What’s in a Name?

by Crymsyn Hart

How do you find the name of your character? Do you scour name them after your best friends or other people that you know? Do you use some random name that pops into your head? Or do you run to the baby book of names or website and see what’s trendy these days? Or do you want a meaning of a certain name first before you choose the most sacred of titles for your main character or the secondary ones who are involved in the novel.

I confess. I’ve done all of them.

My first book was based all around my friends. So each character got the name of the person I was writing about down to coping their personality. Of course the experiences in the book were all made up, but the names were not changed to protect the innocent. LOL

When a character pops into my mind, I get their attributes first most of the time. Then I hit the Internet baby name websites and search the meaning of a name. Once I do that, then I know I’ve found a good moniker. Or I look at the names I already have and try to find the balance of what the letters the other names start with. Other times the names pop into the story even without me conjuring them up.

But names are a big part of who a character is. They give you insight into who they are. If they’re strong names then the reader would hopefully know they will turn out to be. Sometimes the spellings are different than normal or the character ends up with a nickname. Sometimes their name can have an impact in their destiny.

What do you think? Have you read anything where a character’s name just didn’t fit? Or do you look for the deeper meaning in a name?

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