How to name characters, with rules for fantasy names

To name a character, decide what the name should say about them (when and where they live, their class, their personality), choose a few candidates from sources that fit the period and place, say each aloud next to the names of the rest of the cast, and check what the name makes a reader think of. Then commit. Jericho Writers puts it plainly: think carefully about names, but do not spend too long agonising, because a name is more than a name and also just a name.

What a name tells the reader

Jericho Writers says a name should tell readers a lot, including place, time and personality, even in a quiet contemporary story, and should speak to the genre and ground the reader in the world. Its examples are a useful tour of what names can do:

• Class and distance. In One Day, Emma and Dexter come from different circles, and their names show the divide.
• Character in a letter. In Such a Fun Age, Alix has changed a letter from Alex because she cares about how she is seen.
• Time. In The Miniaturist, set in Amsterdam in 1686, Nella Oortman and Johannes Brandt belong to their period. Jericho warns that readers are savvy and will notice names from the wrong time.
• Place. In A Different Drummer, Jericho says the character names tell us it is the Deep South even though the state is fictional.
• Roots. A family surname with history, as with the Crawleys in Downton Abbey, gives characters a history.

Ginny Kubitz Moyer, who says she has chosen names for approximately 200 fictional people, writing on Jane Friedman's site, lists five factors: the time period, the sound, the meaning, the associations and your own preference.

Where to find names

Moyer and Jericho both point to records of the period.

1. Records for the period. Jericho suggests census records for the year of your novel. Moyer uses the Social Security Administration's lists of the most popular baby names by year.
2. Baby name books and lists. Jericho suggests searching by year, or keeping a few books at hand.
3. Reading in your genre. See how other writers name their characters, and read about the period and place.
4. Meanings and roots. Look up root meanings to find a quiet echo of the character.
5. Real life, with care. Jericho suggests combining names of people you have met, or honouring a famous figure without using their full name.

Jericho's list of what to avoid is short: names of people you know personally, especially family, because it can come back to bite you; full names of famous people, because readers will always picture them; and names borrowed from other books.

Test the whole cast

A name can be right on its own and wrong in the cast. This check is our own practice rather than something the sources prescribe, and it catches the most common problem cheaply.

Write every named character in one column with the first letter, syllable count and role. Look for clashes.

Four named characters, all starting with A, is a book where the reader keeps stopping. Keep the one who needs the stronger name and change the others: Anselm, Birgit, Corvin and Yolanthe differ by initial, length and mood. Do the same for surnames and nicknames, and for places that share names with people.

Say the names in sentences, too: "Anselm told Corvin that Birgit had gone." If you stumble, a reader will.

A worked example

Suppose you need a name for a harbour pilot's daughter in an invented port city. The steps run like this.

1. Time. The city is a generation past a long war, so her parents chose a hopeful name in the fashion of that year. Moyer describes drawing names from the era she is writing about.
2. Place. The port trades with three nations, so her given name is local and her surname came from across the sea with her father.
3. Sound. She is brisk and funny, so two short syllables.
4. Meaning. Her mother named her for the word that means "return" in the old coastal speech. The reader never needs to be told.
5. Associations. Nothing borrowed from a famous book, and no real person.

Shortlist: Brisa Kellan, Maren Ostrow, Tessaly Pell. Say each in a line of dialogue beside the pilot, the harbourmaster and the rival. Brisa Kellan wins because no other name in the book begins with B.

Minor characters

Give extra thought to the names that carry the plot and let the rest be plain. A one-scene innkeeper does not need a memorable name, and a distinctive one makes the reader think they need to remember her. A short, ordinary name tells them they do not.

Nicknames, titles and consistency

Jericho notes that many characters are known only by nicknames, such as Scout, Jem, Piggy and Rooster Cogburn, and that nicknames help us remember them. If a character has several names (a given name, a title, a nickname), decide who uses which and why. The choice shows relationship: what the mother calls him, what the guild calls him, what he calls himself.

Then keep them straight. Jericho's copyediting guide warns about the manuscript where a character is called Brain instead of Brian for most of the draft, and a copyeditor irons it out. The habit that prevents it is one spelling for each name, recorded in one place. Continuity errors in novels covers the wider problem.

Names in invented worlds

For an invented world, names do the work of language without needing a language. Philip Womack's worldbuilding tips for Jericho Writers list names as a place where bad worldbuilding shows: some writers choose random names and hope for the best, others go into great detail about etymology, and finding a sweet spot between them tells you what kind of writer you are.

The short version for fantasy: give each culture its own sound, use a consistent pattern for family names and titles, and keep the number of strange names low. The full method, with the sound rules linguists use, is in how to create fantasy names. For the wider world, see the worldbuilding guide.

Where the sources disagree

Jericho says do not be scared to use everyday names if that is the world, and also says quirky names make characters jump off the page, citing Eleanor Oliphant against a hypothetical Sarah Smith. Both can be true: the right choice depends on the book, as the first group of examples (Emma, Marianne, Connell) shows against the second (Uriah Heep).

Moyer says a name's meaning is rarely her main consideration, while Jericho tells you to seek out root meanings. Moyer, a discovery writer, also leaves characters as "she" or "he" until a good way into the draft and then inserts the name. Jericho's advice not to agonise fits that approach too.

Frequently asked questions

How do I choose a name for my main character?

List what the name should say about time, place and personality, then choose from period-appropriate sources and test the finalists aloud with the other names in the book.

Should character names start with different letters?

It helps. Names that share an initial, length or sound are easy to confuse. This is practical editing advice, not a rule from the sources above.

Can I change a character's name after I start?

Yes. Moyer drafts with "she" or "he" until she knows the character. If you change a name mid-draft, search the whole manuscript, and check nicknames and the places the name appears in notes.

Can I use a famous name or a real person's name?

Jericho recommends against full names of famous people, because readers will picture them, and against using people you know, especially family.

How many unusual names is too many?

Few enough that the reader can remember who is who. Give extra weight to the names that carry the plot and let the rest be plain.

Where Musael fits

A name is a promise to the reader that someone will still be the same person in chapter thirty. In Musael's world and characters codex, each character is an entry and names in your scenes link back to it, so you can see where each person appears in the manuscript. On Ink and Press, the continuity check also reads names, dates and places across your chapters and points to the lines that disagree. You choose the names. Musael helps you keep them right.

Sources

• Ginny Kubitz Moyer, "How Naming a Character Is Like Naming a Child", Jane Friedman: janefriedman.com
• Jericho Writers, "How To Name Characters: Top Tips And Methods": jerichowriters.com
• Philip Womack, "Six tips for successful world-building", Jericho Writers: jerichowriters.com
• Jericho Writers, "What Is Copyediting? A Complete Guide": jerichowriters.com