My problem is ancillary characters. When a waitress comes to the table the only two names that leap into my mind are Sarah and Rachel, and I feel like that would get very old for the reader. So I leap over to seventh sanctum, pick up "Olive" and I'm back to writing.
Further on from choosing a name for your character, have you ever started a story then realised that you had the wrong name, gone back and changed it? I did this with both my main characters. In the original idea (25 years ago) my characters were called Sasha and Nick. When I came to actually writing it in 2012, I realised they didn't fit the characters and rapidly changed them.
Here are the first 10 names Scivener generated for me Raghallach Bollag Anhay Piskor Lynnet Rao Gerard Wolfski Tutu Warburton Bartley Skiffington Bahumanya McHarg Artair Thannhauser Peyton Orms Paschal Salazin hmmmmmmmmm. I may need to fine tune the origins. Though I quite like the name Tutu Warburton. I imagine he speaks Swahili in Patric Warburton's voice.
Scrivener generates names? I'll have to check that out. That's an issue with a colloquialism. The Chevy Nova was a joke as well because it means "no go". 'Va' is the present tense version of the verb 'ir' that means to go. I had to be careful traveling in Latin America because some words like, 'mujer', which translates to 'woman' can also me whore in some regions. Eggs are testicles, just as balls here are.
All of my stories use the same characters at varying ages/points of their lives. Allison Jane Connor (aka AJ Connor) is a play on words. If you sound it out slowly, and in just the right arrangement of syllables, you will find that Allis-on Jane sounds like Alice In Chain or better yet Alice In Chains. Her older sister, Zoe, is taken from the Staind song Zoe Jane, though her middle name is not Jane. Allison's twin brother Aaron is named for Aaron Lewis and his middle name is Layne after Layne Staley.
I usually don't bother naming minor characters or 'extras', especially if the name isn't spoken. I use their title, occupation, or a physical characteristic. The waitress or Blue Top. It's a stylistic thing.
People insist on pointing out the name of a murder victim though. It's quite tiresome to continually refer to a corpse without using a name.
There are some interesting things hiding in the "Tools" menu. Like "Generate Names", "Look up on Wikipedia" and "Translate to another language". Well, sometimes Scrivener gives interesting results, even with a nationality set, which is why I always mix and match between the different first and last names. I even find that a good deal of the generated first names sound like last names to me... Unless, of course, the victim is terribly mutilated and doesn't have an id card so that no one knows who it is.
My character makes up nicknames for people she's not introduced to so for example the rangers that arrested her are "Stripes" and "Shorty". I think unnamed people still need nicknames of some kind.
Depends on how often the are encountered in the story, IMO. If it is just a waitress or something who is present during a single scene (or multiple scenes but only one waitress) names should not be needed, unless the characters actively talk about/with and/or think about the unnamed character and thus ask for a name or create a nickname.
i guess i'm the odd one here because i don't actually enjoy giving characters names. i feel like unless if the characters pop into my head with names then i don't feel right giving them names. does anyone feel this way? i actually wrote an entire blog post about this in march: http://estellegryphons.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/fr2/
I usually go to baby name websites which sometimes have tips for naming your characters. The reason is I either look for gender specific names that I don't care what the meaning is or I look for gender specific names that I do care what the meaning is like in the first twin birth in the family tree Rebecca and Ronald started.
Hi, welcome to the forum. I overthink names. Names create images in my mind so I assume that is true for other readers. I've still not settled on all my characters' names and I'm getting close to finishing the book. I still have several substitute names for my characters.
I agree completely, and I think that is precisely why I am hesitant to give names to my characters. I prefer for readers to get a sense of the characters through descriptions or actions than through a name. Of course, I only ever really write short stories so names are not always necessary. I imagine when one writes novels it would be difficult to avoid names.
Personally I build the story around the character but don't name them till I'm at least a good chunk half way through. Instead I just put numbers in red. That way I can go back and a name will come to me then I can just slot it in. I've found that way most of the time characters reveal their names to you.
Usually I can make them up - but if nothing comes to me I'll hit baby-naming websites or lists of ethnic names depending on my needs. Though the best Surname I ever got for a character was a phone-book find: Rylander. Loved that name, and now Madison Rylander is one of my characters to write. She just pops off the page.
the web address got changed, i forgot to change it on here *edit* im having a few tech issues for the address, so i will be wiping it until it is sorted. Managed to fix it
Well before choosing a name, I have an overall idea of the character first. So for example, if I have a strong character who doesn't take crap from anyone, I try to reflect this is the name and look up certain names I find are strong and bold. For me, many German names are like this, so I do a google search for German names and browse until I find one I think suits my character. If I have a soft, quiet character, I would research French names for example, because I find they are delicate. Very rarely do I have a character name before I have an idea of what the character would be like. So I suppose I choose a name to fit my character - I don't fit my character to the name.
Actually this is a VERY good idea. Phone books will have so many unusual and uncommon names. This is actually a very good way to find original and unique names. I am stealing this idea Commandante!
One of my two main characters, "Susan Selwin", happens to be just a conglomeration of names from 3 or 4 people I know. My rockstar "Ronny Vail" is obviously based on other musician names like Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Vai. No big mystery there.
As much as I'm tempted to, I never use names of people I know in real life. I feel like that would somehow mudden my character development, prioritizing my sentiments towards that person rather than the character I want to develop. On the other hand, this can be a good strategy if you want a character who closely resembles someone you know in real life. You can even mix names, like coming up with an Evan Jones out of Evan Lee and Mary Jones, whom you know in real life, if you want Evan Jones to be a mix in between Lee and Mary.
