Well- I really like the name Eiko- she's the female lead in my story and her name means "guardian." ...course she's less of a guardian now and more of a girl with a kickass sword with a mess of emotional issues. Dillon is the other lead, and it means loyal. I gave it to the demon.
Ellie is my favorite among those . It just sounds beautiful and elegant . and also because i love girl names which starts with E or k , makes them sound regal .
Exacty! If Dante is actually italian he probably wouldn't pronounce it that way but rather something like DONE-teh, lol. So If I would read Dantea I would probably think of it as Done-TE-ah. In swedish, to make things worse, we have plenty of words with no obvious emphasis. The different syllebles are pronounced pretty much equally (logically, with sweden being the worlds most equal country, I guess. Nowadays people don't even want genders anymore but that is a different discussion) To return to the topic I just love the name Claudia, but in the italian way, as Cloud-iah.
Depends on the project. I never thought I'd like the name Tetty but it suited one of my characters. Which is weird because I do tend to stay away from T names for girl characters. The 80's were on T overload - I've had my fill of Tiffany's, Tina's, Teresa's and Tammy's. Though I did give one of my characters the name of Tegan in homage to a friend. I'm usually drawn to either plain names like John or Casey or Charlie or off beat forgotten names - Here's some I've used - Dexter, Reed, Hector, Conrad, Dryden, Riley, and for girls - Jasmine, Weena, Faye, Lorelei, Gretchen. In my first draft story I got very eccentric with names mixing nouns and last names as first names. I had a lawyer named Bayliss, a model named Strawberry Laurel, a farmer named Daud De Maurier, a child named Picnic, a baby named Mink, an ex-preacher named Quay, and the town tramp - Glitter Gutren.
To answer whoever mentioned Felix, I actually have a male lead character names Felix in one of my recent unfinished mss. I don't even know where that name came from, but when I started to write I liked him so much that it grew on me And to refer to something someone else said, I too have names that I would NEVER name my characters because I have really unsympathetic associations to them. I don't care much for fancy, unique names since I write contemporary fiction without any element of fantasy, and neither do I care about the Meaning of the name, cause I dont find it realistic that the parents would know the characteristics or the faith of the newborn when they name it. No one knows that. If I would use a name with a specific meaning it would probably be for comic purposes, like a geeky, awkward character named after something that means Warrior or something else too ambitious, or a plain girl being named after a classic beauty, and how that name affects her self asteem when everyone point that out to her.
This is one of the reasons why my first port of call for choosing names, is to look at the top 100 names for the year and place my character was born.
It's one of the fun things about writing ...you have to name your characters! I've chosen a few old-fashioned ones I particularly like. I write historical novels set in the late 1800's, so this is appropriate. Jessie. (Or Jesse, for a boy.) Rob, Robbie. Noah. Alicia. Kirsty. Euan. Niall. Jake. I used to love Travis as a boy's name, but now that every third boy in the USA is named Travis, the charm has worn off. I also like Jody as a boy's name ...but now it's more commonly a girl's name. One of my pet peeves is the current fashionable tendency to spell ordinary names in a silly way that will follow the kid around forever, or until he's old enough to change it by deed poll!
My pet peeve too. Since I have a name that is always misspelled, my parents went with the lesser known biblical spelling, it can get annoying. Plus I remember being in school with the Alyssa's - Elyssa, Alicia, And Alyssa. What a nightmare for teachers.
I do that I do that too! It's so odd to read novels where the mc is in her thirties and has a name typical for an elderly woman, (that no one has named anyone since 1920...) or the contrary, a name that wasn't in use here until late -90's or early -00's. One other thing I've noticed is that in SOOO many swedish independent films, tv-series and novels there's a character, usually a young woman, named Nora. It happens so often that you would think it was a very popular swedish name, but actually it's pretty rare and I've never even met one with that name... Another thing that bothers me, with foreign litterature or film, is that when there's a swedish girl she's always called Ingrid or Inga, a name that hasn't been popular since the 1920's I guess... It's like people don't realize there ARE other typical swedish names as well...
Once a flood, that might happen in real life, like Edith Eleanor Bowman, a DJ born in 1974. Her middle name is actually her mother's name but I'm not sure where her parents got 'Edith' from. I think some old fashioned names can work if your character is named after someone, but that has to be made clear otherwise it leaves the reader thinking eh??? My Character's middle name is William, as his father is called William but as he's in the book too, I don't need to explain it during the story. But yeah, imagine reading a book set in the wild west, 1885, and a woman gives birth and says to her husband, "we'll call him Brooklyn ..." LOL x
Yes, of course, but not as often as books might want us to believe I guess. And if a writer chooses that kind of name for the character at least make it fit their personality. I beta read a novel recently where the characters were like 18 years old, it was some kind of young adult fantasy novel (contemporary) and all the characters had names that were common in the 70's when the author was born... I can let that pass for maybe one teenage character but for all of them?? Of course It's not my choice but I think the author is making it hard for herself to get the ms picked up by a publisher if the teens seem to belong to another decade... Your example of Brooklyn made me .
I totally agree with you. When I wrote the basic plan for my story, I chose the names Nick and Sasha for the mc's. That was in 1989. When I finally plucked up the courage to write the thing for real, the names just did not fit the characters or who they really are. Nick was not the name for an American Chief Asst. DA and Sasha was not the name for an Italian girl whose parents had moved to America from Italy some 15 years ago. What hasn't changed, is the name of the horse! Charlie.
I like a lot of uncommon names, but also just generally beautiful ones. I used to be on Behind the Name a lot, but haven't been there in a while and apparently neglected to add all the names I liked to my personal list. Let's see what nice ones I can recall right now... For female usage: Aeronwen - Celtic culture is great and this is a pretty name Avalon - for the Arthurian connotations Cleopatra - ancient Egypt is nice Delfina - reminiscent of dolphins Luna - evokes images of a beautiful moon in the night sky Marina - for the water theme Rain - I'm a pluviophile River - yeah, I really like water. BtN says this is a male name, but it sounds to me like it works better as a female one Roxy - very fun name Ruby - pretty, gem-themed name Sophia - just a beautiful name, really Storm - nature is awesome Wynter - a wonderful season in snowy regions, with a more unique spelling For male usage: Felix - it just sounds charming to me Finnegan - not sure why I like this one, but I do. May or may not have to do with Finnegans Wake. Sounds like an adventurous type (and not because of Adventure Time) Lancelot - this is just awesome. Arthurian connection, of course Percival - same for this one Yeah, I am not that good at finding male names...
