Names facinate us.
From Romeo & Juliet’s famous “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” to In the Heat of the Night‘s “They call me Mr. Tibbs!” to Cats’ “The naming of cats is a difficult matter/ It isn’t just one of your holiday games/You may think at first I am mad as a hatter/When I tell you a cat must have three different names.”
Does a person’s (or cat’s) or character’s name matter? I believe most people, writers in particular, would answer with an unqualified “Yes!” Where would we be if Rhett Butler had been named Hiram Muddle? If Elizabeth Bennett had been called Maude Staples? If Heathcliff had been just Sam?
Names are so personal, so intrinsic a part of a person or character, that the writer must take care to select the one name that will crystallize that character in the reader’s mind.
Not that writers always have a choice. At least I don’t. Although most of my characters seem satisfied with the names I give them, there is a Tommy who tried to be an Andrew, but he’s pretty much given that up. However, in one story outline there is a woman who I wanted to name Celinda but who is adamant that she will be called Pamela. I have finally conceded to her demands, and given Celinda to a younger, more maleable character in a short story.
I am always interested in other author’s penchant for odd names. Jo Beverly’s medieval names in her Malloren series, Kathleen Woodiwis’ Aislinn, Synnovea, Cerynise, Wulfgar and a host of others, have delighted me and spurred me on to collect interesting names (or interesting spellings of names) for my own characters. Many names come from people I have met (Celinda is one, Jauric another) and some I have created on a whim or taken from an unlikely source (Cyntessa, Sistine).
What names to you like? Do you have a favorite name for a character? How do you come up with names for your characters?
Stop by and let me know what YOU think is in a name.
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
reetings. I follow your site to wish you continued success.
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Thank you, Hali. Sorry I haven’t responded sooner, but you and several other commenters were sent to my spam. I’ve taken care of that now, I hope. I will also check the filter to see what’s up with that. Hope you continue to stop by!
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Oops! I just noticed that the comment I left was under my daughter Caitlin’s name. Didn’t realize she was still logged in. Kid drives me nuts. :oP I’d delete it if I could and repost it, but oh well.
Sorry about that!
Ginny
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Hi Jenna,
Great start to your blog! Love your pen name too. :o)
Names are so subjective. My pet peeve is the same as others here. I can’t stand to read books containing names I have no idea how to pronounce. It ruins the reading experience for me. I read Outlander way back before I owned my first computer and the name Laoghaire drove me nuts. I later read an interview with the author, Diana Gabaldon, where she admitted she wasn’t sure how to pronounce it herself, but to the best of her knowledge it was pronounced leery. I recently learned she changed that pronunciation in a later book to leera.
I much prefer simpler names that are easy to read and understand. But I think no matter what name you choose, some people will like it, some won’t. We all have our preferences. The hero of my current WIP is named Keith Jarrett. I have done a whole lot of research and found that some people love the name Keith and think it’s very sexy (like me LOL) and some people hate it and think it’s dorky – mainly because of their personal experience of knowing someone named Keith who they think is a dork. LOL Again, it’s all subjective. My heroine is named Jenny McKenzie. Both names are familiar and simple but work for my characters. My character Keith is a woodcarver and I learned that the name actually means of the woods, or woodlands. So in a way, it fits. ;o)
Ginny
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Hi Robin!
I like to use names with a meaning connected to my characters in my stories. Example, Evangeline means “like an angel” for my heroine who helps save her hero’s life. I shorten it to Eva because I like 1-2 syllable names. Her hero is Nikao, aka Nick, which means “victory” or “to overcome” which describes his character arc in the story. I also like names that sound good together as a couple — “Nick and Eva” and “Eva and Nick” both sound good together. Since I write paranormal, I also like to pick out names that reflect the background of the character. For example, the werewolf myth I use is based in Greek mythology so I like to use Greek names for my lycae.
Great start on your blog!
Cheers,
Lila (aka Heather, aka winky_mt)
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Great blog, congrats on getting it up and going!! I like unique but normal names, I use a book of baby names. I pick a letter and scan through until I find one that fits my character. I agree with the above post, I detest names that are hard to pronounce or don’t read smoothly. I have actually stopped reading a book before because the character’s name became such an irritant. Best of luck
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I like western sounding names, and my all time fave is Zane. I once used it for a girl in a ms, and Leslie Wainger said in a workshop that she didn’t like boy names for girls and vise verse. I agree with someone above who said they didn’t like long, confusing names, and I agree. I like simple, normal names that I recognize from real life.
Good blog.
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Hi, Jenna!
What a great start to your blog 🙂 I haven’t started one for fear of boring everyone.
Names don’t come so easily to me. I write fantasy romance, so some of the names I use are made-up, but I still try to keep them simple.
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Awesome blog, congrats.
Names. I try to pick names of people I don’t know too much, so that they may take on a life of their own. Some are variations of people I know if they’ve influenced them. I love nicknames for my characters. Makes it more personal, endearing
Patrick, Paddy
Miguel, Mig
Tertulio, Tre (Tertulio means 3rd born in Greek, hence Tres meaning 3 in Spanish)
Grace, G-Mac
Theron, Hunter (Theron means Hunter in Greek)
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Congrats on the blog. I love the picture at the top. I should probably re-establish my defuncted blog. It is about my son with high functioning autism rather than about romance, but we had a lot of fun and readers.
As for names, I’ve only started writing my first fiction (after three decades of non-fiction) and I love the names of my characters. Their personalities are much like the meanings of their names.
In real life, naming my children has been just as important. I’m hoping each one will grow into their names and the people and ideas they were named after. Just like I resist the critiques which suggest I shorten my character Alejandro to “Al” I resist nicknaming my sons Joshua and Jonathan….Joshua is now 18 became Josh or JD to everyone else years ago. Only in the last three years have I given up and call him Josh myself. Jonathan, so far, has remained Jonathan to all but his best friend who calls him Jon. He still introduces himself as Jonathan, so there is hope.
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Sometimes I go to a names generator and see what comes up. Most of the time, my characters already have names before the first key strikes. Names are important. You can’t have a strong hero with a wimpy name (unless that’s a premise of the story). Then there’s the question of how many syllables do you want the name to be? Ethnic or uncommon? Great post Ms. Jenna Jaxson! Keep it the great work. You have a beautiful blogsite.
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Welcome to the world of blogging! I’ve still not taken the plunge yet. Gulp.
I agree that names are important, but I’m like you…my characters almost always come pre-named. I will say that I hate it when authors choose names that are hard to pronounce. I’m actually guilty of putting a book back on the shelf if the names are too complicated.
Great first two posts!
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Congratulations on the site!!!!
The names of my characters are one of the first things I know about them. I have never had trouble coming up with a name mainly because the characters seem to tell me their names. Like you, I have tried to change a character’s name, but it didn’t go over well so I caved and went back to the original name.
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Names are kind of a pet peeve of mine. I cannot for the life of me figure out why authors sometimes create names that are spelled so weirdly that they can’t be pronounced. If you can’t read the name out loud reasonably, it won’t be read silently well either. Phonetics are tools when it comes to naming fictional persons, places, and things.
I once read–well, started to read–a short story in Omni magazine where the primary character had clicks and whistles in his name. These were designated with * and /. Instead of giving this character an easy-to-pronounce nickname, the bizarre name was spelled out each and every time it was used. Drove me so batty because it was unpronounceable that I gave up half-way through the story.
Great post, Robin. And good luck with your blog!
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Patricia, my mouth is agape that someone would actually name a character with clicks and whistles and not find a way to make it reader-friendly, even in a Sci-Fi magazine. What a turn off.
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