Naming the Unnamable – Villains of the Piece

I present to you the following proposition: villains need thoughtful, interesting names too. Why? So you can exact one of the precious rewards of writing: putting your childhood bully, unfavourite cousin, and mean boss into your writing. Or, at the very least, have fun with it.

Villains

We all have a nemesis. Whether it was that ‘friend’ that told all of your secrets in high school or the girl who ultimately married the ex-boyfriend you weren’t quite over, you have someone whose name makes you pause, remember, and grimace.

Why not put this person into your book? Make her the rival to your heroine, the one who will show her true (wicked) colours at the end and lose the hero. Or the colleague your heroine must avoid while she tries to navigate her work days, the one who will make up vicious lies about her behind her back.

But…(and this is a big but), Do not use real names. As with any work of fiction, we don’t want to use someone who is recognizable as themselves. While every writer will take inspiration from the people around them, it is not allowed for you to simply tweak a few character traits, make the person largely anonymous, and plunk them down into your story. Doing that is a surefire way to run the risk of litigation. When in doubt, talk to your editor and/or publisher. Consult a lawyer. You can still get your revenge while avoiding those pesky defamation lawsuits.

So how do you put your nemesis into your book if, legally, you can’t?

You use a version of their name on an otherwise unrelated and unrecognizable character. This is easier when your nemesis has a common name. You can simply turn Amy Angel into Amy Gelinas (but not Amy Devlin – too obvious). Again, don’t make the character look like or talk like the real person.

If your nemesis has a name like Elizanne Judson-Laforest, you may still not be out of luck. Try initials in that case as a source of inspiration. Edna Jane Lorrimer may be the evil boss your character butts heads with every day, although the “Jane” may never actually be mentioned in the book.

Try it. It’s cathartic. And much cheaper than therapy.

Photo courtesy of Pixomar at freedigitalphotos.net

Finding Names for your Minor Characters

How minor is your minor character? That’s the first question you will have to ask yourself as you ponder a name for the hero’s autocratic late father or the heroine’s funky best friend. The best friend may be pivotal to the story and require a name that suits her importance. However, the late father may answer to ‘John Smith’ – or at least he would if he weren’t dead!

To avoid the use of the blasphemous phrases such as “major-minor” or “minor-minor”, I’ve divided up minor characters into two categories: haute, or high, and bas, or low. I’m using these terms simply because I like to show off my knowledge of high school French J.

Haute Minor Characters

How big a role does this character play in the plot of your novel? If the best friend shows up repeatedly, both at the party where the hero and heroine first meet, as well as at the wedding where they get into a very public showdown, then she may need a memorable name that requires the same amount of effort you would put into your heroine. See my post titled Naming your Main Characters, or Nom d’un nom d’un nom ed to add link] for help with giving your major characters monikers.

As with main characters, the names of your ‘Haute Minor’ Characters should reflect their personality. Have fun with it. Here, there’s less of a chance of major scrutiny/ criticism about your choice of monikers so go wild. Be humourous. A quirky best friend (are there any other kind in fiction?) can be a Starla or a Cadence, depending on whether she likes astrology or music. Or, in keeping with our Gallic theme today, your character can be from France and be named Francois.

For surnames, refer to the post I linked to above to choose an authentic-sounding last name for your character.

Bas Minor Characters

Truly minor characters appear once or twice on the page. Think the irritating coworker, the ditzy assistant, or the sympathetic doctor. These characters may advance the plot by giving your heroine a reason to play hooky and swan about at the beach that day, or lending your hero a listening ear as he tells the tale of how his niece’s parents recently ran off and left her in his care.

Perhaps the character doesn’t appear at all but is just mentioned in passing. For example, the mean boss, the agreeable landlord, and the childhood bully can all be “off page” characters. They add detail to your main characters’ lives but the reader isn’t invested in these individuals. They are part of the background scenery and you want them to fade gracefully into it.

Choosing the names for your ‘Bas Minor’ characters is fairly straightforward. First, you decide how old the character would be, roughly. Counting backwards, figure out when your character would have been born. Exact year is not necessary at this stage, just a decade. Next, pick your character’s gender. Then you look up “most popular baby names” and the decade or year you’ve identified. Google is most helpful in this respect. No, I don’t work for them.

Hmm, my male doctor born in 1970 could be a Michael, a James, or a David. But I’m a rebel and I like to choose from near the middle or even the bottom of the field of 100. So, #88, this is your lucky day. Hello, Dr. Curtis. But, wait, unless he’s a talk show host, this use of first name as surname is unacceptable. My doctor needs a last name!

Back to the drawing board (read: Google or other search engine). Type in “popular surnames in [add country where your book is set]”. Some websites will offer the ability to refine your search for surnames based on popularity, ethnicity/ race, and alphabetically. You can fine tune to make sure that the last name sounds good with the first name you’ve chosen.

Ta da!

Dr. Curtis Cooper. Has a nice ring to it. I think I’ll use him in my next story. He goes by Curt.

Photo courtesy of Pixomar at freedigitalphotos.net

Naming your Main Characters, or Nom d’un nom d’un nom

Naming my characters is one of my favourite writing-related activities. But it’s also a chore I obsess about. Names have to be perfect. Who wants to read about a romance between Silas Twingletoe and Kezia Birtwhistle? I didn’t even make those names up. They’re from a Lucy Maud Montgomery book called Magic for Marigold. The beginning chapters of the novel focus around finding a name for a newly fatherless infant. Needless to say, it is my most read part of the book.

Main Characters

It goes without saying that the hero and heroine are the most important characters in your novel. They get to do all of the fun stuff, like argue, misunderstand each other, have sex, and fall in love (not necessarily in that order).

I spend a lot of time finding the right names for my main characters. My own peculiarity is that I prefer names that sound good as well as have an interesting meaning. For instance, I search out names that are from different cultures and see if I can produce a name that means something. For my hero, I want a name that means ‘brave’, ‘loyal’, or ‘stalwart warrior’. Or all three. I also have personal preferences.

I find that I gravitate towards names that start with A, C, and L. Don’t ask me why…there isn’t even an L in my name! I just find that names that start with those letters sound strong or forceful. Hard sounds also help. Short names that end with ‘n’ or ‘m’ sound tough and masculine (but sweet and sensitive inside, of course!).

For my heroines, I want a name that rolls lyrically off the tongue. My preference is for feminine names that start with A, L, S and V. Again, that’s just my personal tastes. However, for female names, the endings are often what give the name its ‘feminine’ character. Names that end with ‘a’, ‘l’ or ‘y’ are easier on the ear and distinguishably feminine, even when you get creative with the name itself.

Which leads us to my method of choosing names for my main characters.

To find these names, I pour over baby name websites. Cheesy, I know. But where else are you going to find thousands and thousands of names, arranged by gender, first letter, meaning and language of origin? All of these aspects play a part in my ultimate choice. This blond hero needs to have a strong Teutonic name? This brunette needs a softer Arabic name? I know just where to look!

Last names work the same way, although these are often found on different websites, usually dealing with genealogy. Just Google the language/ culture you want, with “surnames” and you’ve got more choices than you can handle! To filter, try a specific country of origin.

With all of these names, I like to experiment. Adding an ‘a’ at the end of a masculine name might give me a suitable name for my heroine. Changing the first letter of a name might reward me with an appropriately tough-sounding hero.

Experiment. Try these tips and make your own tweaks to them.

Photo courtesy of Pixomar at freedigitalphotos.net