How many name changes did your MC go through before you decided on the final name? Were you happy with it in the end, or did you still feel the urge to change it after you've finished the story?
If I don't like the name or I don't feel the name suits the character I cannot write convincingly ... is that normal? so to answer your question, quite a few, depends on how I change my character, or rather how I see her clearly, and what is going on in other stories I am writing at the same time.
I don't think I've ever changed a character's name before. Major or minor ones. Like, not even once, which is kind of weird now that I think about it. I do however, change the names of fictional locations (stars and planets mostly) almost constantly. So I guess I'm confident in naming people but diffident in naming places? That makes no sense.
I almost never change names. I figure out the MC name before I start writing, and I mostly name side characters off the top of my head as they appear in the story. Works great.
My character has undergone 8 name changes in the past 4 years, the most recent one being 2 nights ago. I picked out a name before i started writing... but then that name changed to something else, and the other name changes to follow have been variations of that name. I can never find one that "fits"....
Many. This is why my WIP is currently populated with Gregs and Helens and Richards and Peters and Pauls and Lisas and Sallies. It's actually easier to just give them humdrum names and decide at the end. I'm not one of those who thinks a character's name is a crucial, space-time-ripping thing. It's just a name.
None. I have this habit of picking a name and it sticks. Sometimes I can change, say, a middle name, or something like that. But not often. Usually the name just comes to me. I only had that backfire once. I named a minor character on the fly ...and he didn't crop up again till many chapters later. I named him again, forgetting I'd already named him ...and the two names didn't match. I didn't catch that one till I was doing the edit! If somebody told me I HAD to change a character's name, I would find it really really hard to do. I've had a couple of real friends who have changed their names over the course of years—I don't mean they got married and adopted their husband's surname. I mean they completely changed their first names. And you know, I STILL stumble over those names. Once I get somebody's name fixed in my head, that's more or less it.
Usually none. The only exception, last year, I started a series and realized that the MC's name was close to the main character of a famous movie so I made a slight alteration. Otherwise, I pick the right name the first time.
For some odd reason my characters speak to me and it only takes a few chapters to realize that the name I picked, dosen’t fit them.
Some characters I hit on the exact name and that's who they are. And cause I've stored up so many baby name book options in my head coming up with a suitable name is fairly easy. Others however take some time. I also have a problem with guys names because of people from my past. I have to mentally cross off about 100 guy names, unfortunately classics, for if/when my books do take off there won't be some guy with a chip on his shoulder seeing himself in one of my characters. That's why I come up with guy names like Jute and Edgar. My first book I obsessed over the names and there were dozens of name changes from family members to the MC who went through about five name changes. My WIP I named the mc, a burnt out TV director/producer, Daniel, a name I really couldn't use it's on my untouchable list, so I changed his name to Javier Kavado. The young star in the book had his name from the beginning - Finlay - named after a golden boy in my grade school whom everyone loved (though that's not really my character). He was supposed to be nicknamed Fey after his TV role but that idea never panned out. I also did this weird interconnecting thing (subconsciously) - in which the f sound is repeated for everyone dear to Finlay I almost switched up the names seeing the pattern but decided I'd rather address it and work with it.
Only one name for all the characters I can remember writing. I give them a name last and it's never a name I would pick for them, as in just giving them a name I like. I look at the place and time period. But mostly I think about their parents. My Dad was into Music, the lea guitarist in a band. He liked The Hollies song Carrie-Anne for a long time. So that's what my eldest sister got called. My name came from a novel because my Mum had vivid memories of her father reading it to her as a little girl. Some people have family traditions and like to name their children after a relative in their memory. My cousin lost a daughter she named Rose. My cousins sister named her child Ella-rose out of respect. I think about what the parents would have named their child but other than that naming is the least interesting thing for me to add.
I used to do it in the past, but now once I create a name for a character, I leave it alone as if they were just born. After all, most people do not change their own names. The name itself should be the core identity of a character.
I seldom change a name. If I do, it's usually because I used a real person in an outline and changed the name halfway through. Sometimes I keep a bank of names, depending on how fantastical the story is, and occasionally one of those names makes it into the story. Often enough in those cases, the name creates a character. I have at least one fairly well fleshed out idea for a book about a character that only exists because of a name I came up with while working on another project. I'm one of those failed aspiring writers who constantly comes up with new stories and never finishes any of them, so things like character names are the least of my worries in the long run. They all feel perfect in my quarter finished books. In my opinion though, there's nothing wrong with changing a name several times. Don't stop until it sticks. When it's completely and finally right, you'll know.
I don't typically change main character names, but minor characters? Hot dang. The villain in the first and second book had a name I liked, but then I dated someone with the same name, so that made the scenes somewhat uncomfortable for me because the character was a bastard. I then went to the name Neil and I couldn't picture anyone named Neil being a villain, so I changed it to Noel. Again. Not really an evil name. Finally settled on Logan, and that's where we're at now. I do like it better than the original name I had picked out, too. Now that I think of it, he's the only character I've really struggled for a name. I've come up with some doozies over the years. I wrote a short story about a mob boss who had a guy named Bartleby Hornsnatcher who went by Snatch. Yeah, I realized the mistake on that one after I turned it in for a grade.
Not enough apparently. He's chinese and chinese names are a mystery to me. So confusing! Why can't they have just one name?
I have always had the problem that names just 'sound fake' to me. In one story, 4 of the 5 main characters got name changes(some both first and last names). Hell, I renamed one of the Empires For me, I have found if I give the name a meaning, or use a name associated with that meaning I end up happier with the naming. For example, one character(a nonhuman evil crazy mad scientist), I had originally named after a demon. I didn't like that, it was way to generic and boring. So, I started reading and researching Eastern European and Slavic folklore. After a little research, Appollyon became Landeythan(land waster) Slogutus(pain, misery and nightmares).
