Hatrack River Writers Workshop: naming and renaming

This is topic naming and renaming in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by ozwonderdog (Member # 7837) on :

How precious are you with names? I have 2 novels which I have produced through nanowrimo, and am planning the next installment this year, with the same characters.

I am polishing up the first one, and one piece of advice was some of the names are confusing. Too many names starting with the letter J -Jarred, Jon, Jane, Jake. And two very MC names- Jarred, Barret. They are too similar and confusing.

Having written 2 books already, I am kind of used to writing the names, and like them. But.. perhaps I might HAVE to change some of them, for the sake of the story.

How precious are you over names, about getting the right names, having names you like, and possibly changing them if you need to?

Posted by dragonfox (Member # 8152) on :

I am actually considering changing the name of my main character, still pondering. But a supporting character is named Jerry. To me that's a likealbe buddy name and I cannot change that.
Other characters have names that could change if need be.

Posted by marchpane (Member # 8021) on :

A lot of my names come from nonsense words that have just popped into my head because I can't think of anything better at the time. I'm not that attached to those. More of them come from languages I've made up, which are even more fluid because those languages are constantly evolving. Once I changed a name when I mistyped it and decided I preferred the 'error'.

And then there are those annoying names that stick like toffee to teeth. One of my favourite MCs has been in my head for 8 years and she's always had the same name (Morgan) which has always seemed right. I couldn't imagine her with a different name. Unfortunately, it's so unbearably cliche - and every other character and their mum has a name starting with M - that I sometimes wish I could bring myself to part with it...

If there's a name you really like, but think you should change, try replacing one letter and see if you can live with the result!

[This message has been edited by marchpane (edited August 25, 2008).]

Posted by RobertB (Member # 6722) on :

I find it difficult to keep making up names and make them all sound distinctive. One piece of advice (which I don't follow as closely as I probably should) is to have them all start with different letters.

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

My biggest problem is with last names. I've never had an issue with the first name, and even have a few "staples" that have appeared in my short stories that mean something when I name them a specific name (For example, one name I may use across different stories is reserved just for female characters that I hold in the highest esteem or signify pureness in the story). Usually, once I name a character in a story, it rarely changes.

Lucky me, I guess.

quote:
One piece of advice (which I don't follow as closely as I probably should) is to have them all start with different letters.

Generally a good idea, as too much alliteration in names can get confusing to the reader. If nothing else, web-search for common baby names and choose from there. It's a great list and can come up with ones you may not have thought of.

Posted by Lullaby Lady (Member # 1840) on :

My problem is that I have to decide whether to use a name I like for a character or for a future child. *grin* I'm about done in the kid department, so that won't be a big problem in the near future. Basically, I grill my husband about the names on the baby list, and if he hates one I love, I use that in my story.

One time I wrote a story that I shared with a writing critique group. I went ahead and used my children's actual names, (which the kiddos thought was cool!) and most of the critiques praised my naming choices. *hee* I guess I've done SOME naming right!

~LL

[This message has been edited by Lullaby Lady (edited August 25, 2008).]

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

My problem is that I tend to associate names with the names of people I know or work with. The first book I've written has Julie as the MC. I chose the name at the time because I hardly knew anyone with that name. Now, I know several Julies but I'm not about to change the name of my MC.

Now, when I'm trying to come up with names for a new story, I try to stay away from the names of people I know. It's frightening to think that I might think of them the same way as a character in one of my stories. Sometimes this may work out okay, but there are other times that they might think I think of them the same way as the character in my story by the same name.

I do have a family in another one of my novels that have names that are similar, but the reason why is because the son & daughter's names are based on the parents. I feel this is something that would be common among certain families, though this is the only time I would do that in any one story.

Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :

quote:
My problem is that I have to decide whether to use a name I like for a character or for a future child.

I was proud of myself for narrowing down the name choices for my soon-to-be first-born son. With less than a week before the scheduled cesarean section, only two candidates remained.

One evening, I pulled one of my forgotten incomplete manuscripts out from hiding and started to read. I never made it past the first sentence before I remembered how much I liked the MC's name. Just like that, the two would-be names for my son were ditched.

I am so glad Derrick turned out better than that manuscript.

S!
S!...C!

[This message has been edited by Crank (edited August 25, 2008).]

Posted by kings_falcon (Member # 3261) on :

Some names are subject to revision but not generally my MCs. I had a group of characters (4 in the same book) whose names all started with the letter "M." I had:

Mordent
Marcus
Mickel
Mal

They were in one scene together in Book 3 and I couldn't even keep them straight.Everyone except the Antagonist/MC/ Mordent got a name change after that.

They are now:

Mordent
Jurriaan
Puhala
Laramar/ Laurie

Mordent's name was non-negotiable because of the word meaning, evocative nature and story purpose. Essentially, his is the name I spent a lot of time on. So, he got to keep his. Everyone else liked their new names better so it worked out.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Associations with the names will bother me. If I use a name, but subesequently remember some character or real person who has it, I have trouble writing about it. Sometimes I overcome it...more likely I change the name. (And thank God for word processing where you can change a name with a few strokes and clicks.)

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

I'm very precious with names because, for me, they encapsulate something of the character's personality; the name becomes a mental hook upon which I can hang their attitudes and behaviours--avoids those pesky bios we were talking about in another thread. That said, the story is written to be read, so if someone I respect tells me a name confuses them, they're right, it does, so I change it.

How I pick the names varies. Sometimes they're fusions or distortions of names of people I know, and in one story they're affectionate references to some fine Victorian engineers. But more often they're chosen from those lists of babies names that tell you what the names mean, their history and so forth. I like lists that include names from different countries, to stimulate some exotic names sometimes. For one story that's set in the Stone Age I researched Gaelic and Pagan names and their meanings, and that was great fun. As I pick names using these ideas I make sure they aren't easily confused by going for different start letters, different numbers of syllables, not rhyming, etc.

Cheers,
Pat

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

My husband and I have thrown around baby names (babies still to come) since before we were married. One day I suggested "Derran" and could not let go of the name once my husband rejected it. So, I thought, what if we did have a son named "Derran"?, and an outrageously complicated story burst forth. The baby factor helped me in that case.

For another story, I gave the MC's love interest a name I liked, then I remembered a spoiled, alcoholic, sex-addicted college "friend" with the same name. The name went out the figurative window to make room for a less offensive name I selected from a website.

The situation still puzzling me is the selection of "Odal" as the name of an MC. By the time I fully awoke one day, a strange boy with a strange name and a stranger family history was strutting through my consciousness telling me about his life. I went online to learn more about the name to be delighted and dismayed that, respectively, the name is not used for people and represented a rune used by the Nazi party. Oddly enough, some interpretations of what the rune symbolizes are the opposite of what Odal Henna symbolizes. Despite the drawbacks to his name, my dear Odal would pout and worry why I don't like him if I were to insist in a new name, so the name remains. I'm a third of the way through his novel's first draft.