What's in a name?

My Grade 5/6's had a visit from Jacqualine Harvey today to spruik her new book "Alice-Miranda in Paris". Now, I can't say that I have read any of her books, however I might give them a try, just to see what a few of the girls in my classroom are so excited about.

The thing that I enjoy about the author visits that I set up through Book Bonding (Niddrie, VIC Australia) is to hear how they organise their writing and then what they do to create their masterpieces.

Jacqualine Harvey explained that she was big into names when she creates her stories and she is also on the lookout for settings to place within her books; which I found interesting because that's pretty much how I work.

Names are something that I spend a lot of time on, because once I have a name, I can flesh out a character a whole lot more than just saying "The character is this big, has glasses and talks a lot." Before I start any story, I need a strong character and with that usually comes a name. I believe a name will either make or break a book... if the story hasn't already done that.

While writing 'Jack Majors: Superhero', I had an idea of what I wanted the character of Jack to be, but it wasn't until I had the name that I realised just who Jack would be and how he would evolve. A character's name needs to tell us about who the character is... or who the character is not.

Some examples that I have had students point out from the Jack Majors book are:

Ms Judy Hardcourt - a PE teacher with a take-no-prisoners attitude. My students pointed out that with her personality, the 'court' part of her name could mean 'basketball court' or 'judicial court' (not their exact words).

Mr Robert A Clash - the school's principal; so you'd think he needs to sound important, as well as have a significant presence. I thought, give him a name that makes him sound tough, but in actual fact, make him a push over.

The Chisels (Donnie and Danny) - I thought this was a good name to show how they chip away at Jack and his family (just as a chisel does to stone).

Most of my stories include names which tell you a lot about the character, whether it is obvious or not. On many occasions, my fiancee, Margaret, has asked why I have my head stuck in the Baby Names book and I'll explain to her the kind of character I'm writing and the names and their meanings, just to get one to suit.

That is one of the things I enjoy about meeting new characters when I read books. Do their names suit who they are? It's also interesting, as a teacher, to see the similarities between students with the same name - but I won't go into that.

I want to end this post by saying a big thank you to Jacqualine Harvey for sharing her stories with us and to Natasha of Book Bonding who organised the visit. We're looking forward to Samantha-Ellen Bound's visit on Wednesday to promote her book "What The Raven Saw".