There’s a fine art to naming fictional characters – and a well-chosen moniker can lend as much to a good story as the setting, style, or dialogue
Writing fiction can be a challenging business. Meshing plot with character development, producing natural-sounding dialogue, conjuring up a vivid setting that will come to life in readers’ minds, exploring relevant themes – the art of creating stories is a complex, if rewarding, process.
It’s also true that the process of writing a novel can take months, if not years. It’s a slow burn and quick thrills are hard to come by. Yet there are aspects of the creative journey that can sometimes be achieved in a moment and add pops of colour to that intricately worked piece of art. Naming your characters is one such pleasure – a joy that can bring a sense of rightness to your story. Choosing an appropriate name hits that mental sweet spot.
So, if you’re writing fiction, how do you decide which name is right for a particular character? Is there a method by which famous authors choose theirs? And what makes a perfect appellation, anyway? It seems there’s far more to it than sticking a proverbial pin in a board – the labelling of a person in your story has the power to decide how the reader will view them. It will colour the way they expect the narrative to play out, so a name that’s at odds with a character’s attitudes and behaviour might lead the reader to expect that all is not as it seems.
Create assumptions
In the real world, assumptions are often made about a person – their age, class, cultural background – based on what they’re called. That might not be helpful outside of a book, but as a writer it’s an excellent tool, and you can use those expectations to help shape how your character will be seen.
Doing just that are no-nonsense heroes of commercial fiction who often have a short, to-the-point first name – think Hunt (Athalar) or Sam (Spade). This needn’t be restricted to men, by the way, but there’s something about those crunchy consonants that indicates a headstrong, fearless protagonist. If you want to suggest a more sensitive soul, try a name that’s softer on the tongue, such as Anna Karenina, the eponymous protagonist of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, or Jean Valjean, the protagonist in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. And if you want to undermine your novel’s evil villain and deflate their power, give them a title that could have come out of a children’s book, such as Hilly Holbrook, the racist bully in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help.
Assumptions also work if the writer’s decision goes against the expected grain, leading the reader to believe that the fictional character will also in some way be different from the norm. The protagonist Aaron Falk in The Dry, Jane Harper’s bestselling novel, has a conventional first name and a less conventional surname. It’s the author’s way of telling us something about the character before we’ve even started reading.
On the other hand, Harry Potter is a deliberately unremarkable moniker, his last name being that of one of JK Rowling’s neighbours when she was a child. ‘I always liked the name Potter so I borrowed it,’ said Rowling. Yet over the course of his years at Hogwarts, Harry’s great potential is revealed. Look beneath the surface of a seemingly ordinary person, implies his creator, and you might find someone special.
In fact, one way to surprise the reader with twists is to lead them, by their own expectations, up the garden path. A hero called Jack who ends up unhinged – or an evil villain called Felicity Soft… some of the best page-turners rest their big reveals not only on their plot twists, but on the deception engendered by our tendency to assume.
Takeaway: Use names to create expectations in the reader – and then keep them guessing by revealing more layers of personality as the story unfurls.
Use rhythm
The best-chosen names have a rhythm to them. They roll off the tongue, giving a hit of pleasure each time they’re read. There’s no precise formula for success, but one that works is akin to a taste explosion, a delicious combination of syllables and sounds that is sheer joy to pronounce.
Charles Dickens was a master of the rhythmic appellation. Although some of his main characters are more conventional-sounding – think David Copperfield – he went wild with others. The names Wackford Squeers and Uriah Heep are as delightful in the reading as they must have been in the invention. Any strongly flavoured delicacies must be sparingly used, which is why Dickens reserves his most outlandish titles for characters who make less frequent appearances. Yet even some of his main personages – Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and Amy Dorritt of Little Dorritt – contain a gentle rhythm in their expression.
Takeaway: If your character is larger than life, try giving them an appropriately rhythmic, unusual name. Shug Avery, the flamboyant blues singer in Alice Walker’s classic novel, The Color Purple, is another example. Practise saying the names aloud or in your head until one hits the spot.
Make it metaphorical
A name can have both overt and subtle properties. If setting up expectations of personality is its top note, and the rhythm its texture, then its rich, deep innards come from a metaphor. This can indicate theme or reference an initially hidden aspect of someone’s story arc or identity. Like so-called Easter eggs hidden inside a computer program, each unlocked metaphor gives the reader an insider’s thrill.
Nick Guest, the protagonist of Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, is often acknowledged as referencing Nick Carraway, narrator of The Great Gatsby, observer of and enabler to the wealthy, and their inevitable destruction. Guest’s metaphorical surname also tells us he’s an outsider, and will never be truly accepted by the people he admires.
Meanwhile, the eponymous narrator of English author Susanna Clarke’s 2020 novel, Piranesi, appears at first to be in total harmony with his surroundings. His strange nickname resonates with romanticism and uncertainty, but also references Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who was best known for his highly charged, fantastical drawings. Readers who get the reference might work out that this hero’s world might not be as fitting for him as it initially appears.
Stuck for inspiration?
Try these resources and tips:
- Use websites, such as nameberry.com or behindthename.com, to inspire you. Some sites will give you the backstory of names, and suggest personality traits, too.
- Try traditional names from the part of the world that your character – or their parents – come from. Twist them to add a bit of interest.
- Don’t get bogged down in perfectionism. You can always change a name later.
- Keep a notebook – or a section of your regular notebook – and use it to scribble any possibles that catch your eye. Even if you don’t use them this time, they might come in handy for a future work (Dickens did this, and it worked successfully for him). Start experimenting with names, using the takeaways on assumptions, rhythm, and metaphor.
References and metaphors don’t have to be literary or intellectual – think of Roald Dahl’s characters, many of which were given symbolic names that were easy for his young readers to grasp. What else could Veruca Salt be but a horrible, spoiled little girl? And the naming of Mike Teavee, also from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is an indication of Dahl’s view of modern media at the time he wrote the book.
Takeaway: If you’re struggling to choose a name for a character, try starting with a metaphorical reference; it can work as a great way in, and give readers who get the joke a sense of satisfaction.
