Naming Characters

Naming characters. It’s something that all writers struggle with. Well, at least writers I’ve talked to. Yes, there are times the name comes right away or you come up with a fully developed character before your fingers hit the keys and it fits perfectly. But then there are those times you start out with one in the story that you call name x or name y or even just name here until the story is finished.

Then you start the process all over again. What am I going to name this character? Quick Google search for names leaves you feeling overwhelmed. Scroll through the list of Facebook friends. Maybe not. Someone will read it and think you based that character on them, and that could open an entire can of worms you don’t want to deal with. So, now what do you do?

Last night I had an idea. I went to see the latest Avengers movie. No, I won’t give away any spoilers.

But what I did take away from the movie came during the end credits. If you are familiar with the Marvel franchise, you know they always have at least one end scene, somewhere in the credits.

In the case of the latest movie, it’s at the very end. So you have to sit through the thousands of names of every single person that had anything to do with the movie. There are a lot of people who work on these movies, I couldn’t even begin to count all the names flying by.

In order to pass the time I started trying to read some of the names. Because of the pace that the names were scrolling past, I couldn’t keep up. Then I decided I would pick a first name, look down the list and pick a last name. Some of the name combinations that I came up with went pretty well together. Others, not so much. But it made me realize that could be a great tool to use if I’m ever stuck again when I have to name a character.

Of course, you don’t have to use a Marvel movie. Pick out your favorite, fast forward to the end and see what you come up with. If you do, share your results in the comments. I’d love to hear what you come up with.