I was thinking about how I come up with names the other day when a friend asked me what process I use. I had never thought about it formally, but I’m going to attempt to discuss how I do it.
I’ve never had much trouble coming up with names for characters. That could be because I’m creative, or it could be because I’m stubborn and once I come up with a name I don’t want to change it. I’ve always been an old movie fan and I like to read, so many of my character names come from those sources. I’ve worked with many people throughout the years so I also use some of those names. Lately people have asked me to use their names in a book so I do that too.
I research names when I need to. For the trolls in my Magical Recipes Series books, I did some research into Norse folklore for some of their names. In the case of Fernhuldra I used the name Huldra and added Fern to the beginning to soften it a bit because she has ferns growing from her.
In my Magical Recipes books I have a character named Lillian. Originally Lillian started out as a much older character in my head. In the beginning phase of writing the book I asked my daughter Pip to draw what she imagined Lillian to look like, because at the time she was the right age for my target market. Pip drew a much younger version than I had imagined.
By the time people began telling me to change her name to something that sounded younger my stubborn streak kicked in. I was used to her with that name and I didn’t want to change it. I decided to say she was named after an older relative and when people met her they were surprised she wasn’t older. In this case it probably would have been easier to change her name, but I didn’t want to. (Again, I can be very stubborn about things. Just ask my family.)
My point behind all this: don’t expend a lot of time and energy worrying about names. Don’t let it stop you from writing while you decide. It’s easy to change a name if you want to. I read somewhere that Scarlett O’Hara was originally named Pansy. Can you imagine? Trust that in the process you’ll find the right names for your characters.
It’s easy to find excuses not to write so don’t let this be one.
Writing is one decision after the next, so don’t beat yourself up over everything having to be perfect.
Thanks for reading!
Ted