Tag: names

Categories
History in the Making

Naming Characters in Your Historical Novels

History in the making

Have you ever read a fictional novel set in the 1700s where the main character is named Harper (22 on a current top girl’s name list) or Summer (76) or Sienna (20) for a woman? How about Jayden (67 on a top 100 boy’s name list) or Kai (85) or Dylan (43) for a man?

Using character names accurate for the novel’s time period lends another layer of authenticity for readers. So where can we find these names?

The easiest source for me is books written during my story’s time period. For instance, I write Civil War romances. Soldiers’ journals provide names of family and comrades. Nonfiction books about the war cite many names of officers and rank and file soldiers. At that time, many men had a family surname as their first name or middle name, such as Harrison or Carter. Often these names were from the mother’s side of the family, so this could be a fun aspect for a novel’s secondary character as well.

Many regiments published a short history. Included with battle details were the men who served in that regiment. Names of wives, children, siblings, and parents may also be listed, providing many ideas for first and last names.

If an author is stuck for names, reading about an event that took place near the time either gives some ideas or send the writer on a chase that leads to timely names.

If a novel is set in 1790, reading about the American Revolution will give plenty of period names. Is the location set in the New England area in 1645? Look at names found in the Salem Witch Trials.

Also consider the character’s surname. If the main character has Scottish parents, a German surname does not ring true. If the character has an Irish mother and an Italian father, a first name common to either country will work—and so will a name common to the novel’s location.

One source to find the history of names is Behind the Name,  where writers can search by name, gender, or country. Authors may also browse for names under Ancient & Medieval, Biblical, or Mythology categories. The site even has a section for “Logical Names for Twins.”

Another fun tool is NameTrends. Search the site by clicking on the first letter of a name. Each letter has a listing that show when it was popular in history, beginning in 1880. Even if your novel is set earlier than this, it may provide ideas.

There is a lot to consider when naming characters in historical novels. Hopefully these sources have sparked some ideas for that next novel.

Award-winning and Amazon bestselling author Sandra Merville Hart loves to uncover little-known yet fascinating facts about our American history to include in her stories. Her debut Civil War Romance, A Stranger On My Land, was IRCA Finalist 2015. A Rebel in My House, set during the historic Battle of Gettysburg, won the 2018 Silver Illumination Award and 2018 Faith Hope and Love Reader’s Choice Award. A Musket in My Hands, where two sisters join the Confederate army with the men they love, releases November of 2018. Watch for her novellas, Surprised by Love in “From the Lake to the River” releasing in September of 2018, and Trail’s End, in “Smitten Novella Collection: The Cowboys” releasing in August of 2019.

Find her on her blog, sandramervillehart.wordpress.com.

Categories
Guest post archive

Why We Should Be Careful When Naming Characters-Ashley

My two innocent characters were named Solomon and Sammi. I really liked both names and felt like they fit the pair. What could go wrong?

Um…a lot.

My sister, who had been reading through my novella, barged into my room, intent on showing me I had messed up.

Sammi had said or done something and my sister assumed it had been Solomon. I read the sentence aloud, and my sister’s mind was blown. You see, she’d only seen the S at the beginning of the name and hadn’t bothered reading the rest. The result, confusion. The last thing I want to do is confuse my readers, distract from the story, or lose a possible fan.

I looked for a solution.

I learned to pick names that don’t look the same. I now keep a baby name book on hand as I write. This helps when my main character stumbles across a man in town and I need to find a quick name.

Maybe you have two really similar names and need to change one. I find that when I flip through my name book, I usually stumble upon some names I love. Other times, I find a name can be spelled differently and this can be used to fix my problem.

What about you? What are some ways you choose names for your characters?

Ashley Schaller enjoys reading about reckless, headstrong heroes, prefers tea over coffee,

and loves dollhouse miniatures. When not writing, she can often be found curled up with a book.

You can find out more about Ashley and what she writers here:

https://ashleyschaller.wordpress.com

Categories
Talking Character

What’s In A Name?

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

Perhaps so, but if roses were called Corpse Flowers, Stinking Christopher, or Spurge they wouldn’t be quite so popular, would they?

Names matter

Despite our best intentions, we do judge people (and things) by their names. (Why do you think companies spend so much time and money testing product names?) A host of scientific studies conclude that names make an impact on everything from the likelihood of juvenile delinquency, to college acceptance, to business success.

For a writer, this is great news! It means we can tell the reader paragraphs of information about a character just by choosing the right name. For example:

Alice McGillicuddy is obviously a very different person than Serena Jones or Emmaline Littleton-Fitzgerald.  Which is most likely to be the main character of a comedy? Go to a top-name prep school? Be the most no-nonsense?  If all three were private investigators, you would expect the tone of the books to be quite different, wouldn’t you?

[bctt tweet=”Apt character names can be a powerful weapon in our writers’ arsenal. “]

Use them wisely.

How to pick evocative character names

Consider the key traits you would like a name to convey, things like age, strength of character, temperament, sense of humor, ethnicity, and social class. Select five to ten that are most important. Now scroll through the phone book or an internet name site and jot down first and last names that seem to fit that description.

Don’t over-think this, go with your first impressions.

After you have collected several, try different combinations of first and last names until you find the one you like best—the one that most strongly hints at the character’s important qualities.

I was working through this exercise recently, trying to select names for  my newest work-in-progress. After narrowing it down to three names for each character, I gave the list of character qualities with the three name choices to several writing friends.

There was almost unanimous agreement on the best name for each one. This despite the fact that the names in question were all unfamiliar Greek or Roman names like Lurco, Avitus, Livia and Xanthe.

Fascinating, no?

One more suggestion

As a final check, run the name through a search engine to check:

  • how common it is (this could be good or bad, depending)
  • if it’s been used too often in recent books
  • if readers may associate the name with a totally inappropriate person, such as the main character from a TV show or movie you weren’t aware of.

Happy naming!

And FYI, if you’re looking for authentic Roman names, my favorite resource is Nova Roma’s name page.