CHRISTINA DODD ASKS FOR HELP NAMING CHARACTERS
The current bane of my existence is … Drum roll, please!
Naming characters.
Sure, you’ve done it. You named your kids or your pets. You know how important this is. You worry about it, argue about it and finally come up with the perfect name. But to date I’ve written 54 published books. I’ve named literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people. I'm constantly naming heroes (must sound manly) and heroines (feminine and distinctive) and secondary characters (should reflect their personality.) And don’t forget, the reader must be able to pronounce the names!
I’ll start a book in a mad fervor when I’m jerked to a halt by a character who requires some kind of moniker, something beyond the ever-popular INSERT NAME HERE.
So I go to my trusty baby name book and start the slow torturous trek through the letters. J … J is good for a hero, it’s has a strong sound. How about Jagger, that sounds manly. No, wait, I don’t want to remind the reader of Mick and his lips. Jenkins … Jenkins sounds like the butler. (Note to self: save for butler.) Jensen … gads, no, Scott’s cousins by marriage are Jensens and I don’t want to start anything with the relatives.
So finally I find a great name and what happens? It rhymes with another of the names in the manuscript. Or names are two similar (Alan and Alanna, anybody?) Or I realize I’ve used the name before. In BECAUSE I’M WATCHING, the hero was named Samuel until I realized I had recently used Samuel. When I finished the book, I used a universal word search to make the change, and now I live in fear that when I speak of Jacob, I'll use the wrong name.
When I wrote the novella WILD TEXAS ROSE, I named the heroine Rose and the hero Thornton. I got to page 80 before I realized what I’d done; at that point one of my kids asked incredulously, “Mom, are you really naming them Rose and Thorn?”
One great thing about social media is that I can ask the readers for input. They always come through. On Facebook, a recent appeal for a dog's name (large black and brown stray mutt, steals the heroine's banana bread), netted me over 1000 responses!
In the past when I was too lazy — er, I mean too involved in my prose — to get the baby name book … My first book, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was a medieval, and the heroine was Saura of Roget. Saura, okay, that sounds medieval. But you know, you know, how I came up with Roget, don’t you? I glanced around my office, and … Well, let’s put it this way. To this day, author and friend Susan Sizemore teases me about naming a character after my thesaurus.
Warmly,
Christina Dodd
www.christinadodd.com
Naming characters.
Sure, you’ve done it. You named your kids or your pets. You know how important this is. You worry about it, argue about it and finally come up with the perfect name. But to date I’ve written 54 published books. I’ve named literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people. I'm constantly naming heroes (must sound manly) and heroines (feminine and distinctive) and secondary characters (should reflect their personality.) And don’t forget, the reader must be able to pronounce the names!
I’ll start a book in a mad fervor when I’m jerked to a halt by a character who requires some kind of moniker, something beyond the ever-popular INSERT NAME HERE.
So I go to my trusty baby name book and start the slow torturous trek through the letters. J … J is good for a hero, it’s has a strong sound. How about Jagger, that sounds manly. No, wait, I don’t want to remind the reader of Mick and his lips. Jenkins … Jenkins sounds like the butler. (Note to self: save for butler.) Jensen … gads, no, Scott’s cousins by marriage are Jensens and I don’t want to start anything with the relatives.
So finally I find a great name and what happens? It rhymes with another of the names in the manuscript. Or names are two similar (Alan and Alanna, anybody?) Or I realize I’ve used the name before. In BECAUSE I’M WATCHING, the hero was named Samuel until I realized I had recently used Samuel. When I finished the book, I used a universal word search to make the change, and now I live in fear that when I speak of Jacob, I'll use the wrong name.
When I wrote the novella WILD TEXAS ROSE, I named the heroine Rose and the hero Thornton. I got to page 80 before I realized what I’d done; at that point one of my kids asked incredulously, “Mom, are you really naming them Rose and Thorn?”
One great thing about social media is that I can ask the readers for input. They always come through. On Facebook, a recent appeal for a dog's name (large black and brown stray mutt, steals the heroine's banana bread), netted me over 1000 responses!
In the past when I was too lazy — er, I mean too involved in my prose — to get the baby name book … My first book, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was a medieval, and the heroine was Saura of Roget. Saura, okay, that sounds medieval. But you know, you know, how I came up with Roget, don’t you? I glanced around my office, and … Well, let’s put it this way. To this day, author and friend Susan Sizemore teases me about naming a character after my thesaurus.
Warmly,
Christina Dodd
www.christinadodd.com
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I can see how that could become an issue for you and a huge strain too! When my girls were born my husband and I got creative - my first daughter is Kendreanna (named after a couple of friends Kendra and Brianna), next came Anastacia Nicole (she was born just after the Anastasia cartoon movie came out...), then Rachael and finally KiLynn (pronounced like Dye - not Key, and yes it is all one word) for my four girls. Ki is a family name, my husband's uncle is Kiron, my husband is Ron, his little sister is Ki, Kiron's daughter is Kitawnya, Ki's daughter is Kiesha Alexis- they kind of went a little overboard on the Ki thing...
Hope this helps you to spark some creativity, and I look forward to meeting your next hero/heroine!
I'm no help. I have a dog named Puppy.
Laurla2 wrote: "I'm no help. I have a dog named Puppy."BWAHAHA!!
Julie wrote: "It's okay, I came up with Shelby for my daughter after stumbling over my husband's autographed copy of Carroll Shelby's book. Then our first was a boy, so had to find a different one for him.Name..."
Very clever of your niece!
Christina wrote: "I can see how that could become an issue for you and a huge strain too! When my girls were born my husband and I got creative - my first daughter is Kendreanna (named after a couple of friends Kend..."My daughters are named after Lord of the Rings characters, so I do enjoy originality in naming! But I'm sure you know this — my daughters could spell their names very early bc when asked what their names were, they had to spell them. :)
you could always go back to an old fashion name and put a twist on it.
What's the setting for the book? Would Gabriela fit? (Or maybe I should know the setting - haven't been online recently - making Christmas presents)Gabriela always feels so feminine to me, but strong (re Gabriel the Archangel)
My daughter went with the old fashioned names and shortened them for every day usage. Charlotte (Charlie); Victoria (Vickie/|Tori). The name I was given as my first name is Lynndolyn (Lynn). Used it as my daughters middle name. My in-laws fussed at me. Her full name was Heather Lynndolyn. They said it was too much of a name to put on someone....none of them had bigger than 5 letters in their names. Told them she would be able to spell and read well. :) they hushed.lol
My brother was named after my dad. But my mother wanted to name him Richard. So his name is A.W.Jr., but w call him Dickie, which is short for Richard. We are an odd bunch. But love it!!
Lynn wrote: "My daughter went with the old fashioned names and shortened them for every day usage. Charlotte (Charlie); Victoria (Vickie/|Tori). The name I was given as my first name is Lynndolyn (Lynn). Used i..."Every family is odd in their own lovable way! :)
I named my first son after a Roger Moore character in a t.v. series, which was Brett (I love that name).Then I named my second son after the Tony Curtis character in the same t.v. series, which was Daniel.
The t.v. series was called The Persuaders.
Daniel is no longer with us, but I did have twins, Samantha and Grant (after Cary Grant).
I was watching a football bowl game this weekend and heard the story of how quarterback Baker Mayfield got his name. It seems his mother liked his father's friend's name of Baker and asked if she could use it if their baby was a boy. The father replied, "Only if you use the name of the President as his middle name." The quarterback's full name is Baker Reagan Mayfield! At the time I thought, That sounds like it could be a Christina Dodd character name to me!" I wonder if you could get permission to use it? Lol -- Jeanine
I saw someone on TV named Mudcat, and I had friends named Pon, and Cricket.
Names-Georgiana, Bridgette, Emily, Beau, Hugo, Bryce, Beverly, Dan/Daniel/Daniella, Cecilia, Holden, Gregory.
My niece is doing homeschool and online school. For one of her online classes, she had to write a paper in a debate style, set during the Revolutionary War. She actually looked at her mom's family tree, picked 2 cousins' names from the time period and had them debate. I think she used the towns they were from also. She got an A.