How to Make Up Character Names

Photo credit: bump on Flickr

So while I've shared a couple posts on naming characters, I've had some people ask about making names up, which is sometimes required when you're naming characters who are part of a made-up culture, who speak a made-up language. Which was exactly what happened while I was writing Beyond the Red.

Some of the names in the book include Eros, Kora, Dima, Jarek, Serek, Asha, Roma, Anja, Iro, Daven, and Zek. Of course, many of the names in there exist in our world, but one way to create and choose names that sound cohesive is to think about sounds.

The first name I started with when creating Beyond the Red's cast was Eros. I obviously did not make up the name Eros—it's the name of the Greek god of love—but what attracted me to the name was the soft vowel sounds and the way the name flowed. Kora's name followed shortly thereafter, and I began thinking about similarities between their names: they're both two syllables, and have soft vowels connected by an /r/.

I then began thinking about what I wanted the language Kora speaks to sound like. I knew I wanted to use some Spanish influence, given that I know how Spanish pronunciation works very well, but I also wanted to use more hard sounds like /k/, and I knew I wanted "j" to be pronounced more like /y/, like in languages like Swedish.

With those rules in mind I started brainstorming sounds to figure out the phonemics of the language. I did this in a private room, but it probably would've sounded ridiculous to anyone listening in because I was basically blabbering jibberish while deciding what sounds I liked. But it worked, and while I mashed random phonemes together (for example, /ya/ + /rek/ = Jarek) I wrote down the ones that sounded like they could be names.

The more names I had, the easier it was to come up with ones that sounded similar enough to fit, but were still clearly distinguishable. I figured out early on that I liked names that ended in vowels (Kora, Dima, Asha, Roma...) and played with the sound system I was developing until I had a decently-sized group of names that all fit together.

When it came to names for nomads—humans who descended from a large group of people from Earth—I thought more about language change and how I could modify existing names. I ended up with a lot of shortened versions of existing names, like Nol (Nolan), Jessa (Jessica), Aren (Aaron), and so on. I also chose some names based off of English words, like Day and Gray, and altogether ended up with a cast whose names made sense together, but were clearly distinguishable from Sephari (alien) names like Kora and Dima.

There are many different processes and strategies, I'm sure, to creating character names, but being the language nerd that I am, this is the one that worked for me. And maybe it might be effective for you too.

Have you ever made up character names? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

How do you make up character names? @Ava_Jae shares one technique she used while writing her debut. (Click to tweet) 

Character Names: How Do You Choose?

Photo credit: Chapendra on Flickr

During Friday's discussion on first drafts, one of you fantabulous readers asked about the process of choosing character names, and it occurred to me that I'd managed to go all this time without talking about naming characters. Silly of me, I know, especially considering how important it is to choose names for the stars of your story.

For me, the process of naming characters varies from character to character. Sometimes I come across a name that I love and I build a character around the name, while other times I work out just about everything about the character and still don't have a name by the end of my brainstorming.

Naming characters isn't always as simple as it sounds, because there are many different factors that must be considered when choosing a name, such as...

• Setting. Are you writing a fantasy novel based in a time period similar to the medieval times? Then your main character's name probably shouldn't be Cayden Smith or Taryn Brown or Xander Johnson. The names you choose for your characters should fit in naturally with the world you've created. Severus Snape, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin all sound like they come from the same world as do Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark and Finnick Odair. Try putting any one of them into the cast of, say, The Lord of the Rings, and they would sound pretty strange standing next to Aragorn son of Arathorn, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.   


• Meaning. How much stock you give the meaning of your character's name will vary from person to person, but as we get to choose everything about our characters, it's not uncommon for writers to take a good look at the meaning of a name before choosing one. If you're unsure about the meaning of a name, here are a lot of great websites that will show you tons of information about names including 20000-names and behindthename. 


• Personality. Regardless of whether you want the name to fit your character or if you want your character's name to act as a contrast, personality must also be taken into account. The names you choose should fit your characters one way or another. 

Of course there are other factors to consider as well—sometimes, for example, characters will choose to change or shorten their names or have their names shortened for them, which often signifies a shift in the character (i.e.: Beatrice to Tris in Divergent by Veronica Roth or Augustus to Gus in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green). Other times a character will lie about their name or choose to rename themselves entirely, which also brings attention to their new chosen name.

Naming your characters is a process that should be given plenty of thought, and it's not always an easy decision, but with the help of some brainstorming, research and sometimes feedback, you'll know when the right name for your character has presented itself.

How do you choose names for your characters? Do you have any character naming tips?