I have finally started putting pen to paper, my main character is a bar maid/land-lady of a pub, at present as a person she's pretty plain, just your average kind of bar maid who finds love in the story. I just cannot put a name to her though, I don't want a name too different or fancy and it's hard to come up with one with working in the pub there's so many I don't want to use as my characters are based on these customers already. I'm just calling her Z for now as I write in the hope that a name will just click.
she works in a pub and you want us to name her? Would you like to elaborate, tell us something about her? Where is she from? From where do her parents/grandparents hail? How old is she? Is she from a rich background working her way through college? What year is it? All of these factors will contribute to naming her...
Maybe this is why I'm finding it hard to name her as its all a little vague right now. The story is set now, she's 24 and this is her own pub. She doesn't have a super rich background but has a Grandad that bought her the pub as well a lime green Ford Focus ST that she drives. The pub is in Yorkshire, her sister lives in the same town but the rest of her family are further south in the midlands.
so we take it it is set today as she drives a ford, born in 1988/9. Her family are normal joe soaps from Brum. Who were the big stars from the late 80s? Especially girls from Brum? Popstars or actresses. To give you an idea, the top 3 best selling female popsters in 1988 were Kylie, Whitney Houston and Belinda Carlisle. Would she be named after any of these?
Google "most popular names 1990" If you have a particular ethnicity you could look up names of that ethnicity, too. Scroll through the lists you find, and see if any strike you. If none strike you, pick one that you find acceptable. As your write, the name will meld with the character, much as it does with real people. Names end up fitting the person, and after a while, even if you don't like a name, or have connotations of a name that are totally opposite from a person you meet with that name, eventually you can't imagine them with any other name.
I really don't think her job or looks should have any bearing on her name. Just flip open a name book and pick one at random, the character will grow to suit it.
don't sweat it - just write your story and come back to it - it'll probably only be used once anyway and the only thing a surname says abut a person is there ancestry and if she's English through and through you can just call her Smith or Brown or Singh - after all Singh is the most common surname in England
This character, has a wealthy Grandad in his very late sixties, he's not stinking rich but always treats his two Grandaughters and helps them out when they need it, he always likes to make out he doesn't have much money. He bought the character the pub and a car and her sister her first house and a car. What could his profession/trade have been to give him such wealth?
I really wouldn't know where to start with writing a thriller, I've never read any or watched any scary movies, I'm a bit of a wimp like that, a sucker for a romantic, happy ending kind of story. However sounds like a good challenge if I get through this story.
Oh, did I say human? I meant mannequin parts. Yeah. She is recreating the bar scene at home and wants her favorite customers to be there. Last night she moved Lisa Perkins next to Tom Delaney because they have been watching each other from across her living room for way too long
Lol I like it! I've gone with Berlinda, her music mad parent's named her after the big 80's star Belinda Carlisle
