match up how words feel in your mouth a lot better.

Or, you can not bother with this level of detail (because I am, as I said, particularly meticulous) and just have a really, really rough sense of what sounds go together.

You still need this rough sense because that's what'll stop Aerith and Bob, wherein characters have wildly different names for no apparent reason.

Once you have an established pool of names, you then establish rules and fit other names within those rules. The rules might have to bend, change, and expand depending on how many characters you have in those regions (I have far too many characters, so modifying rules happens a lot), but try to keep one or two sounds/rules that define each area, just so names can be distinguished.

Also, do remember names go from the top, down. The more famous a person who has a name is, the more likely people are going to copy that name (When Elizabeth I was queen of England, I believe one in six girls were named Elizabeth).

Step Two

This is where you determine if the character named themselves or if their name was given to them and they haven't changed it. This is also where you determine whether or not the name was picked based on how pretty it sounds, its meaning, if it's a name in the family, or whatever other factors you can think of (like religious obligations, or wanting a particularly unique name).

Different people will have different criteria, therefore you have to characterize the people who pick the name. Now, this isn't completely necessary (I will often pick whatever name fits the character because it feels right), but if you're stuck it can use this to help narrow down the list of potential names and search the way the person would search for those names.

Step Three

Google "baby name sites", and/or go to the library and pick up baby name books, then proceed to go through names.

Behind the Name
Baby Names.com
Baby Center

Google has a lot more.

I personally like Behind the Name because it has good organization and an awesome search, along with a historical bent that lets you look up old versions and alternate versions of names that better fit your area.

Then it's basically a case of picking the region/culture you've pulled from, first letters you like, and going through the names that come up until you find one you like and that seems to fit your naming pattern.

Rosey:

Thank you so much for your reply! You're always helpful. Unfortunately, I'm still in a rut because I've done exactly what you have said (of course, I may not be breaking down names to the extent that you are; I have studied linguistics, so all that you have said is comfortable and familiar). I've sorted--albeit roughly--by sounds and cultures (the 'Aerith and Bob' article was a great read!), however, those are the least of my concerns.

Considering the audience for this (my younger cousins and family friends, hopefully even my own kids some day), I'm not worried about realism. Mind you, I'm naming characters in a way that there is at least some bit of order (I don't have names like Boaz, Sebaris, and Naava paired with Opal, Claire, and Seeley). Nonetheless, I just want it to be fun. I'm looking for names that are whimsical, maybe a little magical. But I'm just fresh out of ideas.

And I've raked every single baby name website with no success.

I have a few name suggestions:

The princess: Waverly, or Chell... are you OK with made-up names? Because Chell's one ( I think ).

The Writer: I want to say Simon but that seems too obvious to me. I think an 'O' name would be good for him. Something like Osmond ( it's a last name, but I like it ).

The Coven Leader: I'm really not sure with this one. I always tend to give evil characters such cliché names. I think something with a 'T' 'L' or 'J' would be good. Or possibly Kasha.

Anyway... I hope that helps somehow. XP

I second Osmond for the writer, if I can second a name. (I do like Simon, too, but it's got less whimsy than Osmond and does seem a bit obvious for someone with glasses and books.)

In other news, while I have no suggestions for you at present, I just want to say: I would read the hell out of this.

Please say you're planning to post here for feedback.

@Holysocks, I think Waverly and Chell sound too modern. (I am fine with made-up names). As for Simon, I agree with @BlueAfrica in that the name is a bit of a cliché for a character with intellect and specs. Osmond is growing on me, but I think I want to keep looking. Kasha sounds a bit more... tribal(?) than I'd like. It also reminds me of that cereal/bar brand, Kashi.

As for your other comment, BA, I'm glad you like the story! I'm considering posting it on good ol' YWS, but right now, I'm not certain.

Welp, let me know if you do! I'll totally adopt it because the four novels I've already adopted are obviously not enough for my insatiable hunger for YWS novels

By all means, keep looking! They're just suggestions.

( I agree about the Kasha thing... don't want your bad guy reminding people of cereal )