forum What are some of your Do's and Don'ts to naming characters?

Started February 07, 2021 by @SingSongKV group

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I've been wanting to have "unique" names for my characters but I feel that I went too far 😅 with this character in particular. His name is Astra Starr (since he's in a sci-fi/superhero story), but I thought that the name is too try-hard and on the nose, since he's a human. (Yes, I know "Astra" is a girl's name, I was going for a more "Comedic" aspect there.)

I'm no expert but I have 200+ characters lol, so here's my rough strategy:
Do:
-Consider the character's background, culture, parents, etc. since they will (almost) always influence the name
-If your character picked their own name, consider their education, their ideals, who they look up to/want to become, their sense of self-esteem, and their knowledge of common names.
-On a more meta note, consider the genre/mood of your story (e.g. you mentioned yours might be comedic) and decide whether you want that to influence the identity of your character. For example you wouldn't want to name the MC of your dark dystopian horror "Flitty Twinklebottom".
-Pick a name that feels good. You and the entire cast of your story will be saying it a lot so make sure it's got a long shelf life.

Don't:
-Pick the first name that comes to mind, even after you've followed the above steps. Chances are, you thought of it because you saw it somewhere and subconsciously remembered it. Look up your names before settling on them in case they're already taken by another well-known character or a celebrity or a 60's murderer or something. (Of course, every name is already taken, but you have to judge for yourself whether you'll be able to make it your character's own.)
-Pick something too stereotypical to the genre (unless you're going for a sarcastic comedy story, or a parody). People read a book about mermaids, see the character's name is Coral/Ripple/Riptide/Aqua, and automatically assume that the rest of the story will be just as predictable. There's nothing wrong with naming a mermaid Cypress or Abigail lol, if it fits the naming conventions of your Mer culture.
-Go too plain or too fancy. Pick a name that's unique, but not "three middle names and an unpronounceable surname" unique. And of course, no John Smiths. (That said, there are exceptions. Mike Sullivan, Luke Drafter, and Melanie Berkham are three of my most in-depth, well-developed human characters, and they definitely stand out despite their ordinary names. On the other end, I have an alien emperor named Jaat-Kiin Tsitokyakasyavi Terinero Liito Belinona Anta Rititeri Kikkanett-Va-Kikkanett (or Terinero for short) and it's fine because that's his royal title and his people are very long-winded, pompous types. Also it's a comedy xD

Anyway, that's all I can think of. Sorry for the info dump haha, hope it helps! ^^

Here are some of my guidelines.

Do

• Use a name that's easy to pronounce. Nothing pulls me out of a story faster than staring at a page trying to figure out how to pronounce Uufdhij of Ehgjic or whatever (or at least have a pronunciation guide somewhere if you decide to do that)
• Consider your setting. If you have a story that takes place in Victorian England, for example, then your character should have a name that's appropriate for that time period (unless you're writing a story about time travel). If your character was born and raised in China, and has Chinese parents they'll probably have a Chinese name.
• Ties into the above point but do research. Especially if you're writing a character from a different culture/ethnicity that you don't belong to. Even if you're not, baby name websites are still your best friend.
• Think about what "vibes" you want. Like, if your character is really tough, you probably want a name that sounds tough, even if the name itself means something totally unrelated. Idk if that makes sense or not?
• Alliterative names are apparently easy to remember, which is why a lot of comic book characters have them. You probably don't want all your characters to have one, but when I'm having troubles coming up with a last name I'll usually try to go with one that starts with the same letter of the first name.

Do not (most of these are just personal preference, tbh).

• Overthink it. I know that some people like to look into name meanings so that they can find something that really fits their character. I think this is neat, but if I kept looking for a name that perfectly described my character I'd probably never find one. My parents didn't name me based on my personality/life story so why would my character's parents do that?
• Make it obvious if you are going to do that. There seems to be a really fine line between finding a name that's clever and a name that's too obvious. If you're going to give your character a name that describes them in some way it shouldn't be immediately obvious to the reader
• Use names that are heavily associated with other popular characters. Like, I know that JKR didn't invent the name Hermione, but it's impossible for me to hear that name and not automatically think of Harry Potter.
• Name your characters after people I know. There's actually nothing wrong with this. This one is 100% personal preference. I know a lot of authors do this, but I don't like to because I feel like it puts me in an awkward position if I need to kill that character off or if I need them to do something that's maybe not so nice.

I feel like I have more than that, but that's just off the top of my head.

I tend to just,,, keysmash until I find something that looks like a name or take a generic name like Alice and spell it odd, like Alis.
So,,, if that h e l p s

My Do's and Don'ts

Do's:
-I love unique names
-I'd pick a letter then come up with a word with random pronunciation and think if i sounds good for a name XD
-For example, Milaka. I went through the alphabet and picked M and put letter together and got that XD
-(I just hope it doesn't mean something I won't Like)
-If that doesn't work, I tend to take the character and search for names that match their personality or descriptions
-Mostly just exotic names.

Do Not's
-I don't like 'basic names' (Don't mean that is a mean way)
-I couldn't go with a name like Michael or Sam
-It's just not enough…Creativity.
-Sometimes I can let it slide if I'm using the 'name that matches their personality' method
-For example, Levi.
-Originally he was suppose to grow up with dolphins after he mother died but I changed it. When it wasn't changed I stuck with Levi because it meant "Joined in harmony' like dolphins.

That's all :D
(For now-)

Okay I'd love to give my two cents on this one cuz I had an epiphany about naming characters several years back heh.

I first started trying to write full length novels when I was 12, and as you could imagine, I sucked! I was sooo jealous of my favorite authors for coming up with cool stories and what seemed like PERFECT names for their characters. My main character for my first story ended up getting no name at all (cuz no name was perfect enough) and being called X everywhere he was named as a placeholder. Then guess what happened? After a long time of writing the story (200,000 words long, yeesh! And the book hadn't even made it to the climax yet!) I realized that I had grown so accustomed to the character being called X that I couldn't bear to change it haha. That's when I had my EPIPHANY:

It doesn't really matter (with a few caveats) what you name your character as long as the characterization is well done. Your readers and you will most likely enjoy or even love the character's name if they love the character themself. I realized that that was what was happening with every character that I had ever loved. I didn't like the character because of the name, but grew to like the name because of the character.

So to test my new theory I started a new story and named the main character something I thought was ugly and that I didn't like. And over time of writing it, sure enough, the name grew on me.

Maybe this is just true for me but I think more writers would benefit from this mindset!

The caveats I'd say are to make sure the name is still realistic within the setting. The commenters above had good advice on that. One thing I'd add is to not choose a name based on its meaning unless your world is set in our world, and don't match the name to your character's personality unless the character named themself. The parents had no idea what their baby's personality would be, they just chose a name they liked.

I'd just say make sure that the name has meaning, to either the side characters or the main character itself. Names are powerful.

DO: feel free to change names as you come up with something you think would suit the character better. (Ctrl + H in Google Docs lets you find and replace every instance of the old name with the new)
DON'T: Spend hours trying to come up with the perfect name instead of writing

DO: Enjoy giving sneaky hints about a character/plot point via hidden meanings in names
DON'T: Think every name has to have a deeper meaning, or even most or any of them. I've met a guy named Lemon before.

DO: Make a list of names in your "Notes" app for every cool name you hear you might want to use one day. That way, you have a personally-tailored list ready to go when you're writing
DON'T: be afraid to name some characters "boring" names if the setting is chill with it. It should be the character's actions and personality that makes them endearing/terrible to the reader, not their name or their description or anything like that (:

my quick naming guide:

• Ensure their name meets their background/culture
• If it doesn't, why not? Is there anything special about their name? Don't bullshit it. (Ex: I have a character named Paisley Layla Abbas. She was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. Both Layla and Abbas are Arab names, but Paisley is Scottish. Why? Paisley's father named her after someone he was close to in college, a woman who died in a WWIV air raid. Growing up, she went by Layla and then went by her first name when she reached adulthood.)
• Always Google Your Character's Name. It could be some basketball player or D-list celebrity! Always double-check!!
• It's okay to change a name you don't like!! One of my characters was May Mikkello for a year before I decided I didn't like it and I changed it to Grace Evans. Another character was Heidi Antonova for a while before I changed her name to Mischa Antonova.
• Some names stick to you. Placeholder names are just fine, but don't be surprised when you actually get attached to the name alsdjf
• Not everybody needs a super cool badass name. It's okay to name a guy John Miller instead of Magnus Slaughter.
• Keep the names consistent with the setting! My friend was telling me about a story she read that was set during medieval Scotland and the MCs names were Maddie and Paul… I'm not saying they aren't Scottish Medieval names but it just felt wrong.

And that's all I have for now!!

Always Google Your Character's Name. It could be some basketball player or D-list celebrity! Always double-check!!

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think this is a big deal actually. Like, yeah, giving your character the exact same name as someone that's widely known would be a problem. If you didn't know when you named your character, chances are that the average person won't either. Plus, some names are just pretty common and there's probably going to be some overlap somewhere.

v ah ok, I see what you mean. That makes sense.

I'm not saying it's an issue if you have a character named the same thing as someone (I have a character named Killian Clarke and it's also the name of some English soccer player and some researcher dude) but sometimes you could named a character Michael Jordan or Lindsey Lohan or Scarlett O'Hara (I almost named a character Scarlett OHara).

Exactly what you're saying, Starfast. It's a good idea to Google just to make sure you didn't subconsciously name a character Russell Wilson. There's no problem with having a character named Killian Clarke when IRL Killian Clarke is a fairly well known researcher in a niche field.

Sorry if I wasn't clear earlier!!

Dos:

• Original/unique names
• Names which mean something relating to the character
• Names which express their personality
• Names that fit their background and ethnicity

Don'ts:

• Give all your characters similar names (like Tim and Tom)
• Name them after a celebrity unless it is relevant to the plot (like Beyonce)
• Make them unpronounceable names or really hard to say
• Name them really, really, really long names.

However there's always an exception, so it's fine sometimes to do these. This is just my opinion :)