After The Rest of the Story came out in 2019, I went to hear Sarah Dessen speak at BookPeople, and she talked a bit about character names. She said she’d always been drawn to unusual names, but for a while, her editors pushed for more “normal” alternatives (Sumner and Ashley to balance out Haven in That Summer, and Halley and Scarlett in Someone Like You, for example). She was relieved, she said with a laugh, when the trends started shifting to more unique names and she could create characters called Louna (Once and For All) and Saylor (The Rest of the Story) and Emaline (The Moon and More) without any pushback. It was a small part of the conversation that evening — not something anybody dwelled on — but it got me thinking: what really goes in to naming characters?
Well, it turns out, quite a bit. Here are five things to consider as you brainstorm names for your characters.
1. Genre: Sci-fi characters tend to have futuristic names, while romance characters’ names are often more flowery. Fantastical stories may pull names from mythology, and realism tends to use names you’d hear in real life. Consider what kinds of names will fit your genre. Do they need to be outlandish, dripping with meaning? Or more realistic, everyday names?
2. Time Period: Especially if you’re using realistic names, be sure they’re appropriate to the time period — not just the year the book takes place, but the year the characters were born. Names that are trendy now will feel out of place in historical fiction.
3. Heritage: Similarly, consider where your characters live and where their families are from in order to find names that are appropriate to their cultural backgrounds.
4. Diversity: Though your characters’ names should be stylistically similar (as opposed to mixing futuristic names with everyday names), be sure they’re different enough from one another to avoid confusion.
Tip: Avoid too many names that rhyme or start with the same letter, unless that’s an intentional choice (such as with siblings or twins).
5. Pronounceability: If you’re reading a novel with a protagonist named X Æ A-12, you’re liable to get frustrated tripping over how to pronounce it, even silently. Make sure your unique names are still pronounceable, or work in a phonetic explanation.
Tip: A great example of a phonetic explanation in the text is in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Viktor Krum’s many mispronunciations of “Hermione” taught all us non-British readers how to say it correctly. Just try to incorporate yours earlier in the series, if needed!
What are your favorite character names? How did you land on them? Drop me a line or share in the comments below!