writingoped | What's In a Name (Reply)

Maybe a rose would still smell like a rose if it were called a geranium, but would your favorite characters still be themselves if they went by another name? I can't imagine Hermione Granger being called Yasmine, for example, or Bilbo Baggins being named John Smith. Names are an essential part of any character.

For me, the names of characters can also determine whether I will even bother reading a book. Romance novel heroines with outlandish names can make me drop a book right back onto the shelf. Sci-fi and fantasy books whose characters have names filled with triple consonants or decorated with apostrophes will likewise stay far away from my reading list.

When I sat down to write Call Out (which was started before the prequel, Hand of Fate), I gave careful consideration to the character's names. Here's a little of my thought process for naming these characters.

Dylan Connelly - of Irish decent, obviously. Her parents were/are a little music obsessed. They named her after Bob Dylan and her sister, Carly, after Carly Simon. The idea of naming her Dylan actually comes from a friend of mine, who would have been named Dylan if she'd been a boy. I always wondered why her parents didn't name her Dylan anyway, so I decided to steal her parent's naming idea and apply it to my character.

Elizabeth Morgan - I wanted my main female character to have an 'everyday' name instead of one of the obnoxious, exotic names that tend to populate romance novels. I have no idea where the name itself came from, thought I am partial to the name Elizabeth. I liked that I could play around with convention and nicknames, too.

Brian Kelly - Honestly, I picked the most common Irish/English/Aussie name I could find. It reflects his heritage, but it's also nondescript. It doesn't brand him as...well, as anything. It's a name that doesn't come with preconceived notions, really.

London Dahlbeck - I wanted his name to stand out without being utterly ridiculous, and I wanted it to be a little bit 'rock and roll'. I decided that he and his siblings had been named with a theme in mind - cities of the world - and dug through dozens of city names before deciding on London. It just fit him.

The other characters, with the exception of Ashe, whose name is explained in Call Out, didn't have nearly as much thought put into them. I did have trouble naming Adrian, as he originally wanted to be called Ryan (Ryan and Brian was just too confusing) and no other name seemed to fit him. Martine, also, required a little thought, since I wanted her name to reflect her Haitian Creole heritage.

An interesting (to me at least) note (or two) on my character names - I named my four main characters back in February of this year. Ryan/Adrian and most of the other secondarys were named by March. Somewhere around May, I ended up with a Facebook friend named Bryan who happens to have a business partner/close friend named Ryan. Within the last couple of months, I've picked up a Facebook friend who has a daughter named London. I'm waiting for Ashe and Martine to show up any time now.