The importance of properly naming your characters

Hi all,

If you’re a writer reading this blog, you know how important character names are to the overall impression that the reader will take away after reading your novel. ‘Improperly’ named characters can cause the reader even to feel lukewarm about one’s entire book and perhaps, if the characters are continually named wrong, may not purchase subsequent novels in your series.

Now, what do I mean by improperly naming one’s character? It can be a complex concept to explain in words but I will try here in this entry. Books, unlike movies are not visual and so, to have an entertaining novel, the reader must be able to visualize the story in his/her head as they are reading your book. This includes settings, action and most important of all, the physical traits of characters.

Movies are sometimes made after successful books and how many times have you read fans of a certain book say or write that they really ‘pictured the actor as the character’. Or not. In other words, the readers believe that so and so actor was chosen wisely or vice versa, meaning that they didn’t visualize the character as looking like the particular actor/actress chosen to play the role in the movie.

Do all readers have to visualize the character the same way to have a successful series? Does the writer’s version of what the character looks like have to agree with the reader’s? These are other, interesting questions, but since I am only talking about the concept of naming characters, I’d just say that there are general parameters that the reader and the author should ‘see’ in their mind about the physical attributes of the characters in a novel. There is some room for discrepancy between what the reader and the author visualize in their mind about certain characters but I do believe that the spectrum (between what the author and the reader sees) is narrower than what can be hypothesized. In other words, yes, for the most extent, the author can be most successful if he/she can translate what they see the physical attributes of their characters as being directly to their readers. How about emotional attributes, in other words, does the readers and the writers see the characters in the same way as the writer? Maybe something for another blog entry. Right now, I’m going to concentrate on the proper names of characters.

So as I’ve previously said, I believe that a writer is most successful with their series if their readers ‘see’ the characters in a very similar way that they do and this includes the physical attributes of the characters. But how to explain exactly what a character looks like in words? Oh, certainly you can say that chacter X is tall, short, thin, fat, has blonde hair or brown. But, when one names a character, the name sometimes suggests a certain physicality to the reader. For example, if one named a character William Bladestone, it seems to suggest a very Anglo-Saxon looking man, perhaps even somewhat conservative. Again, much can be ‘read’ into the character by the reader just looking at the name. Shortening a name, calling an Elizabeth, Liz for example, takes the character from a more staid visual by the reader (Elizabeth) and transforms the character into a hip, modern version (Liz).

The next issue that a writer should be aware of when naming a character is to be certain that the name matches the century in which you are writing as well as the ethnicity of the character. Since I am writing a Phantom Dracula crossover universe and most of my action (at least in the first book in the series) took place in Paris, many of my character names were of French origin. Dracula is Romanian and so several characters had names belonging specifically to that country as well. Though Bob is a very good name (William actually being the more ’correct’ version for the 1800s), it is English in origin and therefore, would not ‘fit’ a French character well.

Some names have a specific origin but are more general in their use. For example, though Joseph is of Hebrew origin, depending on what surname you give to the character, you can use this name for more than just one ethnicity. Naming vampires can be interesting as well and one wants to give an ‘old’ vampire an ‘old’ sounding name. Many modern names of real life people that we know today came into fashion in the late 20th Century. Personally, I don’t think I’d name a 1,000 year old vampire Ashley, since the name sounds too modern and updated for one so old.

Now, what if you do name your character improperly, not paying attention to time period of story setting and ethnicity/country of origin of your character? Well, not much may happen on the initial draft, though your first readers may suggest a name change. But perhaps, for whatever reason, they don’t see the name as a problem. Then, one’s editor may ‘catch’ the incorrectly named character (you know, I don’t visualize character X as ‘looking’ like an X’) and so, then, you may need to rename that character. But sometimes everyone thinks that the names are good and then, the book goes to print and then your readers have some difficulty with the names. Either the names don’t match what you describe the characters to be or maybe they’ve never met a person named Charlotte so it is difficult for the reader to make the important connections in their mind. Therefore, your book 'fails' for them because that reader cannot ‘see’ that character well as they read your book.

Naming characters incorrectly then, will provide less enjoyment for the reader because they cannot feel emotionally close to the story (character is fuzzy or just bland (not 3D, colorful as they should be) in their imagination). Worst of all, naming a 19th Century French character Bob, will pull the reader physically and emotionally out of the story when their eyes come across that name. Do it too much and you’ve ‘lost’ the illusion so the speak, meaning that the reader, having been immersed in your story, is pulled/even ripped, depending on how ‘bad’ the name is, out of the storyline and so, the reader may even categorize the story overall as not effortless or enjoyable simply because of one or a few improperly named characters.

Continually improper naming of characters, naming characters without regard to time period, origin of birth, etc. will cause you to lose perhaps, not your initial first readers (though book reviews may remark about improperly named characters) but also readers that would buy a second book in the series. These 'second' readers may not since they did not like your first book. And though liking and disliking a book may be subjective, properly naming one’s characters will ensure that at least, you as a writer, have done all you can to keep your reader both interested and engaged in your storyline. And a ‘hungry’ reader, that is, one who has read and loved your book and wants to see ‘what happens next‘, is always your best customer.

Take care all,
Chris