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Let's talk about naming your characters for the new Roundtable.
What resources do you consider the most valuable when coming up with character names?
Samantha Dunaway Bryant: When I’m working in a contemporary, close to real-world setting, I look at details like where my character is from, what year they were born, who their parents were, and use that to help me select a likely name.
Census records and baby name books are useful for this.
Cindy Bergquist: Some come to me. Some I reference my favorite character naming book, The Character Naming Sourcebook.
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Van Allen Plexico: Writing ALPHA/OMEGA from 2005-2024, I needed a LOT of Russian names. Like 35 distinct Russian characters. I used every source I could find for first and last names, from websites to baby name books.
And I still wasn't completely happy with the range of Russian names!
Bree Jackson: If I’m going for symbolic, I take attributes of the character (ie: strength, beauty, resilience,etc…) and translate those words into different languages. Then I derive a name from the word that works best. In other instances, I’ll ask my beta reader group silly questions like “I need a name that isn’t Chad to describe a gym bro guy who looks like he lives off of wheatgrass and unseasoned chicken.” The results are entertaining and useful.
Chris Pocase: There were two methods I used to use when coming up with character names. The first one was to take two Latin words and sort of splice them together to make a name. But I plan to rename those characters since the combinations can be fun to come up with but difficult to pronounce.
The other method…use Google Maps and pick a random place in the USA, and look at street names. There are some really interesting ones especially in rural areas
Kay Lee: Sounds weird but I feel like my characters name themselves lol. Based on the personality of that character names that seem like a fit just kind of come into mind and make sense.
Nick Schulte: My main character was the hardest. I wanted something short and punchy, that others could easily call out. I had Jack Shelby as a stop gap, because every hero is named Jack, and I love Shelby Cobras. But because “every” hero is called Jack. I was going to avoid that name at all costs. I googled name lists and ran through different combos in my head. I asked ChatGPT for help, I reviewed names of characters I liked, of athletes and coworkers. Settled on McCoy first, as the punchy name he’d go by, then struggled with the first name. I wanted something different and eventually settled on Gunner.The other names were much easier. His best friend started off as Daemon Trueblood, before I settled on Daemon Duvall. I like the name Daemon and, as I’m going with the 5-man-band troupe. He’d be the Lancer. So Daemon is actually a misdirect, because they have been best friends since Kindergarten, they were SEAL swim buddies. He’d never betrayed McCoy. Trueblood was a nod to Bond movies, but I never loved the combo, so back to name lists and kicking around different combos. Daemon Duvall just clicked.
Marie St. Claire was easy, that popped into my head instantly and I’ve never wavered on. Same with the villain, Victoire Bloodstone. First name is borrowed from Harry Potter, but I’m not sure where Bloodstone came from. But I loved the combo and never thought of changing it.
Lisa Barker: It usually just comes to me.
Inka York: I usually just Google Irish boy names or Cornish girl names or whatever, then scroll through until I find something I like. Sometimes I'll combine Greek and Latin words just to freak out the language purists 😆 I named a species of creature Kernyx, which was a combo of Norse (I think) and Greek. That was a long time ago, so I might be misremembering the Norse part. Or I'll Google plant names or animal-related names for babies, which works well for on-the-nose shifter names.
John French: For my main characters, I like to follow what I call the “Sherlock Holmes” method – a two-three syllable first name and a one-syllable second name. I learned early on not to use a name that is too difficult to spell. Usually the character tells me their name.
For other characters, I use name generators like Seventh Sanctum.
I go online for names from certain eras or heritages. I also use history books to see what names in a certain era were in use. I also reference books on myth and legends. For a crime story I wrote for one of the Bad-Ass Fairies anthologies, I got the male names from the history book I was reading and the female names from my daughter’s fashion magazine.
I recently wrote a SF novella featuring non-Terran intelligent races. For those names, I took a Terran name and just spelled it backwards to make it sound non-Terran. (e.g. Simon became Nomis.)
Sometimes as a “thank you” to someone, I’ll tuckerize” them (with their permission) and name a character after them. When I do this, I try to come as close to their real life self as possible. My favorite tuckerization was for a tribute anthology for C. J. Henderson. I made him a medieval bard called “Seejay, Son of Hender.”
Stuart Hopen: I tend to put a great deal of thought into character names. My role models include Thomas Pynchon, whose character name "Dewey Glad" reportedly made Vladimir Nabokov laugh out loud. And I've loved Will Eisner's propensity for outrageous names. I named one of my characters because of a bit of overheard conversation, which led to the following the way the character introduced herself: "Catharine. My name is Catharine. It's not the name my parents gave me, but I wanted nothing from them. I changed my name after I overheard two people talking. One said, 'I wish Catharine had been there. She would have slit their throats.'" I named one of my pulp heroes Orville Wootin, a WWI ace. The first name was a dual reference to Orville Wright with a nod to Norvell Page, with Wootin being one of Page's pseudonyms. Originally, I thought Wootin was Page's middle name, but that actually was more literary and a pun in its own right, considering Page's career and the basis on which he was paid-- Wordsworth. The protagonist of my story cycle, Remembrance Acres, was named Gardner Flookz, a tribute to my earliest literary hero, Gardner Fox, but also a play on words meaning the cultivator of fluky results. I went hog wild in an unpublished postmodern gothic horror romance about the adult film industry, where the characters all were supposed to have outrageous and provocative stage names to begin with.
Terrance Layhew: I use genealogies and Wikipedia once I know the general demographic or ethnicity of the people and place I am writing.
Troy Osgood: My head and what I've determined for the culture of the setting.
Nancy Hansen: Sometimes names just pop into my head. I do use baby naming sites, ethnic name sites, geneology sites for surnames, or the occasional name generator for something off-the-wall. My favorite go-to site is: https://www.20000-names.com/index.htm There's tons of category pages there to sift through. I've used it for many years.
Bobby Nash: After I pick a name, I do some Google searches to make sure it's not tied to another character or well-known person. I learned that lesson early.
Ron Thomas: I find part of “sounding right” is in the syllable count to get a beat. My lead character is 2-3-1 syllables for first middle and last name. Plus, I try to hear where the consonants make clean breaks between names.
(I also take names on Google test flights. I almost named a prime villain after a Bulgarian philosopher!)
How do you determine when you need to name a character with something symbolic, something generic, something specific, etc.? What's your thought process when choosing how to name them?
Bree Jackson: It really depends on the vibe of the story I’m telling.
Nick Schulte: Other characters I researched names, to pick names that were appropriate for them. But generally, I still tried to go with names that sound good (or evil).
One thing I find amazing is the name Callister Rayne. A name I came up with early on, he was the original foil to McCoy. That has since changed. But the amazing thing is that’s the same name of a one off character from the show Eureka. While it’s a show I love. I hadn’t watched it in years and years. I rewatched in more recently, after coming up with the name and I was stunned to hear it on the show. If it had been a more common name, or off a show I’d binged several times, I wouldn’t have been shocked.
Samantha Dunaway Bryant: I also like to amuse myself by naming characters with pieces of real people’s names, usually people connected to my writing life in some way, like my critique partners or writer friends.
Certain names also have feels or connotations around them for me, so I might choose a name to suggest a certain type of person and either lean into it or subvert it.  For the creepiest storyline in the menopausal superheroes, I pulled names from the Vincent Price era of horror films: actors, characters, etc.Nancy Hansen: If I'm basing a character on some real life person, I often will find out what their first name and surname means and pick something that has a similar meaning. That site I mentioned above has symbolic names for characters that are fiery, cold, have a sparkly personality, warriors, shadows, wolves, all sorts of things. For a recurring character I use a good strong name that stands out. For instance Jezebel Johnston made a memorable name for my pirate lass, whose father was an English privateer who went by Tall Tom Johnston because of his height. Mama was a freed black house slave (Monifa) who learned to read by the Bible. She chose a queen in the Bible she admired for her independent spirit to name her daughter after. Tall, slender, and small-busted Jezebel Johnston ran away at 14, joining a pirate crew to get close to an older white English pirate she hd fallen in love with. Monifa made sure her daughter could read and write, so instead of an X, JJ signed herself in as ambiguous Jez. I named the love interest Walter Armitage, but based his looks and character on actor Richard Armitage when he played Guy of Gisborne in that BBC Robin Hood series (sadly without the black leather). Cause I can look at Richard Armitage any day, all day long... 🥰
A minor character or one you see only once will get something less memorable as a name. Often, I choose whatever appeals to me, and sometimes use nicknames as well. The cook on Jez's first ship, Devil's Handmaid, was a toothless old guy named Rat Stew Andy Boone for obvious reasons.
Bobby Nash: It depends. Certainly, a main character's name is pretty important. For my Snow series, I came up with the last name first because I was planning to use it in the naming of titles. From there, I worked on an appropriate first name.
Paul Landri: In the upcoming sequel to Return of the Crimson Howl I named one of the two new protagonists after my Mom's maiden name, which happens to be the same name used in the Nicholas Cage classic, Moonstruck. It's no coincidence either! The name was chosen from my family's bakery in Brooklyn for the movie and I make a sort of meta joke about it in Book 2. My other new character has the last name Kurtzburg which is a tribute to Jack Kirby (his given name was Jacob Kurtzburg) . I made these decisions way in advance because these two new characters carry two books. I do this both for myself and for my audience to see if they can pick up on it.
Iscah: I like symbolism to line up, but I tend to see that more as a bonus. It's more important it not clash. Phillip work out well. I came up with the name because his character was inspired by Luke Skywalker, and I wanted a simple name but not Luke or Mark or any other roles Mark Hammill had played (Max in Guyver was fresh on my mind). I picked Phillip as a simple name. Phillip meaning "lover of horses" or "friend of horses" clinched it, because he was a stable hand with a winged unicorn for a sidekick.
I do tend to favor sound over literal meaning. I wanted to give the sorceress a name that actually meant "wild fire" but I did not like any of the combinations I found. So I fudged and Andomare (An doh mar eh ...last syllable barely there) was assigned a meaning in the book. It's fantasy, so I could make up an ancient language for them to draw from.
Some characters just tell me their names. I have a work-in-progress character named E.Z. and I am still trying to find what the initials stand for, but the character is very stubborn about keeping her name.
Inka York: Basic characters get basic names. MCs and secondary characters I'll put more thought into. A couple of times I've accidentally been prophetic in my choice of character name. For instance, one of my characters is called Seth. I named him all the way back in 1985 after an old man in a British soap opera because it amused me to give the oldest brother (still a teen) what I considered at the time to be an old man's name. The name means appointed one, and guess what? He takes up the mantle of another based on a prophesy. Of course he does. I'd already written the whole series before I bothered looking up his name. Sometimes, the character will just tell me what their name is. I wrote a paranormal pirate adventure, and I wanted to call the character Zeb. That's all I had, just Zeb. Then came the scene where he introduced himself to the main character. Apparently his name is Zebrascus Murphy. Who knew? Not me.
Lisa Barker: The names that come to me support the story in someway, (characterization, theme, or plot). Because the names come to me in an organic fashion, from the subconscious, I trust they are correct and it always proves to be true. Also, like Faulkner, I just try to write a good story and leave interpretation to others.
John French: Sometimes you have to do symbolic but generally I want my characters’ name to match their character (Would you be afraid of a dark lord named “Twinkie McPhee?”) unless I’m trying to fool my readers. I’ll often go through several names until I find the right fit. When a name doesn’t “feel” right, or the first name doesn’t seem to “match” the last, I’ll come up with try several different variations then run it by my wife or a friend to see which one they like the best, or the least.
Terrance Layhew: If I’m feeling genuinely clever, I’ll try making the names mean something about the character (ie. Aaron = mountain).
Troy Osgood: They're just names; there's no need for something symbolic or specific. Just like in real life, names can come from ancestors or locations or something like that. But names aren't done to reflect the future, but they are just either something that sounds good or to honor something in the past.
How often (if ever) do you change the names throughout writing? Why?
Iscah: Memory issues mainly. I rarely change names once I've settled on one, but I probably put a lot more pre-writing thought and research into such things than many authors. On rare occasion, I forget the name of a character if I'm away from a project for a while. I had a fanfiction character called Persephone and after a long break I told someone she was Penelope... but when I got back to work, I saw my mistake and went back to Persephone. It was a better symbolic fit and less common name. Same project I mixed up a Victoria and told someone it was Virginia, but Victoria was a much better name for the character.
I have had some characters evolve new versions of their name and nicknames over time. I can't go into details, but I've had a character I've been evolving for almost thirty years. At this point she has a lot more nicknames that came from various versions of the story and her relationships to other characters. Her basic name I still want to keep, but she's picked up half a dozen nicknames from different characters and new in-story reasons for how she got her name.
Paul Landri: My editor gave me holy hell for having two characters with the same initials. He said it would confuse the audience. I had to come up with a refined, snooty-sounding name for the one character. I was living in Nevada at the time and Sinclair gas stations were ubiquitous so that's how I got the last name. I came up with Rudyard as the first name because I always enjoyed The Jungle Book as a kid.
Other than that I haven't had to change anyone's name just yet.
Bobby Nash: With Snow, I went through several iterations. He was Abraham Hunt, Thomas Hunt, Archer Snow, maybe a few others then eventually Abraham Snow before I thought that felt right. I work it until the character lets me know I've found their name.
Bree Jackson: I’ve only changed the names twice in all my stories and it’s because I forgot what I named the side character to begin with… I found out while editing that I changed her name half way through the story.
Nancy Hansen: Name changing happens now and then. With the fantasy series I'm currently writing the 6th book in, much of it is based in a frontier area where there is only one inn. It has a very popular taproom. The bartender/owner's name Oland Wade (he's based on storekeeper Ike Godsey of the Waltons TV series). The name simply popped into my head. Many of the other characters did too. Since I now have a progression of years, barmaids have come and gone, so the current crew are all newbies. I chose names for them, but traded two of them (Kaitlin & Beatrix) because the names fit the other character better. A third one who I'm looking at changing her name is Joanie because it doesn't work for a middle aged widow with no children, who desperately needed a job. One other was a holdover from the last crew, Sandara, who everyone called Sandy; unfortunately she just died. My main character used to be Callie, but she died in the last book (Fantasy frontiers are dangerous places folks!) leaving her little daughter Roshanna to carry on. Roshanna got her name from Callie's older sister Rochelle who perished with her entire family except baby Callie (Yeah, it's a tough life) and Oland's mother Shanna who could chop her own firewood with a hatchet until she was very old. Roshanna is facing another special child who has a demon for a father, I named him Mordecai. it just sounded right.I like recurring characters to have backstories even to their names. The name Roshanna came to me with the first little scene I wrote about her as an adult character, the rest of her name's backstory I cobbled together when I wrote the series books.
Troy Osgood: Never.
Lisa Barker: I never do. What I do instead is interview my characters and get to know them and then the names fit even more because I understand my characters as unique people, though throughout the writing they reveal themselves even more.
Terrance Layhew: Rarely. If the character develops something uniquely outside of a generic name I might make a change.
John French: When I change names in mid-story (thank you “find and replace”) it’s because I’ve somehow come up with two characters with similar names or a name was just awkward.
Inka York: I rarely change a name once I start writing. I think I've only done it once when my CP pointed out that I gave a character the same name as another in the same storyworld. I'm glad because I hadn't put much thought into it, and I gave him a much more era evocative (and trans appropriate) name. He went from Daniel to Bram in a Victorian romantic suspense. I also named a character Bethany after my friend's daughter as a placeholder, but it stuck.
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