Every author either loves or struggles to give names to their characters. To me, it's both fun and also a challenge to choose the names that will either be believable or suit the style of whatever piece that I am writing. If it's a name from another culture or another language, it's best to do your research. That, in itself, is fascinating. When it came to finding a name for one girl in "The world of all things lost," I googled names from the West Indies and found the name Chevelle. It seemed to fit, and it was authentic. The challenge is to choose names you would see in normal life, but sometimes you need that bit of imagination. I had a battle with the spell-checker when I chose the name Emily Dustan. It insisted that it should be Dunstone and would red-line it every time, But I was persistent and Dustan it is. I've no doubt that there are real Dustans somewhere in England. Sometimes an author will surprise themselves. In "Hide and Seek I thought I had invented the Norman French name "Guillaume" But I discovered, unbeknown to me, that It was French for William. Since then it has appeared several times in print and there's a photographer who is called Guillaume. What was more astonishing is that I got the spelling right!
I have read praise for Charles Dickens for his choice of names, and in some cases I agree but there are times when his choice of names sailes too close to Charactiture. In "Hard times" one of the teachers is called Mr Machokeumchild . For me this is not only absurd but is also verging on the ridiculous. It is simply unbelivable and is trying to hint at his inflexible and harsh nature. When it comes to children's literature, which is what we're about, Names are just as important.
Although in one case Roald Dahl decided not to name his main character and just named her "Girl"in his book, "The magic finger." On the whole names are very important to Dahl So why did he make the choice to leave the child unamed?
As time passes and generations change, names go in and out of fashion. It's up to the author to keep up with changes and trends. Nowadays there are many names that have come over the pond , such as Ethan, and also there are many names that are now current that would seem old fashioned to our grand parernts. Boys names such as Isaac, Esau, Noah, Elijah, Henry, Gabrial etc, sound like they have escaped from a Thomas Hardy novel but, I assure you that they are very much in fashion nowadays. Girls names are slightly different, There are some that sound as if they come from a Jane Austin Novel but otheres such as "Willow" sound as if they are from a fantasy novel.
So we need to make sure that we authors need to be aware of the the names that children have nowadays. We also need to make sure that we don't duplicate names. Two Matthews in one book would be a problem for a reader. Two characters named Emma and Emily could also cause problems. A name can make or break a story. It can help us to identify with the character or repel us. It would be easy to give a villain an evil name to suit his or her caharacter but be far too obvious.
The exeption is nicknames which may be very appropriate.
It can be a problem or an oppertunity. There are alot of names out there and we should be able to choose name that will benefit our books. The challenge is to give the right names to the right characters. Sometimes the most obvious names such as John Smith is appropriate, I know, I went to school with him; Sometimes, a good original name is just what is needed.
If you're an author , you will face this challenge every time you dstar anew manuscript. I wish you luck.So what's in a name?
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