A character by any other name would not seem so deep, touch us so memorably nor affect us on a level that ripples out into our conscious lives. Would Harry Potter have been so relatable if he were not given a commoners name? Or Scarlett O’Hara be as pretty without a fiery adjective for a name?
Who would you believe more? The magic of a medicine man of the American west named Tony or Three Feathers? If your heroine lives in the city, is young and vivacious don’t name her Edith, Mildrid or after Grandma Betty.
However if your character is not of this earth, try not to bestow him or her with names whose consonant or vowel combinations do not exist on earth. With the name Uccabrasz or Tskasvalale not only will it be difficult to remember but it will interfere with your readers flow each time that names comes up. Breaking the illusion your book has worked so diligently to create.
I myself have issues with naming my characters people whom I have actually met and connect their name with a fictional character later in my life. My stories are not full of Mary, Sam and John. They are full of interesting acquaintances, friends, neighbors and relatives.
However, I hope they are not offended by my using their name. Especially when it is just the right name for the character. God forbid anyone think it is slander and plan to sue me later. That reminds me, I need to write up a disclaimer such as ”none of the characters in this book are based on actual people and any similarities are purely coincidntal“.
What is in a name? Well, the perfect name can bring fourth images of the story each time the reader hears it. Names can summons entire worlds. For instance Huckleberry Finn, Peter Parker and Jane Eyre. You know just who they are and what they lived through as if it were a piece of your own memory. So to answer what is in a name? For the right name the possibilities are endless.
JL Cooper
Is this post connected to a LinkedIn discussion group JL? I like this one.
ReplyDeleteWhat's in a name? I have stories with significant, meaningful names and other stories with insignificant names. I often try to make the names easy to pronounce in the American-English language, whether the meaning of the names are important or not. I noticed for myself, as well as others, difficult names can be distracting. I’ve still pressed through the stories because they so good.
I decided to try and keep the names very tolerable. For example, I have a co-worker’s name that I used in a story. Her name is Verdaneeka. This is not how you actually spell the name, but I tried to spell it similar to the American-English pronunciation (Ver-da-neeka). In the story, they call her Neeka.
Brent Weeks did the same for his character, VIRIDIANA; they called her Vi, but it’s pronounced like Vee, or his character named DEHVIRAHAMAN KO BRUHMAEZIWAKAZARI, but they called him Dehvi. Personally I think Brent was poking fun at fantasy names with that last one. When I read the book I didn’t even attempt to pronounce it. When I heard it pronounced in the Graphic Audiobook, I belly laughed. I never would have figured it out on my own.