What’s in a (Character) Name?

Dorlana Vann ♦ October 11, 2012 ♦ 3 Comments

I’m trying to find a name to fit my romantic comedy’s female main character. Right now I have a placement name of Lexi Dylan, but it doesn’t fit her well, and I think it may be a little too cliché.  To me, the names of my characters are just as important as any other aspect of my stories. Even if nobody else knows the meanings behind them, I do.

There’s a story/reason behind a lot of my names. Some names I picked just because I like a person associated with the name. My favorite TV series growing up was Charlie’s Angels; my favorite character was played by Jaclyn Smith.  This resulted in Jaclyn Jade of Jaclyn’s Ghost. And there’s Scarlet of Silverweed: Scarlett was one of my best friends from childhood, and the name has always been a favorite. I’ve wanted to use it for a character name for a while. So when I needed a name for my Little Red Riding Hood inspired book, it was the perfect time to use it.

Sometimes my character names have deeper meanings related to the story. The Princes of Tangleforest was inspired by Rapunzel. In the original fairy tale, the witch named the baby after the mom’s addiction to rapunzels. In my story, I used that aspect as one of my inspirations and named my character Poppi – after the opium poppy.  And in Passage to Queen Mesentia, I had to do a lot of research to name by 5,000 year old characters, which was a lot of fun.

Other times the names arrive from necessity, like Aiden from Silverweed. Originally, this book was going to be a sequel to The Princes of Tangleforest and Tanner was to suppose to have gone to Indiana to visit his crazy relatives, but as I was writing the rough draft Tanner’s personality didn’t quite gel. I had to create someone new.

And the list goes on. Now, I’m not sure if I’ve ever been at such a loss for a name as I am right now. I’ve referred to my book of baby names and yesterday morning I asked my little boys for the names of his girl 3^rd grade classmates for ideas – lol. You know, it’s strange changing a character’s name when you have called them something for so long, but I guess, if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. So this is my next step:

Hello friends 🙂 *clears throat* So, what are some of your favorite female names?

Love and Laughter,

Dorlana