Name That Character

The most difficult part of creating a character for, say, a NaNo-novel, isn't determining his or her age, hair color or hobbies. It's not deciding on his or her favorite music or patching together a plausible biography. No, it's coming up with a decent name.

A character's name is important. It can set the personality and perception of the individual before his or her first sentence of existence. Last year, I had such a tough time with names. Some included: Car, Cliff, Debb, Green, Jett, Kay, Max, Min, Road and Tigg. Notice a pattern? I apparently gravitate towards weird, monosyllabic names that relate to transportation, statistics or feature double consonants. If Agatha Christie struggled as I did, we would all be reading about the great Belgian detective, Slope Trukk, and not Hercule Poirot. We'd be in trouble.

For this year's effort, still unofficially titled SMiRK, I'm recycling characters from last year, but giving them improved monikers. "Improved" meaning "normal". The main character, Tigg Smoops, will return as Johnny "Tigg" Erikson. His sidekicks, Green White and Car Partsen, will rejoin him as Timothy "Green" Tealeaf and Ethan "Car" Vimes. Tigg's love interest, Kay Eliminopy, will become Katherine "Kay" Eliminopy. I still like that last name.

Even now, as I look over their new names, I'm not entirely satisfied. My tiny gray cells begin to wonder how authors decide. Do they pick names from a hat? A phone directory? Their favorite players on the Boston Red Sox? Do authors spend as much time and consideration naming their characters as people do naming their children, pets or cars?

These thoughts were triggered partly by an assignment for tonight's creative writing class and partly by NaNoWriMo's Bay Area Kick-Off Extravaganza at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco last night. The founder, Chris Baty, was there to sign copies of his new book, No Plot? No Problem! and give an inspirational speech. Also, some of the usual blogging suspects attended, returning for second go at a novel in November. It all begins in ten days!