**My theme for this year’s
A to Z Challenge is THE NAME GAME. Everything you’d want to know about naming
characters.**
There are plenty of
things to consider when choosing a name for your character. You could think
about culture and ethnicity, how popular a name is, or just how it sounds. If
you want the name you choose to hold a little bit more significance, one thing
you can do is find a name with a particular meaning. You can choose a name
whose meaning reflects who your character is or even his place within the story.
Name meanings are almost
as diverse as the names themselves, so there are many different possibilities for
choosing a name’s meaning. You can pick a name that means light, dark, power,
strength, hero, warrior, beautiful, friend, or lucky. Some names have meanings
related to animals, like wolf, lion, or even dragon. Other name meanings are
related to nature, like river, fire, sky, or moon.
The name could reflect
a character trait, or the character’s actual role within the story. Maybe the
name represents something that your character already possesses, or something
that they will achieve over the course of the story. All of your characters
could have meaningful names if you wanted them to. Your main character’s name
could mean hero, while his sidekick’s name means friend, and the love interest’s
name means love. This may be a bit obvious, but it’s just one way to look at
how you can utilize a name’s meaning.
Of course, you don’t have to choose a name with a significant
meaning, but it kind of goes along with the idea of putting symbolism in your
book. You don’t have to do that,
either. But if you do, it’s just an added bonus, something the reader may or
may not pick up on. Pointing out a name’s meaning will probably feel silly
within the story, so the only way a reader will figure it out is by looking it
up. Most readers aren’t likely to do so, but those who make the effort will get
a very awesome surprise.
Have you ever chosen a character name by meaning? What does your name
mean? (Mine is princess!)
I don't do much with symbolism, so I've not chosen one with meaning.
ReplyDeleteMine means defender of men.
I love choosing names based on meaning. It's like a little extra definition to the character.
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee's Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
A couple of times I looked up the meanings of my characters after I named them.
ReplyDeleteI know my real name means the "anointed one" And Fey means "magic." :)
I've chosen names for characters based on their meaning. It adds another dimension to the characters.
ReplyDeleteMy latest post for the Blogging A to Z Challenge.
Tamara means palm tree. Does that explain why I'm nuts? I haven't researched the meaning of my characters names before.
ReplyDeleteI haven't ever used a name because of the meaning but I love learning the meaning of names. Julie means youthful and vivacious which makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI've chosen a few that mean simple things for my story, but none too deep.
ReplyDeleteI've always been interested in names - they are so important in real life and in novels. that said - one thing that does bug me are when a novel has every character sporting a zany, or unusual name - that just doesn't happen in real life. Ditto flagging the hero and heroine with 'modern' names - it doesn't work. Particularly if they are 26 and 24 - and the names are ones just coming into fashion because of a celebrity or similar reason. ~Liz My website is at : http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com The one blogger takes you to is not in use.
ReplyDeleteI mostly check to make sure the name doesn't mean something negative for a cool character.
ReplyDeleteBut, I do like to find out origins.
Heather