13 April 2015

Killing the Name

**My theme for this year’s A to Z Challenge is THE NAME GAME. Everything you’d want to know about naming characters.**

Sometimes a character’s name comes to you right away. Other times you have to research it, go through countless lists of names before you find the right one. No matter what works for you, at some point you will choose a name for your character and you’ll start writing. Sometimes, though, you may discover that the name you chose is no longer working, and you have to change it. This can be devastating, but if you feel it’s necessary, it may be the only choice to make.

There are plenty of reasons why a name won’t work for a particular character. If the names of all of your characters have too many similarities (same number of syllables, starting with the same letter), it may be smart to mix this up a bit (I’ll have a whole other post on this subject for the letter V). Maybe the name is too similar to someone you know or someone famous. Or maybe the name just doesn’t feel right. Every time you write it, it just feels off. It doesn’t fit the way you picture this particular character.

There’s also other people’s perspective on the name to consider. If you have one person read your work and they don’t like a name, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to change it, unless they give you a good reason. If everyone you have read it hates the name, and their reasoning makes sense to you, then you probably should take it into consideration. Ultimately, though, the choice to kill a name is totally up to you. If you love a name and think it’s working, then stick with it.

WHAT I’VE DONE: I actually need to rename a character who is in my sequel ideas for Uneven Lines. The drummer in Jordan’s band so far has been named Joe, but I thought having two characters’ names start with the same two letters wasn’t going to work (and I certainly wasn’t going to rename Jordan!). I’ll probably pick another one syllable name, since the other two guys in the band also have two syllables in their names (Eric and Adam).  

It can be difficult to change a character’s name when you’ve already grown accustomed to it. A secondary character may not cause you as much grief as a main one, but there is still a process to work through. You’ll have to consider everything about this character’s identity. Why wasn’t the name working? What sort of name will work? Will the new name go well with the other characters’ names? It may take a while to find that one perfect name, but it’s out there and you can find it.  


It’s kind of like ripping off a Band-Aid. Once you know you have to change the name, try to figure out the replacement as soon as possible. You don’t want to dwell on the decision or you may second guess it. Also, be sure any mentions of the original name are replaced with the new one. Do a search in your documents to find and replace them. You don’t want your character’s old name haunting your story like a ghost!

Have you ever had to change a character’s name? Why did it need to change? 

15 comments:

  1. Thankfully, I've only ever had to rename a character in the very early stages of projects. Great post! Have an awesome week.

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  2. I had an old name haunting one of my stories once and almost totally missed it. The document search is definitely your friend LOL.
    Always great to see Buffy regardless of the context. :D

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  3. Fortunately I've not had to change one, even though I had two main characters in my first book with names both starting with B. I learned after that to really mix up the letters.

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  4. I've renamed a couple of characters. especially when I was rewriting my one book. I've always changed the spelling of several characters' names.

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  5. I changed a character's name because it was hard to pronounce. Many Japanese names are pretty tough, but I originally picked a toughie. So I had to change it, and it was a HUGE pain. Mental blcok lasted months

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  6. In the early drafts of my first novel, every main character's first name started with J. I had to change many of them. More recently, I named a baby boy Carl and my critique group squawked. Too old fashioned! However, I needed the name to be close to the word "car" in order for a plot-necessary misunderstanding to take place. So I stuck with Carl and mention early on that he was named for his grandfather. And hey, there's a young Carl in The Walking Dead!

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  7. I have one ms that has had several lives, and one problem has been keeping the names consistent. I still find an old one for a character once in a while. My crit group is going crazy with this one. :-)

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  8. I've renamed characters, quite often half way through a book I change my mind. I randomly pick a name at the start, then as the character develops, the right name becomes more apparent to me.

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  9. I've never changed a main character's name, but there was a minor character in Snapshots I had to change. The last name I gave her wasn't someone of her ethnicity would have, so I had to find a name that did.

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  10. Find and replace is a good option when replacing a character's name - but I nearly forgot to replace all the possessives in my first book. It was a tough replacement, but needed.

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  11. I am horrible at creating names and titles for myself. But once I stick with a name, I never seem to change it.

    ~~DJ

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  12. Be careful with find and replace. I once had a sun "kimberly" over the horizon after changing a character named Dawn into a character named Kimberly :-)

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  13. It might be okay to have two characters' names start with the same letter, as long as they don't sound too similar, like Tom and Tim or something like that. I have read other stories where I disliked the main character's name; I like reading chick lit, and for some reason the main characters often have unusual names that I don't really like very much, which can be kind of distracting.

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  14. The Case of the Revenge of the Changed Name. lol

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  15. No Joe?
    Well, if you have Jordan, Eric and Adam you're gonna need something funky for the fourth guy. Like he goes by his last name or by a nickname.
    Maybe they call him 'Sticks' or 'Crash'.

    Ignore me. I'm punchy.
    I have had to change names. It's important they sound right in our heads.

    Heather

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