I have been obsessed with names for as long as I can remember, maybe because I have always been conscious of having an unusual name. Like many with unusual, difficult-to-pronounce-in-English names, as a child I would dread the moment the new teacher, or a substitute teacher got to my name on the class list. That moment of hesitation as they try to figure out how to make the letters make sense. As an adult, I appreciate my name more but there is still a part of me that longs to have a name that would render me anonymous on the internet. I long to be one of the thousands of women named Linda Smith in Canada.
I’ve been thinking about character names and re-read MG Sondraal’s blog from April 5, 2024, which inspired me to revisit the topic. Names can be a shorthand to suggest ethnicity, like Francois (French, from medieval Latin for “free man”), or Titilayo (Nigerian, Yoruba for “joy lasts forever,”), or Ka-Yan (Chinese, Cantonese for “auspicious happiness”). Or the author chooses them for a specific meaning, like Sophia (“wisdom” in Greek) or Ricardo (“daring power” or “strong” in Spanish).
In the past, Hindus were named according to the date and time of their birth, which determines the first three letters of your name. However, in more recent times, names are often chosen simply because parents like them. Like in other immigrant communities, names are also chosen to be easier to spell and pronounce in whatever the majority language is in wherever the diaspora has settled.
I’m also interested in new names, an author tradition going back centuries. For example, in 1597, Shakespeare is the first to introduce the name Jessica in The Merchant of Venice. In an article by Dr. Cleveland Evans posted on the American Name Society blog (March 24, 2024), he outlines several theories as to how Will came up with the name, perhaps modified from “Jesca”, Hebrew for “he looks”, the name of Abraham’s niece who is mentioned once in Genesis. Others believe Jessica is a feminine of “Jesse” (“God exists”, David’s father). And a Shakespearean name expert, Grant Smith suggests Jessica is from “jess,” the leather strip used in hunting falcons to bind them to the trainer’s arm. His theory is that other Shakespearean heroines, including Desdemona in Othello are compared to falcons and Jessica breaks bonds with her father in The Merchant of Venice.
I am also curious about unique African American names and although the Google AI says that the historic roots of the tradition date back to enslaved mothers giving their children unique names to make them more identifiable if separated and sold, in fact, despite this idea’s popularity on Tik Tok, this is not based on historical fact.
In my brief foray on the internet, a young writer named Cimmaron Holman Jr., on the TeensInPrint.com blog investigated with his historian library teacher for Black History Month. He commented on the ostracization people of colour may face for their names and together, they looked at the name registries in 1800’s South Carolina. Many of the names were Christian “an act of survival by putting their children in this more American setting to help give them the best life possible.” Others, often from their African home cultures, seemed to be “an act of resistance to the forced assimilation put upon them by White colonizers.”
The rise of more unique names began with the Black Power movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. For example, phonetic creations with prefixes or adding unique apostrophes, like DeAndre or Mo’Nique. Portmanteaus where there is a combination of the parents’ names like Jalisa from James and Lisa were also popular.
Other favourite names may be variations of a theme, floral like Lily Rose (actor), mineral like Amber Jade (Tik Tok star), or canine, like Wolf Fox – ok, I made that last one up, but don’t they sound like they need their own short story, maybe even a novel?
Writers often use names that sound quite different from each other to help identify and individuate the character’s arcs in the story. I have to consciously try and do this because for some reason I often end up having all the characters’ names start with the same letter, like John, Jan and Jason in the same story! Having names with a mix of hard and soft consonants also helps them stand out, for example, Evangeline (“bearer of good news,” also an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about an Acadian girl – can you tell I’ve recently been in Nova Scotia?!?).
Do names interest you? How do you come up with your characters’ names? How much importance do you ascribe to your characters’ names?
I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!