Teenage characters in what era? The problem with trying to just give names is that everybody has different tastes, and it depends on if you want trendy or offbeat or names they'd be made fun of or what. The teenage characters I've had are: Abigail (Abi) Ruben (Roo) Louise (Lou) Alice Jarvis And that's five, which comes in mighty handy.
In the sixties, eh? How about some more...out there names? Something like...A girl named Anna who goes by Annastasia (but pronounces it "Ah-nah-STAH-shee-ya")...or some more "child of the fifties" names, like Becky or Abby or Linda or Mary Sue? If you're going for super realism, consider looking up the most popular baby names from the years the characters were born. In 1952, the top five girls were Linda (Lindy), Mary, Patricia (Pat, or Patty), Deborah (Debbie), and Susan (Susie). The top five boys of the same year were James, Robert (Bob), John, Michael, and David.
Ack, my name is "Out there"? "Child of the fifties"? My usual way to choose names is to flip through the index of the nearest textbook or the local phonebook. Mix-and-match names. Pick names that suit your characters, but not cliché. And I'd suggest not using excrutiatingly common names. A month from reading your book, nobody'll remember a name like "Mary".
ok, in the 60's. We have Kevin and Lisa. How about Trever, Todd, Alice, Jill, Dean, Jamie, Carol, anything really. Just pick 5 random names
Yes, they really did. Some celebrity examples: Moon Unit Zappa Dweezil Zappa China Wing Kantner (Grace Slick's daughter - at first they were going to name her God) River Phoenix Chastity Bono
A guy I know from those days is called Teeake and his sister is called Mayarna. I like those names myself. They are relatives of friends of mine.
omg the poor kids. What ever happened to normal names that are in a childrens book of names rather than making what you name you children be a fashion. Like Katie Price calling her daughter Princess Tianie or something.
I thought of those too, but I didn't suggest them because grown ups in the 60s were NAMING their kids that, not grown ups in the fifties when these teenagers would have been born. If it were set in the seventies, however... Edit: Cog, you forgot two of the best: Prince Michael the First and Prince Michael the Second, but to differentiate the two, we'll call the baby Blanket. ...wat?
I never heard of those two. Yikes! For names more typical of 50's naming, there are Spike, Jack (or Jackie), Buddy, Eddie, Chuck, Bill, Bob, Tony, Dean, Patty, Donna, Liz, Sissy. Many are taken from popular celebrities, and nicknames became more prominent in the 40's and 50's
Choosing names for your characters should be a more personal thing than going an internet forum and saying "Hey guys, throw out five names for some characters I'm thinking of! kthxbai!" Don't you think so? These characters are creations from your soul, or at least they should be if they are good, believable characters. I say this should be personal because nothing is more personal than a name. It should say or reveal something about the character.
I would suggest going to the Social Security Administration's Baby Name Website, which has a list of popular names by decade. From there, you can choose your characters' names for either males or females based on their popularity at the time. http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ To find it, scroll down to the bottom of the page. It is titled: Top 1000 names by decade. Hope this helps. ~Natalie
That's one of my hardest problems. When you are first thinking of a character It's hard to develop them without a name, but it's hard to pick out a meaningful name until after they are developed and actually have a personality that you could base it off of. I imagine it's a lot like naming a baby.
