Writing
Picking Character Names
I read an interesting article today about how a few other writers choose the names for their characters:
Personally, I don’t like my important characters to be named after real people as the reader is then forced to tag them with whatever characteristics and behaviour they think the original name holder has. Fictional characters are so much richer when the reader has to explore the text to meet and learn about them. Usually I use a random name generator, then also search Google, etc. for whoever pops up in case there is a real person with a similar name who might take offence.
Father Flynn from Teacakes and Damnation is possibly the best (and most problematic) example of this. With maybe tens of thousands of people who would readily associate their own behaviour with that of Father Flynn, he must have had a dozen different names before I gave up on avoiding accidental matches and just reverted back to the first random one I was given. For safety, I probably should have added a disclaimer that both Father Flynn (bad guy) and Father Palmer (good guy) are name after Monsignor Palmer Flynn of the Church of Baffometski at 666, Orwell Parade, in Толонский наслег.
But along with the danger of character naming comes the privilege. Writing the Circles trilogy in the UK while immersed in the horrific anti-Polish racism that fuelled the “Brexit” separationist movement, I wanted to make a statement. Poles saved England from Hitler, even after England failed to stand up for them. For this reason Uncle Zander is named after my best friend (at age 6 upwards) at Our Lady of The Assumption School in Coventry. Alexander Kolaj (Alec), a loyal and solid accomplice set me up with a lifelong respect for Polish people and their culture, one that has only been reinforced with every subsequent Polish friend I have had.
On the subject of Brexit, I must admit that Anthony Farrah in Apeman did deliberately get a name that sounds like the slimy Nigel Farrage. I wanted to hint at an underlying nasty selfishness in Anthony, but that (and a desire to launch Farrage into outer space) is all the pair have in common.
Another thing that many writers do (Robert A Heinlein being a prolific example) is to have fun with character names. I find it a little self-indulgent and distracts from the story, but even I’m tempted sometimes. I have a pseudo-scientific charlatan called “Rakesh Soak” in the novel “Saved”, who is not at all based on the pseudo-scientific charlatan called Deepak Chopra. “Chopra” is an Anglo-Saxon word for inebriate or drunk and “Soak” is a more modern equivalent. We shall see if my publisher allows that one to go through…
