Thread: How do you...

...choose names for places and characters in your stories? (apologies if this is in wrong section, I'm kinda new here!)
Do you make them up/use names you've heard or read somewhere/use your own personal favourite names?
I tend to use babies names books/websites. I find names for locations in there too. You have the meanings of the names in these books also which is helpful.

I like to use:

Behind the Name: Meaning of Names, Baby Name Meanings

for names of people. For places, I research, but it has its limits. If I've never been somewhere, I can't get into too much detail.

Names are made up then mixed and curdled in with history/logic/mythology. A unique name makes for an interesting history or future; whether a place or being.

Names need to be interesting, but simple enough for the reader to 'digest' while reading.

Overly complex names distract your reader from the content you are trying to convey. If you try to get too cute, or shove your 'superior knowledge' down the reader's throat.... Fail.

You need to make the reader empathize with the story, and you. People don't respond well to arrogance.

You need to make the reader empathize with the story, and you. People don't respond well to arrogance.

But the response they do is well worth the arrogance. But when it comes to a story, make it your own, make it what you want. Selling a billion copies and making a billion dollars with a name like ‘Harry Potter’ makes me wish I could hang myself and send you the pictures.

P.S I pity the poor old American weather man that had that name stolen from him.

Only over the past two years have I started to get seriously into writing fiction after a lifetime of non-fiction. I've decided to follow Faulkner's example and create my own county in the U.S. State of Mississippi. Mississippi has 82 physical counties, but since Faulkner created Yoknapatawpha County other writers have scattered new counties around the state so now there are probably close to 90.

In my case I decided to go for a more traditional naming device, calling the county after a former governor. I picked out John McRae, Governor from 1854 to 1857. He also served in the U.S. Senate and in the Confederate House of Representatives.

The name is simple, my first requirement, and anyone familiar with the history of Mississippi will immediately recognise it. That would not mean much to a reader in the U.K. or Australia, but will be of interest for those who do make the connection.

When basing a fictional account on an actual incident, I start by using the actual names of people. This makes the writing easier for me in the beginning. Thus in the first draft of 'A Pinch of Salt' I call my grandfather John O'Hagan and our housekeeper Cora. Those were their real names. Before I finish the story I will have changed those names.

Edit - Forgot to mention that Gov. McRae came to Belize with a group of ex-Confederates in 1868, died very shortly after he arrived, and is buried in Lord's Ridge Cemetery in Belize City.

For my amusement I have included a character called D.Sibyl who makes strange and prophetic announcements in my book, only to discover nobody else knows who The Sibyl is (or was).

I find that characters sometimes choose their own names. My first novel is based on real people from history and I've expanded the role of a French interpreter who was working for the protagonist. Every book I've researched has left his name unknown and referred to him only as the interpreter. After fleshing the character out for about 100 pages, I gave up trying to find out his name and decided to make one up. I settled on the name Antoine, which I had already been thinking off because the name suited the character perfectly.

For his surname I searched some websites with lists of French names. By chance, the surname of a forum contributor stood out as - again - it seemed to suit my character.

I prefer real names, so long as they fit. The main character in a novel I'm gradually getting through has the surname of Sleeuwenhoek. Johnny Sleeuwenhoek was a dutch paratrooper in the second world war who later played football for Aston Villa. How do I know this? He was later manager of a local team when my dad played for them. I just thought it such a bizarre name when I first heard it many years ago, I guess it stuck with me so long because of that.

I don't choose a name until I know a fair amount about the character and how they affect the story as I think that people are shaped somewhat by their name - think of foresquare, reliable George, slightly hair-brained but likeable Steve and haughty, well-bred Rebecca.

I don't really have a definite approach to specific names but I prefer one that is easy to remember (we want our readers to remember them after they finish reading, right?...)

For my Heaven on Earth novel, all my characters are single syllabus names (just to set apart my novel from others) except the MA. For example
1. MA - Mark Ryan Conners
2. Nurse Ann Lloyd
3. LAPD Sgt Paul Wills
4. LAPD CSI Sgt Rick Blaire
5. Dr. Nick Baines

And so forth.

For scifi and fantasy, I can make them up pretty easily. I find that if you read them out loud a few times you get a feel for it and can determine if it is a good name to carry throughout the story. For times I want to be consistent, there is an old program I picked up years ago that will generate names based on some structured definition. I never really paid too much attention to the how, and just ran through the created sets until I started getting some that sounded like ones I would like to use.

The names usually come to me with the type of character I'm writing about, the time, and his or her location, if that makes sense. Take a small lakeside community in the '60's, for example. I wouldn't put a male character in there named Delorian Strathenberg, say, but I would put in Denny Stratten.

Names of people:
Search for names linked to species/race/nationality.
Ie; elvish, dwarfish, Orc, French, Spainish,German, but all (human)names according to the time period. Denoset was a name I used yesterday. French circa 1600, if I remember correctly.

Names for places:
I base the names based on the people that live there.
Commonly I will use terrain names:
Twin oaks, Mystic pine, Clear creek etc.
I also have used Elvish translations that I found on the web. Myil-green forest.

I have also named places on some ficitonal character in the past.
Swiftspine mountains based on the character that conquered the mountain and made it his home.

I have used pictures on the web to create places in my stories. One I remember is the catacombs of Paris,
priceless for a necromancer story.
Easier to describe a place if you can actually see it.

FOund yesterday it is easier to describe a gemshorn's music if you actually hear it while writing. (gemshorn-basically a medievil recorder made from a horn)