**My theme for this
year’s A to Z Challenge is THE NAME GAME. Everything you’d want to know about
naming characters.**
Chances are your book
will have more than one character, and most of those characters will need their
own names. Each name should work for each individual character, but you should
also think about how all of your characters’ names work together. If you have
characters who are constantly interacting, then their names should probably
have some variety.
There are plenty of
different relationships that could happen between different characters. You
could have family, friends, couples, or just acquaintances. The closer two
characters are, the more often they will be likely to interact throughout the
course of your story. So their names will be on the same page. A lot. And if
those names are too similar, it might confuse the reader.
There are plenty of
ways to mix up the names in your cast of characters. Just having a variety of
names with different syllables could help. A mixture of short and long names would
feel realistic. Maybe some characters go by their first name, others have a nickname
or prefer their last name to be used. Have a mixture of unique and common
names. If every character has a long, extravagant name that no one’s ever heard
of, the reader may get annoyed with reading these names. You also probably don’t
want to have every character’s name start with the same letter (unless, say, it’s
a theme within a family and they are the only characters).
It sounds pretty easy,
right? There are, however, plenty of naming techniques to avoid. You wouldn’t
want your characters’ names to rhyme, for example. Let’s say your two main
characters are Matt and Pat and they own a cat and work in a hat shop. Ok, I
kind of took it to the next level there, but it sounds silly, right?
Couples can also be
tricky to name. You don’t want their names to be too similar, like Adrian and
Adrienne, or even Michael and Michele. Or (and this should probably go without
saying), giving them the same unisex name. It may seem cute at first, but the
reader could have a hard time keeping track of which character is doing what.
Which would make for very interesting sex scenes, but is something that’s just
too confusing to pull off.
How do you maintain variety with your characters’ names? How do you
come up with names for your couples?
It does get tricky when multiple characters in the same book have similar names or names that start with the same letter. Variety is the spice of life, right? :D
ReplyDeleteThis is something I make a real effort for because in my first book, pretty much every character's name ended up beginning with B, including the place names! Having a mixture of name styles would be the way to go, I think.
ReplyDeleteEver since my first book, I've learned to start every character's name with a different letter. And keep the names short and simple.
ReplyDeleteOne of my first stories, I had Kris and Kristen for character names. Yeah, I know, the whole thing was bad and is safely locked away. LOL
ReplyDeleteI had fallen in love with names for my main characters and then when I had beta readers they were confused with the names because they started with the starting letter and they were confused.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. Reminds me of The Young & the Restless, where Victor and Nikki had a son and daughter named Nicholas and Victoria. lol
ReplyDeleteI refuse to write that sex scene.
ReplyDelete:)
Heather