How to Name Your Characters
Naming characters (and places, and literally everything else) is simultaneously one of the best and worst things to do during the development stage. You’re given complete range of creativity, but that’s the problem: You have absolute creative freedom. There are no rules for you to follow, nothing that might help you out here.
Of course, there are several different naming categories, so let’s start with the simplest one:
These are usually the easiest to come up with. Why? They just list all of a person’s accomplishments, or whatever they want to be known for in the future. Formal titles are usually most important for first impressions.
If your character has a formal title, chances are they have a reason for it. People with extra parts to their name are usually either of royal lineage or famous for something—something big enough that people think of the title when they hear the name. So coming up with formal titles shouldn’t be too hard, just think of your character’s accomplishments and choose the one that would probably gain the most attention. Consider, for example:
Ares, the Greek God of War
Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons
Of course I had to add in that last one. So as you can see, these are all things these people (or Gods, or fallen angels) would be known for. You don’t have to limit yourself to just one, but keep in mind: The more titles a person has, the more obnoxious they’ll probably seem to others. Nobody likes to repeat a full title like Daenerys’.
Positions of leadership and name suffixes (ex. Jr or III) go hand-in-hand with formal titles. Think Queen Elizabeth II or Kind Arthur.
Culture usually plays a huge role in the nature of characters’ names. Even looking at today’s world and the societies within it, it’s easy to tell names usually correspond pretty heavily with cultures. There are also obvious relations to language and pronunciation, but that’s another post entirely.
Creating realistic names based on culture takes a lot more time—you have to develop an entire world and culture first—but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t pay off. Having names that relate in such a way contributes tons to the authenticity of your story; when everything fits so well together, it seems natural.
So, if you’re creating names based heavily on culture (which I would absolutely recommend), here are a few things to consider to help you out along the way:
Forbidden names, or names that are looked down upon.
Maybe these are names of gods or demons or ancient heroes, anyone whose name would seem untouchable to regular people. For example, there are probably good reasons we wouldn’t name our kids Ares, Lucifer, or Daenerys (if we’re going from a previous example). This is also a bit of a strange feeling for characters bearing those names, because there’s an extremely high chance they’ll always be connected to that name’s source.
Ever heard of names like Hope or Felicity? These are usually names people give to their kids in hopes they’ll take on those qualities. It probably wouldn’t be uncommon in your world for people to be named after desirable personality traits or other things that matter a lot to your people.
If you live in a quiet, peaceful society, there’s a pretty slim chance you’d have characters with harsh-sounding, loud names. As stated earlier, everything finds its own way to connect, and theme is a great way to show this connection. To take this route, think of some “themes” that carry throughout your society (maybe colors, sounds, nature, feelings) and consider the fact that to some, they might mean enough to name their kids after them.
Unless your society is extremely isolated, there will be people from other backgrounds living there. Take this as your chance to highlight the difference between one culture in the next. Make a different sort of category for names and include characters from everywhere else. Note: Don’t emphasize these differences too much, but accentuate them just enough to make the reader aware of cultures outside the PoV character’s own.
Considering Character Role
This one is an important factor of foreshadowing. Taking your character’s role into consideration is incredibly important here, because you want the name to fit that role. For example, if you want to create a masquerading antagonist, consider a name like Quirinus Quirrell. Put together it sounds like a regular name, but individually you’ll find that neither word means anything particularly protagonist-y.
If you take this path, make sure you thoroughly know the character’s role. You have to know everything they are, have been, and will be, then you can move on from there. Once you know their role, you can pick out a couple of defining characteristics, and from there a quick “names that mean ___” should do the trick.
This one is the simpler way to do things and will give you more of an advantage in foreshadowing and character exposure, but you’ll lose out on world-building exposition. Both are valid ways of naming a character and both serve different purposes, but it would probably be best not to mix the methods. In doing this, you would run the risk of losing both points for a mixed up name (...which would be completely fine if you just like a name and don’t want any development from it. That sounded like a guilt trip but I promise it wasn’t, this is your story and you can do whatever you want with your names.)
Tl;dr—For best results, your character should probably have a healthy mix of role-based and culture-based names. The amount of foreshadowing or world-building you want to include through your names will definitely change this suggestion, but you do you.
This post was a re-write (and expansion, and improvement) on this previous post of mine.
