It drives me crazy when a name doesn't fit the time! Like there will be someone my age or older with a really "new" name... and I get annoyed because I know that no parents in their right mind would have named their kid that when I was a baby. It really takes away from the enjoyment of the story, I think!MichaelMcManus wrote:In my two-book series that spans a forty year period, the names range from very old fashioned (Alma, Oscar, Helen, Ann and Patrick) to more modern names (Erika, Abby, Kirk, Mandy and Taylor). The names have to fit the time.
How do we come up with names for fictional characters?
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- ALynnPowers
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Re: How do we come up with names for fictional characters?
- kezzstar24
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Although for my latest one my characters sort of named themselves. I was just writing my first draft when one of the main characters said "My name is Belle." I was just like "Okay then, you can be Belle." The other characters got there names in a similar fashion, although a few had be randomly generated.
I really need to be locked up lol
EDIT: Just as a side note, when I started self-publishing (probably shot myself in the foot there) I hired someone to draw a frame from each chapter to go at the beginning of the chapter. When I first saw my characters in front of me I knew they had all gotten the right names. Belle looks like a Belle, Charlie looks like a Charlie, Peter looks like a Peter, Daniel looks like a Daniel etc.
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Sometimes I will figure out what year the character was born (or thereabouts) and I will look up the most popular baby names for that year. That can help in naming a character. I have also used online name generators. Behind the Name is a great website that allows you to choose a character's ethnicity and it will suggest culturally appropriate names. I used the website a lot when writing a story that took place in Ireland, and it helped me to name my characters authentic Irish names, while avoiding the names that were too complicated to pronounce or read.
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At other times I've used baby name lists and done things like opened encyclopedias for large lists of names or
looked at Facebook or Pinterest.
Sometimes I have no qualifications for the name except that it feels right, while at others, I'll want it to fit some specific expectation. Right now, I'm basing a bunch of short stories on people from the Bible, so I want all the characters' names to begin with the same letter as the people I'm basing the story on.
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They never fail to give me a mountain. I have a booklet filled with names I like from those few times I asked.
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Not only do I collect existing names, but sometimes I'll put together sounds that I think are nice. However, I will only use them as a name if it's easy to read and pronounce. I'll spend a good deal of time mulling over a new character's name, on what seems to suit him or her.
Sometimes, though, I will deliberately give a character a name that doesn't suit him at all! For example, I have a reoccurring character in my novel who is a huge, muscle-bound behemoth of a man and I named him "Francis". Because he doesn't look like a fellow who would be named Francis. At all.
The irony appeals to me sometimes.
― Margaret Weis
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