last names

How often do you give your characters last names? I don't think I have ever given a character a last name, and I'm wondering if that is or could become problematic. Or maybe it doesn't matter all that much. Does it?

Do you give your characters last names? If so why? Or why not? What makes a character get a last name in your book?

 

I give them last names just for the sake of it. Gives the character a more "real" feeling. Sukie Ainsworth sounds a lot stronger than simply Sukie. Not that I always use her last name. I think I mentioned it once or twice.

Most of the time, it isn't necessary, for me at least. Its just another "nice brush". Simply a background detail.

 

Depends on what I am writing. Fantasy fiction yes if particular cultures practice it as a family thing...but some of my cultures doesn't and has first names only, based on an African civilization.

When I do short stories, mostly its no. I don't need to use my childhood buddy Tim's last name, or if I do it is such a passing reference that its negligible, something like talking to Tim's dad and my character says "Mr. Johnson" or something.

 

I come up with last names for all main characters anyway, whether I present them in the story or not. I agree with Porch Swing 102 that sometimes a first-and-last name combo has more impact than just a first name and some people call each other by their last names (mostly the tough guys). I just came up with a character named Steve "Ziggy" Bigelow, known to only the bravest souls as Biggie or Piggy. Nobody calls him Steve.

I would probably mention the last name of each main character at least once, and then not much after that unless I have a good reason. I guess I feel like—if you know somebody's first name but not their last, then you don't know them very well. And I want my readers to come away feeling like they know my characters quite well.

 

Why did you have to do this in the middle of the night man? I'm in a house with two people and I nearly woke them up. I'm very bad with holding back the giggles. Also are we starting a trend out of my name? Smh!

But yes, I also give last names whether I mention them or not. Feels weird not to.

 

Nah, just a holdover from the Rap Battle thread. Promise I won't keep doing it. Too much.

Wake the other peeps up and tell them I'm sorry.

 

The characters in my short stories dont get last names. Its irrelevant and there often arent enough characters to warrant last names.
I have 1 short where the characters dont even have names. Its just the narrator and her grandmother.
I have 1 story that has a single character where the narrator gives her full name... But thats because the character is a child and its from her POV. So using the characters last name is a show of respect.

In my novel WIPS, my characters have last names, or a clan/family names

 

In my current WiP I have no choice but to give my characters last names as it's about the military. Okay, it's 2,500 years in the future, but it still follows traditional military protocols. An ensign would not call Admiral Maxwell Redstone "Max;" she would have to call him Admiral Redstone. I've been having fun with the names for some of the characters. I'll find a word in another language that is the characters function, which is how a lot of people got their names - fletcher, cooper, miller, smith, carpenter, etc. As an example, Nikar Dipercaya is a communications specialist. I got "Nikar" from the Portuguese "Communikar" - to communicate, and Dipercaya is an Indonesian word for trusted. So, he's the trusted communicator. I'll also mis-spell things or mash-up words from several languages.

 

I would think twice about not naming characters at all in your short stories. I have two different stories that I thought were both great. In one I didn't name the MC because sometimes I can find it hard to slip that in when writing in first person. The other short story had two characters that I thought I was leaving nameless to make a point like they could be anyone. Both stories saw their share of rejections. Then I received a personal rejection that said my main character needed a name. I figured I should give it a try. The next place I sent it to (which was a much bigger publication than the place that told me to name my MC) bought it.

Similarly, it was my mentor that told be the two side characters in my other story needed names. I gave a little push back, explains that had been deliberate. He said again they needed names. I gave them names, and then that story sold too.

I don't think I have ever used a last name in any of my fiction, but when I read stories or books where characters are given last names, it makes me wonder if should be doing this too.

 

Last names in novels, yes. Short stories, usually no. Sometimes short story characters haves no name at all, which works well under the right circumstances. In the three winning stories I submitted to the state arts council contest earlier this year, only one character had a name and it wasn't mentioned until the end of the story.

 

I didnt have this issue.
The story was picked up and published fairly quick.
Oddly enough, the story was ABOUT names. The Narrators grandmother is feeding pigeons and tells the Narrator to name them because everything needs a name. So she names the pigeons after her favorite ice cream. And that's how it ends.

But the story worked just fine without the Narrator or the grandma having a names

 

In my main universe's human civilization, it is common not to have a surname. Surnames are found more among nobility/corporate heirs/other upper class citizens. Commoners may take a second name if they want, they usually do so if that name was important for them. For example: A daugther named Jessima may take her father's name as a second name upon his death or a great deed. The daughter might end up being called Jessima Hertice.

Some families keep their family name through generations though.

 

I have never given a character a last name in a novel, but I do pretty much give first name all of my characters in short fiction. I have never sold any fiction with a nameless character. I'm not saying other stories and writers haven't pulled that off, but (in my writing) if a character is nameless, I've learned the story seems to be a much harder sell.

 

I guess I'm just trying to figure out when and if using a last name could be a good thing. I don't think it is a bad thing. Wondering a little if I should work something like that in or if sticking with first names is enough in my novels and stories. I do tend to write very populated stories. So if everyone has a first and last name, that could be a lot of names. Not saying it can't or shouldn't happen, but I do feel like it could be sort of hard for me to pull off.

Also, wondering what people think the real benefit of having nameless characters is. In the past I thought there was a potential benefit to this. I could have listed of some reasons, but I guess I've changed my way of thinking, and the old reasons I had just don't hold up for me anymore. I sort of thinking giving a character a name makes them seem more real or humans. Think about it this way, no one is going to tell you to drop a characters name and have them go nameless, but giving a character a name is something I think a lot of writers could hear. Taking on this practice for me proved to be quite beneficial for me.

 

Working in fantasy makes this easy. If a last name is needed, I generally go with their home town, village. Or a family profession, much as many surnames have their origin in the real world.

 

You've benefitted from naming characters. Others do well with nameless characters. One practice doesn't fit all writing. I might very well suggest a student try dropping a character's name to see how that device changes the mood of the story.

Not naming characters can add an aura of eavesdropping, of watching unknown people without them knowing they have an audience. Sometimes that is exactly the effect I want. Other times I want readers to feel like they are on intimate terms with a character. I name those characters. I'm more likely to not name characters in literary short stories than I am in other forms, but that's not to say all my literary stories have nameless characters.

 

Yeah, always full name. Whether I use it in the book is a different matter, though. I can't start writing a character if they don't have at least a first name, but a full name is preferred. At some point in the story somebody might not be sure who the police chief's daughter is and refer to her as "the Watson girl". And most definitely the bad guy is going to be calling the MC by his last name.

That's two leads. But the background characters too. The window washer at the law firm that was in only one chapter of the first book is called Jonesy by one of the lawyers because he doesn't want call her Christa and risk sounding like he has a little crush on her.
A last name is gonna come in handy at some point, is what I'm saying. You don't wanna be stuck trying to think of one in the middle of a sentence. Have it ready to go, just in case.

 

The first-and-last name combo also works well for very peripheral characters who only get mentioned in passing. Sort of like (for instance) kids you knew of in school and knew little about besides their name and one or two facts or stories about them. Like say Johnny Buchenwald (pronounced bookenwald, and maybe you and your friends never knew how it was actually spelled). Maybe you all had a running joke about his name because it's like the name of a book store at the mall (Waldenbooks), but this kid wouldn't crack a book unless his life depended on it. Little anecdotes like this add flavor and zest to a story (just like they do to life), and often are the things a reader will come away remembering.

Wow @Bakkerbaard —I was writing mine even as yours popped up. Strange how similar they are.

 

That makes it even better! Definitely a memorable part of a story. And here I was just thinking of a writer named Art Buchwald, but only older people who are pretty literate would know who he is. Or maybe some kids at school call him Buck Wild and always start talking about that one time when he______ (fill in blank).

I guess one of the great things about using last names is it allows you to feature gossip, and that grounds a story and makes it feel more real-world. You could use gossip without last names, but to me it seems like last names are necessary to single out which Johnny you're talking about, because every school has dozens. You wouldn't want to confuse Johnny Buck Wild with John Hammecher or Jonathan Dingledorf, and in fact it's probably the main point behind having little stories associated with people's last names (for writers anyway, and just to help remember who's who). You know—"Wait, which John are you talking about?" Gossip is one of those things that really fleshes out and informs the story world.

 

Damn, glad I didn't actually use the name Buchenwald in a story. I had completely forgotten it was the name of a concentration camp.

 

I've done a couple of shorts with first names only, and one with a last name only. One of my picture books has a nameless MC. The other has an MC named Suzie Q. Crudnose Elmira McVee. It's a silly book.

My novels are full of surnames though. I use them for verisimilitude mostly. Even if I only mention the last name when the character is first introduced, I feel it makes them more real. This is less true when you use names like Anastasia Steele, but if you keep it semi-realistic to the setting and genre, I think it adds just a bit to character.

It also just comes up sometimes. There are situation when a last name is needed. In my WIP, Curios, one of my MC's, David Burleson is a deputy. While at least one character calls him Deputy David, it does come up organically that to some he's David, and to some he's Deputy Burleson. Another character, Jo Culver is a teen who lives with her parents, and I refer to the her family as the Culvers several times.

Full names are often more memorable anyway. They can help keep a larger cast straight. Someone reading my book might forget, as much as I jump around, which one is Betsy but have an easier time remembering Betsy Birdwell.

 

I give all my characters last [and middle] names even if I don't have to, mostly so I can work in some clues to their personality/role in the story

I also do it with my cat characters, though they do not have last names [one of the best examples I can think of is a guy named Shiningsight who's a living lie detector]

 

It depends on the setting. If I would write in a present day setting then going without a last name would feel very odd for a character, even if that last name would seldom be used in the story.

If I'm going with a more historical setting like Medieval or Antiquity then I would think that a personal name along with a further identification like a patronym, a matronym, a "of X" (X=character place of origins) or some byname or nickname that the character has been given feels more connected to the setting.

One thing I have noticed however with keeping names straight is to mix between uncommon and common names. A character called "John Smith" has a very forgetable name in my opinion while "Zakaria Solomon" stands out as, well, weird or with a name that's really unbelievable for a person to have.

A better altenative is to name the two characters, again in my opinion, "John Solomon" and "Zakaria Smith". One common and one uncommon element to their full name. I think both of these should be fairly easy to remember, to recognize in the text and to not seem like an obvious literary creation but fit with a world like our own.