L.A. Garnett – Author

In my story outlines my main goal is simply to get words on the page and get the idea out of my head. It’s a frantic and dirty process, purely mechanical. For me, the story isn’t “real” until at least a few key scenes have made it to writing. Most of the time I don’t even have a name for my main character; I’ll write “MC” and move on.

When I sit down to actually flesh out an outline my first step is naming my main characters. This has, frequently, given me more trouble than expected. There’s a lot of power in a name.

The first thing to consider is whether you are going purely for ~vibes~ or if you are trying to tell the reader something with your name of choice. Did you pick “Sophie” because it was cute and fit the general feel of your story, or did you choose it because you wanted to tie into the Greek meaning “wisdom”, or perhaps because you wanted to connect your character with Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle?

I think every writer is familiar with the typical Google searches: “names meaning ‘brave’”, “boy names starting with G”, “girl names that mean fire”, “good surname for a fairy character”.

So how do you actually pick?

I like to take a few things into account:

1. The time period & setting
2. How do the first and last names sound together
3. Are you thinking about historical context/meaning behind the names?
4. Do you like the name?

Honestly, the last point is the most important. You can get bogged down in the weeds – if our real-world religion doesn’t exist, why would the name Eve have the same significance? If your characters don’t speak a real-world language – do they even have a name that would be familiar to readers?

None of this matters if you can’t stand to look at the name you’ve put on the page. You’re going to read through this story dozens of times as you write, edit, rewrite, query, edit, and finally publish the piece. Ultimately, no reader is going to get too nit-picky about whether you chose “George” or “Henry” as your main character’s name. You’re going to care, though, so make sure you like it.

Fun fact: I’ve been naming my main characters “Tamora” since middle school. Her personality has been trying to make its way onto a page for decades, and it wasn’t until I created Tunsealior that she finally had a home. Sometimes, if the name isn’t fitting, you can put it into your back pocket and save it for the next story.