Hello! Sophia's back here and back with the story, this time on demand.
What is the topic of today's article? In general, it is very simple, but it is no less relevant. Imagine: you've made quite a good hero or heroine, you've already thought through the story with his or her participation, you want to start writing, as you suddenly realize: and the name is not! And, strange as it may seem, it is at the stage of inventing the name is very easy to stumble. In my article I will try to give a couple of tips on how to pick up a suitable name for your character.
I warn at once: these tips - not a cure-all. I just share my own experience in inventing names for my characters, nothing more. So, let's do it!
Five basic rules characterizing the good name of a hero
What are the five rules mentioned in the title of this section of the article? These are general laws, which ideally should correspond to the name, regardless of the genre in which the work is written. These are the rules:
1. The name should correspond to the culture and time in which the character lives.
How many times have I met the Japanese Svetlana and the Russian Wilhelmina and Yukiko in the fictions? So: if your heroine is Russian, what will be the bad for her quite normal, well-known names? If you really want to be unusual for the heroine (the principle also works with the hero), you can call her Veronica, Eleanor, Elvira or something similar, as if pretentious, but quite decent for her space and culture? Stella or Francesca will be quite common in Italy, just like any of Yuu and Minoru in Japan. I think the idea is clear.
How do you know which names are normal for a certain area and era? In the case of real states (and those fantasy countries that have clear similarities with these real states), you can just look in the almighty Google lists of names of the country you want. So to ask: "Italian names, male" or "Japanese names, female". In the case of fantasy, the lists of old names used in the area are helpful.
2. The name should not be taken out of the general series of names within the limits of the work.
Of course, works can be different. Here it will be easier to give an example of fantasy work. Won't you be alarmed if you have two natives of the same village in your work, one of whom is called Jean and the other one is called Ergramor? If you have chosen one line, follow it to the end. Do you want to use Scandinavian names and everything that looks like them? Please! But then be prepared for the fact that any reader will knowingly consider your Jean a foreigner.
Try not to distinguish the hero at the expense of the name - for that you have a character, manner of speech, a place in the story and other nice things. There are a lot of beautiful names in any culture, your task is only to find the most suitable one within the chosen framework. Yes, yes, the country of the hero's residence is also a framework.
3. The name should be used in the same pronunciation variant as other names - at least within one family.
This is a more specific problem. Imagine that within one family you have characters named John, Kate, and... Héléna. It seems to be nothing wrong, but the English version of the pronunciation is closer to "Helen", at the worst - "Helen". Héléna is already an Italian variant, and together with Héléna they will have to appear in the family of some Giovanni and Katharina. I think the main idea is clear: many names have foreign analogues. And if you name, say, your brother and sister Erzhebet and Casimir, then when you change their nationality, say, to Italian, do not change only one of the two names. The Italian Casimiro (they have such a name) with his sister Erzhebet is not a very good way out.
Of course, if such nuances do not coincide, nobody will die. But in total, names always look more advantageous if they coincide even in such trifles. How to do this trick with your ears? The same list of names in Google. After watching two or three names, you'll see that such names are common in almost all cultures.
4. The name should "sound".
Of course, nothing prevents me from loving the fluttering love of a character whose full name I'm still unable to reproduce, and the most digestible abbreviations sound like "Saguelleacher" (or just "Sagail"), but it's still more of an exception than a rule. If the hero is good, he will be loved with any name, but still it is better to take care of the languages of poor readers.
Try not to overload a name with consonants or vowels, observing at least some degree of euphony (especially dangerous at use of a fantasy set of letters instead of a name). The best variant - to speak a name aloud, accurately, at least a couple of times, and to listen: whether you will stumble on any joint of letters, whether it is necessary to think over how them it is better to correct, that this "dangerous place" to avoid.
See continue on the link below: https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5d92304cddfef600af16d35d/how-to-name-a-character-continue-5d9503cce3062c00b016c82a
https://ficbook.net/readfic/423517 (original text)