Names are a description of being
in one word. In that singular word, you can
tell the world that a character is Russian or Chinese or African. You don’t need to constantly repeat what they
look like because a picture has already been painted simply by giving a
character or being a name. But what does
that mean for names? It means that they
are fundamentally important and any writer who says they don’t labor over the
naming process, is lying. They do. Even subconsciously.
For myself, I’m obsessed with the naming process. I love it like someone might love chocolate cake or cherry pie or burning hot salsa. You just do and there’s no way to explain it.
I love spending endless hours pouring over baby name websites, name generators and behindthename.com, a favorite. My eyes scan each name, then roll it around in my head and then try to connect it to a character because that character has to own it and love it and accept it. Or it just won’t work. Case in point: my current project has a character with a name I don’t particularly like, but she refused to let me name her something else. She put her foot down and I gave in and I realized that yes, that name was absolutely who this character embodies.
Other times, I pointedly research the names for their meaning. If a character is firey, then I want their name to mean ‘fire’ or some variation thereof in their name. I feel as if I do that, then every time their name appears, that characteristic will make it to the page and define them. That’s why the process is so painstakingly long for me when I approach it from this angle. The name will pull the character and so I cannot just take it lightly… but that’s fun. That’s research and for whatever reason, I love research.
Now, I don’t go through this every time I need to name a character. When I’m working on something that has a specific period such as my 1870s project or my fantasy based in Viking and Celtic cultures, I tend to generate a database of names that speak to me. I form lists of male and female names so that when I do come across a character who needs a name, I can go to my list and pick one. I don’t have to remove myself from that grove to go and find a name. I will say that this tends to be a more period/fantasy specific technique for me.
No matter which way I find a name, I’m always looking to make sure that that name properly represents my character. I’ll be stuck with it for however long it takes to write their story and that name has to matter. It has to define and inform and pull a character. It isn’t just an arbitrary combination of letters that we call a name. It IS that character and it has be thought about… even if it comes as an epiphany or through hours of absolutely fun database searching (I mean that sincerely).
Name: Definition. Description. Personality. Force. Being.
For myself, I’m obsessed with the naming process. I love it like someone might love chocolate cake or cherry pie or burning hot salsa. You just do and there’s no way to explain it.
I love spending endless hours pouring over baby name websites, name generators and behindthename.com, a favorite. My eyes scan each name, then roll it around in my head and then try to connect it to a character because that character has to own it and love it and accept it. Or it just won’t work. Case in point: my current project has a character with a name I don’t particularly like, but she refused to let me name her something else. She put her foot down and I gave in and I realized that yes, that name was absolutely who this character embodies.
Other times, I pointedly research the names for their meaning. If a character is firey, then I want their name to mean ‘fire’ or some variation thereof in their name. I feel as if I do that, then every time their name appears, that characteristic will make it to the page and define them. That’s why the process is so painstakingly long for me when I approach it from this angle. The name will pull the character and so I cannot just take it lightly… but that’s fun. That’s research and for whatever reason, I love research.
Now, I don’t go through this every time I need to name a character. When I’m working on something that has a specific period such as my 1870s project or my fantasy based in Viking and Celtic cultures, I tend to generate a database of names that speak to me. I form lists of male and female names so that when I do come across a character who needs a name, I can go to my list and pick one. I don’t have to remove myself from that grove to go and find a name. I will say that this tends to be a more period/fantasy specific technique for me.
No matter which way I find a name, I’m always looking to make sure that that name properly represents my character. I’ll be stuck with it for however long it takes to write their story and that name has to matter. It has to define and inform and pull a character. It isn’t just an arbitrary combination of letters that we call a name. It IS that character and it has be thought about… even if it comes as an epiphany or through hours of absolutely fun database searching (I mean that sincerely).
Name: Definition. Description. Personality. Force. Being.
No comments:
Post a Comment