One of the hardest things about starting a new story for me is naming my characters. I have a small selection of names I love, and unfortunately, I’ve used them all – so now I’m at the point where figuring out what to name my characters is major operation.
Naming my kids was easier.
I will confess, I tend to squander unusual names on secondary characters, often thinking they won’t ever have to be in the spotlight as the stars of their own books, so it’s okay. Those characters, unfortunately, tend to be the more memorable ones who really NEED their own books. Case in point, my devious witch from UNCROSS MY HEART, Hester Oaks.
I picked the name Hester precisely because it seemed so incongruous. Ms. Oaks is a gorgeous, red-headed witch with a lingering torch for the hero, Julian Devlin. She’s sophisticated in a paranormal way and sparks more than a little bit of jealousy in the heroine.
Of course, ever since I created Hester, she’s been pestering me for a book of her own, and I admit, I never would have chosen the name Hester for a heroine.
In my current WIP, my hero has a partner named Ruben, “Ruby” for short. The name Ruben always conjures up images of the manager guy from The Partridge Family, not a tall, dark and daringly handsome secret agent type. Nevertheless, Ruby is taking over my story, and he’s asking to be the star of his own show one day.
I suppose I shouldn’t complain about names. An unusual one will stick in readers’ minds and hopefully intrigue them enough to want to read more in a future book, but I can’t help but always feel like I’m saddling some poor character with a little bit of baggage when I give them an odd name. Granted, not every hero can be Jack or Max [two of my personal favorites] and not every heroine can be called Kate [every time I start a new story, the heroine is invariable Kate before I crack open my name books and start brainstorming] and this was even before Prince William got engaged.
What are your favorite character names? Have you used any unusual ones that you’re glad you did, or that you wish you hadn’t?
Here are some of my more memorable choices:
Calliope [heroine, The Matchmakers]
Khanu [hero, The Concubine’s Tale]
Tige [hero, Ken’ja by Bernadette Gardner]
Kash [hero, Hunter’s Mate by Bernadetter Gardner]
Rihana [heroine, Slither by Bernadette Gardner]
9 comments:
Wow, none of my names have been quite that unusual, but i definitely like names that are more on the less common side. At least in my most recentl novel I"m working on. My female MC's name is Shawn and the main male characters are Devin, Tristan, and Courtland. I have a female character named Jayda and there is another important character that will be entering the story soon who's name i have not decided on yet. I need to wait until my MC meets him and then I'll just see what sounds/feels right, but rest assured it won't be common :-)
Okay, can I first say that I LOVE Hester (not the name, but the character) and I'm thrilled at the prospect of her getting her own book!
Also the timing of this post is pretty funny because I'm begging for naming help on my blog.
In one of my WIPs I have a Kassius (not only have I been inconsistent with the spelling Cassius) but pronounciation is suspect!
The MC for the book I have stewing right now is Rue. It just seemed appropriate for her. Looking back, I realized most of my other heroines have guy names - Alex, Myke, Terri, Jo... :shrug: It's a thing with me, I guess. I'm less creative with my guys, unless you count Myke's hero Gray and Jo's sexy ex Zeke. =o)
My female character names are ending in y lately - Lily, Emmy. The boys tend to be single syllables - Cliff, Nick, Red, Jack, Hank etc. I hadn't noticed my pattern, but now I do! lol I do have one character named Seren, which I'm partial to because it means "star" in Welsh. I like names that have meaning.
Melanie, does Shawn get Devin, Tristan AND Courtland? Sounds like a lot of fun. ;)
JB, I’ve been dying to give Hester her own book, but she’s such a strong character, I need a very special hero for her and I haven’t found him yet.
B.E., I like Rue. I tend to use the same letter for several names in a story, and halfway through realize it’ll be confusing for readers and decide to rename people.
Joann, I think single syllable names for heroes sound stronger. My hero in SKIN was named Darq [and yes, I took some heat for that, but the book sold well, so I guess readers didn’t mind.]
How funny! I just finished Uncross My Heart last week and was planning on checking your site to see if there was a Hester book.
And in another coincidence, I blogged on Sunday with resources for finding the perfect name for your character.
I love ALL your names, seriously.
I suck at names (and titles, but that's a different post). For some reason I gravitate toward M-names, and my last book had 6 out of 8 major characters with names that started with M. So all I do now is pick names out of the phone book. Because really, it can't be any worse. Sigh.
I love your names! Hester, in particular, is awesome--I like old-school but different names like that.
I write historical settings, and I'm a bit of a name nerd, so I try to make choices that are period-appropriate. Problem is, if there was a Big Book of Historically Accurate Regency Names, it would be a pamphlet. I once read a history of a scandal of the time involving three families with several sons apiece. All three had a Henry and a Charles among the brothers, and there were two Richards and two Arthurs.
Angelica, Thanks for reading Uncross! It’s definitely a world I want to revisit.
Jennifer, I like K names. It’s a wonder my characters don’t have identity crises because most of them get renamed halfway through the book.
Susanna, that’s one of the reasons I like science fiction. I can make names up. Though if I wrote historical, I could get away with using Kate/Katherine more often.
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