Character Names

Even in fantasy, names of people and places should sound consistent and believable. While this may come easy to someone like J.R.R. Tolkien who was a linguist and knew dozens of languages, to use mere mortals it's a far more daunting task.

In my contemporary fiction that I've written, the names have generally come easy. First names that is. If I ever needed a last name, I'd simply flip open to a random page ofThe Dictionary of Surnames, and scan for a name that appealed.

Fantasy becomes a much uglier beast. I have a spreadsheet on my computer to keep track of the significant name changes to either person or place. In one fell swoop, one day, I re-named several of the important side characters and every major location name for the country it all takes place in. Including the country's name!

My general strategy for coming up with names is to either get on baby naming websites and go through the database willy-nilly or to open baby name books to random pages and look for a name to jump out. On occasion I do go to fantasy name generator sites and look for names that way.

So what are your strategies?


*In celebration of my blog's 2nd birthday, I'll be re-posting some old favorites from the archives during the month of November.  The original post from July 9 2009 can be found here.

What's in a name?

OK, so my biggest struggle this last week or so has been coming up with new names for my main two male characters in Oracles Promise.

Why am I renaming them?  Well, let's just say I don't want a love triangle involving those particular two first initials.  Someday I'll introduce you to my characters, but I can't until their names are nailed down.

So far these two boys are not happy about the name change.  They won't agree to any of the names I pick for them and stubbornly refuse to let me change their names at all.  Which gets me thinking?

What's in a name?  (Sorry, Shakespeare, I know I'm totally pilfering from you.)

Why are names so important to nail down and why are they so hard to get right?  I've changed names a dozen times on some of my characters without a worry, but other characters if I have to change their name it becomes a big stinking deal.

Why?  Why are they so important?

Because a name is almost everything.  It can shape a character's past and future.  And that is why it's both so important and impossible to get a name just right.