The Name Game

I’m at the beginning of a new writing project and recently had to come up with names for my characters. This can be as difficult as finding that great opening line (see Maureen’s post and Kate’s post from this week). I’ve been known to write a proposal of a book with one name and then change it as I start writing. It has to feel right.

In my upcoming December book, I named the heroine Bailey, after George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life because her family is really into Christmas (they own a Christmas shop). That worked great. The hero is Finn. A writer buddy of mine has a young son named Finn and I just wanted to use that name.

It’s one of the best parts of writing—like having a large family where you get to choose names for your many kids (without having to check all that homework!). Especially fun for me, who has only boys. So I’ve used some of my favorite girl names: Zoe, Emma, Francesca, Hannah. I have heroes named Bram, Dylan, Brett, and Yeager. I wrote a story about an ex-pro surfer hero nicknamed Trick (short for T. Richard which was actually Thelonious Richard—hero’s mother was a piano teacher). Everyone warned that book would not fly with publishers as cutesy nicknames and sports heroes were forbidden. It was my first sale! (And I didn’t think the nickname was that cutesy anyway, since it involved a famous 20th century jazz pianist, so there).

In a recent journey of procrastination through the blogosphere, not for the first time I read a dig at the names used for heroes and heroines throughout Romancelandia. I’m sure my Yeagers and Tricks and Finns would qualify for that category belonging only to romance heroes. And this is a bad thing? I’m surrounded in my life with Mikes and Steves. My dad is Bill, my stepdad is Bill. How many Bobs do you know? I like the men in romance fiction to have names that take me outside the Robert, John, and James beltway.

Not to mention that names of younger men are much more adventurous these days. My kids’ names are not of the biblical variety. They go to school with Hayden and Jeremy and Elijah and Bryce (and Blake and Austin and…I could go on).

Last, while I have nothing against a hero named Joe or Sam or Jack, what’s wrong with Gabriel or Quinn? If we can accept a shiver-inducing, sexy bloodsucking vamp, I think we can accept that his name is Wrath or Rhage* (or Aidan or Connor or Gideon).

So let’s name names. What are some of the favorite names you’ve come across in your reading?

* Wrath and Rhage are hero names from J.R. Ward’s Brotherhood series