Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Character Names


"I KNOW What You're Thinking."


If my regulars are wondering why this is appearing in comments, it's because Miss Vicki over at Rambles & Randomness is dissing 'Jersey and sending folks over to win a copy of Minder. I can recommend her wonderful blog as well as her excellent taste in books. :)

And, BTW, it's always okay to mock New Jersey. Thanks for linking over, Vicki!

Welcome, all you new folks! Not to shamefully self-promote (it's like shamelessly self-promoting, but I apologize for it afterward), but here's some info for Minder:
The website Ganzfield.com has a book trailer, tons of info about the series, and a free PDF excerpt. Amazon has best price online (as far as I know), especially for the e-book ($2.99), and the sequel, Adversary, will be out next month.

I'm sorry for such blatant self-promotion. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Character Names


"Maddie Dunn"

She sounds plain, right? Like "matte" (not glossy) and "dun" (brown). I gave the extraordinary main character of Minder a simple name. It simply fit her--a girl who hides in plain sight, almost as though the name was a form of social camouflage.

And, as much as I loved reading Twilight, the name and the character are somewhat the opposites of "Bella Swann."

In many novels, character names have special meaning. The Harry Potter books are full of them. For instance...

*Spoiler Alert*
(but if you haven't gotten around to reading Harry Potter by now, you deserve a spoiler)

...I knew "Remus Lupin" had to be a werewolf as soon as I saw his name. "Remus" was one of the mythical twin founders of Rome and was raised by a wolf, and "Lupin" is from the Latin "lupine," meaning wolf.

Yes, I am a great source of obscure data. Few dare challenge me at Trivial Pursuit.

Ooh--wouldn't a Hogwarts version of Trivial Pursuit be incredible?

But I digress.

So, what makes a great character name? Which ones really stuck with you? Fellow writers, how did you come up with your MC's and/or other character's names?

13 comments:

Lindsay said...

I KNOW what your thinking.

Lindsay said...

Now the other comment is out of the way via Vicki's blog, I can wave and say hi, new follwer.

I'm the same with MC nasmes, I had Lupin down as a werewolf too.:) My character names come from everywhere. I have names I like, names I've used a fill in till I think of something better, and it stuck. Although my MC's name was chosen because it has a meaning.

Unknown said...

Self promote as much as you can! It gets results! Good luck!

Nithin RS said...

All the best for promotions.

Well think off the beautiful places you have been to and the names of most loved people in your life. You will get some name right from heart. I would love to have your book to present a friend who loves book.So i wish i win this content.

I am quite interested in creating names. Obion , i as a kid used to read books and then select some interesting words from it and tweaked around to create names.I still do it for fun.

Kristi said...

I KNOW what you're thinking.

Kristi said...

And I adore Harry Potter. Just watched the JK Rowling special feature on my DVD last night and was enthralled listening to her talk.

But as for MC names, I often search for baby names on the internet until I find something that grabs me. Then I try it out and see if it sticks. :-)

vic caswell said...

yeah, i had the lupin one guessed right away too. when i read i prefer names i don't have to stumble over- usually shorter, with an easily guessable pronunciation. a lot of times, i'm reading aloud to my boys, and it just makes things easier... i guess i'm a lazy reader! :)

Theresa Milstein said...

I KNOW what you're thinking!

Guess where I'm visiting from?

Disgruntled Bear said...

Thanks for stopping by, everyone!

Susan Fields said...

I KNOW what you're thinking.

Susan Fields said...

I love the idea of having reasons for character names. I haven't done that yet, but I'll have to give it a try. I usually just try to pick a name that fits the character, doesn't start with the same letter as any other characters, and just "feels" right to me. Especially the mc, I wouldn't want to spend the huge amount of time it takes to write a book with someone whose name I didn't like. :)

Nithin RS said...

Well hope you found some more character names. Have a nice day.

While going through blogs i found a writer telling that ,best way for self promotion is to write more books.

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