I also am fascinated by names. Flannery O' Connor, in her short story Good Country People, ironically names the ugly daughter Joy and then Hulga, coming so far as to say that the girl picked out her second name because she herself felt so ugly.
Willie Lowman is the low, pathetic character in Death of a Salesman. (Arthur Miller said he didn't name his character "Lowman" on purpose. My teacher B.B. and I both think Mr. Miller was fibbing.)
Elizabeth Bennett, from Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, is given one of her many nicknames seemingly based on how those around her felt about her personally, varying from Liz, to Lizzie to Eliza and back again to Elizabeth.
John Updike named his lazy, motherly lead Alexandra in The Witches of Eastwick, choosing irony instead to name her after an ambitious, ruthless conqueror. However, the character Sukie is a playful, would-be sex kitten, and Jane is a simmering stick-in-the-mud. Quite clever.
In my own writings I tend to favor names tied to folktales and myths, or old Biblical names. I've recently began exploring nature names for a series of shorts I am creating. Some of my favorites are:
- Sawyer
- Lillith
- Beau
- Lucy
- River
- Leah
- Joseph
- James
- Dominic
Naming characters is second, I think, to naming children. In a way the characters are children, who evolve on their own, who can be twisted, distorted, strong, and faithful as I shape them. Sometimes, like children, they even shape themselves and become temporary muses. Some of these above have already debuted in published stories, and a few are on their way.
I can't tell you how many books I've read where two characters have names like Bill and Bob and you're constantly confusing them. I have two aunts my grandmother named "Lily" and "Lilian" Why? Apparently to Swedes that's not unsual. In fact, my grandmother got her name "Marta Christina" from her mother and both used the nickname "Stina." When naming a character, if they have a really quirky or interesting personality, they get something unusual like "Savannah" or "Ivy" or "Quentin." But you're usual supporting characters fall into the background with trustworthy but ordinary names like "Sue," "John" and "Mary."
ReplyDeleteMy sister is a hippie, named her kids Breeze and Echo and I swear it changed their personalities. I really think they would have been different people if they were "Nancy" and "Jennifer" or something...
My favorite book is The Great Gatsby. However, it always annoyed me that Fitzgerald named two minor characters Lucille. I never knew if they were supposed to be the same woman, if they were supposed to represent the rabble of other people, or if he had in mind a character names Lucille to further the plot and wrote her out instead. It's always driven me nuts. Good point about paying attention to background names as much as the forefront characters.
ReplyDeleteIn Kevin Smith movies the main characters often have unique names, like Holden, Bankie, Willem, etc.
I grew up in an era where a third of the girls were named Jennifer, the other third were named Crystal, and the last third Tiffany. I was grateful for my oddball name. I like the names Breeze and Echo. Both of them give laid-back vibes. My fellow Jeff has a personality very much like his name; straightforward and to the point, but with a bit of a breeze to him. My sister goes by Liz now, but in our childhood I called her Beth. The name change came with her teenage years. It's no wonder why she's playing Frenchie up on stage now. Liz is very outgoing, but when she was Beth she was gentle, tenderhearted, and rather shy.
My parents had to name us all "s" names, so we got Stena (my father was Sten), Stanley (my father's adopted American name), Sue (mom's name), Scott (mom was Scottish) and when they came to me #5, they were shaking their heads. It was my mother's choice to name me Sydney, anf father hated it. My Jewish relatives said "Sharon" and it stuck. I always hated the name. It doesn't suit me at all. I went by Suni in school. When I named my son, his first name was easy, Alex. Leader of men. I wanted him to not have the long name because he'd never use it. I also named him for Alex Van Halen because my husband played drums and when I was pregnant, when he played, my son would stay still inside me and when he stopped playing, he'd thrash angrily. I knew he'd be a drummer (and he is). His middle name was Jason because it stands for July, August, September, October, November (the first five months of my pregnancy when we lived in California). I love having names with meaning. I have to admit, though, when he was born in 88, every girl was "Alex" so on the playground, I'd call for him and about a dozen girls would rush over!
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, we had a friend we nicknamed "July" because his name was Jason. He was really cool about it, and said that when he was angry he felt "very November."
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the name Alex; it's crisp and fun to say. Same reason why I like the name Jackie, but that has less happy connotations. (Most Jackies I knew were jerks.) We has so many Jennifers in our class back in the early 90s that some of them started to ask to be called by their middle names: We got a Jenny, a Jasmine, a Jennifer, a Delly (Delilah) and a Kristi during the second half of the school year in 1994. Things were a lot less confusing after that.
I like the name Sharon if it's pronounced with the heavier Hebrew accent: "Sher-own." My favorite Hebrew name is Ruth, with that strong, solid "Ruut" sound. I always wondered if this would be my Hebrew name if I continued my classes, but then I thought it'd be a little too predictable, with the "where you go I will go," story behind the name. (My favorite Book, actually.) Suni is a cute, dear name! I think I'll nickname my neice that, if she does indeed turn out to be a girl.