Monday, September 3, 2012

Naming Character

I like names that reflect a character's  personality or life situation.

In my reincarnation story, my heroine is the intended victim of a hit and run crash that will propel her back in time to her previous life. She is also an orphan. Her name had to be Angel Foster. The villain who wants her dead married rich, and expects to get everything he wants. He needed a last name associated with power and money. Rockefeller sounds good. The hero needed a name that would fit in the present and 500 years ago. I chose Jeremy so she could whisper Jere Mie in the hero's vision.

In my historical western, the heroine is feisty. She is desired by the local banker, who holds the mortgage on her family's ranch, and her rejection of the slick banker spawns quite the feud. Her name became Stormy Hawkins.  Her father is Zed. The hired man is Brownie.
The hero is handsome, smart and smooth. He has demons in his closet from childhood, but his upbringing also gave him the tools to succeed. His name? Blade Masters.

My next novel will be a contemporary romance. Due to a motorcycle accident while intoxicated, my hero loses his scholarship to medical school. He eventually settles for becoming a Physician's Assistant in a small northern Minnesota town. His first name will be Galen. The heroine is an maligned herbalist, Ammi Folkright. Think they will agree on medical treatments?

How do you choose your characters names?






2 comments:

  1. Interesting choice of names, Ana. Must admit I don't think of the meanings of names. After all, parents don't know what their children are going to be like when they choose their names!
    I tend to choose names I like, bearing in mind the decade when they would have been born. In some cases, the characters have chosen their own names (like Jack in 'Fragrance of Violets').
    The only names I've really had problems with were the Egyptian names in my November release! I had to search online every time I needed a new Egytian (seconday) character!

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  2. Oh, I love how you come up with names. I use baby naming books and find ones with meanings that suit the character.

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