Michelle Miles: It's All In A Name

Sometimes I have trouble coming up with surnames for my characters. Other times, they come to me out of the blue. Not sure how or why but I think it’s my subconscious at work. Like in my urban fantasy Dream Walker series, my heroine’s last name is Walker. It was something I did completely subconscious and then realized how fitting it was.

In other cases, I pick specific surnames to go with the heritage of the character. Or they might have a particular meaning I’m going for in relation to the character’s personality traits.

Other times I’m just completely stumped.

I’m working on a new paranormal romance. It’s about a witch who returns to her small East Texas town after a ten year absence only to learn she’s there for a reason bigger than anything she expected. I couldn’t think of a surname for her aunt who passes away in the opening so I did what I always do when that happens.

iGoogle. (Meaning I crack open the interwebs :) )

Did you know you can find a list of the most popular surnames in the US? The UK? The World? You can also find the meaning of a surname, the origin, the coat of arms. It’s really fascinating stuff. I suppose all that comes in handy for the genealogists of the world. But for a writer? It’s a gold mine.

Just in case you were wondering, the top ten surnames in the US are:
SmithJohnsonWilliamsJonesBrownDavisMillerWilsonMooreTaylorI usually steer clear of these common ones and try to find ones that are still familiar yet uncommon. For my current WIP, I’m using Wilder, Hunter, Hart and McAllister.

The funny thing is I found a GREAT website that ranked surnames. I can’t for the life of me remember how I searched for it and now I can’t find it again. That’s maddening. Especially when I KNOW it’s out there somewhere. Maybe I’ll figure out my search string—with Google it's all about how you search for things.

So there you have it. A little bit about how I find surnames for my characters. Don’t even get me started on first names for my characters. That’s a whole ‘nother blog post! ;)