NYC Midnight : Creative Writing & Screenwriting Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > GENERAL DISCUSSION > Creative Writing Corner
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Character Names
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Character Names

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1234 8>
Author
Message
vanwijk88 View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Regular
NYC Midnight Regular
Avatar

Joined: 16 Jul 2017
Location: Auckland, NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 456
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote vanwijk88 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 11:36pm
I used to hate naming characters and avoided it in all my creative writing (This was back in high school, for classwork and exam pieces so nothing important anyway). I was worried that people would judge characters based off the name and I didn't want to people to think I associated characters with anyone I knew. Thus I wrote a lot of those stories in first person just to avoid having to think of names.

When I sat down and committed myself to writing my first novel, I realised that I'd need a lot of names. First time I tried to write it, I gave up after 10 pages, never really liked the character's name either. (Admittedly I was about 14). When I went back to it about 2 years later, I decided to not waste time and go with whatever name first came to mind and I stuck with that for the rest of the novel whenever I wanted to introduce a character. So now the characters in my novel have a mixture of made up fantasy names, regular names and object names. My main protagonist's name is literally a word where I just swapped the vowels. 

With the short story that I've been working on recently, I broke my rule about using the names of the people I know however when I named my protagonist after one of my best friends. I sent him through the first page as soon as I'd finished it to see the character's personality though and he approved of the homage so it's all good. :D


Edited by vanwijk88 - 22 Sep 2017 at 11:37pm
FFC 2020 R2: 250 Beats per Minute (Thriller)

"I intend to live forever or die trying."
Back to Top
Lookit There View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 20 Feb 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Status: Offline
Points: 3920
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lookit There Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 11:52pm
I keep a list. Not kidding.
When I come across an interesting first or last name in movie or television credits (not the stars, but the crew), I'll write it down for future use. 
But sometimes the assignment dictates research. For my Challenge 1 story, I researched popular Japanese names from the early 20th Century. And I didn't choose the most popular, because I wanted the character to have some distinctness; I picked the third-most popular name on the list. 
While I don't always use uncommon names, I do assign them to characters for a specific reason, and I know what that reason is, even if it's not in the actual story itself.
In my story this challenge, the lead character's name is Joel. He's Italian-American. Even though his name doesn't reflect his heritage, it does in my secret backstory: he's the first American-born member of his family, and the first with an "American" name, but is also named to honor his grandfather Gioele (pronounced joe-AY-lay).
Does it matter to the reader? No.
Does it matter to this writer? Very much indeed. It's about mindfulness. I have to make some sort of emotional connection to the character, and the name is usually my portal.

Geez, this sounds kind of pretentious, but I really don't mean it to be.


Edited by Lookit There - 22 Sep 2017 at 11:53pm
Back to Top
nod1v1ng View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 26 Jul 2016
Location: ChillybytheSea
Status: Offline
Points: 12497
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nod1v1ng Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 12:20am
Names are hard. I think in SSC R2 every story I read (including mine) had a supporting character named David. Oh how embarrassingly generic. *Apologies to any David's reading this.

This Flash round my favorite thing about my very mediocre story is the MC's name - Reagan. I stole it from the horrible trash novel I'm reading.

I keep a list, to avoid overuse. I always struggle with names- I want something that isn't boring but not pretentious. One of my favorite pieces was a story where the MC's name was Eliot. She was a girl ' it caused her much teenage angst.

Usually though I write a story with a generic name. Once I understand the character I change it to something that speaks to me...
Back to Top
Joni View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 17 Jul 2017
Status: Offline
Points: 1840
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Joni Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 12:26am
For me it all depends. The first novel I wrote (which I've never even edited to 2nd draft), the mc had no name. It was written in 1st person, and I hated every name I came up with. Luckily, the story was of a girl on the run, so I eventually decided no one knowing her name could play well.

The second novel, the names all just sort of popped out. Nothing meaningful, although I later realized the mc's name was that name I always wished was my name when I was a kid.

For ffc, the first story, I didn't realize until days after the contest ended that my mc had the same name as my brother-in-law. Don't even know how that happened.

For this second one, the names don't have meaning either. They just ended up on my screen as I was typing, but they fit the characters.
Back to Top
MattrickBT View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Addict
NYC Midnight Addict
Avatar

Joined: 15 Jul 2017
Location: Oshawa
Status: Offline
Points: 1270
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MattrickBT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 1:24am
Originally posted by Mickey T Mickey T wrote:



When I'm sourcing, I'll sometimes jump on Facebook and search my friends list—and their friends lists—for potential names. The other thing I do is go to imdb and search for a movie in line with the story I'm writing (say, "Dawn Of The Dead" if I'm writing about zombies) and search the cast and crew for names.  


I take mental notes of interesting last names, and first names that...I guess the most basic word would be 'domestic' or not rural, fitting to certain countries or cultures. I use hockey a fair bit since there are so many Europeans in the NHL, but sports in general is a wealth of usable names.

I was just reminded that I named a mobster in my second novel Alonzo Boccherini, after one of my favourite composers. And I was terrified Alonzo was wrong, and that it was supposed to be Alonso (spanish), but I had the Italian form. I'd previously screwed Pasquel (Spanish) and Pascal (French) and Francis (French) and Francois (Quebecois) before. Nothing is worse than being told a reader can't get over how inauthentic it is that a Quebecer would be named Francis. Such a stupid, easily discovered mistake.

Sigh. I still don't know if Svetlana is an appropriate name for an Eastern Ukranian or not. I'm pretty sure it is because it's still a Slavic country...
4th - R1 G52 The Bad Man

R2|H14The Hour
Back to Top
MattrickBT View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Addict
NYC Midnight Addict
Avatar

Joined: 15 Jul 2017
Location: Oshawa
Status: Offline
Points: 1270
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MattrickBT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 1:39am
Some people thought thought my name for my serial novel Nova Kane is too on the nose. The character's name is Nova Kane and she has no sense of touch, and it is on the nose, but other people really like it. It's a story I'd wanted to write for years so I'm never changing it for all the critics in the world...especially since it's, eventually, a unique take on a superhero story (without the superhero) which then makes her Super Nova Kane...which is just awesome. Admit it. It's fantastic. Beer I named her father William Kane, an homage to Citizen Kane which was based on William Randolph Hearst.

For a novella I'm working on, almost all of the characters have unisex names, and if they don't have a unisex name, it's a definitive gendered and uncommon name like Silas or Ollie. It's a post-apocalyptic, coming of age horor story, focusing on a 12-year old boy named Ashley. But I don't use any pronouns for Ashley, and since Ashley is attracted to the older boy Silas, the reader should assume it's Ashley is a young girl noticing boys for the first time, except Ashley is a boy who is noticing boys for the first time living in a world where the concept of homosexuality doesn't even exist in their little community. I kind of hope this just grosses out enough readers, but it's far enough into the story they'll probably keep reading it. "I've been reading gay stuff for the past 40 pages? Rabble Rabble Rabble!"

I tend to experiment with names. In one short story the only character with the name is the protagonist, Clay, and everyone else is called 'She' (ex-wife), sis, Mom, Dad, because he has this weird mental tick where he can't use names and always says like "Hi, Honey" or "Whatsup buddy?" or "Sure thing, boss". It lends to an intentional madness to the prose. "She wasn't always She, but now she can only be She".


Edited by MattrickBT - 23 Sep 2017 at 1:41am
4th - R1 G52 The Bad Man

R2|H14The Hour
Back to Top
Alexis_H View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 24 Jul 2016
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1984
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Alexis_H Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 11:16am
There isn't really a system for me. If I write in the first person for a short then I rarely give the character a name at all. Other times, I write the character then their name will often present itself. 
Archive
250 R2
<a href="https://tinyurl.com/YACCMMDD" rel="nofollow">250 (R1)</
Back to Top
rossinny View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 30 Apr 2017
Location: London
Status: Offline
Points: 1972
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rossinny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 11:33am
All I know is it is something I am terrible at. Every time I send a first draft story to my trusted beta he suggests I think of a new name for pretty much every character. I know there's no science to it and I guess no exact wrong or right.... but somehow I manage to get it wrong anyhow!
R2 Rhyming Story The Dying of the Light(Sci-Fi)
Back to Top
Schrifty View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Addict
NYC Midnight Addict
Avatar

Joined: 29 Jul 2015
Status: Offline
Points: 1231
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Schrifty Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 12:54pm
I really like the "Behind the Name" site to find names that are common in specific countries or that mean certain things. I use it for surnames more than  first names but I needed it when I was researching Czech names for round 2. Searching for popular baby names for a particular era is also helpful if it's a period piece.

I do have to Google any names that sound too good because they're probably an obscure actor or columnist or someone famous whose name I don't realize I've absorbed. These include but are not limited to January Jones, Soren Bowie and Joe Scarborough. Someone else wrote a story where the love interest was Amanda Palmer so I know it's not just me.
Back to Top
Alexis_H View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 24 Jul 2016
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1984
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Alexis_H Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 12:59pm
This has been playing on my mind and I've realised the name of my character in my round 2 piece is actually the name of an old mental asylum. Now that I have made the connection, it feels even better given that my character is suffering a mind-destroying disease. 

Maybe my brain does have a system and I just don't know about it?
Archive
250 R2
<a href="https://tinyurl.com/YACCMMDD" rel="nofollow">250 (R1)</
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1234 8>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.05
Copyright ©2001-2022 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.230 seconds.