Character Names

Writing a story gives you the freedom to create wonderful, imaginative characters – but have you thought about character names?

Character names might need to reflect the setting of your novel. For example, a novel set in Victorian London will have different names from a novel set in contemporary New York. And you might like to think about your character’s traits and whether these can be reflected in their name (should they have a strong name like Jack or a softer name like Grace?).

Apart from these considerations, you want to help your readers as far as possible, and here are four tips to help you decide what character names to use, and whether your characters need names at all.

1. Not all your characters need to have a name!

When you give a character a name, your reader assumes this character is going to be important in some way. Maybe they will have just a small part, or maybe they will perform a pivotal role, but either way the expectation is that they will be more than just “a man in a car park” or “a teacher at school”.

If you give your character a name, your readers will try to retain information about that character – who they are, what they look like, when they met them. They expect to see this character again – if not in this book, then maybe in a sequel.

However, if you don’t involve this character in your writing again, your reader is retaining information that they don’t need, and putting effort into remembering unnecessary details.

So if your character only appears once, and/or only has one or two lines of dialogue, they don’t need a name. Simply “the man in the car park” will do.

2. Make sure character names are easy to read!

Although most of us don’t read books aloud, we do generally have a head voice – and this head voice will be articulating the words we see on the page. When we come across an unpronounceable word, it trips us up, and we stop reading to try and work out how to say it.

So although creating fictional characters does give you the freedom to create new and original names, it’s important that these names are pronounceable.

Don’t call your character Zpxq – your readers won’t thank you!

3. Don’t duplicate character names

Although in the real world we probably know several people with the same name, this is one instance where it’s not necessary for your novel to reflect real life. I have two close friends called Adam, but when we are all together, one of them is given a different name to avoid confusion.

In your novel, having more than one character with the same name (or a character whose name is the same as a road name, or a pub name, or a mountain) is going to confuse your reader – not something to be encouraged.

4. Don’t make character names too similar

As well as making sure your characters each have a different name, make sure these names are not too similar. So don’t have a Jack and a Jock, a Sharon and a Shanon.

Often, it’s names that begin and end with the same letters that cause confusion. For example I recently edited a book with a Terry and a Tony. Although these are clearly two different names, I did have to refer back to a previous mention to make sure I knew which character was being addressed.

In Conclusion

Make sure you think carefully about choosing character names. Check they are needed, check they are pronounceable (ask a friend, or email me if you aren’t sure!), and make sure there is no duplication. Your readers will be grateful!