What’s in a Name?

Today, we have a guest blog from Joyce Brown, who says she ownsBrown - Joyce rental properties, but none of her tenants have (so far) been involved in theft, kidnapping, or murder.  Still she finds ideas for her Psycho Car and the Landlady Mystery series. Today, she talks about naming characters.

Nicholas Nickleby, Tom Sawyer, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre—people remember those fictional characters’ names because they are also the titles of books. Names from books that were made into movies—James Bond, Jack Ryan, Scarlett O’Hara, Scout—are memorable because we see the movies over and over, and the characters are referenced again and again.

What character names do people remember from books that have not become movies or book titles? Or do they remember the names? Are the names of some book characters memorable because the names are distinctive, or do people remember monikers only if they’ve seen them often?

I did a little casual research by asking my friends what character names they remember. Men remembered the names of male characters, especially those from books that are also movies. Women tended to remember the names of female characters. They also came up with the names of characters from children’s books, having been reminded from reading books to their children and grandchildren.

The names these people remembered weren’t necessarily unusual; rather, the characters were exciting and special. No one came up with a long list of names. They were more likely to say something like, “Oh, you know, the main gal in Gone Girl. What was her name? “

So—are authors wise to be creative when choosing character names? Scout is unusual, as are Sherlock and Huckleberry, and there’s Goldie, the name of Diane Mott Davidson’s culinary sleuth. Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt—well, both the author’s pen name and the name of the author’s super investigator are out of the ordinary. My question is: would those characters be just as memorable with names like Kinsey (Sue Grafton’s sleuth), Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy (from Little Women), or Harry ( of Harry Potter fame)?

I remember some characters’ names (mostly female) because I’ve read a whole series with the same main character—Kinsey Milhone, Goldie Schultz, Stephanie Plum, Bilbo Baggins, Henry Huggins. The main character in the book Delicious is Wilhelmina, nicknamed Billie. I loved the character, and her name is fresh in my memory because I recently read the book, and the author made so much of the name. But, a year from now, will I remember the name or just the attributes of the character? James R. Callan’s Father Frank is a wonderful character, one I remember vividly. Nevertheless, even though I know the character is a caring, charismatic, basketball-playing priest who solves mysteries, I had to look back in the book to remember the name Frank.

An author should use common sense and follow the rules. Use names appropriate for the character’s age, unless you are going for a name appropriate for the headmaster of the wizard school, Hogwarts, in which case Aldus Dumbledore works, or for the name of a small, slimy creature in a fantasy series, where Gollum is perfect.

brown - CATastrophic Connections Cover-cDon’t give important characters names which are too similar. That could be disastrous. In one draft of my mystery, CATastrophic Connections, I realized I had a Libby, an Abby, and a Liz. No problem, right? Make a global change—Find and Replace All—with new names.  However, when I changed Liz to Lisa, I didn’t leave a space before and after Liz. The liz in every word containing those contingent letters changed to lisa. Civilize became civilisa, and realized changed to realisaed.

To add to the calamity, I accidentally changed Abby to Beth when I wanted Libby to become Beth. When I went back and made my intended change, I ended up with two characters having the same name. After hours and hours of manually changing the mistakes, the first publication of the book still contained two Beth which should have been Abby. Mistakes my editor didn’t find. Drat. Learning curves can be painful.

Most of the characters of my second book, FURtive Investigation, have had unusual names from the beginning, and I didn’t change them. Lesson learned. The title, on the other hand…

What book character names do you remember without looking them up? Why? How do you choose the names for characters in your stories and books? Are there any characters you would have given a different name?

JIM:  Thanks for some interesting thoughts on naming.  I devote a chapter to the selection of names for characters in my book Character: The Heartbeat of the Novel (the 2nd edition now in Kindle as well as paperback).   I certainly believe names are important.

Joyce Ann Brown’s book can be found on Amazon by clicking here.  I’ve read it and can recommend it.

13 thoughts on “What’s in a Name?

  1. In my latest series, a WWII humorous adventure WIP, I checked the internet for the most common names from the period of the cast’s birth (late 1800’s) and used those first names and then added a ridiculous last name to every character. We have our protag, Agnes Agatha Odboddy, cast of characters…Mildred Higgenbottom, Bernard Whistlemeyer, Godfrey Baumgarten, Jackson Jackson, Roger Finklebaum, Colonel Farthingworth… you get the idea. Look for Mrs. Odboddy next year!!!!

  2. A very interesting post, and I am glad that I stumbled across it 🙂 My favourite character in fiction is “Anne” Of Green Gables …so that’s an unforgettable name for me…! And I must say that I also like Joyce since it reminds me of joy and happiness 🙂

    I would also like to share my name story if I may. I have two first names. “Ramla” and “Zareen”. Actually, what happened was that I was my parents first child and a first grandchild from my father’s side. So my paternal grandmother desired that I be called “Ramla” while my mother favoured “Zareen”. So it was eventually decided that rather than cause any negative ambience, I be blessed with two names. It can be confusing to some people but I am quite used to both. And I usually use both of them to sign my name, in order to not show any favouritism … and leave it to others to decide whatever they like to call me by 🙂

    Well anyway, thanks again for such an interesting post 🙂

  3. I found your comments about names very interesting. There is a reason I do not use my first name–using only the L. No one pronounces it correctly and it is very embarrassing in a waiting room with some pronunciations.
    It is Loeta-long e. It is a Native American name–5 Nations. My mother was of Native American heritage.

  4. Lawrence Sanders named the detective in his Deadly Sins series Edward X. Delaney. I suppose the X helps me to remember the name after all these years—and the character was given to eating sandwiches. He ate “wet” sandwiches over the sink and dry ones at the table. The Third Deadly Sin was my favorite.

  5. I remember Scout because I enjoyed the book so much, and Stephanie Plumb because of the laughter she’s provided. As far as my books, I tend to use either relatively common names that the reader can relate to, or names the suit a special character. My own name is different and over the years I’ve learned that people generally don’t get it right. That has a lot to do with where I’ve gone.
    Excellent post!

  6. I agree, names are important. They reflect the heritage you’ve given your character, or describe inherent traits by the meaning of the name. When a name becomes tied to a line of dialogue, it’s instantly imprinted on the reader’s brain: “Bond, James Bond.” And you just can’t think of anyone calling Bond “Jimmy!”

  7. Great topic. Character names I remember off the top of my head are Alex Cross and Lucas Davenport because they “sound cool” like the detectives they are. Also a sidekick Del Capslock will never be forgotten because of that moment when it dawned on me that the author had too much fun slipping that one past us.
    In my own writing, I would go back and give Laine a different name since readers have asked if it’s pronounced La-nee or Lane (this one’s correct) and some even confuse it with Liane (Lee-ann). Otherwise I’m glad I had fun working street names and other names from Lake Norman into my character names because locals get such a kick out of that.

    • I like the name Laine (Clearly pronounced Lane.) When I read books in which the pronunciation of a character’s name is unclear, I assign a pronunciation and move on. But it’s not easy to remember the name years later. “Harry” I can remember. “Captain Binneford” (a name from a James Michener novel,) not so much. Bin-ford or Bin-eh-ford or ?
      Street names from a locale are another subject–what names are we to change and what to keep from a real place in a work of fiction.

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