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Lost for a name?
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Very cool, Mel!And that's a question I'm very interested in.
How do you authors choose names for your characters?
I often scour maps looking for names. There's a village in Leicestershire called Mavis Enderby - and she's appeared in more than one book I've read - and in Northants there's Weedon Lois. Turn it around and voila! Currently I have a military character in my WIP by the name of Everard Papworth, taken from Papworth Everard in Cambs.I also take part of a name from one place and team it with one from elsewhere.
It's good fun - and it's research, not procrastination. Honest!
Lol Lynda!That's so clever!
Sorta sounds like playing 'what's your porn star name'
I have to rely on listsof foreign language names for most of my characters (though surprisingly not the Russian spy pairing of Bendova and Rippemov). The rest are a mixture of first names and surnames from people I know, footballers, movie stars etc. Anything that sounds right.
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "Very cool, Mel!And that's a question I'm very interested in.
How do you authors choose names for your characters?"
Ummm... I nicked a few from this group for Foul Justice, remember? lol
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "Lol Lynda!That's so clever!
Sorta sounds like playing 'what's your porn star name'"
A popular Canadian game?
You don't know it?It's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on.
M.A. wrote: "Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "Very cool, Mel!And that's a question I'm very interested in.
How do you authors choose names for your characters?"
Ummm... I nicked a few from this group for Foul Justice..."
Yes. Personalities too. ;)
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "You don't know it?It's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on."
Golly, that makes me Scamp Greenwood. Still, it's better than some I could think up!
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "You don't know it?It's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on."
Dusty Jenkin :~?
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "M.A. wrote: "Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "Very cool, Mel!And that's a question I'm very interested in.
How do you authors choose names for your characters?"
Ummm... I nicked a few from this group for..."
That's true!
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "You don't know it?It's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on."
Never come across it.
Mind you, never lived in a street either
That makes my porn star name Sandy Lombard.
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "Hole in road?"No a farm
Ben Unclassified Road isn't a name that trips off your tongue ;-)
Maybe Simone Laurance would be better for me.
Mine could have been worse...it could have been Sandy St. Mary Axe, but I was only there for a few years of childhood.
Lassie Chard. Fortunately I'm well past my Porn Star years!
Amazing how quickly this became about porn names...
It's that Patti again..lol.
I write historical fiction, so for my novel I thought of the title (based on the idea of the story) and then created the name of the main character to fit the title. The reader will pick the connection. I also checked the most popular Christian names in the late 1700’s (my novel is set in 1805) and then I used surnames from the newspapers of the time, in the hope that the overall image created a time warp for the reader. I did make one named character up, Paris Aristotle, for a slightly effeminate male in his movements and speech, but who isn't effeminate at all.The book has since been picked up for publication by a UK publisher, who has now changed the title and the cover! So all of my ‘subtly’ of book title and main character was wasted :-o)
Geoff (Scouse) wrote: "The book has since been picked up for publication by a UK publisher, who has now changed the title and the cover! So all of my ‘subtly’ of book title and main character was wasted :-o) ..."No, it just means you can use them again:-)
Vanessa wrote: "Mine could have been worse...it could have been Sandy St. Mary Axe, but I was only there for a few years of childhood."Vanessa wrote: "That makes my porn star name Sandy Lombard."
One is for soft porn the other dominatrix
I'm glad I didn't live in Pudding Lane, Poultry or Cheapside!
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "You don't know it?It's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on."
Hmm... Oscar Kenilworth, not very feminine
I put names together from 'friends of friends' on Facebook. I generally take a first name from one friend's list and a surname from another friend. If nothing else, it's a good excuse to go nosing through your extended network.And as I've got a mix of ages and nationalities on my contact list, it means I can find the right kind of name for my character's generation / background.
Andrew wrote: "I put names together from 'friends of friends' on Facebook. I generally take a first name from one friend's list and a surname from another friend. If nothing else, it's a good excuse to go nosing ..."Hahaha! I do the same thing when I'm stuck for a name!
It works, doesn't it?! I sometimes use the same method for random photos of people on whom I can base character descriptions and stuff - though I NEVER tell the people involved in that case, they might not be flattered ;)
Physically my characters tend to be mixtures and blends of tv & film characters, at least in my notes anyhow (one character is described as Jessica Rabbit mixed with Judge Dredd... another as Stacey from the Almighty Johnsons with a Lisa Simpson hairdo...)I find the Radio Times is quite a good source for character names :)
My porn name would be Misty Laurel!Better than harasrrek which is my maiden name backwards and the one I use for most of my online shenanagins!
Gosh I remember doing that at school. I was Adnyl Noslen - not a name to conjure with, methinks.
Ylilregnig? How would you say that??
Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "Ylilregnig? How would you say that??"Painfully
Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "Ylilregnig? How would you say that??"Painfully"
but with feeling
I think I'll stick t the right way round.
For Broken City I looked through the baby names sites on google, there are tons of them and they come with meanings too which is fun.The Promise is a Saxon romance so I looked up Saxon names. However I did give the heroine the name Adele, purely because I thought it suited her better than any other I could find, even though it isn't a Saxon name. But Rand, Finan, Leofric, Daegmund, Anlaf, Brogan, Ramm, Bron, Benwick, Eda, Aisly, Esme, Ardith and Ebba are all real Saxon names. Rafe is an old Norse name.
For Fracture I wanted to have unusual names signifying the futuristic setting. For the Tula I made names up mostly, and for the Una I used Asian and Indian names to show the heavy influence the two cultures had on the Una nation, or I corrupted 'normal' every day names.
The internet has loads! I once ended up on a site with Mormon names from Utah or something. Can't remember if I bookmarked it, some of them where hilarious!
I know, as a prolific writer, how difficult it can be to choose different names.
http://www.behindthename.com/names/us...