Character Names

How do you come up with the names of your characters? Long ago a friend ask me this question. I can't even remember my response to the question at the time. But as years have gone by I know my answer today is completely different.

Keep in mind that this is only my opinion and my process. Every writer has their own process and opinion on this subject. 

To me each character is different, as are the names, sometimes the names have meaning sometimes it just depends on the importance of the character. If the character is not an important factor to the storyline I'm likely to just shoot a name off the hip and if I like it or don't plan on using it for a later character then that is what I go with. If my character is important then I just might do some research, sometimes I go by physical characteristics, as in eye color or hair color? Is the character a shifter, Wicca, vampire, or just your everyday nothing extraordinary person? Take Abel for example, he is the main male character in The Pull of Blood, he is a shifter, vampire, elemental mix. He is also the alpha of his pack. But none of that came in to play for his name. What did is the fact that he is huge, golden and just yummy in my opinion. So as I was looking through a baby name book (yep that's right, a baby name book) I found that the name Abel, means breath. Well the image I have in mind of Abel absolutely takes my breath away. So...that is how Abel got his name.

Sometimes I just hear or see a name, that I like and shelf it for future use. Most times if I do that I will twist the name to fit my purposes. One of the characters in the book I'm working on now, Tybee Moon, actually came from a person on Tybee Island that I met. But I had to twist the name for my purpose, the character is inspired by the man I met, but his name is that of a popular American beer and his band has the same name. Well my character is of Irish decent and a Wicca. I twisted the name using the original concept...Beer...adding the Irish flare and came up with Redderick Killian.

Before I start a story, I almost always come up with an outline. I don't always stick to that outline. My stories tend to take on a mind of their own and go somewhere I didn't expect. My start and end point usually stay the same but how I got there may be totally different. Same goes with the names I use except my main characters. Part of my outline process is coming up with the characters I plan to introduce. I decided on their descriptions, personalities, attributes, and pretty much everything about them before I give them a name. And I almost always use those descriptions to decide on their name.  Depending on the character I may go through baby books, different websites, even the phone book flipping through and with my eyes closed and dropping a finger if its a good name I use it. I go through my personal list of names to use. Twist, tweak, and roll until I find the perfect name. Sometimes if I like a name enough I will even create a character to fit that name.

To me naming my characters is almost the same as naming a baby. It is not taken lightly and deserves just as much thought, care and love.