On the naming of characters

[winter]

I'm trolling babynames sites, and there are such a lot of names that are just begging to be used in fiction. Aldona, Indré, Frauke, Berenika, Larissa - why don't they appear more often? It seems like anyone writing, say, HP fic uses the same three names all over again. Why not have a Nicodemus Malfoy, Theodosia Black, Malvina Weasley? Dare to leaf through that baby names book, people ;)

NaNo news: Part 9 and another Interlude - tape transcript this time. I'm a little behind, but I'm damn proud of Part 9 - it might not look like much, but it's the first time I've written an almost 5K-word action scene that actually has action in it. Normally, I can't write action at all.

Four hours until Vampires. Mrr. Krolock 4EVA.

Comments

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

Maybe its because I don't write HP fic, but generally when I'm writing original fiction or putting original characters in fanfiction, I want to use a name that's more common.

It's possibly because I don't write fantasy, though. I think when I'm doing modern fiction, I have to be careful to make the names more realistic: would two American parents in the 1970s name their daughter Berenika? Perhaps, if there's a family history for that name, but in my head something like Abigail is more likely.

I do agree that I keep seeing the same names over and over again, though - not every protagonist needs to be named Michael or Elizabeth. :) I think I named the love interest in last year's defunct NaNo Ezra.

[winter]

What I mostly meant is fandoms like HP, with canonly used old-fashioned names from various traditions. And yet the most adventurous that people get when naming OCs are traditional British names like Marjorie, because apparently Sky Raven Cloud is much cooler *eyeroll* Same for most fantasy fandoms without set naming patterns, really. Say what you want about Star Trek: DS9, but at least they used old names like Kira, Odo, Jadzia or Dukat instead of coming up with apostrophe-laden monstrosities.

When writing Americans, you do have the dual excuses of heritage and the long tradition of people finding some word and deciding it sounds cool ;) If they could do it with Madison (and in droves at that), why not with an actual name?

And then there's the crowd that names themselves, like just about every person younger than a hundred in my NaNo :) I haven't yet touched on that, but all those Damiens, Alyssa, Virgil, Carmilla etc definitely didn't get them from their parents...

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Madison. I've always hated that name. ;)

It's partially a personal preference with me; characters are in some ways my babies, and I can't imagine giving them a name I wouldn't want to have myself. Therefore, I tend to be traditional with my names.

It's funny how names give you a feeling for the kind of story you think they'd be in: a Mackenzie or a Madison, for instance, screams chick lit to me. I'm more likely to name a character Sophia or Anna.

I haven't yet touched on that, but all those Damiens, Alyssa, Virgil, Carmilla etc definitely didn't get them from their parents...

I think Alyssa might be more common then you think. I've known five, and they've all gotten the name from their parents. Its a fairly accepted variation of Alicia and Alison.

[winter]

I know - I've known one Alyssa myself - but my Alyssa's real human name was Jo Mackenzie. The first thing she did as a vampire was threaten to tear the throat out of anyone who called her that ;)

Names are my greatest trouble with characters - they tend to name themselves, really, but first I need to try on every name in the book. Hence the trolling of baby names sites. I once spent three days trying to name a walk-on in Once Upon A Time In Mexico before settling for Renarda. Bloody characters :/

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Check your spambox, too. Mine is chock-full of wonderful names just begging to be used. Adam Zamora, Shane Hilton, what's not to like? How about Irving Martiniere? That sounds properly gothic. :D

[winter]

...so ganking that for the next vamp that needs a name :D :D :D

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Hee-hee! Gank away. And it comes in *free* and fresh every day! :D
If you're doing something adult, how about another spam gem: Trevor Rutter. *snerk*

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

>>Larissa

No good. Everyone (or at least the ones with some movie culture) will have Lara's Theme from Doctor Zhivago playing in their minds, the rest will just think of Ms Croft :P

Also, check this for a good laugh:
http://notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html

[winter]

They're pronounced differently - Larissa starts with an Ł, sort of an English W sound (as in wangst).

Heh, I have that site bookmarked to check for updates :)

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

Larissa Fyodorovna, Lara for short :P

[meril.livejournal.com]

There's an Aldona in the new Honor Harrington book...of course, there you go, it's not HP fic. ;)

[winter]

Well, Weber gets a free pass out of the "popular-names-only" club on the basis of Honor's name alone. *googles* Ooh, and from the last name she sounds Russian, which is fair enough. On top of that, a patronymic-derived surname with the right gender - major brownie points for Mr Weber. I think I should maybe read more Honor ;)

[meril.livejournal.com]

He does do interesting things with names. Some of them work better than others. Common first names are actually used for more than one character--there are a lot of Michaels around, for instance.

[perpetualdreamr.livejournal.com]

Hi, I don't know who you are, but I clicked Meg's Friend's link accidentally and saw your post, and felt the need to agree. I feel thine pain; even fantasy novels with completely fantastical settings have characters with generic Earth names, or derivatives of Earth names. What's worse is when the writer uses a slur on a pre-existing character (Eragon = Aragorn, for example). Those people have no pride . . .

Have you gone to the sites that list the background of names? You search for a name, and it gives you the name's history and all it's derivatives (I seem to be using that word a lot); you'd be surprised what freaky things come up that no one, barring linguists, has ever heard of.

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

Tell that to a girl that actually *lives* in the capital city of Aragon :p

[perpetualdreamr.livejournal.com]

Heh, sweeeeeeeeeeet. ^_^

[winter]

BehindTheName.com is my favorite starting place - especially if I have an ethnic character to name. But I usually double-check the info it gives, in order not to mess up something. I've learned the hard way, by looking at the Polish category, that sometimes the information is pulled out of thin air.

The thing that drives me nuts is the fact they only have one category for African names, and while they do list the exact language by each one, most are South African and Nigerian, and there's no way to filter the list by language. I usually end up deciding that my African character's parents were culturally converted and named him in the old colony metropoly's tongue.