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What’s in a Name? (+ #giveaway)

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I’m a big Shakespeare nerd.

In high school, I ran our Shakespeare Troupe for three years (I was just a regular member Freshman year.) We were a group of goofballs who loved all things William Shakespeare. But, more than that, we put on his plays and competed in the local Shakespeare Festival that was held at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

There was something amazing about being on that stage. It was also a delight to sit in the audience before and after our turn to watch as other high school troupes put on their performances.

And so it is that every time I’m sitting, tapping my fingers on my keyboard trying to come up with a name for another character in one of my books, I find myself muttering along with Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Of course, being also a big fan of Anne of Green Gables, I often will also mutter afterwards, “I don’t believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.”

Naming characters, for me, is hard. And somewhat horrible.

See, in real life, I’m not a huge fan of giving kids crazy out there names. But in fiction? Not everyone can be named John or Luke. And heaven forbid if you should have two characters whose names start with the same letter in one book! (No, it doesn’t matter if you can list six families you personally know who named all their kids with the same first letter. That’s frowned on in fiction. Plus it makes it hard for the author — you’ll mix them up inadvertently. Just ask June and July in my Remnants series.)

I think I’ve done okay, though if you’re paying close attention you may notice that I apparently have an affinity for J names. (Seriously, so many of my characters start off with a J name and then I have to change it because not everyone in the world can have a name that starts with J!)

Authors who are smarter and more organized than me keep a spreadsheet of all the names they use. It’s such a fabulous idea! And I always mean to implement it…and then I don’t. I really do need to go back through my books and do this, but it seems like such a monumental task, and which names do I include? I mean, in Hope for Tomorrow there’s a character with an ex-wife. She gets mentioned exactly one time. Does that mean I can never use that name for a main character in some other series without people thinking I mean the ex? (Honest question there — are you the type of reader who’s going to wonder if that’s what I’m doing?)

And so, having worked my way through the initial glut of accessible and more common names, I find myself with the Hewitt family. The parents, Martin and Elise, decided (for who knows what reason!) to name all their children after a shade of blue. So I have Azure, Cyan, Indigo, Royal, and Skye. Some of them are more “normal” names than other…but I’ve even gotten a couple of frustrated comments from readers who disliked the fact that I have a Skye when Heather Gray also has a main character Skye (and her eponymous book is a fantastic story btw, if you haven’t read it.)

But as an Elizabeth, let me just tell you, duplicate names is a thing. ;)

Still, I try hard to make sure I’m not using the same name as another book that’s releasing around the same time, or is not the exact same name as another CCR writer used somewhat recently. And while I do sometimes include names of people I know as a little wink and a nod, I try to avoid making a friend’s last name belong to the bad guy (Ahem. Valerie Comer’s Neil Maddrey in Sweet Serenade is just misunderstood!)

You can see the problem.

In Hope for Tomorrow (Hope Ranch book 2), we meet Skye Hewitt and Morgan Young. Now, as it happens, I have a cousin named Morgan. His last name is not Young. And other than also having been a cop at one time, fake Morgan and cousin Morgan have basically nothing in common. But even so, when my sister heard that was the name I was using, she was concerned.

Concerned enough that I tried to change his name. I really, really did.

But here’s the thing…once a character starts to come alive for me, it’s crazy hard to change their name. I have, in fact, only managed it once. In A Heart Rearranged, my florist was supposed to be Violet, but my editor went on (and on. and on.) about how it was too cutesy to have a florist with a flower name. So she became Vanessa. But the process of getting my brain around it was excruciating.

So I went back to my sister (she knows our cousin better than I do – long, weird story full of family drama) and sent her the first bit of the book to see if she could tell it wasn’t real Morgan.

She gave me the thumbs up. (Phew!)

Because no matter what my pal Willie S says through Juliet, I tend to fall more on Anne’s end of things: names matter. Especially once someone (real or fictional) has started to come alive in my brain. I can’t just turn a skunk cabbage into a rose with nomenclature.

So let’s talk names…do you mind when books by different authors have characters with the same or similar names? Do you have a name you don’t tend to see in books that you wish you did? (Cause I always need new name suggestions!) When it comes to names, are you team Bill or team Anne?

Leave a comment by midnight on Friday (4/17) and one person will chosen to receive a copy of Hope for Tomorrow (which if it isn’t out, should be any minute now) or, if you have that, your choice of my books.

Elizabeth Maddrey (292 Posts)

Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.


Comments

  1. Oh my goodness, names do get to you, why don’t you ask your newsletter subscribers if anyone would like to choose a series and list the names and books and series for you. I’m sure there will be someone who would love to. As to names, well my middle name starts with J and in our family history there are so many Johns and it seemed one generation the guys all married women called Elizabeth (and each couple had about 20 children way back then)! I think that whatever you name the characters is ok, and readers are smart enough to work out who’s who, especially as the books will have been through beta reading and arc reading.

  2. Thanks, Dianne! I…had not considered asking newsletter subscribers to name people for me. I’ll have to think on that, it’s a good idea. (I might be too type A to do it. Thus the pondering.) :)

    I do tend to agree though, that readers are smart enough to deal.

  3. I am a big fan of names in stories, I don’t want them.to be confusing or hard to pronounce….and I don’t usually get them confused with other authors books!

  4. Yay! And yes, hard to pronounce is sort of annoying – I do like with less mainstream names when authors include a pronunciation in the book or as back matter.

  5. God bless you. I have to agree I dont like confusing names in stories especially if there are a lot of different characters in a book. Gets kind of crazy to keep everyone together. I like old fashion names, those that you hardly hear anymore. Like Evelyn, or Abigail, or Josephine. The list could go on.

  7. I’m with you and Anne. Names really do matter. I’ll tell you a few of my personal pet peeves, but I know these don’t go for everybody.

    I don’t like weird spellings of normal names, like Meghan. It makes me wonder if it’s supposed to be pronounced differently, too. And if I don’t know how to pronounce a name, I don’t relate to the character — like an acquaintance I feel embarrassed to say hi to because I’m not sure if I got their name right.

    I don’t like it when there are too many protagonists with the same name. I don’t normally care too much if different authors use the same name unless it gets overused. However, I can’t tell you when is too many.

    I don’t like it when the same author uses the same main names for different characters in different books because, as you said, I wonder if the author is trying to tie those two stories or even worlds together.

    However, I don’t think an author can’t ever reuse a name. Your ex-wife example is one that I wouldn’t have a problem with, for the simple reason that I as a reader most likely wouldn’t even remember the name of the ex-wife. You can also mix up the same first name with different middle names, such as Amy Jo, Amy Sue, Amy Lee, and Amy.

    I prefer character names to reflect their heritage in some way, so I will go to baby naming websites and look up the most popular names for a particular year for a particular country. Historical fiction is more limited to what was normal at that time. You wouldn’t find a Brittany in ancient Greece. ;)

    You can also take names from other countries and “Americanize” them, giving a backstory like their parents were obsessed with Japanese culture at the time, or something like that.

    I hope this helps.

  9. Hi Elizabeth! Informative, thought provoking, delightful blog. What is in a name? As a German- American with an unusual name, I understand. While my name was popular in Germany at the time, as a student I became frustrating with it constantly being mispronounced. When I was 13 and became an American citizen, I wanted to change my name (Americanize) to Renee; but my mother wouldn’t let me. So in high school Renee was my nickname. In 1967 as a senior in high school, my German name didn’t bother me, when a male classmate had to explain why his parents named him Sue.
    I did enjoy the Hewitt family and their unique blue colored names. Unusually spellings of names don’t bother me, if they are explained. My granddaughter is named Maddison – with two d’s, because her father is Matthew (two t’s) and her mother is Nannette (two n’s and two t’s). She is a unique little girl and her name suits her.
    Best wishes.

  10. Oh! I love your name! I’m glad you didn’t change it (Renee is pretty too, though.)

    And what fun for your granddaughter – it’s a neat family commonality.

  11. Names… I don’t mind seeing names in stories I’ve seen before. And I think I’m generally on Team Anne. I do like when I come across a name that’s unusual or not mainstream. But I appreciate if there’s information to help me pronounce it (in my head) if it’s not something I’m used to hearing. For instance, I just saw Talia as a minor character. Is it tah-lee-ah or tahl-ya? I kept saying it both ways throughout the book, and never could settle on which it should be.
    On a side note, if there’s a character with my name, it’s hard to picture her as anything but a woman born in the mid-1970s like me ;-)

  12. I don’t mind having two authors using the same name for their characters. But I do think names matter. Working in a hospital, I see the most bizarre names you could think of and I really feel sorry for some kids who will have not only to spell their names for the rest of their lives, but also teach people how to pronounce it. So I do have a tendency to like more “normal” names, even old ones, but I guess normal also depends on where you come from.

  13. I think it’s fine to repeat the name of a minor character, such as the ex-wife in your example. I also don’t mind if a name is somewhat unusual as long as I’m told how it’s pronounced. I don’t have a problem with characters in books from different authors having the same name since they each live in their own world.

  14. Go team Anne! ;)

    But big YES to pronunciations! (I do think Talia can be EITHER of those though, so …is it good to know which way the author prefers? I know I have a character Karin who, to me, should be “car-in” but some people would talk to me about Karen and I realized they meant Karin. :) )

  19. I believe names matter. I don’t mind if an author uses a name more than once. If it is in a different series that’s not related to another I don’t Have a problem. I rarely see my name in stories.

  21. The struggle is real, even for the authors among us who DO use naming spreadsheets. While I usually manage not to reuse the same major character names, I find myself writing a story where Makenna, a nurse, takes care of a convalescing older woman named Marietta.

    Now, that’s not the same name, but the shape of the names is very similar, and they are in many many scenes together. Both names are well-established in the series (hello, book nine). I finally decided to give Makenna the nickname Kenna, though the longer name suits her better, just to break it up.

    Of course, then I remembered I have a heroine named Kenia in a different-but-linked series, but I can’t bring myself to care a lot right now. I don’t see another option for Makenna’s name!

  22. I guess I never realized how hard it is to come up with names for your characters! I think names matter though. I think it would be neat to have some uncommon names, like Bianca or Helen featured in books. Names that you don’t see much anymore.

  25. I loved reading all this!! I’m horrible at thinking of names. My husband and I never had children, but if we had had a daughter, I wanted to name her Crystal, after my mom’s birth mother, who died of tuberculosis when my mom was 5. When I was in primary school, I wished that was my name. One of my nieces has a little girl she named Tinsley Rose 😊

  27. I don’t mind characters from one author having the same or similar name to one by another author. I don’t how you’d come up with unique names all of the time! I like names I know how to pronounce, or ones that I can kinda figure out. It’s helpful if the author tell me how to pronounce it, too, and a few have done that, when the character with a unique name meets another character. I have no problem with characters in the same family having names that start with the same letter. My mom did that with my sisters and I. Since all 4 of us are girls, and mom couldn’t name one after my daddy, she gave us daddy’s initials. A friend of mine gave her two daughters and son names that start with the same letter. I have a great-nephew named Katin after surfboard soap, one named Sky, and a great-niece named Mia. The middle name of one great-nephew is Makai.

  29. My name isn’t one I see in books often, and never with the same spelling as mine. My niece is named Jurnee and my nephew is Talon. My kids all have normal names that are simple, but not overly common. I grew up in a family with everyone having the same first initial. I thought it was great, but it’s made me particular about names in a family. It drives me nuts if multiple kids in a family all have the same first initial, but then one or two don’t. I’d rather they all be the same or all be different. It doesn’t generally bother me in books though unless all the siblings play a major part in the storyline. The only other thing I can say definitely bothers me is when a name is hard to pronounce or can be pronounced more than one way and it’s not clear which way it is in that situation.

  30. My friend has 4 boys who all start with A. Then she had surprise twins and was out of A names. So they’re Es. I chuckle when j see them. You have to be committed to the letter of you’re going to do it!

  31. After 50 or 60 years of having an unusual name, (I had met only 2 Lincolns in all my growing up and adult life) it’s now becoming somewhat popular. I can’t remember having seen it as a character name. When I was in elementary school, I had a friend who was one of six siblings, 5 boys and 1 girl. All the boys had their father’s initials, first, middle and last. The daughter was named Alisa and mom was Jean. Only later did I learn that the mom, who was first generation Japanese, had chosen Jean as an American name because her Japanese name was Akiko. Faith in the pattern restored, lol!

    I recently came up with an idea for finding character names. At least it provides a great variety from which to choose. Pick a recent blockbuster movie, preferably one with a lot of computer graphics (Marvel movies are great for this). Jump to the end and let the credits roll. Pause and pick, mix and match first and last. The supply seems endless. You can often get names from other cultures, if needed. No luck? Pick another movie. No joy from “The Avengers”? Try “Aquaman”. You may have constraints from within your story that will help narrow the field. If you need to prime the pump, though, I recommend the Movie Credits Method.

  33. I know an author who names one side character the same name in each of her books–and they’re all unrelated. He could be a cop, a plumber, etc… same name, different character.

  34. Well, we have two sons named Joseph and Jeremy and were going to have a Jennifer but that got nixed when we had several friends with daughters with that name who were brats! Hence she is Rachel and then we had Philip. At least they are all Bible names. My Mother’s name was Mary, my middle name is too. We named our daughter Rachel Mara, her daughter is Rebecca Marie. Trying to keep a variation going.
    Just finished a book( an ARC) that had two bad guy brothers. But there was also another guy with the same last name. I think it was a mistake. Have to ask the author if she caught it!
    It is confusing to me when I’m reading a new release ( I read and review a lot of them) and the same name pops up. However, there is not a limitless supply of names especially in historical novels.
    I don’t mind a name being reused in another book. My family on both sides had a ton of Johns and Roberts.

  37. Depends on the story. Some need quirky names, while others need everyday names. I don’t mind authors using the same name as long as it isn’t in the same series.

    I also wish that proper pronunciation was included with unusual names. It’s distracting. :-)

  40. Im really late. I find at times certain names seem to be popular in books at the same time. For awhile there were lots of Jessica’s. I like different names like not just the popular names. I also like if a name is different that the pronunciation is mentioned early in the book (Or even as an authors note). I have read books set in the South of America that I have never heard of before and have no idea how to pronounce them or find I have pronounced them wrong. I know I have a friend Jana. I thought it was like East Europe pronunciation Yar na as in the J is a Y sound like in Europe but found out her mother liked the name Jane but wanted an A instead of a E so its pronounced Jay-na.

  42. Oh funny! I saw Jana and said it “Jan-uh” in my head as that’s how I’ve always heard it.

    Pronunciation is so tricky – I wonder what other “easy” names are actually said differently than I hear them in my head 😂

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