Naming Novel Characters
by Karen Sweeny-Justice
This article first
appeared in the March issue of the
Romance Writers newsletter. Reprint with credits.
This article first
appeared in the March issue of the
Romance Writers newsletter. Reprint with credits.
A rose by any other name, said Shakespeare, would smell the same.
Perhaps, but what about character names? Would a heroine called Rose
come across to readers in the same way if her name was changed to
Petunia?
Coming up with the right names for characters can be very daunting for
both beginning and advanced writers, but at least 21st century authors
have a variety of reference materials to turn to for inspiration. A
quick web search turned up thousands of sites, while hundreds of baby
name books are available.
Lucy Monroe (The Italian’s Suitable Wife, 2004), uses Names Through the
Ages and A World of Baby Names written by Theresa Norman. “Her research
is fantastic,” says
characters.”
When
to her together. With more titles completed now, though, she gets the
image of a person in her head first, and then comes up with that
person’s name. Her favorite character name so far is Fayre, who makes
an appearance in a novella scheduled for publication in a Kensington
anthology in 2005. “I kept thinking feisty Irish,” says
naming, “and went looking for a Gaelic name.”
When Kristen Britain was casting about for the name of her protagonist
in Green Rider (DAW, 1999) and First Rider’s Call (DAW, 2003), she was
inspired by contemporary events. “I overheard a figure skating
competition,” she recalls. “At the time, the pre-eminent
figure skater was Nancy Kerrigan. Somehow the name sounded right,” and
thus was born Karigan G’ladheon, an elite messenger in the
But events don’t always to conspire to make naming easy. “I have a
character right now in the manuscript I’m working on with brackets
around the name I’m using for him,” says
quite right, so I’m waiting for inspiration to suggest something
better.”
Donna Wright, author of Inadmissible: Love (Avalon 2004), usually names
her characters as she is pulling them together, but she isn’t opposed
to making changes later on. “The name Gareth seemed harsh for a man
dealing with his faith,” she says of one character she’s written, “but
I don’t know why.”
“I’m really bad with names,” says Kathy Greyle (w/a Jade Lee,
Devil’s
Bargin 2004). “I always have the people in mind first and just sort of
build from there.”
For an upcoming series of books involving the dragon/tigress sect of
Taoism in
“There’s so much superstition involved in Chinese names,” she says.
“You don’t want a name that sounds similar to ‘big, fat loser!’”
Greyle relied on Lin Shan’s What’s in a Chinese Name and Evelyn Lip’s
Choosing Auspicious Chinese Names as reference materials to get the
ethnic names just right. And sometimes, says Greyle, she’ll rename a
character after sharing her work with her critique group.
Whatever names authors come up with should be pronounced out loud to
see if they sound natural or strained. And check them in writing, too,
to be sure that their initials don’t actually spell out anything too
embarrassing. Be aware, too, of similar sounding names so that readers
don’t have to spend time figuring out who is who.
“I prefer to use names that are somewhat pronounceable,” adds
“I think one can repel a reader with a string of made-up, impossible to
pronounce names.”
Karen Sweeny-Justice is a member of the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers
chapter.
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