Character Name Dos and Dont’s: Write Right! Annoyance #4

Write Right!

How to write your way and have readers clamoring for more:

Character Name Dos and Don’ts

Hello, Word Lovers!

Character names provoked some strong reactions from our annoyed readers. In fact, they had so much to say about characters in general I’m devoting my next two “That’s Annoying!” blogs to characters. After all, if we authors are doing our jobs right, we want our readers to invest in our characters, to care about them and become emotionally attached to them. No matter how exciting our plots or evocative our settings, boring characters make for boring books. And confusing or ill-fitting character names can make for books readers don’t finish. They might even throw those books across the room.

Huh? I’ll Never Remember That Character’s Name

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Maybe.

I’ve written professionally and academically for most of my adult life. I’ve had articles published in magazines and newspapers. I wrote a non-fiction article that won an honorable mention in a Writers Digest contest. But my lifelong dream has always been to write a novel and have it published. Life got in the way for many years.  But then, after spending a couple years learning how to structure and write novels and doing research, I felt I was ready to begin.

I worked up my courage and told my loved ones I was ready to start. Then I told my neighbors, dedicated readers I knew would support me. They were excited, but the husband gave me my very first request from a potential reader.

Understandable, Pronounceable Names

“Give your characters names I can understand and remember. Names I can spell and pronounce. If I can’t remember them, I don’t remember who they are when they come up again in the book.”

This doesn’t mean we have to name all our characters John Smith or Jane Doe (or their equivalent in another language). But it does suggest that readers have enough to deal with when they begin a new novel. They have to figure out the who, what, where, when, why and how of the story very quickly in order to understand it. If they have to stumble over names they’ll never remember because they can’t pronounce or spell them, they may become impatient with the book and apprehensive about their ability to follow it.

How Can Authors Help?

We can help readers make the task of remembering character names easier. (We’ll be talking about English here, but you can substitute your own language if you’re not writing in English.)

1. We can choose names that are at least moderately easy to spell and pronounce for English speakers.
2. If the character is foreign-born and we’re not invested in a particular name, we could call him Smerdyakov Fetyukovich or Ivan Pavlov. She could be named Xiomara Amezquitano or Isabel Sanchez. All perfectly good names, but the first choices aren’t easy for English speakers. Some Latin-based English names like Aloysius might give readers pause. Irish names like Saoirse, Siobhan, Ciaran and others can be problematic as well. Can we choose a foreign name that’s manageable in English?
3. But maybe a more difficult name to spell or pronounce is the one we really want to use because we really like it, or there’s a story-related reason to use it. We can have the character pronounce it for another character, maybe giving them a “rhymes with” or “sounds like” hint to help them remember it. The character receiving the hint can echo it back to reinforce it to himself and the reader as well. They might ask what it means or what name it is in English, and that can help the reader, too. “Aoife? So that’s the Gaelic name for Eva?” If the reader can’t remember to pronounce it “Eefa,” they could always think of her as Eva.
4. Of course, we can always call these challengingly-named characters by a nickname. Maybe their work colleagues or family members have already given them one. Had Michael Connelly not insisted on calling his character Harry instead of Hieronymus Bosch, both Harry and Connelly’s readers might have given him a hard time. It’s no accident someone named Andrzej Wojciechowski might be called “Andy,” “Woj” or “Woz.” Or they could go by a name that has nothing to do with their own or by a middle name or initials (Sonny, VI Warshawski).

And While We’re on the Subject of Nicknames

I recently read a fantastic book by one of my favorite authors who had me confused by all the one-syllable nicknames she gave various characters. I had to go back a few times and reread to remember who Gaz, as opposed to Taz and Chaz, was. Ding, a pretty young woman, also had this type of name. One of these nicknames might well have been enough.

In fact, when an author has introduced a Snake or Spike into the story, they’ve hopefully used up their quota of motorcycle gang names for this novel. The point is that one or two unusual nicknames can go a long way. If there actually is a motorcycle gang in the story, and the author wants readers to be able to tell the members of the gang apart, he might want to think about having both Snake and Spike in the gang. If an unusual or dramatic nickname really suits a character, and the character has earned that name through story events, go for it.  But when it comes to names like these, less is more. One in the book is often enough.

But I Don’t Want to Be Boring

To be sure, if everyone in a novel were given names like John Doe, Mary Smith and Bob Johnson, it would be just as hard for readers to remember who’s who as if they had names that are hard to spell or pronounce. And those characters would have to work harder to present themselves as interesting and noteworthy to make up for those bland names. But authors can swing too far the other way as well.

When I’m perusing BookBub or Amazon looking for new reads, I find myself turning away from books that feature protagonists with names like Echo Morningstar or Midnight Chevalier. In fact, I usually burst out laughing at these. I can’t take them take them seriously. Likewise with serial killers named Rich Blood or trappers named Scout Hunter. I’m exaggerating, of course. But you get it.

The point here is that readers want to identify with characters and travel along with them as they navigate the story’s obstacle courses. Readers like characters who seem real and relatable. If they have real and relatable names, so much the better.

So How Do I Find Good Character Names?

Here are a few pointers for finding names that won’t annoy or confuse readers.

• In general, names that are common enough to be known to readers — not so uncommon as to be weird or so overused they seem bland — work best. Great places to find names for characters are baby name books, birth records and census records. Birth and census records can help you pick names that were registered on birth certificates during the year the character was born. You can even find birth records for various locations. If you’re writing historical fiction, you can find names actually used during the time period of your story.

• Determine your character’s age and figure out his or her birth year. Then google, for example, “Most popular baby names in 1972.” You can get lists of the top 100 and even 500 names for girls and for boys in that year. You can also get lists of the most popular surnames registered that year. When I was looking for names for my suspense thriller, Thunderhead Rising, I gave all my major characters birth dates so I could access these lists. I like to drop down past the top 10-15 names to find some that were popular when they were born but not quite as common.
• Use any one of the Character Name Generators you can access online. Just enter “Character Names for Writers” and you will find many sources of character names. One I like is Character Name Generator from the UK. It’s easy to use and has different categories of names you can select from.

Character Name Considerations

• Be careful about using too many names that begin with the same sound or letter. Readers generally register only the first one or two and the last letters of words or names. They also identify words and names by sound as they read. If you have four women named Sandy, Susie, Sarah and Cindy in your novel, readers may have to go back to remember which character Sandy is. Was Alan the prime suspect, or was that Adam or Andy?
• If characters are different genders, or their names are spelled similarly but pronounced very differently, readers won’t usually confuse them. There’s only one different letter in the names Julia and Julio. But these two characters are unlikely to be mistaken for each other.
• When you find you have similar names that might confuse readers and you really want to use those names, you could consider giving one of them a nickname that doesn’t sound like the full given name – or vice versa. Say you’ve named two women Elizabeth and Ellen. You could use Liz or Lizzie or Beth as Elizabeth’s nickname to avoid confusion. Bill and Bob might become Will or Liam and Bob, or Bill and Robbie.

• Certain names have a certain feel or association for readers in a particular place or time. It’s best to avoid these names unless their use is deliberate. Celebrity names, especially unusual ones like Beyonce or Elvis, are going to conjure up an unavoidable image you may or may not want readers to have. I read a book about twenty years ago with a woman protagonist named Paris. At that time, Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton Hotel empire, was prominently featured in sexy commercials and had a short stint in a TV series. Anyone who watched TV knew who she was. In the novel, Paris was a small brunette. But I never could see her that way. I couldn’t get a tall, leggy blonde that looked like Paris Hilton out of my mind.
• Some names can have associations readers may not even realize they are making. The name Bertha might bring up an image of a large, loud, woman with a deep, booming voice. That’s because the reader may have heard the expression “Big Bertha,” even if they don’t know or remember who or what Big Bertha actually was.  A huge, heavy German siege gun used during World War I, Germans gave it the nickname Big Bertha. The name spread to include all large, heavy German artillery.  Many people today don’t know this piece of history, but older people may still associate the word “Big” with the name Bertha. Younger people? Perhaps not so much. Other names may cause readers to get a picture of a particular individual in their minds as they read. It’s worth considering as we authors name our characters.

More Tricks

• Another trick for creating an interesting character name is to pair a more unusual name with a more common one. The movie characters Jeremiah Johnson and Benjamin Button come to mind. Morticia Addams is one of my all-time favorite names, given the context. But Maddalena Adams (“Maddie”) isn’t bad, either.  Play around with different combinations until you find a name that suits the character and is both interesting and realistic for the time and genre of your work.
• Speak the name aloud, listening for its rhythm and sound. I recall a piece of advice in an old baby name book from years ago. “Don’t give your child a first name that ends in the same letter as the first letter or sound of your last name.” The examples they gave were Alice Smith and Ralph Forbes (apologies, Ralph Fiennes). I once knew a woman named Joan Noonan. Try saying that name out loud fast a few times. It’s a guaranteed tongue twister. Harry Potter has a nice rhythm. Blake Potter not so much. Philip Potter…pppp.

Other Considerations

• Finally, depending on your genre, you might want to consider what your characters’ names mean or represent. Perhaps the name is symbolic or has a special meaning in your fantasy story world. The names in many indigenous cultures are often carefully chosen by the parents. The names of the twelve apostles of Jesus are still among the most popular names in Christian cultures, as are the names of saints, martyrs, and religious leaders across all faiths. But unless you call attention to the significance of a particular character’s name, it’s unlikely most of your readers will be aware of it.
• In contemporary cultures, parents tend to choose names they like rather than those having a particular meaning or significance for the family (e.g., a child named after his grandfather or her aunt).
• 21^st century naming practices also include giving children the names they will actually be called rather than a full name that will be changed to a nickname when the child is addressed. I know two Beckys who were given that name, not Rebecca, several Beths not born Elizabeth, one Penny who is not named Penelope, and one Mick who wasn’t born Michael, to note a few. Names that could denote either gender, like Lee, Sidney, Jordan and Morgan, are also popular these days.

Most authors love naming our characters. It’s one of the most fun things we do. Making it easy for our readers to follow our characters because they have pleasing sounding names readers can remember and relate to is another step toward avoiding irritants that make readers want to scream.

See Breaking Writing Rules and other “Write Right! Annoyances” blogs for more reader annoyances and how to avoid them.

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May the Words be With You.