Writers sometimes forget that the names we choose for our characters can affect the story. While character names aren’t as critical as components like plot, we shouldn’t just pull them out of a hat without any consideration. Avoid trying to be cute or clever because, in most cases, it has the opposite effect. For example, family names that sound the same but are spelled differently, while we may think it’s amusing, are not recommended. These create confusion for the reader. Naming a woman Jeanne and her husband Jean, is a definite no-no. When rewriting, we should examine the names we’ve chosen and look for a few common errors.
Names that don’t match the setting
Hayley or Porche don’t fit in a story written in 17th century Scotland. These names weren’t used in that country at that time, so our story would lack accuracy. When naming our characters, we must consider the time and the place of the story. Writers who base their stories in modern times don’t face this problem as often as historical writers do, but nationality, time period, and culture should play a role when choosing names for our novels.
Difficult to Pronounce
Readers often mention that names they find hard to pronounce are annoying. Indeed, try to read a book with a name like Srinivasan (See-reen-ee-vaza) for the protagonist. Every time the reader sees this name, she stops, tries to pronounce it, and this pulls her from the story. Even if the reader chooses to ignore it, each time she reads it, the annoyance flares again. We want the names to be memorable, but not for the wrong reasons. If the story is set in a foreign country or another time where we must use uncommon names, we should try to write the pronunciation somewhere in the story. Perhaps someone calls the character by the wrong name, and he corrects them. Another option is to use the full name once, and quickly incorporate a nickname for the remainder of the story, which is a lot of work for a simple name when we can choose one the reader can easily pronounce instead.
Rhyming Names
Bill, his wife Jill, and their children Dill, Phil, and Will are the central characters in a novel. The reader sees this and sighs. Not another cute and clever little writer bent on naming the characters so that they all rhyme--even if it is realistic at times. We don’t want the reader rolling her eyes at our naming attempts. She can’t read if her eyes are busy rolling.
Try to avoid using names that rhyme. First, it creates an echo in the prose. Second, the reader may be forced to pause and reread to ensure she’s thinking of the right character. In the interest of clarity, writers should try to find names that sound different from other characters. The reader can keep track and doesn’t have to come out of the story to find out. Using different names also eliminates the possibility that the writer will mistakenly write Dill instead of Bill in a love scene with Jill, which would create an entirely different story.
Common Names
It’s good advice to stick to common names for characters. Common names tend to blend into the story much like using “said” as a dialogue tag. Such names become invisible for the reader. For a protagonist, this isn’t a problem because “Bob Smith” is in nearly every scene. No chance of the reader forgetting Bob Smith. But for secondary characters, like Bob’s mother-in-law, we want something a bit more memorable, especially if she floats in and out of the story. Perhaps her name is Zena or Roberta, names the reader easily links to her. If we have characters that appear in scene two, and then disappear until scene forty or fifty, we should give those characters more memorable names so the reader doesn’t have to wonder where the heck they came from.
Wrong Meaning
Sometimes writers choose names for characters that are opposite to their personality in meaning. Consider the name Belle. We see images of beauty and youth with that name. The name itself means beautiful and it’s often used to refer to an attractive woman. “Belle of the ball” or “Southern Belle” come to mind when we see it. Suppose we give an old hag the name. She’s got a wart on her nose and three teeth spread around her gaping mouth. While this is sometimes very clever, writers must remember the odd pairing of a name like Belle with a character like this will cause the reader to pause each time it’s used in reference to ugliness.
Recycling Names
We’ve all recycled names before and, in most, cases it’s okay. However, if a writer recycles the same name in each story, it’s going to be noticed eventually. When naming, we should ensure that our protagonists always have a different name from the previous protagonists. If our works are successfully published, someone (several someones) will note that our male lead is always named Jake, Jacob, or Jack. We may think the reader will find it quirky and fun, but it’s more likely the reader will see a lazy writer who can’t be bothered to come up with original names.
Names that begin or end with the same letter or sound
For the starring roles, writers should use names that are different in pronunciation and spelling. Consider a cast named Rick, Roger, Randy, and Rosie. Although the writer might not see it, the “R” appearing so often becomes confusing for the reader, and we end up with the same problem we had with rhyming names. Alternately, look at how each character’s name ends. Jason and Jackson are easily confused, as are Carrie and Mary. Avoid repeating vowel sounds as well. In Janie, Bailey, Cory, Lori, Murphy, the long E sound echoes and can be annoying for a reader. We want the characters to stand out as individuals, and any similarity in names leads to their blending in the reader’s mind.
What is the perfect name? There isn’t one. What we name our characters depends on the character and the story we’re telling. Although naming might seem the most trivial part of writing our novel, errors can affect the entire story. We recommend getting one of those handy little books of baby’s names. Many of these books separate names by gender and origin and include meanings for each. They also include information on the most popular or common names by time period. Several websites also list the same information with a larger database. This means you can simply enter the information you’re looking for, such as girl’s names common in the 1960’s, and a list of names will appear.
When we’ve selected the names, checked that they are all unique, no rhymes, echoes, or weird spellings, we ensure that we’ve picked a name and stuck with it. For example, Renee has a terrible tendency in first drafts to call her characters by several names. In her novel In the Bones, the villain, Carroll Albert, is referred to as Carroll, Albert, and the Reeve. This is littered through the rough draft like she’d forgotten his name. Writers don’t need to use synonyms to substitute character names. It’s not clever, it doesn’t eliminate echoes, and it makes things more confusing for the reader. For example:
She hugged her knees to her chest, unable to move from her spot on the floor in front of her counter. The memory of what the Reeve would do if he thought she might not be loyal had haunted her dreams for many years, long after her parents died and she could have left.
Audrey snorted, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill. Like she could have left, despite what she’d told Ryan. She was tied to this place as much as anyone else. She might not have taken money from Albert, but she turned her head to everyone who had, and the things he asked them to do in payment for his generosity.
Who are we talking about? In this passage Carroll is described three ways: the Reeve, he, and Albert. Rewritten, it reads much better.
She hugged her knees to her chest, unable to move from her spot on the floor in front of her counter. The memory of what Carroll Albert would do if he thought his spouse might not be loyal had haunted her dreams for many years, long after her parents died and she could have left.
Audrey snorted, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill. Like she could have left, despite what she’d told Ryan. She was tied to this place as much as anyone else. She might not have taken money from Carroll, but she turned her head to everyone who had, and the things he asked them to do in payment for his generosity. [1]
Unless we’re using the name three times in a single sentence (and if we are, we should examine that sentence) we never use a substitute for the character’s name just to vary the sound.
Character names become invisible to the reader and the use of a synonym or nickname draws attention to it. Again, just as “said” is invisible when tagging dialogue, names should be distinct but invisible as well. The reader shouldn’t need to pause to figure out who we’re talking about. Beyond using “he” or “she,” we use nothing other than the character’s name.
Writers sometimes forget that the names we choose for our characters can affect the story. While character names aren’t as critical as components like plot, we shouldn’t just pull them out of a hat without any consideration. Avoid trying to be cute or clever because, in most cases, it has the opposite effect. For example, family names that sound the same but are spelled differently, while we may think it’s amusing, are not recommended. These create confusion for the reader. Naming a woman Jeanne and her husband Jean, is a definite no-no. When rewriting, we should examine the names we’ve chosen and look for a few common errors.
Names that don’t match the setting
Unless we’re using the name three times in a single sentence (and if we are, we should examine that sentence) we never use a substitute for the character’s name just to vary the sound.