So, you’ve got your brand new character. They’re going to go through the most awesome plot ever. The setting is perfect. But what do you call this character?
There’s an odd tendency, especially in young writers, to have a unique name for their character. They want this character to stand out amongst the rest, and be memorable, and the easiest way to do that is through their name, right? Well, maybe, but also no. Names have power, and somethimes they have the power to do things you don’t intend. Like throw a reader right out of the story. I’m looking at you, Enoby Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way. That’s a memorable, unique name all right, but nobody appreciates it for being memorable and unique. It’s memorable for being the single best satirisation of the phenomenon I’m talking about, though. And in that regard, it wins the gold medal. But this character received nothing but hate and disdain from the fandom at the time.
In fact, the only character named Dementia, where the name was actually entirely appropriate, was What Addams’ nanny in Addams Family Values.
The best way to have a memorable character isn’t through a memorable name, but through building the character. I’ve seen criticism around the WattPad dungeons, accusing characters of having “bland” and “suburban” names. And… what’s wrong with that?
Most characters’ names should fit their setting, because most people’s names fit their settings. Popular names are popular for a reason. Also, there’s a simple truth that a lot of young writers seem to either forget or ignore: kids are fucking mean. If you show up to the first day of school with a name that isn’t Bobby or Sally or Sue, you’re going to get teased and bullied. And teachers aren’t going to know how to pronounce your name. Later in life, your boss isn’t going to know how to pronounce your name. Throughout your entire life, your peers aren’t going to know how to pronounce your name.
And if it’s a character in your book, the reader isn’t going to know how to pronounce it. Remember in Goblet of Fire, when Viktor Krum stumbled awkwardly over Hermione’s name, and she had to phonetically pronounce it for him? That was a direct result of the American audience having no previous contact with that name, and having no idea what to do with it. And then the movies started coming out, and the day was saved, because Christ on a bike, I got through three books having no idea what that character was supposed to be called and it was the most obnoxious thing ever. If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones, and you decide to pick up the audiobooks for A Song of Ice And Fire, you’re going to find that a good half of the names in the book are pronounced differently between the two versions. I spent money on audiobooks I can’t listen to, because if I hear “P-tire Baelish” one more time, I am going to choke somebody. On the other side of that, there are people who did the audiobook first, and find the television show to be nails on a chalkboard for the same reason.
There’s a reason immigrants from certain areas tend to give their kids Western names when the time comes. It’s the same reason names cycle in and out of popularity. Parents generally don’t want to see their kids stand out in ways that could make them targets for bullying at school, or give them a name that could hold them back as an adult. There are quite a few countries where certain names are straight out forbidden for babies (Germany has a pretty outstanding banned baby name list), and some where parents are given a list to choose from, and cannot deviate from that list (babies in Iceland can only have traditional, gender-specific Icelandic names).
Names like Gertrude and Wilford were popular once, but now are names for old people. But if you look at popular names in America, going back decades, you’re going to see a pattern: a lot of Biblical names. Matthew, Michael, Luke. And some traditionally Anglo names, like William, Henry, Nathan. For girls, it’s much of the same. Emily, Mary, Elizabeth. Names that will never go out of style as long as English is a language. Others flit in and out of style. In 70 years, names like Jaiden and Zoe will likely be old people’s names, while Gertrude and Wilford might be on top 20 lists.
So, how do you pick your name? The easiest way is to look at top 20 lists for the year your character was born, and then scroll down to about the middle of the list. Parents pick names that are popular, but the top half of the list is going to be dominated by Michaels and Emilys. But maybe Michael or Emily is what you need. Because sometimes, it’s not what you want, but what the character’s parents want. This idea was skimmed over briefly in another post, but if the character’s parents are in the picture, they should be characters too. Fully-formed, fleshed out characters. The amount of times I’ve seen the cardboard cutout parent with no personality name their kid something no self-respecting cardboard cutout parent would ever dream of is absurd.
And all of this applies to the surname as well. For instance, the black population in the US has different common surnames, at different rates, than the white population. And white Americans in South Dakota are going to have different common surnames than white Americans in Manhattan, because more Scandinavians went west, while more Italians and Irish stayed on the East Coast. That suburban name is going to make sense for Becky Roberts, living in Pasadena, California. Meanwhile, you’re more likely to find Becky Olstad in Fargo, North Dakota.
Names have power, and they can tell you a lot about the character’s history, more than about the character themselves. They can tell you any combination of race, religion, location, and age, and then some. Something made up names simply can’t do.