Hi all,

How much thought do you put into choosing the names of your characters? Are your names interchangeable?

I ask because I think I might have a name problem with my MC. But then, the name might have nothing to do with it.

I called my MC James without giving it much thought; the name seemed appropriate for a decent lower-middle class guy. But, I am told by everyone who's read the MS that he lacks personality. Now, I'm wondering: does the name James subconsciously conjure up dullness?
Yes, I admit, I have work to do on him, but would I be better off calling him Barnaby, or Tudor, or Spencer, or some such name that isn't as common as James?

Comments / advice?

I don't think it is a problem with the name - possibly more to do with the personality you have given your MC. Spice him up a bit perhaps - give him a character flaw or nasty secret or something- that'll make him more interesting.

Nick

As Bunbry suggests, I don't think calling him Marmaduke is going to solve the problem; if he's not individual and particular enough, then it's in the imagining, writing and plotting that the solution will be found.

Paradoxically, I think that names matter more in minor characters, where you can't/don't have so much space to individuate them in other ways. James Miller as an MC could be anything from the second son of a mega-industrialist, or duke, to the illegitimate offspring of the gutter, but you'll have plenty of space to make him believable and engaging by other means. Where someone who's only got one scene might need to be very clearly Maximilian Carnegie, or Wayne Dodd. If you want to make your guttersnipe a Maximilian Carnegie then you'd have to make that part of the story.

Although, of course, there's a whole other level of thinking about names - metaphors, overtones, associations, references. I'm usually working at that level too - names have to work in that way and at the straightforward level of likelihood to age/ethnicity/class and so on.

And maybe different people call him different variations of his name? Not so much that it becomes confusing, obviously, but depending on his age, his friends could call him Jay or Jimmy, he could be James to his boss, Jamie to his girlfriend, and maybe different aspects of his personality could link to these variations. Just a thought.

Good point, Astrea.

I'm slightly obsessed with names which can be radically different, depending on who's saying them - also people who re-invent themselves by changing the form of their name.

Thinking of Steerpike's Sister's thread about doing a library event for children, someone brought up the saying-something-about-your-name warm-up. I was in a workshop once where the leader used that. It was striking how everyone had something to say about their name that had immense significance - story-potential, if you like, from the one who had taken his birth father's name as a middle name, to the one named after a nasty, cruel grandmother she'd always loathed.

Lots of potential there to say something important about a character, I think - and also to link different generations of a family. (My first post-divorce boyfriend had the same name as my recently ex-husband, for example. Mostly just because it's a pretty common one in my generation, but still...)

And maybe different people call him different variations of his name? Not so much that it becomes confusing,

Astrea, you wouldn't believe how I start the novel. Yes, exactly as you say, with a conversation with his boss, who calls him variations of James. The theme is repeated later on with his love interest.

Needless to say, I think your idea is very good. And with James it's easy to do.

<Added>


I'm currently converting him to first person, and I believe that's doing the trick.

(if it doesn't he's becoming Marmaduke.)

I'm currently converting him to first person, and I believe that's doing the trick.

Always a trick worth trying. Converting to Marmaduke a more drastic option.

Slightly off-topic I know, but the Office for National Statistics has a useful resource of the 100 most popular boys' and girls' names every ten years for the past 100 years or so.

I haven't managed to find its web address if it has one but if you go here:

http://www.ons.gov.uk

and type "baby names", the sixth one down ("Top 100 Baby Names Historical Data") is the one. Click on it and you can download an Excel spreadsheet.

I've used it to make sure that my characters of various ages have plausible first names.

Alan, when I read your first chapter I never had a problem with the name James. I think it's fine and is certainly current. My 14 year old daughter has a friend of the same age called James, and he's from a decent, lower-middle class family.

I had perhaps a similar problem in one of my stories. The MC seemed only an observer of the far more interesting characters in the story, and in comparison he seemed quite dull. In the end, I changed the emphasis of POV to the character who I thought was the most interesting. To her, the original MC was interesting, but the reason for that interest could only be seen from her POV. I felt it helped the original MC to seem more alive.

Then again, perhaps it is just the name. I've heard that the name Rumpelstiltskin is ripe for a reprise!

'James' is absolutely fine; it's one of those names that's appropriate for characters of different ages and from all sorts of backgrounds.

I put huge amounts of effort into choosing names. I look at what names were popular in the year of the character's birth, and I consider the social class of the name. Then I think of all the other names in the story, and avoid having two names that start with the same letter, or could be confused in other ways. I think of the character's history, and research the history of the surname. And then I have a little think about whether or not I want to subvert the obvious.

I find names incredibly important. I ditched a character because I had a dream about him in which he had the name of a character in a popular film (unusual name) and I never managed to think of him as any other name - I had the feeling that if I called him something else he would finish up as a completely different character.

I am also having massive problems with my MC's name in my new project. There is a reason why her name should be one thing but it just doesn't suit her for some reason.

Maybe I am just weird....

I am also having massive problems with my MC's name in my new project. There is a reason why her name should be one thing but it just doesn't suit her for some reason.

Anne,

Would anyone else think this?

Toast, thanks for that useful link.

All, thanks for your comments. Much appreciated.