The Name Game
Thursday, September 30, 2010 Question of the day: I've always wondered where authors and writers get the names for characters. People you know? Names you like?
I can only answer this for myself, as I'm sure that every author has different reasons and methods for choosing names, but for me, I opt for a name that I think really embodies who the character is about, almost like tipping my hand to the reader before we've even gotten to know much about the character. In that sense, I'm almost like a parent who waits to meet her child at birth to name him or her: you take a long hard look and say, "Oh yes, he looks exactly like an Andrew."
With Time of My Life and The One That I Want, both Jillian and Tilly struck me immediately. Jillian because it conveys a little girl feel with Jill (and the story is very much about a woman who is now grown up and kind of wishes that she weren't), but also because Jillian has a certain seriousness about it, and at the same time, doesn't conjure up a certain type of person. That's who Jillian was: amorphous, especially to herself, and I felt like readers could buy her as an unhappy, suburban mom, as well as a corporate upstart back in her 20s. I opted for Henry for her husband because it's a classic, almost serious name, and her husband is both classic and serious - he's reserved but still handsome, and that's what Henry says to me. And Henry's parents - Vivian and Bentley - well, doesn't that just say upper-class Connecticut? Similarly, with Tilly, I wanted a name that was too immature for the person she's grown into over the course of the book. When you hear "Tilly," you can see the retired cheerleader, the blonde at the high school reunion, and that's exactly the image I was going for. (With no disrespect to anyone named Tilly, of course! It just worked for this character."
Interestingly enough, in The Memory of Us, I renamed my protagonist four times, which I've never done in the past. You asked if I just use names that I like, and that's where I started - she was Margo, a name that I adore. But as I wrapped up the first draft, I realized that "Margo" said nothing about who she was. It was a bland description of her and didn't provide any clues, and if it did, they were the wrong clues. This character, and I kind of can't explain it, just wasn't a Margo. I bounced through a few others, finally settling on Nell, a nickname for Eleanor, after the song Eleanor Rigby, which becomes a very critical aspect of the plot. All of my early readers agreed that it was perfect: the name, what it connotes - classic, clean, a nickname with a very different feel than the original name (Eleanor, to me, is much stodgier than Nell), and a link to an aspect of a game-changing plot. Her sister too, was changed to balance her new name. You needed to believe that these were names that parents would give both their children. So she went from Keeley to Piper to Paige (until I realized I'd already named a secondary character Paige!) to Rory. Nell and Rory, who is a leggy redhead. It just seemed to work.
One thing to consider: I try NOT to go for names that are too, too out there. One or two in a story is great. There's a character named Indira in this next book. There's also a character named Peter. Quirky and not quirky. As a reader, (and obviously this is just my opinion), if all the names are fairly unusual, I find myself being pulled out of the story at the unbelievability of it: I mean, in this world, most people do NOT have funky names. So I try to keep a nice blend, sort of what you'd see in your average demographic, while still making the names interesting enough to distinguish who the characters are.
So that's how I go about it. Others want to chime in? Where do you come down on the quirky vs. non-quirky situation?
Craft
Reader Comments (11)
Hi Allison,
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this post and found myself nodding as I read it. I go through a similar process, just picking names inuitively by whether they feel right for the character. Also agree that it's nice to have a balance of quirky and non-quirky. If the names are all too similar as in all Indira and Bentleyish, that would throw me off too.
Also wanted to add that I always look forward to your posts here, and can't wait to read this new book!
~Pam
Allison, did you recognize that Jillian and Tilly sounded very much alike? Not a bad thing, just wondering if you have a penchant for those kinds of sounding names and if that played a part -- subconsciously -- in your name choices for main characters?
As for me, I tend to pick all the baby names I never got to use since I only had two kids.:)
Ditto what Pam said. My process is very similar -- intuitive. I once wrote an ms with the main secondary character named Rose, and then 6 months later I met someone named Grace and it hit me that THAT was the secondary characters "real" name. I changed it immediately!
Aren't we writers funny?
Love the names Nell, Paige and Rory (probably like that one so much because I'm a huge Gilmore Girls fan.) Hearing bits about the new book is making me want it right now.
Fun post! I'm always so interested in hearing about the process different writers go through when naming their characters and books. I have to agree with Kristan and Pam - a lot of it is intuitive for me, but sometimes it's more of a drawn-out decision, too. I consider everything that goes into making a character who they are - background, personality traits, lifestyle, quirks, appearance - and often times, a name will just seemingly attach itself to that and not let go. There are just times when I literally can't imagine a character being anyone else. I want their names to be an extension of who they are, to epitomize their personalities.
Do you go through a long process when choosing a title, or is that a whole different ball game?
I also choose some of my girl baby names, since I have three boys! For me, it's also the sense of what feels right for the character. I don't know much about her or him until I have the right name....
For AN OFF YEAR, my character's name originally was "Regina," a name I love because it's not especially modern but I find elegant and unusual. However, that's my cousins' name so I thought that might be weird so I wanted to change it. The character's sister's name was "Germaine" so I wanted something that was similarly unusual/old-fashioned so I looked up old-timey British names and I came up with "Cecily."
Then, originally her last name was "McKenzie" (half-taken from my Dad's law firm), but then I realized that "Cecily McKenzie" was a little close to "Celine Morienval," the name of a character of a YA book that's always inspired and influenced me, so I figured I should change that. I love the "Thin Man" movies so I picked "Powell" after William Powell.
Whew!
Character names usually just pop into my mind. It's sort of like they name themselves. But for my novel, Hollywood Ending, the male lead is Maori, so I had to find a Maori name that Americans would be able to pronounce and understand relatively easily. I chose Matiu, which is Maori for Matthew. And I think it embodies him perfectly.
Lots of times, particularly when writing flash, I don't even name my characters. But when I do, it usually comes to me out of the story, rather than me putting it in. For example, a favorite Dick Francis novel has a pair of fraternal twins, the male one named Kit. When I wrote a story with a pair of fraternal twins? The male one was named Kit (the only name in the whole story!) - and it happened without a scrap of volition on my part.
I tend to keep lists of names I want to use and then wait for characters to come along who fit those names. The main character of The Kitchen Daughter was originally Gracie Voltaggio, and I thought that was perfect... but then I had to change the first name because there was a too-similar book with a protagonist named Grace, and then the Voltaggio brothers went and got too famous on Top Chef... but "Ginevra" was on my list of favorite names, and now I think Ginny Selvaggio is just perfect for the character all through.
Thanks so much for answering my question! It is something I have always wondered about.