by Jackie Houchin
NAMES in stories are important in that they have to “fit” the characters, the era, the country, and even class in which they live. You wouldn’t name a society woman, Buster. (Well, unless there was a right good reason for it.) Also, a native seamstress of New Delhi probably wouldn’t be called Manuela. So how do you find those perfectly fitting monikers?
It used to be you could use telephone books, but who even has seen one of those in the last 15 years?? There are websites that offer names for babies and their meanings. Some even suggest names that were popular in different years. (See below) Maybe you will name your heroine or villain after someone you love, or love to hate.
SUGGESTION One – A couple years ago I came up with an idea for a short story in a contest. I liked the name Autumn (the story had to be set in the fall). She would be a painter. I know how I wanted her to look – long, wavy auburn hair, green eyes. And she would be the quiet type.
Boy, did I get a shock when I asked my friends on Facebook what a character with the name Autumn Gold would look like and what she might do for a living. Nearly all of them said she would be a sexy night club dancer or even a street walker. Yikes! I changed her name to Audrey Gould. But I titled the story, and named the fantastical woodland painting her boyfriend made with her hidden image in the colors, “Autumn Gold.”
I got honorable mention out of 400 entries. Asking around might be a way to check out that clever name you’ve chosen.
SUGGESTION Two – I also wrote a middle grade mystery titled “The Bible Thief” set in a church much like the one we attend. For some weird reason 4 or 5 people (including myself) lost their Bibles at some church event. Some were found, others not.
Hmm. I pondered, and immediately thought of a clever gang of kids who would “investigate” and discover the remarkable solution to this mystery. Because I wanted to share the story with the kids in the 4th-6th grade class I was teaching, I minimally disguised their own names as the gang, their parents, and a few other easily recognizable people (by description) in the congregation.
That was easy! And maybe YOU have used names of people you know but changing Sheryl to Sherry, or Garrett to Darren.
SUGGESTION Three – And lastly, I also wrote a series of related short stories for the same age children, set in Africa. There were seven kids (one set of twins, and one who passed away at a week old), and they all had names that coordinated in some way with the month they were born in.
The youngest boy, born near Christmas (and since his father was a mission pastor) got named Deacon. “Deek” for short.
There was a girl, April (yeah, I know, too easy) and the twin girls were named Melody May and Charity June. (Know why twins have two months?)
A younger boy was named August, nicknamed “Gus.” The oldest boy was Marshall (can you guess his month?).
A sensitive girl born in July I named Julie Joy. And the little guy that didn’t make it very long was Freddie, born just after Valentine’s Day.
So, that is how I sometimes choose character names. How do YOU come up with yours?
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Baby names from Social Security lists by popularity, the top 5 by year, by decade, state, and US Territory – https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
2023 Baby name finder and the meaning/origin – https://emma.ca/baby-names
70,000 Baby names by gender, alphabet, origin, meaning, and religion – https://www.momjunction.com/baby-names/
The Writers in Residence 
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