“How did you come up with that name?”

So my friends, what’s in a name?

It’s an interesting question to which I haven’t paid much attention until recently.  Ever since I launched the print of Cybrosis, I’ve been asked “how did you come up with her (Ciris’) name?”  This comes mostly from co-workers at my new day job who are still getting to know me and how I operate (Be afraid… be very afraid), and the first few times I fielded that question, it took me a while to recall just how exactly I did come up with Ciris’ name.

Naming characters is a weird thing for me and as I’ve gotten more and more involved in the writing community I run in, I’ve discovered a lot of different perspectives on naming characters.  A couple of authors I know name their secondary characters, or their spaceships after their friends and colleagues.  Some dig into historical and cultural significance and attempt to find names that align as closely with the character as possible, to the point that when, at re-writes, a character’s role in the story  (or their position within an organization in the book) changes, so too must their name to draw enough distinction between the first character sketch, and the new character sketch that instead of just changing a character, a new one has been created and swapped out for the old.  Then on the flip side there are the more carnal approaches to naming a character.  I can go on for a while with all of the crazy, names that have been used to name the women in the older James Bond movies.  But I wont.  If you’re interested Look up “Bond Girl” on wikipedia.

Consumers too often find meaning in the choices of names used by writers and creators.  Back in the months running up to the release of Serenity in movie theaters, a Firefly fan podcast I was listening to at the time ran a very well researched and well thought out essay on the nature of the names of every single main (and some secondary) characters featured in the show.  From Malcom, to Book, to River, to Inara, they found a well reasoned logical argument for the use of every name in the series.

I wish I could say I was that smart or that clever.  But… I’m not.

For me names are either very easy to come up with… or they are very difficult and in most cases they are the latter. Some characters, like Ciris, give me their name right off the bat, either because of who they are, or what they have. In Ciris’ case, it was her Cybernetic Eyes. That turned into Cybernetic Iris which turned into Cyris which turned into Ciris.

But with others, like Cody Amado, someone you’ll meet in an upcoming Novel, it was a bit harder. It’s a bit harder for the majority of the characters I write and for those situations, I have a few resources. I’m not going to name drop or link spam this post, not because I’m a jerk. But rather because the resources I use are very easily found with a simple google of “Name Generator” or “Random Name Generator.” You’ll find a lot of them. I had one, which is unfortunately defunct that I loved. It used data from the Census and provided lists. From there I’d pick and chose. One first name, one last name and then I’d pair them and tweak a little and viola!

So if names don’t speak to me, that’s how I come up with them. Sometimes, I’ll dig deeper into a name that has a specific meaning, but mostly, I’m looking for names that are unique or have a rhythm to them. I’m not sure how many of you out there want to read a story featuring John and Jane as the main characters.  This is not to say I won’t use those names.  But if I do, you can be damn sure their last names won’t be Smith.

Until next time!