Naming a character is very important in any storyline. The name is, of course,
what identifies the character, but not just by way of telling who's who. The
name can also convey the character's attitude or even give a sense premonition
of what that character is destined for. Here I will discuss tips on how to name
characters for your story as well as the different methods used. Methods listed
here aren't the official name of the method, they are simply how I refer to
them. You might know them under different names. When picking out names for
your character, take the time to choose. It is important to pick an appropriate
name and, when well picked, it has a greater impact than one that is ill suited.
For example, say the hero of your story is practically another superman. You
most likely would not want to name this character Joe or Billy Bob (unless you
want to convey humor). For an extraordinary character usually calls for an extraordinary
name, right? In my personal opinion, that simply depends. And what it depends
on is the mood or the message of the story or character. Here are some questions
you may want to ask yourself. What kind of presence does this character have?
What I mean by presence is, does the person have a sense of darkness or evil?
Like a typical villain. Does the person seem to have a very cheery disposition?
Or perhaps a sad one. You may pick out a name that seems to "fit the mood" which
is okay, because when people read or hear that character's name they tend to
think of the mood or some particular images that the name represents. True,
not everyone is going to know the meaning of the character's name, but a lot
of times just the sound of the name gives a sense of the character's nature.
When you read, hear or think of the name - let's say - Nicodemus, just take
a moment to think on that name. What comes to your mind? What kind of person
do you think this is? You may get an image or a sense of ancient times, wisdom,
knowledgeable persons, magicians, mysticism, historic or fantasy themes. Am
I correct? This leads to one of several methods of picking names I call playing
by ear. There are no strict rules to naming characters. The whole point
of the matter is to get the mood or message across. So it doesn't really matter
what method you use as long as it works for you.
Another commonly used method by many writers is the meaning method.
This is simply picking out a name specifically for it's meaning. Or in other
words, you pick names out for their actual meaning, instead of the way it sounds.
For example, say if a female character of a story has had many tragedies in
her lifetime and she has a depression problem. A name that would probably fit
would be Deirdre (celtic/welsh for sorrow), because she is sad the majority
of the time. Another good example, the hero of the story has a fiery temper
and is very active, you may pick names that either means this attitude literally
or you could use one that symbolically could represent this person's character.
This may be called named by association or similarity (also can
be known as symbolic names) and is considered a sub-method.
Another sub-method is named by pre-fated destiny, that is, the
character has a name that may give some clue as to what happens to them or what
they will do. An example is character that has a fear of some kind, perhaps
later during the storyline the character will learn to conquer this fear. You
may give a name that means conquering.
Another sub-method is named by purpose or profession because the
same application can be done for those whose name meaning is that of what they
do or why they are there in the story. Here's an example, say if a character's
main purpose is to be the healer, then you may want to pick names that means
healer in some way. Also to take note that you don't have to pick names with
meanings that literally means what they are or do. Like in the case of the healer
character, you may not use one that literally means healer, you might use something
more specific like doctor, nurse, or something not so specific like "heals others",
caretaker, etc.
Here's an interesting method that can also be used, named by theme(s).
One theme, named by irony, the character may be named as something
totally opposite of what they may seem. One good example is a cartoon series
that I know of called Courage: the Cowardly Dog. The title itself is pretty
much self-explainatory. A lot of times this method is used to convey humor,
but if done right, it can be used to convey tragedy, other themes or exactly
what the purpose is...irony. This can sometimes be counted as a method in itself
or a sub-method. Other subject matter similar to this (not irony itself, but
a theme) could be named by tragedy (a character is named for a
tragic past or a tragic future), named by heroism (a character
with either a heroic name or named after some act of heroism in the past or
future), or named by pretense (a character named in false or deceptive
manner).
Another method used in some cases is literal naming. Basically
you would name the character something that is literally named that. Ex. - character
has red hair may be named Red. Or the purpose of naming that character could
be different from naming them because of the hair color, it could be named because
of his personality. Again, any sub-methods can be used under this method, it
simply depends on your reasons or no reasonings..^_^. More examples are characters
named after food, objects, animals, etc. Like in Ramna, there are characters
named Shampoo and Cologne (thus literally object names). Some characters could
be named after flowers, like sometimes in real life or for whatever reason you
need. In many animes, they build their stories around character with names of
everyday things. In Sorcerer Hunters (aka Spell Wars) you may or may not notice
that the majority, if not all, the characters are named after foods.
This method is a category in on itself. Here we will discuss how to name characters
based on what your storyline or theme is. I know what you may be thinking. Didn't
we just discuss naming characters by the themes and stories? In a sense, yes
and no. The above discussion was mainly on naming characters based upon themselves
and we only briefly discussed names influenced by storylines, which is a lot
of times what you would base what to name your characters. You could name a
character with - let's say - a tragic or sad sounding name, when the theme of
your story is totally cheery. No one in this story has a reason to be sad, so
unless you are trying to convey some strange sense of irony, you've created
a story that has some imbalances. Now like I've mentioned, there's no definite
strict rules and these are mostly my opinions, but a lot of times when you create
a story for the purpose of getting others to read it, you kind of have to look
at what others would like read in the story. That's only if you want to get
others into the story the way you want them to. And alot of times people love
the story simply because of the characters themselves. If it's just for the
sake of personal preference that's fine. What I'm discussing here is how to
create well balanced characters to fit -or unfit- the storyline. Everyone has
their own methods, and like in the earlier discussion, it's a matter of what
work for you.
Most of the times you would fit the type of characters with the appropriate type of storyline, and depending on the story's theme or plot, the name is important. Let's say you have a serious storyline, you would maybe name your characters in a more serious fashion? Most likely, but let's say you have a more humorous character in the plot. You may or may not give this character a serious sounding name or meaning, as well, it would depend. Several factors are good to think about when think a name for the character: this character's influence in the story, how others view this character, this character's purpose, how this character behaves normally, and the outcome of this character. Animes I can describe in the serious category are Lodoss Wars and Rg Veda. It's serious in theme but you know there are humorous character in there somewhere. Like in Rg Veda, there's Kujaku (which means peacock in japanese), he's a humorous character the majority of the time, though he has his serious moments. In this case, the character has a serious toned name, the meaning could be taken either way, depending on how you would view a peacock..^_^ It shows that it doesn't have to sound funny, it could just have a funny meaning:)
This brings me back to what I was talking about in the begining. A well picked name has a greater impact on the readers than one ill suited. Remember Joe Billy Bob the superman? If you don't, you need to work on your memory:) Anyways, the idea is to get what you want the readers to see or feel across. That includes basing names on the story's theme, whether it's serious or funny. Hopefully this helps and makes some sense. If anyone has trouble with this let me know and tell what you don't understand and I'll try and fix this..^_^;