What's in a name? by Jane Walters

I have two lovely moments when planning (or daydreaming about) my fictional writing. The first is thinking up the title and the other is imagining my characters and, more specifically, their names.

I have a growing list of potential titles for novels – recorded in a notebook I use for special ideas – and more than I will ever get round to using. Still, when I hear something that strikes me, I’m scrabbling in my bag for a pen. I’m not alone, I know. I remember reading how Agatha Christie got her title, ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’ from a conversation she overheard on a bus. Although the difference with her is that she actually got around to writing the book…

A fun game to play is to re-name famous books or films. Try using a one-word title, as is Disney’s wont these days. Along the lines of ‘Frozen’, perhaps The Little Mermaid might become simply ‘Wet’? My take on Wuthering Heights would be ‘Whatever’ – I wasn’t a fan!

As for character names, this one is really crucial for us writers to get right. I found this quote on the ALLi website: “For me, the name has always come before the character,” says Dan Holloway, novelist, poet and ALLi’s News Editor. “I will often find the narrative taking a direction driven by the personality the character’s name dictates. I find names tend to be a very auditory thing – they need to sound right and that sound will suggest a context for them. Agatha Christie was exceptionally good at naming characters in this way, and it’s one of those things that when an author doesn’t quite get it right can make a book really grate, but when they do get it right can make it really flow.” How to Choose Names in Fiction (selfpublishingadvice.org)

One of my beta readers pointed out that I had two characters with similar sounding names. She’d had to keep flipping back the pages to remind herself of who was who. Names, of course, serve far more than simply identifying one person from another, but when I realised I’d failed even to achieve that, then it was a no-brainer to change one of them.

One helpful device I use in choosing names is work out what year my character was born and then Google the most popular baby names in that year. I find it helps authenticate the narrative. I also call upon my Latin skills to choose names with appropriate meanings. For example, in a reworking of The Prodigal Son, I named the older brother Max and the younger one, Paul. Do pop into the comments why you think I did so, then have a go at creating (or tweaking) your own!

Jane Walters is vice chair of ACW and a published author. She leads Ready Writers Retreats and her next one is coming up at the end of April. Find out more at www.janewyattwalters.co.uk

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