Plotting Murder is Easy; Naming Characters is Hard by Connie Berry

  

DO YOUR MANUSCRIPTS EVER LOOK LIKE THIS?

It was late on Tuesday night when she walked into the police station at Dempsey and High. Her white hair was in rollers, and she wore a pink chenille robe and flip-flops. “I just killed a man.”

                        The sergeant on duty stared at her in disbelief. “Who are you?”

                        “My name is [insert later—haven’t decided yet].”

BRINGING INK TO LIFE IS ONE OF THE JOYS OF WRITING

I love this quote from The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield:

Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with…the characters caught in the fibres of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.       

Isn’t this what we want to create? We want our characters to be so memorable, so compelling that they get caught in the minds and hearts of our readers. That’s why names are powerful.

GIVING A CHARACTER A NAME HELPS READERS REMEMBER THEM

Truthfully, not every character deserves a name. Some characters are peripheral—waitresses, neighbors, doctors, librarians, the mail carrier, the secretary. They exist in the world of the novel but only for a moment. They walk onstage, deliver their lines if they have them, and walk off, never to be seen again. But your important characters not only deserve a name; they deserve a name that tells the reader something about them.

FIVE TIPS FOR NAMING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

1. Choose names that reflect who the character is.

·       Ebeneezer Scrooge (harsh, grating)

·       Scarlett O’Hara (fiery, melodramatic)

·       Huckleberry Finn (folksy)

·       Hannibal Lecter (like cannibal)

·       Forrest Gump (simple, natural)

·       Arthur Gedge (like “hedge,” a gardener)

·       Prue Goody (silly, liable to become a victim)

·       The Reverend Gideon Wainwright (a bit pompous)

2. Choose names appropriate to the character’s status and time period.

·       A scullery maid in Regency England might be Polly but not Keighley

·       A powerful executive could be Charles but not Corky

·       An academic might be Catherine but not Kandy

·       A dock worker in Victorian England could be Jack but not Egbert

·       A farmer in postwar Kansas might be Anders but not Adolf

An exception might be if you purposely want to mislead your readers or if a character’s inappropriate name is somehow important to the plot.

3. Don’t overuse trendy names.

I remember reading one time that the nursing homes of the future will be populated by Madisons and Brittanys, Jaydens and Noahs. Don’t date your novel by choosing names just because they are currently popular.

4. Do Google your names.

While names can’t be copyrighted, authors have been sued for libel and invasion of privacy. Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, was sued by her brother’s real-life maid, who claimed Stockett had stolen her name, likeness, and life details. In another case, Haywood Smith, author of The Red Hat Club, was sued by a former friend who claimed that a character in that book shared more than thirty similarities to her and was portrayed as a promiscuous alcoholic. Yikes.

5. Use the whole alphabet.

Don’t confuse your readers by giving characters similar names like Caroline and Christine or Edward and Edwin. We have the entire alphabet to choose from.  Some years ago, I developed a simple Character Name Template. I’m delighted to share it with you below.

        Authors, what is your best tip for naming characters?

        Do you have an all-time favorite character name?