Please be advised there may be some who find the following insulting. Sorry!
Any writer will have a problem with names. Let’s think about the mental gymnastics involved in naming characters first of all. I’ll visit naming places in a later blog.
For me, when creating a character, often the name comes first. Rachel Makepeace in While I Was Waiting was only ever a Makepeace as that’s what she had to do with her world, herself and the lovely Gabriel – make peace. Amelia in the Cupcake Café books sprang out of my imagination fully formed as Millie Fudge. Let’s face it, Fudge is a great surname for a baker.
If you’ve written lots of books the received wisdom is to not repeat names of characters. Not sure why, maybe it’s so readers don’t get confused. I can understand this if it’s a repetition in the same book but avoiding names you’ve used before means you have to be ever more creative in subsequent ones. You might have noticed your favourite writer choosing increasingly unusual names in their later books! If, like me, you have loads of characters in each book you use up the Lauras, Janes, Mohammeds and Nicks of this world quickly. And that’s before I name the animals which is a whole other issue.
I find naming my heroes even trickier. I like single syllable names. I’m really sorry to those of you with Darren or Justin as a partner but I just don’t find the names sexy (I mean, I’m sure your Darren and Justin is gorgeous but …) Of course, this is my own personal opinion. However, I’m running out of single syllable names so look out for a Maxwell or a Barnaby possibly turning up any day soon.
When naming characters, you also have to consider their age. Ruby, in the Summer Street Party books is very much a product of her year of birth, 1932, but could equally be a modern heroine as the name has become popular again. However, I probably wouldn’t call a thirty-year old Karen, Louise or Wendy as they scream babies born in the 1960s and 1970s. Iris, Ava and Mia are hugely popular names for babies being born now but Ashley was a good choice for my thirty-something heroine in the Summer Street Party series as the name was in the Top Ten of baby names in the 1990s when she came into the world.
I also consider what personality I want to suggest, what class, cultural background my characters are from and what their parents are like. Charity in On a Falling Tide had a mother who lived in a world outside her safe, middle-class upbringing, so Charity seemed apt. If a character is Catholic, for instance, they often have a saint’s name as a middle name. I had a friend with Xavier as his middle name and I’d love to use that one day.
Onto another issue, related to Xavier. Received wisdom is readers need to know how to pronounce names in their head as they read. Unless you have a Celtic background, you may find Aislinn and Cerridwen difficult to get your teeth around. Personally, I think readers are vastly underestimated and besides, there are online tools to help pronunciation. I’ve just used one! Celtic names are truly beautiful. However, I deeply regretted calling Patrick’s wife Sinead in The Little Book Café series as I had to check every time I typed it. Even though a fairly straightforward name, I had a complete mental block with how it was spelled. Thankfully Word has now evolved so you can add ‘unusual’ words into your working dictionary so it’s less of a problem.
One of my favourite writers, Phil Rickman, has a Welsh character named Eirion in his Merrily books. Phil cleverly has a running gag throughout the series of Eirion’s girlfriend nicknaming him Irene which gives us English readers some idea of how it’s pronounced. Lovely name and I might pinch it to use one day, although knowing my characters they’d probably shorten it to Ron. Single syllable but, sorry Rons of the world, not very sexy. Again, my personal opinion.
Talking of underestimating readers, writers are recommended to never use the same first letter for characters’ names. So, it’s apparently not the thing to have a Steve, Sally and a Sophie all in the same book. As I’m a quick reader, I have some sympathy with this. It’s easy, when you’re reading really quickly, to mistake Sally for Sophie. If you mistake a Simon for a Sadie maybe you need to go back and read a little more carefully!
Of course, once you have a first name, you often have to choose a surname. Writers invariably have a whole back story to their characters, little of which makes it onto the page you read. Choosing a name is only the very beginning of creating a fully-rounded character. Even a very minor character will often have a full name but is only referred to by their first. I like names to flow, to sound right together. In my work in progress my heroine has changed names often. She began as a Flora, turned into a Lily and is now a Daisy. Her surname is Wiscombe. I loved the rhythm of Lily Wiscombe and was committed to the surname before having to change the first name so Daisy Wiscombe she’s had to become. Not too bad. In an early draft of the same book, I swapped around names of minor characters and ended up with a Scott Knott. I was half inclined to leave it in as a joke.
Which leads me onto calling characters unusual or old-fashioned names and making it a feature. I’ve never yet had a main character called Ethel but there’s time. Biddy, in the Cupcake Café series, is so named as she’s the direct opposite of what most think of as an old biddy. If you’ve read the books, you’ll know what I mean. Call Biddy an old biddy and you won’t live long.
Forgive me if I break some of the ‘rules’ I’ve mentioned above. I happen to think my readers will realise Edwardian Edward from While I Was Waiting isn’t the same man as American Eddie in the Summer Street Party books and they have the common sense to look up how to pronounce a name like Saoirse.
You can see what I mean when I say it’s mental gymnastics, can’t you? At least I can applaud myself for not writing Regency romance. Can you imagine not only having to think up names but aristocratic titles too? I’m looking at you, Bridgerton!
Come back to the blog soon and we’ll discuss the knotty problem of naming places.
Love,
Georgia (a name I chose for myself) x