Blog
1 min read
Edited
8th December 2020
How do you do it? Do you get a baby names book, or scour the telephone directory? (Does anyone use a telephone directory any more?) Do you eavesdrop in public places and make notes?
What does your character's name say about them? Is it resolutely plain or brimful of associations? As someone who has gone through the last 40 years being called Cressida, you develop a certain nonchalance about 'interesting' names. Once someone knows you work in publishing and are called Cressida - they expect you to work in publicity, be blonde, thin, very pretty, and sound like a minor royal. They are often sadly disappointed.
Does your own name hold any associations that you feel you fail to live up to? Let's talk names!
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I use a baby book, online searching, over hearing stuff or just making it up. I try to get names from everything and anything. If it sounds good I keep it. =)
I choose name by the way they sound. As my story passes in France, I use this site: http://www.babynames.org.uk/french-boy-baby-names.htm
I have had a phobia of naming characters after people, since I saddled a character with an allegory for a person I have since come to resolutely avoid... too often the first name you give a character is the one they're stuck with for good!