What's in a Name: Character Monikers and Where They Come From

By Colby Marshall - August 12, 2012

I recently received my revisions from my editor on Chain of Command, and one thing I would have to do was change a couple of character names.  Now, the names I have to change aren't those of significant characters, but rather, a couple of minor ones that were a little too similar.  This got me to thinking, though, what goes into naming a character.  For some authors, character names are extremely personal, sentimental even.  We've all heard the famous joke, "Don't mess with a writer.  She will put you into a book and kill you." 

For me, however, names don't work quite like that.  In books with body counts higher than the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, if I wanted to exact revenge via book character deaths, heaven knows I've had plenty of opportunity.  And yet, my characters who have names inspired by real life tend to be shout-outs to good friends, and they never exist solely because I want to name a character after someone.  The name has to work for the character. 

Usually, when I start to profile a character, I will have some gut feelings about what to name him or her.  Many times, I know right away what the character's name should be.  Sometimes all I know is it starts with a certain letter of the alphabet, or that it ends in a certain letter.  It's rare that I name a major character for someone in real life, simply because those names tend to come with too many connotations and feelings, and I want my characters to be entirely their own people, not take on characteristics of people I know in real life.  Plus, because my characters are their own people, so to speak, if during the course of a book a character who happens to share the name of a real life friend or family member happens to do something horrific, turns out to be a blithering idiot, or cheats on the fans' favorite heroine, I have to make sure the few people who happen to have a namesake realize that really, all the two share in my mind are a name.  The characters are in no way modeled after real life people or experiences.  After all, if I was writing real life, this wouldn't be fiction, and my characters would be quite one-dimensional, seeing as how I'd have a very one-sided view of any given person.  This way, I can reach in and create everything about the character from the inside out rather than imagining how someone might think.

Minor characters are a bit of a different beast.  When I have my basic cast of characters, I make a spreadsheet that lists the characters' names from A-Z.  That way I won't have twenty character names that start with the letter B and nothing else.  With minor characters, I will sometimes give a cameo to a friend or a winner of a blog contest, because those are easier to find a place for a name to fit.  I once made a friend into a potty-mouthed parrot in a manuscript, and I think said friend still considers this the highest form of flattery.  The only danger here is that when I give a minor character a cameo, I sometimes don't know what that character's fate might be when I start out!

I have one case in Chain of Command where I started a minor character who wasn't even in the original manuscript who shares a surname with someone I know in real-life.  I didn't really set out to give this particular person a "cameo" even (no offense, as you know who you are!)--it just so happened the name worked perfectly for what I needed.  Then, despite the fact that this character wasn't even in the original book, in subsequent drafts, he became one of the most pivotal characters in the novel.  He became somewhat of a running joke to me and my husband, who read through the various drafts of the manuscript. Now, in everything I write, I refer to any character who gives me problems or is the wild card in a story as that character's name in Chain.  He's no longer only a character to me; he's become my own writing term.

Which is why I think he and one other Chain character would be the only characters for which I'd have "trouble" changing names if I was asked.  Thank goodness, though, they made the cut.  *phew*

Would you name characters after real-life people? Have you?  Why or why not?