What’s In A Name? By Kate Kelly
What’s in a name? Quite a lot as it turns out. Here’s an example. When our second son was born we didn’t have a name picked out for him. (As I’m writing this, I’m shaking my head and trying to recall exactly why we didn’t.) After the birth, my husband was driving home to collect our other son to bring him to the hospital to meet his brother. Out of the blue, my husband flashed on a boy he occasionally played with as a child. The boy’s name was Adrian. When DH arrived back at the hospital he asked what I thought of the name. The minute he said Adrian, I knew we’d found our son’s name.
Not such a remarkable story. But here’s the thing. My husband is Dutch and fair-haired. I’ve been a red-head most of my life. (My hair has recently turned blond. I like to think the sun is bleaching it. But it could have something to do with the number of white hairs that have started to appear.) Our first son is blond. The older Adrian gets, the darker his hair grows. It’s as close to being black as hair can get without the help of a bottle.
The name Adrian means the dark one among the fair-haired.
I keep a slim book of names and their meaning close at hand, because whenever I start writing a new book, the story won’t flow for me until I have the correct names for my characters. Characters’ names in the first three or four chapters can and will change frequently. Sometimes I get it right from the beginning, but often it’s not until we’re better acquainted that the right name comes to me. My characters have to live up to the name I give them, and if they don’t then I’m on the hunt for another one.
In my December release, A Deliberate Father, Jordan’s name changed several times during the first draft, but Nell was, well, Nell, right from the beginning. Here’s a small excerpt from the book where the hero and heroine are discussing their names. Nell always feel safer calling Jordan by his last name, Tanner, and not for the first time, he corrects her.
“Jordan,” he snapped before he could stop himself. That got her to look up from the damned label she had half peeled off.
“Jordan,” she repeated. “Your mom picked a nice name. I’ve always hated my name. Nell. Sounds like a workhorse.”
“It suits you.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t hit me with the compliments all at once. They might go to my head.”
He poked at the embers and placed another stick of wood on the fire as he carefully considered his answer. “It sounds like someone you can depend on, someone you can trust. What’s Nell short for?”
By the wilting look on her face, he could tell he wasn’t scoring any points. What was wrong with being dependable and trustworthy? They were honorable traits in a world that seriously lacked accountability.
We all have favorite names, but are they favorite because of the name itself or the person of whom the name reminds you? I just realized this is a great opportunity to harvest a new crop of names for my characters! What are your favorite names? Bring them on!
Oh, and Happy Holidays! May your season be merry and bright.
21 comments:
My baby name book is falling apart. I go through it page by page before I write word one. I don't think I've ever changed a main characters name.
But my favorite new trick is to print out the top 100 baby names every year so that I used common names. I try to stay away from names I have to stop to think about the pronunciation. I figure if it stops me it's going to stop the reader.
Often times if I stumble over a characters name in the book I'm reading and the author doesn't switch to a nickname, I still revert to one.
What a fun topic! Names for characters. And the names do feel significant. I like names that have several layers of meaning. I do think about what a name tells the reader about the character's ethnic and social heritage. Right now I'm toying with some old English names- Egbert.
Hi Kate,
That's a very cool story about your son.
I love choosing names for characters. I started out using the names my husband crossed off the list when we were naming our kids.
I have trouble naming secondary characters, though. I hate to "waste" a good name on them, but don't want to name then something outlandish.
I love the name Rory. Haven't used it yet, but would like to.
Rogenna,
That's an excellent idea to look up what names are popular. But on the other hand, I don't like it when a character has my name. Too up close and personal, I guess!
What a fun topic! I like one syllable names for heroes, or names that can be abbreviated. I've got a Cal, John (nickname Quigg, from his last name Quigley), Ray, Craig, Del (from Delano). Only Aiden has two syllables and can't be contracted into a nickname. As for naming secondary characters, I've learned to be careful with them, in case they step front and center for their own story. I named one secondary guy Tommy Godsoe, a name I didn't necessarily love. Fortunately, by the time I finished his story, I thought Tommy was a pretty hot name. :D
I can tell you what names not to use because I feel they are over-used!
But I'll play by the rules - for a girl you don't see Kelly that often and for a boy Derek.
I love the story about how you named your second son. We were not blessed with kids of our own but have numerous nieces and nephews. It's funny how differently they go about naming their kids. One niece and her husband used lists of popular names and had the name picked out months ahead of the baby's arrival. Another couple wait until they see the baby to name it. A third couple wait until they have interacted with the baby for a day or so.
I really like the names in stories to be ones that I can pronounce. I usually don't mind otherwise. I cannot read books back to back where either the H/h have names the same as the last book I read. yaiyed
I love names and have several baby name books. When I wrote for fun, I would check the year my character was born and pick a name from that year.
What a special story about your son, Kate! It's interesting how writers approach naming their characters differently. I always make a list of the names I choose for a book and make sure I don't begin several names with the same letter--not necessarily to avoid confusing the reader, but to avoid confusing myself! I do appreciate unique character names, but only if they're easy to pronounce. :-)
I love the story about your son's name and his living up to the meaning! Do either you or your husband have someone with very dark hair in your gene pool somewhere? As for our DD's name, I told my DH when I was about 6 months pregnant that if he didn't help me pick out names right then that I'd just name the baby all by myself when the time came because, after all, I was the one to whom they'd bring the papers to complete. That got him motivated.
A sad story that also proves your point about the power of names involved brothers (not even twins) named David and ... wait for it ... Wavid. Yes, David and Wavid. David was doing pretty well in life, but Wavid was struggling, and I often wondered if it weren't because of his name. Interestingly, Wavid married a woman named Watha.
Then you have the names that are just totally unkind, like a guy my friend went to high school with named Richard Breath. Think about one of the nicknames for Richard, and then imagine what his classmates liked to shout out every time he was nearby. His parents should have gone to jail for that one!
My favorite names for men are names like Nick, Luke, Rob, Tom, Mick, Justin, Rick, Jordan, Will, Joshua, Matt, John, Michael, David, and most of the classics.
For women I like a lot of names like Sarah, Jessica, Emily, Rebecca, Beth, Veronica, and any number of others.
I am not as crazy about names for either men or women that are gender-neutral. For example, I know of one girl named Clark and one named Evan, but I can't tell by just hearing the names whether it applies to a girl or a boy. Then again, names have shifted over time. For example, Scarlett O'Hara's heart's desire (or so she thought until it was too late) in Gone with the Wind was named Ashley, and I think today that's mostly limited to being a girl's name.
I loved your post! I am not into names that much and stick to most common names like Joseph, Michelle and things like that. My niece named her daughter Charly, not real fond of that. Its like the boy named Sue.
My father loved Aloysius as a boys name but my mother said never. So did dh. Naming characters must be very difficult. Is there a hero named Fred? Can there be?
Names drive me crazy. I've changed character's names more than once becase it didn't fit. For a girl I like Emily or Rebecca. For a boy Luke or Lucas.
Loved your post.
Seems like people have very definite likes and dislikes when it comes to names. I've picked up a few choice ideas of what to name my next characters! Thanks.
Every time I blog, something happens. Today we're having a storm with a viscious wind. Internet hasn't been all that reliable, which is why I've been absent for most of the day.
Thanks fot stopping by.
What a fun topic! And I love your character Nell, probably because my first heroine was Nellie :) I remember an agent who judged me in a contest saying I needed to change it because it was too old-fashioned. Bingo. That's what I was going for. So I love it.
I don't even have a baby book. I sit down to write a synopsis and the name pops out. Just finished a synopsis a few days ago and I ended up with Eleanor and Dez, Addy and Wade, Mary Paige and Brennan and Carmen and ?. I can't remember his name. Maybe his needs changing. LOL. Where did those names come from? No clue. Just flowed right out my fingers and surprised me.
Kate, interesting topic! My feelings for a name are usually associated with someone I knew/know with that name. When my third child, a son, was born we gave him a second name of Taylor. When I was growing up Taylor was always a boy's name. Nowadays it's a girl's name. So a couple of years ago we had his name changed by deed poll to John, my father's name. All three generations were all happy with that decision.
I keep a name chart listing all the names I've used in my books so I don't duplicate. And yet, somehow I've used the names Ben and Daniel, twice. :)
Hi Joan,
When our second son was born, we chose a lovely name for him and then almost immediately afterward, it became a popular name for girls. Oops.
Luckily he goes by a diminutive of the name and it's less gender neutral.
One other funny thing about his name. We picked his name because I heard about a hockey player with the name and I loved it. Now our son is the first person on either side of our family to play hockey. He's rabid for the game. Weird.
I love traditional names: George, Charles Edward etc & for girls: Katherine, Eleanor, Victoria etc.
When our daughters complained about their names (Sarah and Rebecca), we would always say that they could have been named after their grandmothers--Eula and Floy. That usually shut them up.
I was named after my mother's favorite nun (yes, nun! you read that right!)--Sister Patricia. My nickname in grade school was Patsy. Yuck! Even my grandmother's names looked good after Patsy -- Elsie and Enid.
Names... when I was pregnant, I told my husband to choose a name. We knew were having a boy because I had an amnio at 16 weeks. The named Zachary just popped into his head and slid right out of his mouth when I asked him to choose the name! I liked it, so we name him Zachary when I was 4 months along. His middle name however took awhile so we didn't file his birth certificate until he was almost a month old. A friend gave him his middle name. It means the calm of the sea at dawn. He didn't live up to his middle name. He is nowhere near calm, though he does love the ocean. :)
A meaning full unique baby name makes the tip of the ice berg in the world of baby naming. Searching and selecting names for your baby is the most cherished event in life cycle. So lets haunt for a unique baby name to bestow uniqueness to our new entry in the family.
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