Naming a Character

[AMR]

Hello all,

I am a first-time writer. I'm writing science fiction, and I'm trying to name my protagonist. She is a 14 yo girl, and I'm trying to come up with a name that is both vulnerable and strong.

Any name ideas, or name resource ideas?

Thanks.

AMR

 

[The Judge]

Hi -- and Welcome to the Chrons!

In order to help you name someone we need a little more information about her. If she is, say, of Samoan ancestry, her parents might have wanted to cleave to ancestral names, whereas if she's an orphan she might have been lumbered with whatever an official decided. The setting is also important -- you say it's SF, but is it SF set in the present day, in 500 years' time or among aliens? All these things will affect the names of the characters. Even the names of other characters will affect it -- you don't want multiple characters having names beginning with the same letter or sounding similar as it can lead to a lot of confusion!

Anyhow, this isn't really a Workshop matter, which is a place for exercises and the like, so I'll move this over to GWD where it's more appropriate.

 

[Juliana]

Hi AMR, welcome! Great advice from TJ. Looking forward to reading a bit more about your character...

 

[Montero]

Also hello.

If you want to use an existing name - then search for baby names to get to websites listing lots of current names for would-be parents to search through.

If you want to make one up - are there different cultural groups in your world? So there might be some naming tendencies? (e.g. a lot of Japanese women's names end in "ko" as in Keiko).
Or do you have job related names?

A lot of surnames go back to either location or job. Thatcher, Carpenter, Chapman, Potter, Smith, Turner, Bodger.....

 

[Anne Lyle]

I like www.behindthename.com - you can filter by country of origin and gender, and it gives the meanings of all the names.

 

[atlhivemind]

Hello all,

I am a first-time writer. I'm writing science fiction, and I'm trying to name my protagonist. She is a 14 yo girl, and I'm trying to come up with a name that is both vulnerable and strong.

Any name ideas, or name resource ideas?

Thanks.

AMR

those traits are mutually exclusive.

Names don't make a character, but a character can make a name.

That in of itself is why names have meaning and power.

Pick a name from those name books listed above and run with it, don't get hung up on the meaning.

I don't think of "What can I name the heroine of my story". i think "what would the character's parents have named her. Having no idea of what kind of person she would become. that is, after all, how people are named IRL.
Or perhaps his/her parents knew something was special about them and named them accordingly. the best clues are often hidden in plain sight.

When you're telling a story there are a few rules that I follow:
- Is it memorable
- Does it sound good
- Is it easy to pronounce and/or spell

 

[paranoid marvin]

Willow - both vulnerable to the elements, but tough enough to survive them. Note there is a 25 year old film of the same name.

Or how about 'Reed' perhaps, for similar reasons?

 

[Beef]

I don't know if you're familiar with Scrivener. It's a word processing program, but it has an excellent little name generator thing built into it, among other things. You can filter by meaning, origin, first letter, etc. I've taken some screenshots to demonstrate. As you can see, there are 214 female names meaning 'strong' or similar. My favourite of those is 'Milicente' for some reason. Just sounds quite badass.

 

[Montero]

Mmm.
Whereas Millicent (not quite the same spelling but same pronunciation) seems old fashioned to me - so overtones of frilly dresses and feminine behaviour.

I like the idea behind Willow, but it yells "Buffy's sidekick".....

If you are thinking of names with resonance - Elizabeth. For Elizabeth the first, though E2 is not exactly a shrinking violet. E1 was definitely both strong and vulnerable.

Just pick one you like - there will always be someone along who thinks differently....

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Millicent Fawcett? Definitely a strong and feminine name. Hitch up yer skirts and get to writing them letters. Going down that root Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia although the former two are more kickass

 

[Anne Spackman]

I like www.behindthename.com - you can filter by country of origin and gender, and it gives the meanings of all the names.

Good resource. Back when, I had a baby names book that I used for meanings of names, but these online sources are so much more convenient.

 

[Maieius]

Naming characters go differently for certain characters. Sometimes a name would pop into my head (real or made up) and it would fit the character I'd be writing for, yet for my main character, I couldn't decide on a name until I found one that just spoke to me and it was definitely his name. I knew who the character was and it, I suppose in a way, he was named for me. I just did a search for the type of name I was looking for and I still continue to do that, or at least forge a name with random syllables I come across until I like it and if it suits them.

For me, if I ponder over a name for too long, then I scrap it, because it's clearly not going to be their name. If a name shouts out at me, then that's their name. Maybe I'll have a look at some others but more often than not, there won't be anything that suits a character as much. It's really got to feel right to the character for me.

Sometimes I research the "names meaning (blah)" and I'll get a whole list in loads of different languages. Also, I google translate the meanings and sometimes, I get a word that would be suitable for a name.

I use a whole bunch of different websites, so I couldn't possibly list them all here. Sometimes, you need the right generator depending on the type of name you're looking for so the best I can suggest is to look to google for a whole bunch of different generators. Sometimes they do both fantasy and normal names in one generator.

If you continue to struggle for a name, and if you haven't done so already, I would suggest developing your character a little more with mind maps and other exercises so you can really know your character. That might help with the naming, hopefully it might work for you if you're still struggling.

Don't stress about it though, the right name will come. I refferred to my character by another name temporarily until I found the right one, I like the name but I knew it wasn't his. It's not always instant, it took me at least two months to find his name. And I was curious to find out what this name meant about a month later and I discovered it was the perfect meaning for him, literally the center of the story.

 

[Toby Frost]

Don't stress about it though, the right name will come.

I think that's a very sensible piece of advice. I'd avoid anything that's going to stop you actually writing the story, even if you have to refer to her as X. You might well have a better idea of what she should be called once you've written about her some more.

 

[Avid Scifi Fan]

There are always nick names...

She could have some really odd name, but it gets replaced with something that fits her action/personality or something that is meant to torment her.

 

[mgilmour]

I'm a firm believer that a character makes the name and not the other way around.
As a reader I really don't like complicated long names...(eg. Karetheria Druhloxzian said,......) I tried to keep my character names simple and in line with their culture (for the enemy in my story). For example, Bosk, Acheron, Selfia, Pyro, Elzetro....pretty straight forward and easy to pronounce.....just my two bits.
If I'm struggling with a name I just put XXXX in place until I come up with one and then do a search and replace.

 

[ratsy]

I agree that a character makes the name. Our parents named us with nothing to go by, and we live with it. Go ahead and pick anything...what would your characters parents have named her?

 

[Faisal Shamas]

Hi first time writer here, I have changed the name of character a number of times in my novel already. Believe me it doesn't matter, as long as it is not weird, just use a proper name, you characterization matters more.