What's in a Name?

matching names to characters

As I draft, I type out the first name that comes to mind. 70% of the time it sticks. 10% of the time, I have replaced the name before typing it a second time. The remaining 20% of my characters are named in editing. I might type some plain vanilla name as a placeholder, a name I know isn’t right for the character or the story. When editing, I'll research, make lists, and muse over the name the character wants to go by.

Having read the entire Dickens' canon, I am especially fond of his amusing names, chosen for their aptness. While I use them far more sparingly than Mr Dickens, you will find in my stories: an electrician named Mr Spark, a floosie named Candy, and a clergyman named Ezra Church.

I frequently peruse lists of baby names for inspiration and to learn their meaning. Of course, the name must also sound right in the context of the story.

If my character has a certain look, I might do an image search for photographs of people that fit that description. For instance: redhead teens with braces, bald Norwegian men over 60, or brave 25-year-old boys in 1940. By studying the images, I can often find the right words to describe the character. And, the exercise helps me give the character their name.

I lived in downtown Manhattan for most of my adult life, Greenwich Village specifically, probably one of the best spots on the planet for people-watching. As we waited for someone to take our dinner order, my husband and I frequently played a game where we would assign names to the passersby and the people seated around us: “Oh, she’s definitely a Brenda,” “Louis Avery Somethingorother III,” “Carlos,” “In those sunglasses? I’d say Ambrose.” It was just a silly way to pass the time. But now as a writer, it turned out to be good practice.

Ask yourself: what name feels right for the character (given their age, vocation, appearance, family history)?

Sometimes though, a name simply won't work even if it well suits the character. In my novel, I have a character who wants to be named Claire because her mother is named Clarissa. Yet it was confusing for readers to have two characters, appearing frequently in the same scenes, to have such similar names. Similarly, I had a father and son named Henry and Henry Jr. I renamed both Claire and Henry Jr. I don't like their new names as much, but the story is now much easier to read and follow.

I don’t think I’ve ever selected a name before developing the character. Have you? With what result?

Here are some of my favorite and most-memorable character names. Tell me yours!

• Eustacia Vye, Damon Wildeve, and Susan Nunsuch, Return of the Native

• Peter Duke, Tom Lake

• C J Stryver, Roger Cly, Mr & Mrs Cruncher, Tale of Two Cities

• John Carpenter, North Woods (builder of the yellow house.)

• Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, Peter Pan

• Wackford & Fanny Squeers, Ninetta Crummles, Smike, Mr Pluck, Nicholas Nickleby

• Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights

• Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, Jane Eyre.

• Gilbert Blythe, Moody Spurgeon, Prissy Andrews, Mrs Blewett, Anne of Green Gables

• Mr Merdle, Edmund Sparkler, Mr Chivery, Flintwinch, and Pet Meagles, Little Dorrit

• Pip, Abel Magwitch, Mr Jaggers, Uncle Pumblechook, and Mr Wopsle, Great Expectations

• Hugh Whitbread, Mrs Dalloway

• Daniel Quilp, Kit Nubbles, The Old Curiosity Shop

• Becky Sharp and Rawdon Crawley, Vanity Fair

• Joe Bell, Holiday “Holly” Golightly, and Salvatore “Sally” Tomato, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

• Tom Pinch, Mercy & Charity Pecksniff, Sairey Gamp, and Betsy Prig, Martin Chuzzlewit

• George and John Knightley, Emma

• Dorian Gray, The Picture of Dorian Gray

• Oliver Twist, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Mr Bumble, Mrs Corney, Toby Crackit, Mr Sowerberry, Mr Grimwig, Mr Fang, and Duff & Blathers, Oliver Twist

• Joe Christmas, Byron Bunch, Rev Gail Hightower, Joanna Burden, Percy Grimm, and Winterbottom, The Light in August

• Angel Clare, Sorrow, and Mercy Chant, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

• Ebenezer Scrooge, Fezziwig, The Cratchits, and Tiny Tim, A Christmas Carol

• Bathsheba Everdene, William Boldwood, Gabriel Oak, and Joseph Poorgrass, Far from the Madding Crowd