Character Naming

When it comes to writing fiction of any sort, names are everything. First off, they have to be believable in the setting, time period, genre, world, ect. It would do no good to confuse your readers by putting sci-fi names in a fantasy novel (well, if your characters are time travellers from the future, it is excusable). Secondly, they need to fit the character, this is a dilemma that we've probably all gone through, the last thing you want is a name that awkwardly stands out from the character himself. Sometimes of course, an awkward or ill-fitting name is chosen to be humorous or because the poor character couldn't help having inconsiderate parents that gave him a strange name. Last, but not least is spelling, sometimes this is one of the hardest steps, as we want our characters to have unique names that stand out, but we don't want to confuse our readers to the extent that they can't even say the names. I am guilty of having used unpronounceable names, and have since turned to a large baby name book for inspiration....

Do you have any tips for choosing a name for a character? Feel free to share your secrets to success in this tricky business!

I find it so hard to name my characters! Well, I usually do. With my Historical Fiction novel it wasn't so bad, because with the era you write in come certain names that were generally very over used. So you have a selection of names that fit in with that time period; for instance, in certain times you wouldn't find a girl named Helen, or Samantha and so on, so you have a few names that you work with, which I find makes things easier in some ways. At least you don't have so much choice that you end up not being able to decide!

With my fantasy writing though, it's a completely different kettle of fish. I find it so hard to name my characters; and what is worse, if I do name them, and come to realise I don't like the name - I can't bring myself to change it! Because then they seem to be that person, it's almost like naming a child and then changing their name. Of course it's not quite like that, but it seems that way to me.

I just go to a site like [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and search for certain meanings, or languages. For my latest novel, I'm using certain cultures as a basis for names as well as nations in my world.

In The Battlehost Trilogy, I'm using the language of the races to create names from various roots. That is definitely more time consuming, but the names match the characters' races. It also can add some depth to the races themselves, if done right.

I usually don't write in other worlds, so I don't have to make up names. I use normal names that aren't too common nor too rare. Sometimes though I don't really think about it and just throw in a random name. I'm not exactly technical about these things, although I want to be.

Wow. This link may save my life I spend ages looking up baby names on Google for my stories!