I feel like a Ninja Turtle. I don’t usually put pictures on my blog, but today I wanted to be sure you had a good image in your mind of what that means. See how Raphael looks like he’s been riding a horse for too long? That’s me. Oh.My.God. How did Gym Guy even FIND those muscles? Right there…ack! I can barely walk. I toddle around the factory, being late to my meetings because it takes me so long to get up the stairs.
Then see how Raphael’s shoulders are drawn so far back? Those are mine. Except I haven’t worked my arms since last FRIDAY. And see his grimace? That’s–you get the point.
Anyway. My plan today is to talk about names. Names are such an important part of a person’s identity, and this is no less true for your characters, right? But where do we get names? I mean, they’re everywhere, and yet in the end names have to come from somewhere. Then you have people lifting brows because you named your hero after a hot movie star. But benefit of the doubt: maybe you just liked it. Maybe it reminded you of someone you know or knew. Maybe it fit the character, so you had no choice.
That’s how it is with my hero’s name, at least. Jonathan simply can’t be anyone else. I know, because I’ve tried. Originally his name was Gideon. But that’s lame. So then I tried Garrett, but that was only slightly less lame. Then I realized where the muse was coming from for his character and “Jonathan” was the only possibility. Most of you know that’s because the whole idea for IYATDTD came from watching Batman Begins. But I digress.
So this Jonathan character was supposed to look inherently evil. Devilishy handsome, for those of you familiar with the cliche. But in the original 6-10 versions of my story, Jonathan was a lord masquerading as a lowly estate manager. Which meant my heroine and her staff and family would all know him as Mr. Lastname. Well, what’s Lastname? So many choices!
I thought it would be fantastic if my devilish/evil-incarnate hero (who was really a wallflower being mistaken for a rake) could have have a slightly romantic name. And what do you know, I used to know a guy with the last name Hart. And he was even sort of the similar idea: the Mr. Hart I knew was tall and bad-ass but had this girly name. So I took it.
(Some of you were kind enough to point out Jonathan Hart is actually the name of a doctor on an old soap opera. Lord, WHY is there nothing new under the sun? Just this once, I’d like to be original for a change. Egh!)
So then it seemed like a turn-off to have a hero with a girly name. I know–why can’t I make up my mind? But this just goes to show the kind of layering that goes into building a character, obviously. Snort. Anyway, feminine Jonathan Hart needed a bad-ass title. Now I didn’t know it at the time, but in Atlanta Jo Beverly explained what I subconsciously knew back in January: Jonathan, as a very long, multi-syllable name, is “girly.” And Hart was definitely romantic. So he needed a name he couldn’t shake, one that would have the ton quaking in their Hessians at the very utterance, and one that completely fit his evil-incarnate reputation.
Now think to yourself. What is the darkest, deepest, most evil title you’ve ever heard? C’mon, you know the answer to this one!
Here’s a hint: I always think of it the way it sounds through that ventillation thing. Lor-rrh-d Va-aaa-der.
Oooh! So evil! So delicious! Say it to yourself. Make sure you get all the nasal in there right 
Obviously, I can’t name my hero Lord Vader. That would be too obvious. But going back to what Jo Beverly said, the reason we all love Vader so much is because its consonants are very hard. Vah. Dah. Er. It’s all in the front of the mouth, like any good villain’s name is. (Skywalker, on the other hand, is all in the back of the mouth. It sounds flowery and whimsical because of it. Fascinating!)
Ok, so Vader is a good villain name. Except Jonathan’s not the villain, he’s the hero. And yet it’s too good to resist! This is how Lord Rader was born.
Problem is, I had originally intended for him to be Mr. Hart to the heroine. Buuut then I had to cut the masquerade sub-plot and suddenly he was Lord Rader to absolutely everyone. Going back to the reason I picked that name in the first place, he was supposed to be scary to Society but not to the heroine. She would have a chance to get to know him while he was a simple estate manager. Well, it didn’t do huge damage to the tone of the first book. But now I’m writing my second book and Lord and Lady Rader figure in pretty substantially. And everytime I refer to my heroine as Lady Rader, I cringe. It’s so perfect for the hero, but so not for the heroine!
(Hey, maybe that’s why his first fiancee killed herself. To avoid having to be Lady Rader for the rest of her life!)
Anyway. In that book, the heroine’s name is Kit. That’s because I picked a Shawnee name for her and the blasted British had to shorten it to something they could pronounce. The same goes for her brother, Sawyer, although maybe LOST did have something to do with it Actually, the heroine’s original name was Annabelle because my neighbors as a child were Annabelle and Suzy. Except Suzy doesn’t sound very Regency, and besides, she’s decided to call herself Susii now. Annabelle was good when my heroine was more British than Indian, but then again there was a sudden influx of Annabelles and Isobelles last year and I said never mind.
So I looked up a list of southern American wildflowers and got Senna. But most of you already know that turned out to be a very common laxative sold in drugstores and Targets across America. Uh, whoops!
Finally I changed her name to Kisahthoi. But every time I changed her name, I had to change her brother’s name to match. So Nicholas became Cayne became Sawauseekau. Nicholas for a childhood friend, Cayne because the character was originally born in Florida and hey, Go Canes! And then Sawyer because it sounds hot. Thank God for ctrl+F!
The hero’s friend is Roman Alexander (there’s a long story behind that name) and his brothers are named alphabetically: Anthony, Bartholomew, Constantine, and Darien. The hero’s sisters are named after biblical characters: Sara, Hannah, and Rebecca. That’s because I wanted to put my best friend’s name in there and then realized I had Jonathan and Sara. Why not add a few more? (Maybe that’s why his mother was so disappointed in him. Religious zealot.)
See, I told you names were important.
The heroine’s best friend is Emily. I had a characterization all planned out for that young lady, but she totally blew it out of the water. Now the only resemblance she holds to the girl I used to know is that her name is Emily.
The villainess is Aunt Faye. That’s because my mom had a friend whose name was Linda Faye, and for whatever reason my mom thought sounded like linda fea which loosely translated would be pretty ugly in Spanish.
The names go on and on. I have one single-appearance character named Lord Conrad, because one of my friends wanted to be in the book and so I wrote down his name and the next time I needed a name, there it was. I actually have a running list of names like that.
But the thing is, no matter who the name gets assigned to, in the end the name is assigned because it fits that character for a why reason. Maybe it’s a matter of sounds like Jo Beverly said. Maybe it’s because of a cultural thing. Maybe it’s because the dog park near my house is built on Willowmoore Farm. Or because it amused me to name estates and towns and titles after cities in the Puget Sound area, like Microsoft codenames its projects Whistler and Anacortes. Whatever the reason, names give character to characters. They help build the story in a way that may seem superficial at first, but clearly is not when you write a gi-normo blog about them.
So, anyone else find themselves naming and renaming characters? How’s that going for you? Jacqueline, I know you’ve done it! Out yourselves!
