What's in a name?

This week I have been naming my characters.

The process started me thinking about how important it is to get this right. For example, a boy named Liam might conjure up a different mental image from someone called Alistair. 

Admittedly, this could be considered as stereotyping and we have all met that lovely man or woman whose name doesn’t match their personality. That doesn’t change the fact that we would expect a character called Sophie to behave differently to one called Courtney (no offence intended to anyone with these names).

Like everything else, names come in and out of fashion, and popularity is determined by a number of factors from TV soaps and pop stars to royal babies. Some names carry certain connotations such as Kevin after Harry Enfield’s famous character in Kevin and Perry. 

Then there are cultural and regional factors to be taken into account. Irish characters might have names like Siobhan or Dermot whilst those from America could be Bruce or Jason, Hilary or Lindsey, depending on their intended age. A Carlos might originate from Spain (and might suit a hot blooded Mills and Boon type character).

It is also important to think about the age of your characters. It would be hard to image anyone having a granny named Chardonnay, but Gladys, Hilda or Dorothy would work. Harold, Edward and Thomas would be plausible for an older generation of men but then a lot of parents today are reverting back to these traditional names when naming their children.  

I also read an article recently that highlighted the effects that texting and abbreviating was having on a nation of new parents resulting in alternative ways to spell names, such as Alex-Zander, Tray-C or Cam’ron. 

And I thought that coming up with names for characters was the easy part!