tips for writers

reader comments

• I am twelve and I am writing a fiction/romance novel and I have to admit, names are hard, but don't give up, research really helps too. I look at what their name means, and the origin. I also go with my gut, if it feels right, I use it. It's really simple (sometimes), I also don't like long and hard to pronounce names like, Ishihara, or Thulium. I go with the simpler names like, Ben and Lily. I chose simple names because it's hard to read the names Benjamin and Lillian over and over. It makes a story boring! But whatever you decide to do, don't give up! It gets easier if you put blanks where names will be and fill them in when you have a feel for what your characters are like. And have fun, happy names mean happy readers!
  —Emily H.
• Also, think about how the reader with perceive this character. The second you name someone Courtney, they're going to be stereotyped as a preppy, bleach-blond cheerleader. Also, reading a difficult name can interrupt your story, while ordinary names can be overlooked. So I like to take normal names and then play with the sounds a little to make a unique but easily pronounceable name. For example, I played with the name Richard until i got a completely new one: Wickard, Wick for short.
  
  —A Hobbyist Writer
• A rose by any name would smell as sweet, but Juliet by any other name would never be associated with Romeo. You have to be careful if you're going to have a couple or some equivilent, and you need to make sure their names are compatable. For example, two characters in one of my story were named Casey and Dacey-thankfully they didn't like each other, but if I had decided to put them together, the readers would have found it strange. If need be you can imagine their wedding announcement: Mr. And Mrs. Capulet and Mr. and Mrs. Montague would like to invite you to the marriage of their children Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague. :)
  —Ashley S.
• If your fictional character reminds of some one you know and you think their name would be perfect for the character, DO NOT USE IT. You don't want someone close to you to read your story and realize that they are the ditzy blonde character you were talking about. It's embarrassing for them and for you, they may not think they have a habit for slouching and you put it in your book for all the world to see, you're going to hurt them. You could always keep the names close, such as: Linsey Parker could change to Linda Bakerton. But never use real names for your characters unless you're writing a non-fictional book.
  —Mack C.
• I'm writing a short detective-ish story in a college setting, with the narrative centered on two brothers, Lucas and Julian. I wasn't sure, when I started, why I chose those names; they just sounded good. But I got to looking around, found that 'Lucas' is Italian in origin, and that 'Julian' means 'youthful'. That's when a couple of things clicked. Lucas, having gone meta and looked up his name's meaning, occasionally swears in Italian, and Julian (without looking up his name) hides behind an innocent personality to mask his anger issues. Thanks, babynames.com. You made this character depth possible.
  —M. Lance J.
• I have been an avid reader and hobbyist writer for quite awhile, and I've got a couple tips of my own. When naming a character, think of famous individuals. For example, you might consider naming your kind and heartwarming character Diana. People think favorably of that name because of the kind and charitable Princess of Wales. However, keep in mind that subtlety is necessary. Names like 'Britney' or 'Miley' already have too strong a connection already, and will be distracting. Another tip: visualize the scene where the character's parents are together in the delivery room and thinking of what to name their baby. This helps tremendously, because not only does it help with a name, but also, it can make you realize things about your character's background that might help you realize why your character behaves the way they do. A person's upbringing and parentage can make them lazy, unfocused and unmotivated, or driven, passionate and inspired.
  —Anon
• If your story is a fantasy, the biggest thing is easy pronunciation, especially for your main characters. Just throw syllables at him/her/it until two or three stick. (Raistlin Majere and Drizzt Do'Urden are two of the most frequently mis-pronounced characters I've ever run across in fantasy literature.) If you want to get all Tolkien with it and create a half dozen languages for the setting, then you can retroactively construct a language using your main characters' names and knock yourself stupid with how those work. Me, if I'm stuck, I run back to www.sumerian.org, and look at that lexicon of the Sumerian language and run a search for a couple of words related to the character I just created. I've used it as a sign post, in my naming, for ten years now. It's exotic sounding ("Izzu" or "Zala" or "Padib"), but they have meaning and I didn't have to just pull it out of a hat. If I'm wrong on the particulars, it's ok, because it's a dead language, and only a handful of archaeologists and ancient semetic linguists are going to complain about it.
  
  If I'm coming up with a name for something superhero-ish, (or a mysterious villain using an alias, or a similar secretive deus ex machina spy-thriller thing whose name is a hint at what their purpose is) then if I can't do it justice with something corny like "Labrynth Lad" (and yes, sometimes corny works), if it needs more mystique, then I use Google Language Tools to run a simple idea of what I want the character to do in my story in a language that isn't commonly familiar. Gives it that level where you can dig deeper if you want to, but you don't have to. Like how Lost does things. I created one character that was dead, but had been reanimated via a voodoo ritual by a teenage boy in his basement, not expecting that anyone had actually been buried in the ground below the concrete. Her name was "Douleur Morte". French for "Pain Dead." Who really cares? It looks cool. Sounds cool too.
  
  Sci-fi is weird, and a special case. There's a balance needed here to keep it feeling right. On one hand some names exist for thousands of years. Joshua is an excellant example of this. On the other, new names pop up and become popular and hold their popularity for years, if not decades or centuries, but then fall out of favor. There's cultural considerations to consider, too. If you name somebody after Che Guevara, you better realize that there's a lot of people who think he's a serial killer, and just as many who think he's a martyr. Family names will probably stand strong down the years, so consider your social network in your Sci-Fi fiction. Along with this, something to consider is mixing ethnicities. You might have Paco Chan, or Robert al-Amin, or Zeigfried "Ziggy" Royce. (I just made up all three of those on the spur of the moment for illustrative purposes, and all three of them I like. A lot.)
  
  In any genre, there's always the reconstruction of slightly uncommon sounds. One character I renamed "Khalay", after I was told that "Calais" was a city in France. I knew it was a city in France, I just never expected that other Americans actually paid attention outside of where their next hamburger was coming from. In the written word, the revised version looks totally different and most people will never notice its origins. If it worries one too much, then have the other characters start calling him "Khal" and let it go.
  —Luerim
• Another thing to think about is that you should try to fit the character's name with the villian/hero role they play in the story. I'm in the process of publishing my first novel, but it did take some time trying to firgure out some good villianous names that wouldn't be too obvious. If your story is realistic fiction, then you probably wouldn't want to have a really obvious bad-guy-name like Voldemort from Harry Potter, maybe you would want to try a slightly unique name, but nothing over the top. However, if your are writing a sci-fi or fantasy novel, then maybe it's not such a bad idea to have a very different or strange name. It all depends on what you're writing and who you're naming.
  
  —Emily S.
• When you are inventing characters and names to go with them, it's important to be somewhat realistic. Names shouldn't be exactly alike, nut they shouldn't be opposites either (unless you're showing that they come from very different backgrounds.) For instance, you probably won't find an actual group of friends with names like Antoinette, Claire, and Jem. However, realistically, you're quite likely to find a group of, say, Brett, Ben, and Kyle.
  —Desiree F.
• If you need an interesting name for an fantasy creature, look for names in different languages. They almost always catch attention, and give the readers a way to really connect with the story, and more importantly the character. Don't look to far afield though, if you want to name a character after a specific feature, you don't want to name the character a name that's extensively long.That will take away from whatever your story is.
  —Alyia H.
• Naming a character is the most important thing you can do, besides a plot. The character's appearance is important, but not as much as a name. Do you know what Huck Finn looks like? No, because Mark Twain never told us. But 'Huck Finn' is perfect for the character.
  
  Naming is the most important thing that an author can do. If you just randomly slap names on characters, it won't work. Unless they are side characters that will disappear in a page or two, don't just throw names around. Find a baby names book, or better yet, use this website!
  —Katya M.
• Try not to change the name after you have decided on one. Even if you find a name that might suit the character better; if you have already written much with the first name, it is extremely hard to change it - also in your thoughts. I tried to change the name of my heroine from Leina to Leandra and it ended with me not being able to write on because it felt like something was wrong, even though Leandra fit to the character absolutely.
  —Tara M.
• Sometimes it's fun to name your characters opposite names. For example, a friend of mine made a character who was autistic, and named her Cavalier, which is a sort of Medieval word that no-one really uses anymore meaning loud and arrogant. In agreement with the other comments, though, some characters can be named for a trait of theirs, but not always obviously. For example, a character in a story I read by my friend, called The Beatific and the Flawless, the main character's name is Mosca, which is Spanish for "a fly". Kind of unfortunate, really, but Mosca's personality is she tends to flit around and doesn't give up, but is easily distracted. She has a bit of a sweet tooth, and has a really great sense of smell. The physical traits of Mosca's that match her name are she's quite determined, but things tend to get in her eay because she's a bit small (kind of short and skinny, about 5 foot 4 or so, at age 16), she's dark-skinned, she has rather large (but not buggy) eyes, her life was quite short (the avergae housefly's life is 6 years, Mosca's was 16.) and ultimately, she has wings. She's the Angel of Suicide.
  
  Oftentimes, you don't know the meaning of your character's name until after you've named them. For example, a character named Allana, who is the Angel of Children and Fun. She's like Mosca, short and skinny, and her name is Possibly derived from the Gaelic word ailin, meaning "little rock". She's quite stubborn, as well as being small, surprisingly strong, and quite heavy for her size. (about 140-odd pounds, when the average is 135. She isn't overweight, she just has muscles, albeit small ones.)
  —Rik E.
• Don’t just think of the meaning of the name, but its history as well. Michael means "Who is like God," but we would most likely associate the name with the archangel Michael, the commander of God’s angelic army. Cain means "Carpenter," but we are more likely to associate the name with Cain, son of Adam, who betrayed his brother.
  
  Also, if the character is from somewhere where people have middle names, give the character one. Even if you never mention it in the story, having a middle name brings the character a little more to life and gives him/her some more history.
  —Jeremy H.
• A lot of people try too hard to find the perfect name for a character. Put yourself in the shoes of the family, or of someone in the time period. Create a name that is both unique and gentle to the senses. A beautiful name for a girl or an enlightened name for a boy may just be a simple, poetic word. Go for sweet, go for fitting, and go for something that won't confuse your audience.
  —Rina E.
• I have two points to add. First, try to be careful not to have too many odd names collected in one story. While a unique name for a character or two can really add to their personality and make them more memorable, having too many unusual names seems unrealistic and can come off as silly or frivolous. I've read quite a few stories where each character has a very uncommon name, and while each name on it's own might be interesting, together they're just too much. So don't use your whole list of cool names in one shot. ;)
  
  The second tip is for naming characters of different ethnicities. If you have a character who is a minority or immigrant, try to find an appropriate name--and I don't mean by picking something that simply sounds right to you. If you can, try to find a website that lists frequencies of actual names for different ethnic groups. Another choice is to ask someone who is a member of that group to offer suggestions. Also, many immigrants to America give their children American sounding names, or change their own names to something simpler.
  —Jennifer B.
• Don't be afraid to use different names! It gets really tedious if you use the name Bob for every male character you write about. Don't name every girl Mary or Sue just because it seems convienent. Remember, what you're writing about is most likely fictional; the names do not need to be everyday names. There's really no fun in that, is there? Most of the time, when you think up a character, think up a letter, just one letter, and chose the first one you come up with. Go onto babynames.com and click on the search for that letter. You will find a fun name for your character, that strays far away from Joe and Jane.
  —Anon
• Consideration the ethnic background and religion of your character well. Not only will this help shorten the list of possible names but also with possible different spelling. For example, my name is Carmen and I went to school with 3 other girls of the same name (2 in Primary/Elementary, 1 in Juniors/Junior High). However, one girl who came from the Pakistan spelt her name Kharmin, another English girl spelt her's Karmen and the last spelt her's just like my own.
  
  Those who are second or third generation immigrants may traditional names from their parent's home country but with more Anglicised or prounouncable spellings. Or in some cases I've seen, taking a traditional English name and converting the spelling to something more in line with that of their own country of origin.
  
  It frustrates me when I read books where a character is given an exotic name for no real reason. There are names that you expect to find only within certain cultures and some writers forget this, I think.
  —Carmen
• If you're having a hard time naming your character let him/her develop a little bit. Sometimes if I can't think of a name I look at the following:
  * gender
  * personality
  * up-bringing
  * life events
  
  Take the name Itachi (which means weasel) from a the Japanese origin. That would be perfect if you're character is sneaky. Or for a female character the name Marie from french origin. Marie means sea of bitterness so if your character was involved in a traumatic event that turned her bitter Marie would be perfect.
  —Josie V.
• When naming a character, be sure to put a lot of thought into their personality and qualities. If your character is very shy and quiet, perhaps the name Coye or Tulia will fit well. Also, don't make the names obvious. If you have a character in a story that's a hunter, don't flat out name them Hunter. Try a name like Jaegar or Chase. Let your imagination wander and pull inspiration from everything around you. what your character's name should be also depends on the type of story that you're writing. If you're writing a romance, try the name Coriander or Davina. If you're writing a horror, maybe a name like Akuji. Don't be afraid to purposely misname your characters, age-wise and personality-wise. If you want to name the old woman in your story Jillian (which means "youthful") then go ahead. Remember, never let anything hold you back and don't set any limits on your writing.
  —The Writer Kid
• 1. Make sure to name characters based on their nationality. For anime fan fiction writers, you should know that japan is usually the main setting for most animes... which means your character should have a Japanese name unless he/she is a foreignor or has a foreign parent.
  
  2. Try not to give a main character a normal or extremely popular name (Brittney, Bob, Drew, Jessica, Mary, John, etc). It makes the character seem bland and unimportant. It will emphasize the character if you give them a less popular but nice sounding name (Odelia and Rafa are some names I've used).
  —Kristen
• I have a few ideas for naming your characters--
  A) Think long and hard about your character and what their name should mean BEFORE you pick out the name. Or else you'll be surfing through millions of names and clicking haphazardly. To have a plan is better.
  
  B) Think of how saying the name will be to other characters--it is an awkward name? Is it supposed to be awkward? Because then it works. But if the character is supposed to be a perfect angel, then give it an easier name to say & one that fits better.
  
  C) Try not to pick totally ridiculous names. Your names can be normal, like Sara or Jenna. You don't have to pick insane names. The easier they are to remember, the better! :)
  —Lola E.
• For a character's name to fit, you need to consider more than the character his/herself. What about his/her parents? What sort of people are/were they? What name would they have given their child? Once you have that idea, think about how the name will affect the character. If the character's parents were wealthy WASPs and named him Gerard Vincent Milford IV, but he hates his parents and has run off to live in a studio apartment with his working-class Jewish girlfriend, he might go by "Jerry" and claim that it's short for "Jeremiah". If the character's got an ethnic background but her parents gave her a name better-suited to the country in which they live, she might be thankful for the name but at the same time feel cheated out of her heritage. Even if the name isn't important, there's a reason behind it.
  —Rachel P.
• Choosing a name for your characters can be a hard task - I'm writing an English science-fiction story right now, and it took me a while to think of names. One of my characters, Sonny, is a werewolf (I know, I know). I had to find a name that fit his tan, energetic, athletic, and bubbly character. Other characters were harder to match names to, and a few I had to go back and change later because I thought of names that matched better. I even have another document other than my actual paper open for notes to help myself remember more about each character and each character that I am going to add later. From experience of writing in my free time, I know that it helps to have notes and lists of names out in front of you.
  —M. Nola
• Seeing my peers write around me not only inspires me to write myself, but also shows me the the wrong way to write in a lot of sense. Most people in my high school seem to think that what the character does, or is going to do for that matter, is much more important than what the parent thinks of the child. For example, one student whose story I looked over by chance named his character Victor (unconquerable). Their reasoning behind this was that fear of death was looming over the character, and he never gives into it. The only problem I have with that is that the character came from a benevolent family of Royalty, and a name like Victor would give off a bad vibe to the people. A name such as Alexander (defender of the people) would be much more welcomed to the people. An added bonus is that Alexander was a very famous historical figure that many people equate to a great warrior, thus we kill two birds with one stone: the wanting of a warrior's name from the author, and the acceptable name for the setting.
  —Connor R.
• It took me a while to find names for my anonymous duo. For my vampire (who I was in love with from day one) I decided to use a name that had once been considered romantic, but had fallen out of popularity for decades. Charlotte Bronte's Mr. Rochester and Jane Austen's Mr. Ferrars were the characters that led me to the name Edward.
  
  I tried it on for size, and found that it fit well. My female lead was harder. Nothing I named her seemed just right. After spending so much time with her, I loved her like a daughter, and no name was good enough. Finally, inspired by that love, I gave her the name I was saving for my daughter, who had never shown up and was unlikely to put in an appearance at this point: Isabella. Huzzah! Edward and Bella were named. For the rest of the characters, I did a lot of searching in old census records, looking for popular names in the times that they'd been born.
  —Stephenie Meyer, Twilight series
• What's in a name? A rose by any other name would sound as sweet. Names aren't worth worrying about; it's the character's personality that you want to establish first.
  
  Some writing programs allow you to replace certain words at any time during your story. A good example is Jarte. I'll often start a story with a main character called something like "Bob" and later on, I'll replace it with a name that seems to suit him better, like "Treves" or "Jean" or whatever defines him.
  —Anon
• Sometimes it's easier to develop your character through the first chapter or so of your story before choosing a name. This goes double if a name doesn't strike you the minute you start thinking about creating this character because (if you're a perfectionist, like me) you may end up thinking of a name later on into the story and have to go back and change every place you used the original name!! And trust me, it's time consuming and not fun!!
  —PurpleParashutes
• What's really important in naming your characters is picking a name that seems to suit them--because quite often, the qualities we deny that we possess(like arrogance, for example) are the ones that are strongest in us. It helps to develop the type of person you want BEFORE you actually name them because then, you can choose a name that fits in with who they are. Just haphazardly sticking names on characters won't make sense, to you or to the concious reader. A character named Angelica may be the most enormous brat anyone's ever heard of. Her name is ironic and if that's what you're going for then, by God, you should do it. But if you want a name that says something specific about the person's character, perhaps Damian would be a better choice for your fictional brat.
  —Wolfy T.
• Think about how your character feels about his/her name. Does she absolutely hate the name Margaret because it makes her feel as old as the grandmother she's named for? Or does he like his name Rhett because it makes him feel important and powerful like the character? Does he pick out a nickname for himself, insisting that everyone call him Bobby because Robert is his father. This can add some interesting depth to your characters.
  —Shelby B.
• I would just like to share that when you are writing it is wise to make the name fit the character and his/her personality. Like I wouldn't suggest picking a masculine name for a feminine character and the other way around. And if you have a group of main characters try to have a variety of names such as don't have them begin with all one letter. ex: Justin, Jose, Jakob, Jacklyn.... etc. And also try to have different Syllables in them. Such as: Seth, Rhymes, Maddox, Alexandria... etc. I am a young writer but I have been a zealous reader for many years and one thing i hate most is when the names of characters are too close together and then you get them mixed up.
  —Heather S.
• Consider the parenting style of the parents too. If the parents in the story are very traditional the characters should probably have more traditional names like Mary or Michael. Or if the parents are very trendy, the character should probably have a name that was pretty common during that time (for example, if the character was born in 1955, her name might be Deborah). Or if the parents are really creative and different, the characters name might be more odd, like Saturday.
  —Shannan P.