I'll admit it. I have a TERRIBLE time naming my characters. It's like naming children (which also took us months). The names have to be cool enough that readers don't pause and thing, "Really?"
For example: Howard. He had a very cool nickname ("sixpack"), but when I first read Howard I stopped reading and thought, "Huh." Howard. BUT, this is a kickass book, so everyone should read it anyway.
But I can't name a hero "Frances" or "Maurice"...not easily anyway.
And what about the women? So far I have Lily and Annabelle and Olivia and Chelsea. They practically named themselves. I have no idea where the names came from, but they work. Mostly.
What about you? Do you have an easy time naming characters When you read, what are some of your favorite names? Or least favorite?
Naming my characters hasn't been too much of a struggle - so far. I'm constantly on the alert for cool names, and I'm not above using employee lists or my children's school yearbooks.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why, but Nick is my all-time favorite hero name. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter as long as it's easy to pronounce. Any name you stumble over is a guaranteed disaster.
If you don't mind me asking, how do you determine pet names between your characters? Are there any you avoid at all cost?
ooo, pet names! Honestly, for me those have just come. Once of my characters calls Lily "bug" as in "Lily Bug". I have NO idea where that came from, but it seemed like a brotherly type of pet name.
DeleteOtherwise, I've just been going with what flows....and then I yank half of them during editing. :-P
That's cute! And it does sound like the type of pet name a brother would use.
DeleteI have this weird thing where I need to be able to abbreviate all my characters names, or else the need nicknames. And I LOVE unusual names: Remy, Clea, Braden, Atticus. The WIP I just finished writing features boring names, and this is a first for me: Sara and Taylor.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with names. I can't start the story until I have the name, because the name tells me so much about the character. Friendly? Happy? Ambitious? Sarcastic? Actually, all my characters are sarcastic, so that doesn't count :)
I have to know the names too. There's too much character development in the names for me to just go with XX until I figure it out later.
DeleteAnd I don't mind different names...as long as they aren't hard to pronounce or read. I don't want names that make the reader pause to ponder the correct pronunciation.
And I'm laughing at myself as I type this because my all time favorite hero is KMM's Dageus....so he's my exception to everything I just said.
I usually don't have a problem, but when I started plotting out the Tryst Island series, I knew I needed 20 names and my brain started to hurt. So I decided to use all my friend's names.
ReplyDeleteNot their first names, because I write sexytime novels and I just can't write about Carmen without thinking about Carmen and, no, that's not gunna work.
But there is a Jamie Cook in a coming release.
There was a Carmen in Cameron's story, but she was evil. And it was too much alliteration So I let Carmen pick her name. THAT was fun. Now that I have a street team, I'll just let them pick names. LOL.
I remember seeing that list early on!
DeleteCarmen was Carmen because I objected about the alliteration with the previous name as well...I was a big PITA for you with that book. ;-)
Surnames really trip me up. I used to have an old phone book (you know, back when we had them) sitting next to my desk...right up until Hubby helped clean up and tossed them. Now I've been known to shout out that I need help.