#on naming

Why not?

Ahh, this is a super interesting question!

The short answer is: for me, it depends on a whole bunch of random stuff. 

The longer answer is: sometimes I’m trying to be symbolic or make sure the name-meaning fits the character. Sometimes names are just names I like so much I want to give them to characters. Sometimes I’m stumped for 1000 years because a character won’t tell me their name, but I know everything I’m coming up with is not the right name. Don’t underestimate the value of sounds right. For me, that’s usually a pretty strong indication that the character’s got an opinion and they’d rather you just stop fighting them and do what they want.

For example, Grace Shepard. There are a ton of lovely, character-appropriate connotations to Grace’s name. One might think I hemmed and hawed and eventually decided on her name because of the symbolism. The truth, though, is that I just really love the name Grace. If I’d ever had kids, Grace was my #1 top choice for a girl. The main character in the first novel I considered publishable was named Grace. When the Shepard creation screen popped up and asked for a name, I chose Grace. To honor that character. Because I loved it. That it ended up being charmingly symbolic and wonderfully apt was a bonus.

When choosing names, I’m usually aware of background. Turian names, for example, have a certain sound and a certain pattern. Funny as it might be to have a turian named Bob Jones, it would definitely break the usual pattern. Same goes for, say, ethnic background or family history. I try to choose names that either match the background (because the parents or grandparents insisted, for example, or because there’s a lot of pride) or diverge from the background (if, say, they didn’t want their kid to carry the weight of family names, etc.). I fully admit that I almost always check a name’s meaning before it settles, though. I don’t like it if the name means black soul or something and I’m giving it to a protagonist. (Though you could, for the character to prove the name’s destiny wrong.)

Regardless of why I choose the name, the character’s backstory inevitably involves why they were given the name by the people who named them within the story. I think that’s important. While the short answer to “Why this name?” might be “Tara likes it,” the longer answer has to include why the namer chose the name. That gives a character depth and history beyond just “…the story has started and this character now exists.” Naming is often an important part of what forms identity (the names we’re given, the names we choose, the names we reject).

So, looking at Grace again. You and I know she got her name because I liked it. Her parents, however, gave her the name not because they were really into virtues or wanted a little girl who was light on her feet but because she was named, at her mother’s insistence, for her father (Gray Shepard). It’s a bit unexpected and adds something not only to Grace’s characterization but the characterization of her parents. This solidifies the idea that Grace, as a character, existed in her universe long before I picked up my pen or before the character creation screen asked me for a name.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I did not know about Grace’s parents when I created her or when I started writing about her. That information was revealed as I continued to delve into her story. I’ve never been the kind of writer who knows everything about a character before she picks up her pen (or opens her laptop). For me, storytelling is a journey. I am the first person the story gets told to; I like when things come as a surprise (or even better, when things end up having excellent story-based reasons I had no idea about when I first started creating).

Sidebar: Grace is also interesting because she has this name I have thought a lot about but she never uses it. Again, the meta reason for that is because the game mechanics never use Shepard’s name and I, stubbornly, wanted to continue that conceit in my own work. It meant, however, that I had to come up with really good reasons a person would stop using their given name. I like what I ended up coming up with; it feels weirder to use Grace’s name than not because she, in my head and imagination, is so extremely disconnected from it.

Rachel Cusk, from Outline