Call Me Mitzi
On my very first day of sophomore year in college, I somehow was dragged to a frat party (I was never into fraternity guys). I was bored out of my mind, when along came a tall then-senior, clutching a beer.
"What's your name?"
"Erica."
"Nope."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You're most definitely not an Erica. Henceforth, you will be Mitzi to me."
And henceforth I was.
Now . . . I have to say, I kind of chuckle at the memory. But I "get" that sometimes people don't seem to fit their names. Somehow, this stranger, who became a friend, must have discerned an eccentric soul . . . and felt Mitzi fit me better.
Oldest has a friend whose name is Amazing Grace, and has siblings with names like Maximum Jazz and Chances Are Good. I actually really LIKE Maximum Jazz. And of course, we all know about celebs with unusually named children.
I know there's a certain torture to having unusual names. But then again, when you get older, perhaps you appreciate being the only Mitzi in the room.
So it is with character names. They have to fit. I rarely have a plain-name heroine or hero. An upcoming release has a Calliope and August. Magickeepers concerns young Nicholai Rostov. I love my characters' names--they speak to me somehow. I have had Georgia Ray Miller and Teddi Gallo, and a woman named Skye.
And just like giving birth and the awesome responsibility of naming your child . . . I give a lot of AGONIZING thought to names. They "come" to me from nowhere most times. Other times, I comb baby books and then research name origins.
And one of these days, I think I will have to have a Mitzi.
How do you name your characters?
And for the record, Demon Baby's Naked Strike continues. The housekeepers here today are amused.
"What's your name?"
"Erica."
"Nope."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You're most definitely not an Erica. Henceforth, you will be Mitzi to me."
And henceforth I was.
Now . . . I have to say, I kind of chuckle at the memory. But I "get" that sometimes people don't seem to fit their names. Somehow, this stranger, who became a friend, must have discerned an eccentric soul . . . and felt Mitzi fit me better.
Oldest has a friend whose name is Amazing Grace, and has siblings with names like Maximum Jazz and Chances Are Good. I actually really LIKE Maximum Jazz. And of course, we all know about celebs with unusually named children.
I know there's a certain torture to having unusual names. But then again, when you get older, perhaps you appreciate being the only Mitzi in the room.
So it is with character names. They have to fit. I rarely have a plain-name heroine or hero. An upcoming release has a Calliope and August. Magickeepers concerns young Nicholai Rostov. I love my characters' names--they speak to me somehow. I have had Georgia Ray Miller and Teddi Gallo, and a woman named Skye.
And just like giving birth and the awesome responsibility of naming your child . . . I give a lot of AGONIZING thought to names. They "come" to me from nowhere most times. Other times, I comb baby books and then research name origins.
And one of these days, I think I will have to have a Mitzi.
How do you name your characters?
And for the record, Demon Baby's Naked Strike continues. The housekeepers here today are amused.
Labels: character names
posted by Erica Orloff at 12:39 PM
27 Comments:
Hey Mitzi, nice to meet ya! I'm Mimi, courtesy of my first grandchild, who preceeded to "rename" me when he discovered language. Now, all five of the little darlings call me that. And I love it, because it's so special to me. It all began with Hunter.
My novel names pretty much come like the characters. Had to smile, cause I had a Skye plop into my WIP. They have to "feel" right to me, so usual doesn't cut it. In my debut novel, Fey and Colin showed up.
Some of my characters recently are becoming more interesting in terms of their names, eg., Jericho Miles or Monaco Grace.
Hi Mimi:
Please to meet you. ;-)
And I love when names just "appear" from nowhere.
E
I love unusual names, and put a lot of thought into my characters names since it has to fit. So far, I've used- Alex (a girl), M, Rio, Winter, Echo, Ever, Colby, Damen, Jas, Cash, Lola . . .
And as a child was furious with my parents for about a week for not naming me "Candy."
Rock on Demon baby!
Mark:
I love Jericho . . . because you know the reader--as soon as they read that--KNOWS there's already a "story" there!!
E
Alyson:
I love ALL of those.
But Candy? :-) I wanted to name my little sister Tinkerbell.
LOL!
E
My crazy dog's name is Mitzi. I'm just sayin'... And since we rescued her from a trash can, and figured that was a good deed, her real name is Mitzvah, which in Hebrew means both Commandment and Good Deed.
Lesson over ;-)
I researched popular names from the time I was born, since my main character is my age. I wanted a name that was in the top 100, but not way at the top -- and something that was believable. Writing this story about a 40 year old named Tiffany just didn't work. I'll confess something here now. I named my MC's ex husband Richard. You know, because of one of the possible nick names. It serves solely to amuse me - it's never mentioned in the book. :-O
The MC's friends names just popped. And those names have become those characters.
I have more trouble with the kids names - and may change them. I figure at some point the names will just come to me.
Hi Amy:
I was the only Erica I ever met or knew until I was 23. Other than Erica Kane on All My Children (which I didn't watch, but people would tell me what a witch she was). I don't know what the popular names were . . . I know when my oldest was born, there was a still a big Jennifer contingency.
E
Huckleberry Finn is one of my favorite characters in all of literature.
Then again, so is Johnny Smith from Stephen King's The Dead Zone.
I guess I don't really agonize over names much. I think Calliope is great, though.
When I was little, about four or five or six, I met one person who had my name, in a zoo. I was PISSED. I wanted to be the only Natasha in the whole world. I didn't even mind that they never had rulers or stickers or notebooks that had my name on it.
I usually get the names first. The name comes, and I'm usually captivated who that person must be, with that name.
If I come up with the character first, the name never fits. Drives me nuts.
Jude:
But even Johnny Smith has some sort of cool cache since he's Johnny and not John. :-)
E
Spy:
I never--not once--got a pen or ruler with my name either. LOL!
E
hahaha. Those kids with the weird names...their parents must be Frank Zappa fans. Moon Unit anyone?
Maximum Jazz is kind of cool. If it's a girl she could go by Maxi, or Maxi-Jazz. Kinda cute. Though Maxi makes some think of feminine hygiene products. Though if it's a guy, he can just go by Max...or insist on people actually calling him Maximum Jazz just because it's funny to make people call you something like that.
I think "Zoe" fits me way better than my real name. Which is why I mainly go by Zoe in many circles. If I could train my husband out of using my "real given name" it would be fabulous, but it's just too weird for him. Though he has slipped and called me Zoe a time or two, lol. He is weakening! muahahaha.
Zoe:
I didn't know that wasn't your real name! LOL!
E
Like you, Erica, the names sometimes come to me in a flash of brilliance and sometimes I have to labor through baby name books until the right one pops up.
I love some of the unusual names mentioned in the comments. Food for thought. My current h and H are Mara and Davis. I actually sometimes type them to see how fast and easily they flow from the fingers. I would hate to give a character a name that is hard to type.
That reminds me, Suzanne, I avoid names that end in s, to keep from having to type (and "hear") all those s's.
hehehehe, cause I don't want to encourage people to call me by my real name. I feel like a Zoe. :) And if some people knew my real name they would insist on calling me by it. It's like how my entire family freaked out when I didn't change my legal last name when I got married. You would think I was dismantling the entire marriage institution instead of making a personal choice. :P
Suzanne:
I have the typing issue, too. LOL!
E
Zoe:
I'd NEVER take the man's name. My God, the hallowed institution is crumbling!
:-)
E
hahahahaha YAY! I am so militant about this issue, lol. Because it's a tradition from when the woman went from being the father's property to being the husband's property. It's a property exchange.
I haven't agonized over names, but I once got pissed at someone for criticizing one of my character's names. The crude comment came from a "multi-published" romance author, a/k/a contest judge, whose name escapes me now, darn it.
I prefer names that fit the character, but above all, embed themselves in the readers' mind. And once I've completed several chapters, there's no way in hell I'm changing the name since by then it's tattooed itself to my gray matter.
Most of my female names come from TV and they're usually secondary characters who might make an appearance or two and you'll never see them again. The baby name book only comes out when I'm either searching for last names or guys names.
I have a really hard time with last names, so I usually have to take it to the internet to find just the right one. The meanings rarely concern me. The weight and/or the sharpness are what I look at in terms of how it will fit the character. For some reason, I equate the naming thing to trying on a hat. You have to find just the right one.
Kath:
I find that ridiculous. How can someone criticize a NAME? It's a name, for goodness sake.
E
Hi marcia:
Like I said . . . sometimes the names come to me. Sometimes I have to try on a lot of hats. :-)
E
I love names, and nicknames. I grew up with a lot of nicknames, some of my parents' friends have gone by a nickname for so long that no one knows their real one except maybe the irs.
By the way, my brother's name is August. That's how my parents Americanized Agostino. My name should have been Marie Antoinette, but they Americanized it AND made it happy... but I think the Merry thing fits me better. It's an odd thing, but I can hear the difference between my name and a regular Mary.
I tend to find the names first, and there's sometimes a good backstory there that never makes it into the actual story but helps me to develope the character. I had one character named Melanie - her mother named her after the character from Gone With The Wind because she really wanted a sweet and ladylike daughter. The character, however, went by Mel tossed baseball caps over sleep rumpled hair to get her morning coffee and was anything but ladylike.
My characters tend to be ethnic, not always but often and I like to play with the last names a bit... they usually mean something in the language... for instance I had a character who was steady and stable and everyone leaned on and the last name was Rocca, which is a variation on 'rock' in Italian.
Another great place to find names and last names is to check the Ellis Island site, they have immigrant last names dating back to, I think, the 1800's, and it's kind of interesting to look through.
Hi Merry:
My best friend growing up was Meredith, but I call her Merry. :-)
E
Spy - LOL! I was the same way. I went years before meeting another Melanie and I remember being shocked. In junior high there were seven of us, but other than that I'm usually the only one.
The characters in my current wip are all hispanic, so I've borrowed names from my in-laws and friends of my husband. There's one stripper that I hope her namesake never finds out! She's a nice girl (the character) so it really was a compliment. :)
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