Naming Your Characters

NAMING CHARACTERS is a skill set worth developing – AND it’s a lot of fun!  Have a nemesis from high school? Kill them off in the first chapter. Unrequited 1st grade crush? Give the love interest of your main character his name. And just think of the fun you can have with your ex!

When I sat down to write SHATTERED, the only name I had was Logan. It’s a strong name and fit the character I wanted to write about – not a super hero, but someone who takes on and overcomes the boulders thrown in her path.

Logan’s usually a guy’s name, but I liked it for a woman. I knew she was going to be Irish or Scottish American with a little Native American thrown in, because of the backstory of her dad’s grandmother in Appalachia.

For her surname, I researched Appalachia in the approximate time period her great grandmother would have lived there, and decided McKenna was a good surname. It’s historically accurate and sounds good with Logan.

Now for the rest of your cast and crew. If every character were of average height and build, named Jim, Jenni and Joe, your readers could never keep them straight. Select randomly from the alphabet, google popular first names from the year they were born, go through the phone listings in their area. Whatever you do, don’t be boring.

One of my favorite characters in SHATTERED is Iona Slatterly. I wanted her to stand out, so gave her an unusual first name. Iona is also a bit of a slut, but one with a good heart, so her last name suggests this proclivity. We meet Iona as Logan is walking into the Otter Art Festival, where she and her brother had worked as kids, to help out some friends at their booth.She sees her as she approaches the vendor’s line at the back gate.  Iona hasn’t changed…

Everybody had to check in.  Iona Slatterly saw to that. 

Listening to Iona bark instructions, it was as if she’d never been gone. Stuffed into pink jeans, Iona perched on her tall stool next to a rickety folding table covered with parking stickers and badges, managing a growing line.

“Sticker.  Badge…   Sticker.  Badge.”

She looked up, “Logan McKenna! Welcome back. Sorry to hear about Jack. It couldn’t have been easy, losing him so soon after we lost your dad.  I miss your dad.  He was a good man.” 

Logan noticed she didn’t say the same about Jack.

Unfazed by Iona’s directness, Logan thanked her, took the items handed to her and signed in.  Iona had been a fixture at the festival as far back as anyone could remember.

Where did one find pink jeans anyway? Probably the girls’ department at Sears.  A crisp, sleeveless white blouse with western piping tucked in, and cinched with a white, rhinestone-studded belt. The woman couldn’t weigh as much as some of her 7^th graders, Logan thought. Bleach-blonde hair, ratted into an immobile French twist with two perfect ringlets on each side, was sprayed to withstand any and all of Iona’s activities; which, if rumor were correct, were prodigious.

A solid roll of bangs sat atop starkly penciled brows.  Today’s lipstick was “Neon Geranium”.  #2 pencil tucked behind her ear, Iona’s compact body was concentrating on the list she was checking off on her clipboard.  A Marlboro Light burned on the edge of a Pepsi can near her left hand.

After Logan accepted her badge and parking sticker, she returned to hang the first on her car’s mirror, then, obediently pinning on her identification badge that said “Fair Personnel”, she docilely entered the fair again under Iona’s watchful eye and continued instructions.

“Employee entrance closes at 9 AM sharp!  After that you have to use the front gate, and you’ll be charged admission without your badge!  We lock up tighter than a drum at 11 PM, people.  Don’t forget, or you’ll find yourself spending the night curled up in your booth…It’s happened before! ”Look alive there Sonny…here, let me do that…”

In the second Logan book, the one I’m working on now, I’m researching Vietnamese names for some of the characters. When you write about an ethnic group, you want readers from that group to at least recognize their culture. With enough research, writers can be fairly accurate, even if they are not from that ethnic group, gender, religion or geographical location.

I do my best. I also want to inform readers, as well as entertain. When I read a novel, half of what I enjoy about it, beyond the development of the characters, is learning about the culture, occupation or location, whether it’s Vietnamese refugees, glassblowing, or a National Park in one of Nevada Barr’s books.

So, have fun naming your characters – I do.