• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Character Naming

Addison

Auror
I know that a name paints a picture in a person's mind. Like you get a different picture from "Freddie" than the picture from "Frederick". But how do you know or find the right name for your character? I read somewhere than names starting with a J or a K give a picture of strong, adventurous character. Is there any other letter-aspect correspondences? Or can anyone think of a good name for a young boy, wavy blonde hair, hazel...or light brown (haven't decided), who's shy, hardworking, book worm, finds the fantasy world to escape to and faces all of its adventures head-on.
 
I wouldn't say that using a certain letter defines a character. I could name a character Mr. Fluffypuff and he could be charming and heroic. A name doesn't define a character but some names might sound better than others. The idea that a character who is strong and adventurous has to have a name that begins with J or K is absolutely ridiculous. What about Beowulf, Odysseus, Frodo, Harry Potter, etc.

My advice for naming is understand the culture your character lives in. If he is Germanic, give him a Germanic name. If he is Japanese, give him a Japanese name. But maybe the setting your character lives in doesn't have a Germany or Japan of even an Earth. That's not a problem. You can draw lots of base ideas from already pre-existing cultures and societies. So even though your character isn't German, he could be from a culture inspired from Germanic society. Then you can look into different prefixes and suffixes to better name your character.

It might sound odd but go to different baby naming sites and look at different names. Understand how the different languages work. Notice how many boy names end in this while most girl names might begin with that. You can also change things around and make your own names with their own patterns and qualities, though they would probably be similar to an already existing language. But regardless you can come up with some pretty creative things if you just put some deep thought into it. Try searching for more traditional names if it suits you better. typically, anytime you see or read or hear anything that says, "You have" or "you must in order to" is probably false.
 
Last edited:

Addison

Auror
I tried the baby name thing, I even dug up a book called "Character Naming Sourcebook." I found some possible names for other characters but for some reason I can't find one more my protagonist.

And I wasn't say all names starting with a J or K make strong characters. I read somewhere that names beginning with a J or K, possibly because of their sound, insinuate a strong person.

For some reason my protagonist tends to lean toward a name resembling Rick. Any ideas? I found one called Kenrick but...what do you think?
 

Meyrrek

Dreamer
What I find best is to build the character first. Build their personality then a rough physical image in your head and go from there. That's just what seems to work for me.
 

Taro

Minstrel
i just use the names i think of, some i use from current times or past but most are names i have made up that sound really cool. like they mean so much more. i use names like Taro, Raein etc.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
When I first started writing my novel, I obsessed over the names. At some point, I realized that they just don't matter all the much.

My life is better now.
 
Don't postpone your writing just because you can't think of a good name. Make a substitute name. If it is for your main character, just refer to them as MC for the time being. I actually kind of like Kenrick. When I write my stories I never use any names that exist in our world. No Jakes, Susans, Davids, Kevins, etc. Every single name in my novels I invented. Just keep working at it. It took me awhile to find the majority of names that I liked.

But again, don't think that a name that begins with a certain letter doesn't really insinuate anything. If you make a name, no one is going to say, "Well that name begins with a "C" and that doesn't sound like a strong name." Just try to make names that aren't too bizarre or strange because it is very easy to do that in fantasy and you don't want your readers fumbling over a character's name every time they come across it. Good luck!
 

JCFarnham

Auror
I put my thoughts on naming this way:

My real name, no matter how far you delve into its history and meaning, has no real baring on who I am as a person (aside from people making easy associations between it and UK royalty... and my being bullied to that end). Because of this, I don't name my characters for the meanings of their names no matter how much that plays to my artistic side. The closest I've got to this is the protagonist of Faebound; Catherine Sophie Lewis.. see the pun? But that's all. Nothing else to her name other than that. (incidentally the reason in-universe for Catherine's name is something along the lines of "her father is a bit of an a-hole and thought he would be cruel")

Above all I try to name characters the way their parents would name them. I get into their mind set and try and pick one based on their society, their social standing, their history, their ideals and dreams, etc. After all, that's the way I believe most people are named. I lost count of the people I know named after songs, for example. "I really like that name" is perhaps as far as some people delve into it.

That being said, I know, simply from being a writer and existing around them, that their will be some people within society who do delve that little bit further into namings. There are no absolutes in opinion after all ;)

Do what you like, as long as it fits in context.
 
Last edited:

Addison

Auror
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I think until I can find an actual name that fits I'm going to refer to my protagonist as Protagonist or MC.
 
Don't postpone your writing just because you can't think of a good name. Make a substitute name. If it is for your main character, just refer to them as MC for the time being.

I do this too, and if it goes on long enough, I make sure my in-story characters make fun of me for it. For instance, at one point I have my main character introduce himself and his friends only using their first names, and the person he is talking to goes, "Don't any of you have last names?"

At another point in my story, the main character asks two people he just met, "Do you have names or should I just keep thinking of you as the female one and the male one?" which is how I had been thinking of them for the first TEN drafts of the scene!

I do enjoy when a name has a hidden meaning, so long as the author is not hitting you over the head with the meaning (like J.K. Rowling is wont to do--I'm sorry, but who meets a character named Sirius and not know that it is the name of the dog star or meet Remus Lupin and not go, OK "Wolfy McWolferstein").
 
One day, with a friend, we wrote down what we hated about certain nomenclature in fantasy stories (and how bad names often, but not always, signified a bad book.)
1) 'Pretty princess' type names--Amelinda, Sharina etc. Too twee, made up and sugary sounding
2) Names so long and full of strange combos of letters they are almost indecipherable.
3) Names that start with X and Z--Xoltan, Zorgon. Sound like they come from bad 50's SF.
4) Names that begin with J. Interesting as someone above said they heard names with J indicate a powerful character. We found that the Jeggers, Jarls, Jaels and Jagos just sounded a bit jarring (pardon the alliteration!)
5) Names that mean something else quite likely to be known by a reader. Read a book with a character called Belial. Now this is a name for the devil. The character was a good guy and I kept waiting for him to turn bad!
6) Names that do not fit with the time period. This is endemic in historical fiction/historical-fantasy. Caitlin in ancient Ireland, Fallon in dark age England etc. Or names that are of the wrong culture--a celt called Ulf (a Germanic name), or an Anglo-Saxon woman called Ingibjorg (Norse.)
 
Top