What's in a Name? Part 2

Last month I considered the way we might choose names for our fictional characters, unashamedly using examples from my own humorous stories for Key Stage 2 children (7-11year-olds).

If you’re really heading into the world of unfettered comedy, many options are open to you.  I cited Mr McCavity as the almost perfect name for a Scottish dentist in one of my children's stories. I also used a biblical reference to create a man of the cloth, Reverend Patmos, which may raise a smile for readers in the know. 

You can play with initials to make a point: Richard Alan Turner could clearly be the RAT his name suggests; Mabel Alison Drummond might, perhaps, have escaped from an asylum or just be the local eccentric. 

You can see how Ruth Leigh did this with her increasingly popular influencer mum, Isabella M Smugge (I Am Smug). Have you ever used this convention yourself?

Another great source of inspiration for potential names is a quick trip to your local graveyard.  The chances are that you will find headstones that are too old to read clearly, but you will also discover names appropriate to dates.  There may be Henriettas from the late 1800s alongside a good sprinkling of the Charles-Albert-Henry-type names.  More recent tributes will illustrate the way names tend to trend.  Alongside them you’ll catch a glimpse of stories both tragic (‘Lost in The Great War’; ‘laid down his life for his brothers’, etc) and poignant (‘safe in the arms of Jesus’; ‘we held you for an hour’ ), or similar.

Alternatively, you could try a spoonerism and swap the initial letters of a Christian and surname and see what happens.  I followed a recent thread on X asking who had an alliterative name.  My maiden name was Johnson and introducing myself as Jenny Johnson made me feel like one of those Hollie Hobbie characters from the 1960s and 70s which felt rather twee.  There was one individual who had married someone with the same surname as herself (no relation you’ll be relieved to hear); consequently, she never had to adapt to a new persona or alter her bank and passport details.  Very handy but rather unusual.

However you come up with the names for your characters, or indeed, yourselves – I know we have a number of ACW-ers who write under pen names – it’s good to remember that God knows each of us by name and that in heaven we’ll get a brand new one, chosen by Him and which fits us perfectly.  Now that’s intriguing.

Jenny Sanders has spent the last twelve years living between the UK and South Africa. She writes faith-inspired non-fiction: Spiritual Feasting (2020) asks how we can ‘feast’ when life serves unpalatable menus; Polished Arrows (2024), explores the allegory of  God shaping us to be fired effectively into our culture and contexts.      

           

Jenny also has two published collections of humorous short stories for Key Stage 2 children: The Magnificent Moustache and other stories, and, Charlie Peach’s Pumpkins and other stories. She is available for author visits in primary schools, taking creative writing sessions.  She loves walking in nature, preferably by a river, and has a visceral loathing for offal, pineapple and incorrect use of car indicators on roundabouts.