Hellooo, everybody! Today we're talking about one of my favorite parts of character creation:
naming your characters! For some people naming characters is a breeze, for others it's the
ultimate struggle. "Wait a minute it's not enough that we have to create these characters from the
ground up? Now we gotta name ‘em? Fuck that shit, I quit!" “But Jennaaa, I don't have to worry about
this. I just use a name generator.” Wow, how boring. Don't get me wrong, it's fine to use
a name generator, I guess. But isn't the point of the creative process to be creative? I'm just
saying. This topic was requested by one of my patrons over on Patreon, Shannon O'Hare. I made
a video on this topic eons ago, but Shannon was hoping for some updated information and resources.
Something that dives into the intricacies of naming your characters. You've come to
the right place Shannon. I know naming your characters can be intimidating because there is
a lot to consider, but it can also be super fun, especially when you finally find the name that's
perfectly suited for your character. Plus baby names sites are abundant, which makes it super
easy to find what you're looking for. I'm listing the ten best tips for naming your characters,
not only so you can find appropriate names for your cast, but also so you can find names that
won't alienate or confuse your readers. Before you publish your book, WATCH THIS VIDEO! Cuz you
might need to rename a character or ten. Let's get into it.
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)
If you can see my ring light reflected in my glasses, deal with it. My eyes are itchy,
I didn't wanna wear contacts. Friendly reminder, The Savior Series fan art contest is going down
right now. You can submit drawings, digital images, esthetics, memes—all sorts of art.
This contest is available internationally, and you can submit as many pieces as you'd like,
there is no limit. Three lucky winners are going to be receiving massive prize packages.
I have all of the details listed in the link below. Additionally, in honor of The Savior's
Champion’s book birthday, next week I will be hosting the fantasy author live stream. I will
be joined by some of my favorite fantasy authors here on my channel. We will be playing games,
we will be answering questions, it is going to be so much fun. If you've got questions
about writing or publishing fantasy, or if you just wanna watch us make asses of ourselves,
definitely tune in. I also wanted to say a huge thank you to Milanote for sponsoring today's
video. Milanote is an easy to use tool that allows you to organize projects and ideas into visual
boards. It's not the same as traditional software. Most software works as a linear document, whereas
Milanote is more like a studio wall or poster board, which makes a whole lot more sense because
creativity is not linear. Milanote allows you to take your big mess of ideas and move
them around however you please, which is perfect for mapping out your ideas, for organizing them,
and of course for brainstorming. It serves as a creative hub for whatever you're working on
like planning your author platform, creating characters, structuring your novel, world
building, and of course naming your characters. Do you have lists of names you need to sort through?
This is the perfect place to do it. On top of that you can share your Milanote boards with
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YouTube videos, my newsletter, and of course I use it to plan my writing. From the characters,
to naming the characters, from the world building, to the different settings and scenes, and so on.
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got ‘em linked below. You will love the books. And I really, really, really appreciate your support
and your readership. Now I am dishing out my ten best tips for naming your characters. A brief
disclaimer: a lot of the examples I'll be using today, particularly the contemporary examples,
will be based off of naming trends and conventions in the United States. If you live outside the US,
adjust these tips to reflect naming conventions in your region and you'll be good to go. Number
One (1): Consider the genre, and sometimes the category. I don't think I need to explain this
in depth but a high fantasy character named Bob doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But this step
goes beyond matching names to genres. It's also about sub genres and reader expectations. For
example, if you're writing contemporary fiction, readers are going to expect contemporary names.
But if you're writing young adult contemporary fiction, and remember young adult is a category
not a genre, you might be able to get away with contemporary names that are cool or quirky.
For example, in the last young adult contemporary novel I read, two of the characters were named
Bexley and Venus. Another great genre to analyze is romance. If you're writing wholesome romance,
you're probably gonna wanna choose cutesy names, like Skylar or Phineas. But if you're looking at
dark, decadent romance, you're probably gonna wanna go for some indulgent names, like
Anastasia or Isabella. And of course, when we look at speculative fiction, like sci-fi or fantasy,
the more other-worldly your story is, the more unique your names will be. But we'll talk about
that a bit more later on in this video. Number Two (2): Consider the era. Obviously if you're writing
historical fiction, you wanna use names that are era appropriate. Not all of us have era specific
names memorized, so this would be a great time to utilize a baby names archive. It's really easy to
find lists online that showcase very popular names within specific eras. Just bookmark these lists
and voila, you have an instant handy dandy guide at your disposal. But even if you're not writing
historical fiction, eras still matter, because naming conventions and trends change from decade
to decade. If your characters were born in the 80s, the most popular names then were Michael,
Christopher, Jessica and Jennifer. But if your characters were born in the early 2000s,
you're probably going to see names like Joshua, Jacob, Emma or Madison. That's not to say your
characters need to have popular names, but if you're naming your thirty-year-old cast based on
today's baby name trends, it's not gonna be that believable. At all. No one was naming their kids
like this in the 80s, that's today's white people problems. Number Three (3): Consider the region
and language. This is another one that should go without saying but I have read things that
would haunt you in the night. If your story takes place in Japan and your characters are Japanese,
maybe they should have Japanese names. If your story takes place in West Africa, Cuba,
or Indonesia, use regionally appropriate names. Of course if the character immigrated from another
country, or have multicultural parents, that could affect their name. But my point is, consider this
stuff. And for God's sake, if you're not familiar with the region or the language, do the research.
Just like here in the US, names can be gendered from region to region. Names can have symbology
or meaning. It's super easy to find regional name archives online and then work from there. Do the
work otherwise you're gonna end up giving your character to surnames like an idiot. Thanks for
not even doing the bare minimum, asshole. Number Four (4): Understand your worldbuilding. To all
the world builders out there, you may think you can go crazy with your names because after all,
you've invented this world. And to some extent you're correct. You can create the rules to
your world's naming conventions, just make sure that it's believable to your readers. If you're
writing a post apocalyptic version of our world, then names like Dave or Sarah could make sense.
But in a medieval fantasy world, not so much. Another thing to consider is inspiration. Even
if you create an original world, it might be loosely or heavily inspired by a real world from
our history. Is your world based on ancient Egypt? Then ancient Egyptian names, or ancient Egyptian
inspired names could work. And of course there are worlds created from nothing but the author's
imagination. If you've invented a completely new planet in a completely new solar system,
you're probably gonna need to make up some completely new names. This is a great time
to utilize your creativity. Just make sure you're going with names that your readers can believe.
Number Five (5): Understand your tone. Sometimes tone is irrelevant and unbelievable. After all,
parents don't name their children while thinking, ‘What kind of protagonist will my child grow up
to be?’ But a lot of times tone is valuable to consider when naming your characters, because
well it's fiction, their parents don't actually exist. Here are a few examples to consider. Are
you writing sexy characters? Choose sexy names, at the very least don't use names that would sound
ridiculous while being moaned or screamed during acts of passion.
“Oh Colitus! The things you do to me!” Writing a relatable character? Try a relatable name.
“But Jennaaa, what's a relatable name?” How about a name that isn't wild, whimsical,
or sexual? Like Titan, Bella Donna, Gunner or Speed. Go for names that sound like real people,
like Andre, Miguel, or Rebecca. Like I said, it isn't always relevant, but it often helps to
name your characters based off of the tone or vibe you are trying to portray. Number Six (6): Invent
original names. I mentioned this already, but if you're inventing a completely original world,
this might be a good time to invent original names. This could mean a variety of things.
It could be mish-mashing two or more names together to create a new name. Like Jonathan
and Brandon become Brandnathan. It could be taking a word that exists in our world, and turning it
into a name like Wrath. It could also be literally inventing a name, like Xanooked. In a past video,
I mentioned this point and I listed Katniss as an example. People commented, “But Jennaaa,
Katniss is a plant!" Okay? So is white horehound and ain't nobody naming their kid that! At least
I hope not. I said it wasn't an original name, not an original word, dumbass. The point is,
you have the prerogative to invent an original name for your character, whether that means
drawing from real life like places or plants, or inventing a completely new name from scratch.
Number Seven (7): Avoid repeat first letters. In my debut novel, I had two characters named Heather
and Hayden. Guess which characters my readers mixed up? Here's the deal, readers read quickly,
sometimes too quick for their brain to pick up minute details. Thus, it's really common
for people to confuse names that share visual similarities, especially if they share the first
letter. That's not to say you can't have any character names with the same first letter, but
try to avoid it. And if it does happen, try to make the names visually different in every other
way. For example, one name only has one syllable like Jack, and the other one has several syllables
like Josiah. One name is typically male like Tom, the other is typically female like Tiffany.
One name is usually associated with a particular region like Manuel, the other name is associated
with a different part of the world like Muhammad. Ultimately, you should try to avoid repeating the
same first letter for multiple character names. I know it sounds silly, but it is a
common confusion and you will be saving yourself a major headache. Number Eight (8): Avoid rhyming.
Midway through the first draft of my debut novel, I realized I had a character named Jason
and another character named Mason. While planning The Savior's Champion, I had intended to create
a Tobias as well as an Aliyas. Obviously by the time the books were published, those rhymes had
been deleted. The reason rhyming names are a problem is similar to my previous point,
they're spelled very similarly which makes them really easy for readers to confuse. Which one’s
Tobias and which one’s Aliyas? Does it even matter? Well, yeah, since one of them's the
main character. Rhyming names in some ways are even more problematic than the previous point,
because even if your reader is enjoying your book via audiobook format, the problem persists. They
may not see the similar spellings, but they'll hear that rhyme. Go through your character names
and try to spot any names that look alike or sound alike. If you've got dupes, and I'm sure you do,
it's time to rename some characters. Number Nine (9): Researching meanings. This is my favorite way
to name characters. Especially if you're writing speculative fiction. I'm a nerd who's heavily into
symbology. So I like to give my characters names with meaning. This is another instance
where online name archives are a godsend. You can look up names from particular areas or regions,
and what they mean. I chose the name Leila for The Savior Series because the name means night beauty.
It felt appropriate because a lot of the themes surrounding her arc involve darkness. I chose
the name Tobias because it means God is good, and Leila is drawn to Tobias because of his goodness.
But symbology goes beyond literal meanings. If your work is inspired by some kind of folklore
or mythology, you can utilize that as a way to give your characters names meaning. The Savior
Series draws a lot of inspiration from Greek mythology. And you can see that in the character
names. My Hunter is named Orion, my Cyclops is named Bontes, and my giant is named Antaeus. To
all speculative fiction authors out there, whether it's sci-fi, fantasy, or paranormal, I definitely
recommend choosing names based off of meaning and symbology. It is so much fun. And Number Ten (10):
Keyboard smashing is not your friend. As we've discussed, inventing character names is fine,
but not at the expense of your readers eyes, or sanity. It's okay to create new names,
and it's wonderful to utilize names from other regions that your readers may not be familiar
with. But if you're inventing a new name from scratch, and it looks something like this,
you're not being creative, you're just being a dick. How the fuck do you expect readers
to pronounce this? You're impressing no one but yourself, asshole. Look, pronunciation guides are
a valuable resource. But if all of your character names look like keyboard smashes, readers are
going to get frustrated and this will prevent them from connecting to the characters, cuz they can't
read their damn names. You don't need twenty-five vowels in your character name okay, calm down. I'm
looking at you male fantasy writers. So that's all I got for you today. Thank you so much to
Milanote for sponsoring today's video. If you are looking for a platform that will help you
organize your writing, or organize your author platform, or really organize your life, I cannot
recommend Milanote enough. I use them every single day. I was literally using them right before
I filmed this video. Best of all you can try Milanote out for free right now! Click the link
in the description, check them out, you'll thank me later for your newest obsession. Thank you so
much to Shannon for requesting today's video. If you'd like the chance to have a video dedicated to
you check me out on Patreon. We get early access to videos, there's an exclusive writing group, we
get monthly livestreams, there’s signed books, it is so awesome. I got it linked below. Don't forget
to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays. And if you wanna be alerted as SOON as
I upload, ring that bell. The Savior's Champion and The Savior Sister are available in ebook,
paperback, hardback and audiobooks. So if you wanna check out my award winning dark fantasy
romance series, you totally should. And I promise, the names are not filled with twenty-five vowels.
Check out the series, it's linked below. And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm on
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