Character name ideas + Character guide google docs!
Naming characters is definitely not one of the most important things that comes to your mind when you're writing a story, but in reality, your story is based on your characters and anything and everything about them is an important detail!
Naming characters isn't easy. You have to make sure of a lot of thing when naming characters, and thats what I am going over today!
How to choose a suitable name for your character.
PLUS a list of names for girl characters in story!
A name that matches their personality
Characters are a vital part of your story, its what pushes the plot further and keeps the story moving on, like the engine of a train.
If you can get away with creating characters that live on after the story, your job as a writer is successful.
Creating characters are like creating personalities.
What is a personality?
It seems like an odd thing to ask, doesn’t it? After all, we all have a pretty good idea of what a personality is, even though it’s an abstract idea. But being able to clearly define what a personality is will make it that much easier to clearly define one for your hero.
The short answer is that a personality is what makes you, you. It’s what informs our tastes, opinions, motivations and reactions. From a psychologist’s point of view, personality develops in three different ways, “the person as actor (behaving), agent (striving), and author (narrating)”. ‘Actor’ refers to our dispositional traits, ‘agent’ refers to our motivational values, and ‘author’ refers to our ‘self-narrative’ or ‘narrative identity’, meaning, “the storied understanding that a person develops regarding how he or she came to be and where he or she is going in life”.
And what makes up a personality? These:
Thoughts
What prompts them to make choices? How does their past affect their thoughts?
Feelings
What interests them? What feelings are they associated with on a daily basis?
Behavior
What are their unusual habits? Do they have any unique way of handling sticky situations?
A character’s personality is based on their peculiarities, usual behavior and dialogues.
When I try to write a character (because it is something difficult for me) I imagine certain characteristics of the character.
What do they do when they face obstacles? Are they fearful or cold towards danger?
What’s their appearance? The clothes are very important! They show a lot of the character’s personality.
How do they view relationships, love and attraction?
Are they introverted or extroverted? Are they social and/or shy?
A great writing exercise that I have used is writing down a character’s traits: are they funny? What are their moral values? Are they mean?
Then make up a bunch of different questions that your character might be asked in the future of the story as well as background questions: How old are they? Job? What would your character do if they got into a fight? etc.
Based on their personalities you can create a number of names connected with it. A characters personality is what most writers look at first to when they are naming them.
Here are a few personality examples with names, check which one your character falls in:
SHY / TIMID: afraid of trying new things, doesn't like to be pushed, suffers peer-pressure, introverted, prefers to be alone most of the time, like to think before jumping, very smart and studious.
Name examples: Grace, Olivia, Sophie, Nicole, Anna, Kiara, Jane, Stacie, Flora, May, Isabel, Ruby, Natasha, Cindy, Annabeth, Enid, Margaret.
ADVENTUROUS / OUTGOING: An explorer, never knows when to stop, jumps without thinking, outspoken and bold, often oblivious to the outside world, average student, likes to socialize.
Name examples: Amber, Aurora, Beatrix, Beatrice, Alexandra, Alice, Athena, Brooke, Hermione, Iris, Isabella, Summer, Sadie, Hazel, Daisy.
SELF ABSORBED/ CARELESS: A self absorbed person, very careless and clumsy, likes to show off and make others jealous, Very judgmental and bias, Likes what she sees, Doesn't pay attention, finds common things very boring, sophisticated and modern.
Name Examples: Veronica, Carolyn, Charlotte, Clementine, Brigette, Cordelia, Diana, Elizabeth, Eloise, Evelyn, Florence, Gwyneth, Julia, Katherine, Lucinda, Rebecca, Victoria.
Real people’s personalities can usually be difficult to fit comfortably into neat little categories. People can be both introverted and extroverted, and go from being supremely self-confident to shrinking violets depending on their situation. The task of imbuing something as complex and unique as a personality onto a fictional person is tricky at the best of times, But if your character has a fixed personality any of the suggested names above would work.
If you are struggling to create characters here are a few resources:
And a few must-reads:
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