Naming Characters

[jon.hayworth]

Answering Ray's question,

Surely if a character's profession, or vocation is important enough to be mentioned then the name should fit in a stereotypical way.

eg A Protestant Pastor or an Elder would be best suited to a name out of the Old Testament Isiah, Ezekiel, Zacharia etc.

The renegade son of the above could be Issie, Zeke or Zack.

A Catholic has to have a Saint's name (I know that some priests will allow non acceptable names, but it is in the original and unrepealed Cannon Law - I can remember a priest getting his 15 minutes of fame when he refused to Christen a girl Diane).

In some ways it is a shame that the idea of giving characters Eponymous names has died away. Like Dickens' Characters - Scrooge, Bob Cratchet, or my favourite from Hard Times, Gradgrind

Liked your evil Succubus Glasya Suden - Ray.

OK I've done

jon

 

[KillerMuffin]

Re: names...again

Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut! lol After all, I am a virgin here.

No, I think you should keep your mouth running just as it is.

 

[MsLinnet]

Ray

why dose ray have to be evil ????

 

[Ray Dario]

Re: Ray

why dose ray have to be evil ????

It's just one of my many personality flaws

Ray

 

[Quasimodem]

A Little Dickens

Jon,

My favourite Dickens name has always been Uriah Heep.

Quasi,

SweetSexyLady, you'll never lose that "Virgin" label if you DO keep your mouth shut.

 

[jon.hayworth]

Quasi,

And the band was good too!

jon

 

[SweetSexyLady]

I know... but ya know something funny? I can never keep my mouth shut...no matter how hard I try!

 

[SweetSexyLady]

Re: Re: names...again

No, I think you should keep your mouth running just as it is.

LOL...ty! BTW, how long does it take for stories to be accepted? I am sooo tired of waiting!!!

 

[karmadog]

I name characters like I name dogs. The name will come to me, almost as though they name themselves. Secondary characters are relegated to the phone book.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Hey, Ray, over here.

Ray,

I checked out your link to Babynames.com for JEROM and as you said, it is listed. (not that I ever doubted you) However, so is JEROME. Both are Latin and mean Holy Man. While folks pronounce their names every which way, JEROM, lacking a silent "e" should be pronounced GEE ROM.

That was an interesting site. Good luck on the story.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[whiteboy]

Jerome...

So I can't use Jerome for a black character or something? I think I can if I wanted too, in fact I could use the name Mike or Jeff for black characters even though Jeff isn't used very much in stories. I believe I will rectify that!

 

[MsLinnet]

more real names

Spock Ta-Pol Worf or just about anything Vulcan and Klingon are god awful languages to translate names from

 

[darkness_d]

I am often influenced by people I know when creating characters and oftentimes I use derivations of their names.

When coming up with names from scratch, however, I first consider age, time period and ethnicity. (I often use ethnic last names, even if it is just a European name for a white character.) I go with something believable. I almost never wind up with names on KM's list, but even if I do it's usually not a big deal because my lead characters tend to live with their nicknames more than their actual names.

Some are goth, so they have a goth name which they have created to fit their chosen image. (Mandrake, Ivano, Belle Noir, Syreena Blacque) But other are names I try to create based off a character's personality quirks or off word play from their name. "Ethan Black" became "Pitch" and his athletic brother was "Jet." "Danny Schultz" was "Skinny." "Katherine Jane Blohowiak" became "Kay-Jay". "Mako Takahashi" was "Tock."

This has helped me avoid having too many main characters with forgettable names. The caveat is that--with the exception of the goth stories--using more than one or two nicknames in a story gets real "cutesy" real fast.