Rules to Remember When Naming Your (Fictional) Children by Susan Van Kirk

As a former teacher, I know the old joke about the pregnant teacher who could not think of a good name for her impending baby because each name she thought of had some darker association with a former student. “I can’t name him ‘Ben’ because of that teenager I had in class named Ben who always whispered obscene things under his breath to the girls who sat around him.” When it comes to determining fictional character names, it is not a problem—probably because they are not my real, non-fiction children.

When I write mysteries, I keep a notebook full of the names of people in my three series, each set in small towns. The list helps me choose names for new characters and keeps me from repeating names I have used in the past. Since I’m currently on my sixth mystery with three different towns, I have peopled a rather good slice of my fictional universe, and I need to be careful about how I name new characters. With that in mind, here are seven ideas I follow when naming my fictional children.

First, I need to make sure I do not use a name and location of a real person I’ve known. I found myself subconsciously doing this with a minor character who had the first name of a long-ago college roommate and lived in her hometown. Obviously, my brain had connected the two. A week later, I realized what I had done and changed the name.

Second, the main character must have a name I love because I will use it a great deal in more than one book. It needs to sound perfect. Grace Kimball, my main character in my Endurance Mysteries, has such a name. I love the concept of “grace under pressure” from Hemingway’s novels. “Grace” is also the middle name of one of my grandchildren. “Kimball” was simply a last name that came into my head when I was not thinking about names at all. But it works well with Grace.

Elizabeth Russell, or Beth, is the protagonist in my Sweet Iron Series. I love the name “Beth” because it is short, practical, and is a single syllable. My Beth is practical and no nonsense. It seems to me a single syllable for a main character’s first name is easier to say and remember. Then I have Jill Madison in my current manuscript. Again, a single syllable first name is followed by a last name that simply sounds right to me when I combine it with Jill.

Third, I never introduce too many names of characters at once. I bring in characters gradually so readers won’t get mixed up. When I began my third Endurance mystery, I planned to write about the Endurance school board. Eventually, I changed the plot concept because it was too confusing to introduce seven or eight board members at once. I try to introduce characters in unique ways with different names and not too close together.

Fourth, I make names memorable so the reader won’t have to page back to figure out who this character is thirty pages later. For example, my detective in the Endurance Mysteries is TJ Sweeney, a decidedly detective-sounding name. Not until much later in the book does the reader learn the “TJ”

stands for Teresa Johanna.

Fifth, in a series with history, I try to make connections between names in a family. In A Death at Tippitt Pond, Beth Russell’s uncle is named Jeff Tippitt. When Beth checks her genealogy records, his full name is Jefferson Webster Tippitt. In the second book of that series, I will introduce an ancestor named William Webster Tippitt, a newspaper publisher during the time of the Civil War. Jeff, in the present, has a middle name based on this publisher from the past, his 3^rd great-grandfather.

Sixth, I make sure my main characters have names with different vowel combinations and different first letters. This makes it easier for the reader to remember which character is which. I don’t have a Sharon, Susan, Sandy, and Shauna in the same story.

Seventh, I believe a great way to introduce humor is to use a name to indicate what a character is or is not. In my small town of Endurance, the mayor’s name is Mayor Blandford. And, yes, he is bland. I also include a character with a slobbering, pet dog like the Bordeaux bulldog in the movie, “Turner and Hooch.” The dog’s owner named him “Adonis,” a name from mythology symbolizing a handsome male. This dribble-mouthed dog is anything but.

Eighth, I use different names for characters only if I am sure the reader will understand. Otherwise, confusion reigns. Grace would call her friend “TJ,” but others would call her “Detective” or “Detective Sweeney.” Her boss, Stephen Lomas, might yell, “Sweeney.” And to vary descriptions, “TJ” can sometimes be referred to as “the detective.”

            

When I first began to write books, I assumed character names could simply be anything I wanted. Not so. Have you read a book where you couldn’t keep the characters straight?