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Finding the Right Names
for Your Characters
By Desmond Lindo
Let's say you are writing a Harlequin
romance (and who is not?), and you have come to the point in your
story where your heroine encounters the man who will become her
love interest. She has literally fallen into his arms -- she tripped
over his foot while staring in rapture at the domed ceiling of
the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, where she is vacationing from her
job as Assistant Curator at the Moose Jaw Museum of Classical
Antiquities. (She's a Canadian, eh?)
And let's say
you have already decided upon the following biographical details
about the young man: born on the island of Ibiza, he is the love-child
of a beautiful Irish-born film star notorious for her tempestuous
love affairs with a series of South American military dictators,
one of which, a ruthless and depraved scoundrel now living in
exile in Libya, is the young man's father. Suspected of having
links to assorted terrorist groups, your heroine's lover is under
surveillance by Interpol, and is wanted for questioning by the
FBI in connection with a spot of industrial espionage he might
have engaged in. Besides English, he is fluent in Spanish, French,
German, Arabic, Armenian, and Farsi. And needless to say, he is
as handsome as the devil.
You have imagined
him so clearly you are half in love with him yourself. But you
have a problem: you can't decide upon a name for the rogue. No
ordinary average-Joe moniker will do; he's just not a Tom or a
Dick or a Harry, even though it will turn out that he is a decent
and sensitive (if misunderstood) young man who wants nothing more
than to marry a sensible girl like your heroine and settle down
to quiet domesticity in Moose Jaw.
You really wanted
to call him Lance, but this heroic (and clearly
phallic) cognomen has been rendered dull (and limp) by
overuse in romance fiction. Your sister-in-law's suggestion, Sarsfield, a good Irish name, did not appeal to you, even
when coupled with O'Donohue, your
current choice for surname. Sarsfield
O'Donohue? Nah, you don't like it.
So what are you
going to call him? And what about his father,
the ex-dictator, who will play a villainous role in your story?
Indeed, what is your heroine's name? Shirley? Jane? Vanessa? What
names are you going to attach to all these delightful characters?
Your choices are vital; they could determine whether your creations
live on, like close friends or loved ones, in the memory of the
reader, or slip quietly into some back chamber of her mind, lost
among the host of nameless but vaguely familiar heroes and heroines
from other stories she has read.
If you do not
have a knack for devising interesting and unusual names, there
are a number of exercises you can undertake to develop this faculty.
A fun way to start is to make a list of all the characters in
fiction you have read or know about whose names you can recall
instantly. It will take a bit of time and effort to fish all these
names from the depths of your memory, but before long you will
notice a number of interesting things about the entries on your
list. The first is that a majority of these are made-up names,
names not often found in the 'real' world. (How many Ebenezer
Scrooges or Hester Prynnes or Humbert
Humberts will you find in the New York City telephone directory, for example?)
The next thing
you will notice is the number of characters from works by Charles
Dickens that turns up on your list. Dickens is the acknowledged
master in this area, and you would do well to read him. The key
to his skill lies in his thorough knowledge and understanding
of the fundamentals of English, his intuitive grasp of the way
language works, and his sheer love of language. All these can
be developed to a high degree in the average writer.
Here are some
other useful exercises to get you on the right track to imaginative
and colorful naming:
Always make a
note of any interesting names you encounter in your reading or
elsewhere. Keep a notebook just for this purpose.
Search your telephone
directory for unfamiliar or unusual names and put them in your
notebook.
Remember that
ethnic or linguistic origins are important determinants of people's
names. If your character is Lithuanian, or hails from Lesotho, then
his name will more or less have to reflect this, and you better
get it right. Consequently, you will have to learn the naming
conventions that govern individuals of that linguistic or ethnic
group.
Consult reference
works or websites on genealogy, paying special attention to both
the origins of names and the various spellings or forms in which
they occur.
Once you have
a sizeable collection of names you can now begin to work with
them, to play games with them. For instance, you could try matching
a list of first names against another of surnames to see what
combinations take your fancy. For fun alter the spelling or transpose
some letters in a name to see what you end up with. Simple reversals
sometimes work out very well, as instanced by Nomar
Garciaparra, the baseball player, whose first name is 'Ramon'
spelt backwards. Spoonerisms are always fun and a good way to
derive an unusual name. While casting about for a name to give
to a minor character in one of my stories -- a Swede who operated
a lumberyard -- I came up with Svend Yumberlaard. Purely by
virtue of his name the character grew in stature and started demanding
a greater role in the story.
On the other
hand you should try to avoid the following:
Giving
your characters names that already belong to, sound like, or evoke
other well-known characters, real or fictional. You cannot,
for instance, call your hero Hamlet, no matter how tough-minded
and decisive he is. And naming your heroine's love interest in
a Harlequin romance Richard Speck would be a major mistake.
Using a particular
name because it has a special meaning or resonance for you,
or because you think the character is 'typical' of persons bearing
that name. ("But he's a real Paul", I've heard writers
protest in defense of their choice.)
And finally,
do not for any reason use the names of individuals known to you,
unless, of course, you would like to be involved in a lawsuit.
The genre you
are working in (romance, action-adventure, etc.), and the level
of humor or seriousness you want the work to have will also determine
your choices. Those who write humor have the easiest time and
the most fun making up names. Most writers have at some time indulged
in the joy of making up amusing names. It is a residue of the
fun they had as children learning their language, discovering
its oddities and exploring its potential. Try to invest the naming
of your characters with that same sense of fun. You never know
-- perhaps the names you give your characters will one day render
your name unforgettable.
Now,
about a handle for your heroine's lover. You know what?
I'm beginning to like Sarsfield O'Donohue.
If you don't use it, I will.
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