Character Names

[ratsy]

I am sure this thread has been started a few times but I am wondering how you come up with Character names

My WiP has characters with "regular" names. It is set in a Fantasy world, kind of pre industrial revolution, with dresses and suits and swords. Not the typical grim medieval world.

Dean is a dashing 40 year old, who has made a name for himself as a detective solving odd crimes.

Janine is his young apprentice who likes to dress the part of a noble woman when she can

Hank is a criminal who sets the link between the "crime" and the actual "bad guy"

Jonas is a child stolen from a fishing village for a secret his bloodline has carried for generations.

Are readers ok with these types of names when reading a Fantasy book?

Thoughts?

 

[alchemist]

Jonas - cool
Hank - sounds very American to me, so unless it's set in the US, I'd find it odd.
Janine - I could live with it.
Dean - sounds American, or if not, then quite modern

That said, if they could all fit depending on the world you've created.

 

[Tecdavid]

I think of two things when establishing character names: Homeland and personality. Some regions, of course, harbour names more common than in other regions, whereas a name that reflects one's personality can help craft an early idea in the reader's mind as to what this character is like (if you want it to be clear, that is.)

For example, my lead character's called Erril. Rather standard fare. His housemate, meanwhile, is named Vykner, who happens to hail from lands far north. Another is named Catkin, who's a little cheerier than her fellows.

 

[ratsy]

Jonas - cool
Hank - sounds very American to me, so unless it's set in the US, I'd find it odd.
Janine - I could live with it.
Dean - sounds American, or if not, then quite modern

That said, if they could all fit depending on the world you've created.

Ok, but what nationality should a fantasy world name sound like? If it is set in another world? Does it matter if it is American / British / Chinese? I am Canadian so being influenced by American names would make sense but I am not sure how to choose a Globally acceptable name.

 

[Juliana]

Nothing against the names themselves but, to me, apart from Jonas, they all sound very modern. Which may be fine, however, if you are going for a pre industrial revolution feel they may sound wrong. Perhaps look at one of these baby name sites that have lists of most popular names for different time periods?

 

[ratsy]

Nothing against the names themselves but, to me, apart from Jonas, they all sound very modern. Which may be fine, however, if you are going for a pre industrial revolution feel they may sound wrong. Perhaps look at one of these baby name sites that have lists of most popular names for different time periods?

That is a good idea, but it is not on earth so does it really matter what era the names are from? I am just wondering, but maybe it does to readers. I can't say I have ever read a book and went "those names do not match the setting". I think in a fictional setting with a fictional story, that names could be anything.

With all that being said, I just have no skill at making up my own names. Any time I try they sound forced and unreal.

 

[Juliana]

You could use the same names but tweak them a little. For example, Janine could become Jeanine...

Personally I love names. A good name in a book just rolls off the page and into the imagination. I'm not familiar with your work, though, so your names might be just fine. Have you had anyone read a sample? You could ask for feedback on the names.

 

[Tecdavid]

Dean sounds more to me like a younger character's name. I'm not sure why, sicne it's also a nickname for a school headmaster...

Janine sounds like it would come from a different region than the name Dean. To me, it sounds rather eastern, whereas Dean sounds western. Not that this is a problem - just commenting.

Hank's tough-guy material. Always sounds like a hard guy's name, no matter who wears it, so it could fit a criminal type pretty well, I think.

Jonas also sounds rather "foreign" to me, so if he's to be a secretive character, then I think it would work.

I don't think you can go particularly wrong with names, no matter the genre, unless you come up with something obviously strange, like "Xhxaat Mpur'Chollo" or somesuch.

 

[alchemist]

Ok, but what nationality should a fantasy world name sound like? If it is set in another world? Does it matter if it is American / British / Chinese? I am Canadian so being influenced by American names would make sense but I am not sure how to choose a Globally acceptable name.

If you're trying to evoke an American/British/Chinese feeling and setting, it doesn't matter. But if the characters are called Gunnar, Erik and Thor, they come with a certain set of assumptions. If they live in a city that looks suspiciously like 18th century Tokyo, you might have a problem.

Still, consistency is probably the most important thing, and all your names are common enough in the English-speaking world. So they might fit just fine if the setting is neutral as regards cultures we're familiar with.

 

[ratsy]

Well its kind of nice to get outside views, based on the comments i decided to check out what the origin of the names are.

Janine, for eg. is tracked to France, Jeannine, mainly poplular in Canada (hence why i know it) and australia

Dean doesnt have an origin on the site I am looking at as for a country, but has never been the most popluar name, again, seems to have the most popularity in australia???

So those two names could be from the same region I would think

Jonas as we all know is from the Bible and he was in the belly of a whale. My Jonas is from a fishing village so I could see this working on some level.

Hank is a nickname for Henry and I do agree that Hank is a kind of nondescript tough guy name so I think this works.

 

[monsterchic]

Dean sounds more to me like a younger character's name. QUOTE]

It's also the name of my math teacher's two year old son...


I just make up names on the fly, or use a name generator and change the names. Most names just don't fit my culture

 

[thaddeus6th]

Shameless theft from history.

The Felarians have French names, the Dennish English and the Kuhrisch German/Gothic. Helps keep the names of the same culture fairly cohesive and the names credible.

 

[Reivax26]

Its funny that you mention this because I think I need to change the names of the characters in my book. Quite a few of them end with -is- or -us-. For example: Talis, Markus, Firanis, are 3 of the pov characters. Maybe I should change that. Don't want people getting confused.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

That is a good idea, but it is not on earth so does it really matter what era the names are from? I am just wondering, but maybe it does to readers. I can't say I have ever read a book and went "those names do not match the setting". I think in a fictional setting with a fictional story, that names could be anything.

With all that being said, I just have no skill at making up my own names. Any time I try they sound forced and unreal.

I used to think this, and then betas started to mention the odd one as seeming out of place. Debs for a girlfriend in a futuristic setting stands out. i think there is an expectation they will fit the world. Um, i generate some, others i nick off popular name sites, others in a quiet homage to something that only I know about. ( so eg I have a Perrault and a Carter in different stories, which kind of gives away a passing interest in fairy tales... )

 

[thaddeus6th]

Reivax, entirely up to you, but practically every Persian name ended in an S, so sometimes that can happen.

 

[allmywires]

Its funny that you mention this because I think I need to change the names of the characters in my book. Quite a few of them end with -is- or -us-. For example: Talis, Markus, Firanis, are 3 of the pov characters. Maybe I should change that. Don't want people getting confused.

I do this because it's how actual cultures use names -- Hebrew names ending in 'el' (Gabriel, Michael, Rachel, etc). I think it's actually more realistic that way.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I do this because it's how actual cultures use names -- Hebrew names ending in 'el' (Gabriel, Michael, Rachel, etc). I think it's actually more realistic that way.

I did it once, my protagonists' were part of a family all ending with lyn, which was great, until Allmywires did a beta read and pointed out that my baddie - who was related to the protagonist, but not on the side that had the lyn - had a name ending in lyn. Headslap moment... I had to do Ctl H and change the baddy's name in two books!

 

[allmywires]

I did it once, my protagonists' were part of a family all ending with lyn, which was great, until Allmywires did a beta read and pointed out that my baddie - who was related to the protagonist, but not on the side that had the lyn - had a name ending in lyn. Headslap moment... I had to do Ctl H and change the baddy's name in two books!

It's funny the things we don't spot ourselves...

 

[nubins]

Sometimes i just hear a name i encounter in every day life and like it, so I make a note of it. For example last year I met a girl with the surname Lucaci (Romanian). Thought it was a great surname and i knew a few Romanians and actually I quite liked their names (for girls anyway, not fussed on their male names). My wip the characters have a distant european origin and I changed a characters name (a woman who is a main character, very sexual, the hero is deeply in love with her, she is stubborn, caring and witty) from Caroline Fiedler (pretty much randomly generated with a list of first names and germanic surnames) to Alina Lucaci. I think the new name fits much better with who she is.

For one of the characters I went on wikipedia and looked up a list of British army generals surnames from the last 3-400 years and then narrowed down a few I liked. I wanted him to have a dashing air about him with stiff upper lip, so it seemed a good way to help impart that.

 

[Ursa major]

The main factors for choosing names, in my opinion, are that the names should:

1. not confuse the reader (by being too similar to each other**), or
2. not draw attention to themselves, unless that is really (really!) what you want.

I obtain the character names I use in my main story from a book (well, a three-volume non-fiction book, one that is not a book of baby names). There is an underlying reason my use of these names, but nothing really complicated. There's no real puzzle involved, if only because:

• I try to "match" the available names to locations (a vague equivalent to "nationalities"), which would undermine any meaningful puzzle I could come up with;
• it would involve far too much work for what is meant to be a very subtle hint to a character in my frame story.

The names of the principal players in my frame story do have an appropriate connection, but I found this out long after I'd decided on the names (which had both popped up rather randomly, give or take the two nationalities involved). Serendipity in action; I can't even claim my subconscious was involved, because there was no way I could have known the meaning of either name.

By the way, there are a couple of "humorous" remarks in WiP1 about a couple of the characters' names, but the names definitely came before the alleged jokes/puns.


** - Okay, a similarity in names could be a plot point, I suppose, but this is the sort of thing that should be treated with care.