In other words, you have failed to capture them fully.īesides that, think of the poor narrator who may be enlisted to read your book for the audio edition. Their eyes will flow over the name and ignore it, often seeing them formulate their own personal reference to that character’s name. While creating a unique or alien name, you might get carried away and end up with Xy’llzzii the ambassador from Q’vvuwqi.Ī reader’s mind won’t fully process names such as these. So it’s worth investigating: does your character’s name flow off the tongue or stick in the throat?įantasy and science fiction writers are more likely to be caught out, here. ‘Behind the name’ – A website arranging names by gender, meaning, origin, etc.Īudiobooks are a growing market, and you never know when you’ll want one of your novels to take the leap across.Baby name books – These give insight into the meaningful origins behind certain names, so yours don’t need to become a lazy form of exposition.No-one wants to deal with an eye-rolling name like Guy Everyman today. But it’s been done – and if you’re to do it, remember to do it with subtlety. There are loads of examples, like the Starks from bleak Winterfell, and the twisted-but-pretty Bellatrix Lestrange. Using names as insight into characters’ inner motives is risky territory. Take a minute or two to see if any among the crew capture your interest. but don’t flick off a film as soon as the names start to scroll. Film credits – You wouldn’t generally think of this.Random Name Generator – Does what it says!.(Though ‘Bert and Bart’ definitely has some comedic potential.) The last thing you want to do is frustrate your reader – because a confused reader is a reader who’s going to put the book down, give up, and possibly give your work a public thrashing in their online reviews.įor the same reason, it’s best to avoid names that sound very similar – like Emily and Amelie, or Bert and Bart. In fact, it’s a solid approach to avoid using the same first letter initial for any characters in your story.Īs with anything creative, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it goes a long way to avoiding reader confusion. It would be a monumentally bad idea, for example, to have a main character called John, who’s married to Jean, and their son is called James, and they all love their pet dog called Jones. Social Security Administration’s popular names list – Here, you can find the top 10 most commonly used names for both boys and girls from different decades.īe mindful of how names sound when spoken aloud.WordCreator – A free app that makes readable words and allows you to choose characters and syllables from different languages.Just make sure it’s pronounceable – more on that later. For example, a reference to the Roman goddess Minerva could become Minera – an imaginary word but one that might automatically invoke connections in the reader’s mind. These might be inspired by real words that have been subtly changed. In fantasy, the writer has much more freedom to create unusual names. You can always merge or adjust real names, though. Unless you’re writing a biographical piece about a specific historical figure, it’s best to avoid names that are identical to influential, historic, or famous individuals. Readers expect stories set in 15 th century Italy, for example, to have names that make sense – think Nichola de Pescina rather than Dave Norman. Think about how names in fantasy stories are different to those from historical fiction. That doesn’t mean you can’t play with these conventions, of course, but it’s worth considering how your chosen genre affects the best choice of names. Your choice of genre tends to come packed with a few conventions readers have come to expect. That way, the next time you’re stuck for a name, you’ll have all you need right at your fingertips. All of these things can affect whether character names do or don’t work.Īlongside the primary advice regarding naming your characters, this post also contains links to various resources – so don’t be afraid to add it to your bookmarks. There’s plenty to take into consideration – from the nature of the plot, to the genre, the location and time of the setting, and even the nuances of pronunciation. Naming them, however, is not always easy. Creating your cast of characters is one of the most exciting parts of storytelling.
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