Call her by her name.

What’s harder? Naming characters or naming pets?

I’m having an awfy job finding the right name for two characters in the WIP. It’s so bad I’ve given them both two names each. They don’t call one another by their real names – Kate and Gail. They call one another by their fake names – Barbara and Eliza. And there is absolutely no reason for this whatsoever. Can you imagine what my editor would say if I didn’t fix it before I handed the book in?!

I might have thought of a solution for one of them. XXREDACTEDXX is a great name but until I think of another and see if it chimes or clangs or clashes or echoes or basically works or not, I can’t be sure.

Truly it’s the best thing about writing a series. Dandy Gilver is Dandy Gilver, for good or ill. Nothing to be done about it. Her husband is Hugh, her sons are Donald (since before you-know-what) and Teddy, her Watson is Alec and her servants are Grant, Becky, Mrs Tilling and Mr Pallister. Alec’s valet was Barrow before Barrow on Downtown. Again, nothing to be done.

And Leagsaidh (pronounced Lexy and usually spelled that way too, because I don’t hate my readers) Campbell is who she is even though she’s only at book two. Todd and Roger, Kathi and Noleen, Della and Diego – I couldn’t imagine them called anything else now.

That always makes me wonder if we obsess too much about character names or, if we just plucked them out of a hat, they’d get normal as quickly as people-names get normal once we’ve learned them. (Nine years ago, I thought it was hilarious that my new neighbour was called Francisco, and called him San Francisco (accidentally) quite a few times before my brain caught up with my new setting.)

Maybe so long as the names aren’t anachronistic or socially/culturally unlikely and they don’t all start with the same letter, there’s something to be said for Jane Austen’s succession of Thomsases, Marys, Janes and Henrys.

Maybe I should try to name characters like I name cats. Maggie and Arthur, Poppy and Clive, Carrie and Spud, Dennis and Rachel so far. Zero cleverness, zero problems.

Or even goldfish. I’ve had Glug (as a child), Klondyke (teenager), Lucky Frank (a rescue goldfish) and finally the only two clever pet names in my life, Lucy and Dezi. Because one was bright orange and one was dark brown. Only I didn’t name them.

So I’m thinking the next time I get a kitten it’s going to be Fluffy and if I ever get a Dalmatian it’ll be Spot.

But I’m kidding myself about the characters. (You knew that, right?) I’ll keep obsessing until they’re perfect. By the time this book comes out in 2020, XXREDACTEDXX and ?????????? will have names that are pinpoint accurate signposts to their characteristics, I won’t remember the struggle, and no one will even notice. Oy.

Comments

[Mark]

I can only imagine the issues. The few times I've written stories, I've had that same issue myself.

[Storyteller Mary]

I used to keep phone books and baby name books in my classroom to help students come up with names.
One strong preference my students expressed was not having too many names start with the same letter. THE CRUCIBLE drove them nuts, but since it was based on history, we just had to deal with all the names beginning with P.

[krisneri]

My favorite characters have just told me what their names are, and I've gone with that. Otherwise, I have to keep trying names until I find the one that works. It's funny how you know when it's right. I never tried two names before. I think that would confuse me even more.